Where to put aggressive dog while we are on holiday?

[hockeysticks89]

We have a Romanian rescue dog who we love dearly however since adolescence she has become more and more nervous and has nipped strangers twice (long story but she felt threatened by them), a level two bite which didn't break the skin and led to a graze.

We're working with a behaviourist to manage or desensitise her triggers, we muzzle her if we go outside and having people in the house has to be planned and involve the use of several gates and barriers. It's a nightmare but I'm hoping she'll get better.

The problem is we go away in august and don't know where to put her. Last year she went into a dog boarder's house with other dogs however this is no longer suitable for her- frankly, I feel she'd bite again whilst we are away. Has anyone ever dealt with this or have any thoughts? Thanks in advance.

Years ago I had a dog who was unpredictably nervous with strangers.

I couldn’t ever go away. It wasn’t relaxing.
What if she bit somebody. I felt it was my choice to keep her knowing her issues, I accepted the risk for myself but I could not have put that on somebody else.

I think it’s irresponsible personally to put a nervous dog in a new situation with someone knowing the potential for a bite.

@carefullycourageous

The number of reactive imported dogs on this thread is notable.

It's a thread about reactive dogs, so people with reactive dogs will answer.

FYI my rescue foreign street dog has never bitten anyone. My grandfather's very reactive dog was home grown. Bit a lot of people. Those dogs from Wales... can't trust them.

@MrsTerryPratchett I understand how much people like dogs, but minimising the problem isn't going to help really.

We are importing a not insignificant number of problem dogs.

Wow. The amount of reactive imported dogs is not good.

I know this is a thread about reactive dogs - but there’s multiple here, think how many thousands there are. Reactive dogs some of which will have idiot owners who won’t do anything and you end up with something terrible.

Bit terrifying really.

Um, this thread will attract people with reactive foreign dogs though.

If it helps for balance the mist reactive dog I’ve ever had was bred on purpose in this country.

[quote carefullycourageous]@MrsTerryPratchett I understand how much people like dogs, but minimising the problem isn't going to help really.

We are importing a not insignificant number of problem dogs.[/quote]
I agree although I wonder if it’s also to do with the possibility that these homes would not be cleared from a UK rescue. I have a friend who is constantly pushing for their friends to rescue and import dogs but there are loads of dogs in the uk.

@carefullycourageous

There are plenty of imported dogs who are not fear biters.

@Testingprof I think you have it bang on.

A lot of people adopt from overseas because UK rescues haven't approved them for various reasons, and the overseas rescues don't tend to be as strict with their criteria.

I have a foreign rescue dog who is not fearful, aggressive or bitey (FWIW we got him from a UK charity so we did not really intend to 'import a dog' but we wound up doing that as Uk charities have foreign dogs too). He is super friendly, bouncy and chews a lot of stuff up but these seem like typical issues for an adolescent dog and not really related to him being rescued. He also is not neutered yet as vet advised not to until 18 months and this is an issue for any group settings.

We tried to get a sitter for him for our holiday but it proved quite tricky as most of them were also dog walkers and wanted to leave him quite a lot which he is not used to as we wfh. He also failed his meet and greet with one girl by being too over friendly and desperately trying to hump her leg. We gave up on the sitting idea.

I didn't want him to go to kennels as I thought it would set him back a lot.

In the end we have booked him for residential dog training so it's home boarding but with a very experienced dog breeder and trainer who will also work with him. We had a meet and greet and met the trainer and his dogs and family and felt reassured that he'll be well looked after by someone who can cope with any issues. Seemed like a win win to us. It was expensive but not much more so than the sitters and ordinary boarders in the end.
Quite a lot of companies and individuals do this now so maybe there's one close to you that's an option?

I think the problem with imported dogs is huge. I don't understand why we need more dogs bringing into the country when we have plenty in shelters already here. I suspect that selfish wannabe owners who would not get approved through the normal means are those taking them in (probably whilst waxing lyrical about the hugely charitable act they are performing). I know several people who have these dogs in exactly those circumstances and have absolutely no idea what they are doing- nor do they have the space or time to devote to them. It needs much more regulation in my opinion.

We had all the things that we thought rescues were looking for
Fenced garden, someone at home full time, no other pets, children secondary age, financially secure enough to afford a dog and committed to walking and training but still it was very hard to get any U.K. dogs rehomed to us
The things we were missing were impossible to change ie living very rurally with no neighbours/ other dogs and having previous dog ownership experience or having another dog already.
Sadly most U.K. dogs looking for rehoming have major behaviour issues that first time owners probably aren't well equipped to deal with and aren't suitable to live in a typical suburban setting.

I'm sure it's not that most people rescuing dogs are more feckless than most people who are buying puppies. I would have thought the opposite was quite likely to be true as anyone can but a puppy off Gumtree with no vetting at all.
Why is it worse to import a dog that at least already exists in the world albeit not in the U.K. vs to encourage more puppies to be bred?

Sadly most U.K. dogs looking for rehoming have major behaviour issues that first time owners probably aren't well equipped to deal with and aren't suitable to live in a typical suburban setting

And how do you know that this isn't the case with imported dogs? I know people who have met the importers at motorway services to collect them- no checks in either direction.

Hi op
Where abouts in the country are you?
I ask because I have EXACTLY the same issue , I've got 2 reactive / aggressive Romanian dogs and I have an AMAZING dog sitter (she's quite expensive) who has behavioral qualifications and let me do meet and greets weeks in advance!

Sadly most U.K. dogs looking for rehoming have major behaviour issues that first time owners probably aren't well equipped to deal with and aren't suitable to live in a typical suburban setting.

Well, I think it's very sensible of the rescues not to rehome dogs with behavioural issues to first time owners with little/no experience of dogs.

But many foreign rescues have exactly the same issues. I walk one who is highly dog reactive with an insanely high prey drive - he was re-homed with no home-check to a family with another dog and a cat

Luckily the owners are experienced and he gets on with their resident dog but it's such a huge gamble. They can't put him in kennels due to his reactivity, and he can't go to a home boarder for the same reason.

If he'd gone to a first time owner I doubt he'd have lasted longer than a few months. He's a massive handful and very very strong. Luckily he's excellent with people but my God he's hard work!

I agree that's true that foreign rescue dogs can have issues too but I do not think it would be more so than UK rescue dogs.

The point I was responding to was the old chestnut 'there are so many dogs in U.K. rescues needing homes so why go abroad'
In my experience there are not 'so many' U.K. dogs suitable for 1st time owners in U.K. rescues and as we discovered many U.K. rescues take in dogs from abroad too.

If you are a first time owner then you are forced into buying a puppy because none of the available dogs are suitable and yet we are repeatedly told 'don't shop adopt'
It is hard to know what is the right thing to do if you are a responsible but inexperienced person who wants to give a dog a good home.
I do find it hard to believe that encouraging more puppy breeding is the better option though.

But the point is @CovoidOfAllHumanity you won't have a clue what you are getting if you adopt from abroad. No idea at all. All that you know is that you CAN adopt from abroad because no one will check and no one will care. Maybe the answer is to simply not get a dog until your circumstances are as they should be? But of course, people don't choose that because their needs come first. Adopting from abroad then gives adopters the joy of being altruistic- having "rescued" some poor dog so that it can travel miles away from what it knows to live in an often less than suitable situation (after all, if your set up was perfect, you'd adopt here surely?). If you're lucky, the dog will be ok. If you're not, it won't and you'll be faced with the issues the OP and several others on this thread have described. But hey, it's ok because you've got your dog.

I agree that's true that foreign rescue dogs can have issues too but I do not think it would be more so than UK rescue dogs.

Maybe not more so, but at least UK rescues do home checks and will speak to the prospective owners about their experience and knowledge before allowing them to take on a dog with issues.

I've heard so many horror stories where people have adopted from abroad and the dog has never lived in a house before and has never been around children or anything similar - it's such a recipe for potential disaster.

It’s not unusual to see owners of dogs from foreign rescues on here posting about fear aggression unfortunately
These dogs are often traumatised before they go on a long and even more traumatic journey and are then placed in homes that may not pass a UK charity check.
I appreciate that there are some happy ever after stories too but I have a couple of friends who are vets and they come across this situation much more often with dogs from foreign rescues than ones from UK rescues

Can you look for a specialist kennels?
My first pt job as a teen was as a kennel maid, we had blocks of pit bulls who had been taken under DDA.
We also had regular dogs who were reactive/aggressive & the kennel owner took sole care of those.
I was only bitten once, by a GSD who hadn't had his tranqs, during a thunderstorm.

If you are working with a behaviourist, why don't you ask them what would be best for the dog?

I've skipped through the answers so I'm not sure if this has been suggested but a family member had this issue (holiday and problem dog) and used a dog boarding school. It was pricey but the dog went away to "school" for three weeks, family went on holiday during this time and the boarding school worked on the issues (resource guarding and food aggression in the case of that dog). Might be a two birds with one stone situation depending on budget and whether there is a boarding school near to you.

fairylightsandwaxmelts I established that the dog was closed within the house (luckily) and called the security company and police. They broke in through the bathroom window and got the girl out and took her to hospital. I threw a quantity of dog food through another window and (again luckily) the dog had plenty of drinking water in a bucket. The owner flew home the next day. The dog subsequently bit the owner's daughter and I put him to sleep. The dog sitter had upwards of 150 stitches to wounds in her neck and forearm and will never be the same in any way.

Thanks for replying @villainousbroodmare that is absolutely horrendous, that poor poor girl :( especially with wounds to her neck - she could have died.

Did the owners know he was aggressive beforehand and just played it down, or was that the first real incident?

Sorry for all the questions! It just makes me so aware of how quickly my job could go wrong.

@tabulahrasa

“Because very few boarders only board solo dogs as it's not worth it financially to only take one dog.”

There’s no mention of issues with dogs, it’s pretty common for foreign rescues who’ve been raised in shelters to be iffy with strangers and fine with dogs - because they’ve spent most of their time with dogs.

That's true, but many boarders have a policy of not taking on dogs that show any signs of aggression (for obvious reasons). For many of us it also goes against our insurance T&C's.

I'm only a walker, but my policy states that if I take on a dog with a known history of aggression and they go on to aggress again in my care, the insurance company won't cover me for it. Similarly, if I'm walking a dog that bites me, another dog (or worse, a member of the public) the insurance will pay out the first time, but not for any subsequent incidents

For me anyway, it's really not worth the risk. I sit in owners' homes rather than board, but if someone told me their dog was human aggressive, it would be a flat no.

2 yo male Rottie, 50+kg, very powerful, previously killed a small dog in a park and we had referred to a behaviourist due to ongoing resource guarding issue with family. Also took a chunk out of a electricity service worker working outside the fence but hadn't apparently harmed anyone within the home until that incident. Owner unfortunately v rose-tinted view of him, told sitter he was fine. Sitter needed the money and took the gig against her instincts. Very very lucky that she had her phone.