I absolutely adore our dog. She's very loving in the house to me and the kids, she has excellent obedience and training in terms of sitting, waiting, recall and toileting. But she keeps biting me when out on walks. We've taken her to puppy classes (she's 14 months old), we've worked with two one-one trainers, she's had a check up at the vet, we've had two behaviourists give their advice and she even spent time with a trainer in his home for a week. We've spent thousands of pounds and tried just about every method advised. But nothing seems to crack this problem. The biting can be at any time at all during the walk, whether she's run her legs off or is near the beginning. It can be off lead or on lead. Some walks are perfect and it doesn't happen. But when it does its like she's gone mad, she gets into a jumping biting frenzy and she's a big 40kg dog and I really struggle to stop her doing it. She's growling and tugging the lead as she does this and it's very frightening. But when we get home she's lovely again and it's like nothing happened. My arms and legs are covered in bruises (but strangely never blood?). I feel like I could put up with this if it was just me (it's only ever been just me she's done it to) but I'm so frightened it could happen to the kids or someone outside our family. All the professionals she's worked with say how lovely she is and how she's unlikely to do it to anyone else, they say she's being a teenager and taking her angst out on me. But can I take that risk? It's been happening for a year now and I'm becoming a nervous wreck.
We found a breed specific rescue centre who've said they can take her in, train her and give her to a more experienced dog owner. But the kids are absolutely devastated and I'm the villain as she's only attacking me.
Please talk to me about what to do and how to deal with the guilt and pain. The idea of handing her over and the kids sobbing destroys me.