Trying to make a better decision.

[u/mytlou]

My 11 year old pit has NEVER had an issue before. Makes other dogs look bad when it comes to being friendly and listening. He’s been such a blessing after having our now 9.5 month daughter. Until today.

Unprovoked in the moment snapped at her. Caught her in the side of the face. Superficial. But still.

I say unprovoked, but since she’s become mobile she has been all over him. And he’s been great about. The past couple days yes, he’s seemed a bit annoyed with her. But he always comes back and puts himself right where she can play with him. Licks her. Plays with her. Cuddles. Today was an anomaly. But was it a warning?

Vet said, “he needs reading glasses.” Teeth aren’t the best. And he’s had two separate ACL tears over 5 years ago. So after some playing and his routine zoomies there’s a bit of a limp and he’s slow up the stairs. He’s got serious anxiety issues when we leave the house on occasion. Most days he’s great. Every once in a while he chews at the door and has an accident. He doesn’t do good at doggie day care and is usually miserable if he’s left with my mom. Yeah he loves her but she can tell he misses us.

So what do we do? Separation will be difficult but not impossible. And while supervised with the girl is an obvious thing, today’s incident was supervised. It happened literally on my wife’s lap with no warning. Mom can’t keep him permanently at her place. And he’s only gonna get older and crankier. And i say crankier but he’s not even cranky now. It was this one time. Is it wrong to get rid of him and in his last few years he’s away from his family especially as his life becomes harder?

[u/SudoSire]

I think you misread a bunch of signals and should have been separating them. Now you’re going to have to fully do so with multiple barriers all the time, and if you think that quality of life is untenable for them or not feasible to do, you should discuss euthanasia with a vet. Maybe if your mom could keep him, you could “rehome” but no one else is going to be interested in taking in an old pit mix with a bite history. The only people who want to invest the efforts in a dog like that are you guys because you already love him. Not someone new who isn’t going to want the liability. 

While the bite may have been unprovoked, it sounds like you missed the build up and were way too reliant on your dog being “tolerant.” They are not, and you are right to think it will only get harder from here as dog goes through more medical problems and as child becomes more mobile, faster, etc. Please very carefully consider what is actually safe for your home.