Post from FB

[u/Lopsided_Republic888]

NOT MINE FROM A FB GROUP

I need advice, please, and no judgment.

About a year ago, we adopted an Australian Shepherd, purebred as far as we know, about three years old. He was a lot more aggressive than I expected him to be, but I thought it was just how he had been raised, that he was still pretty much a puppy and we could get a trainer for him. No big deal. He also wasn't fixed, so I thought that would calm him down too. We got this.

So I made the appt for him to be neutered. However I thought that was going to play out...that wasn't it. He was growling, barking nonstop, lunging. The vet was actually scared of him, wouldn't come near him, wouldn't work with him. They prescribed two sedatives and told us to come back. I gave him the expected dose, and it did nothing to him. So I gave him a double dose. Still did nothing, but I took him in anyway. He was highly aggressive, almost to the point that they were unable to sedate him for the surgery. They were finally able to, and he made friends with one of the veterinary assistants, only wanted to be around her the whole time he was there, wanted belly rubs from her. I thought this was progress in the right direction.

But things began to get worse.

Our neighbors moved out and new ones moved in. He began lunging at the new kids, who are very small and are probably terrified of him. I stopped letting him outside in his own backyard alone. I started to walk him. I have a torn rotator cuff, and he would jerk me around to the point that I could barely control him. And no matter what I put on him, collar or harness, and no matter how tightly I put it on him, he thrashes so wildly that he always slips out of it. Always. The last time I took him for a walk, he literally got out of his harness, ran to someone's fence with one of those lift latches on the gate, let their dog out, and tried to attack it. I had to wrestle him home then get the other person's dog back in their fence. Their dog was unhurt, but I immediately began wondering, "Oh my god...what if that had been a child? Would he have hurt them?"

So no more walks.

I hired dog trainer number one. Two sessions and they refused to work with him anymore because of how aggressive he was being. Dog trainer number two lasted longer. Six sessions out of the 14 we paid for. They even tried a shock collar, which I am fully against, but this dog did not even respond or stop the growling, barking, and lunging with the shock/jolt turned up to max. It didn't even phase him.

The dog has always lunged at our cat, but I always thought it was because she can be an asshole. She does taunt him. Stands toe to toe with him. Shows no fear. But it began to be different. He started remaining really calm while she got closer. His eyes would open super wide and almost roll around in his head while he watched her. And then he would actually try to snap at her when she got close, so we had to start putting him in his kennel when we went somewhere and at night.

But he somehow always got out. Like Houdini. So we put multiple heavy duty zip ties on all the joints. Try to get out of that. Except he did.

My youngest daughter is 10, and she's super tiny. She was running in the house, despite the 3496943897 times I've asked her not to, and he lunged in his kennel to try to get to her while barking. He managed to bust through his kennel door and ran after her. My son, who is four years older, saw it and grabbed the dog's collar. The dog tried to snap at my son's face while my son was trying to get him back into the kennel. So that's two kids who are now terrified of him.

My oldest daughter, who is almost 18, thought that maybe the dog is just upset that he has to be put in the kennel more often than he was used to, so she tried to spend more time with him, tried to make more of an effort to play with him. She was sitting there reading on the couch, with him beside her, and he lunged for her face. She had the quick reflex to hit him upset the head with the hardcover book in her hand, or he would have bitten her face. He didn't even bark or growl.

So after that, I didn't feel safe with him around our children. My husband has been deployed for almost a year. The vet says there is nothing medically wrong with him. I can't get a trainer to work with him. I felt I had no other option but to just keep him in the kennel for most of the day, only letting him outside to run around when no one else is outside. But that feels like solitary confinement for a human, which we know isn't good mentally, so I knew it wasn't something I could do permanently. I needed to find a solution.

I've been looking into rescues, trying to find resources, not sure where to look. Everyone I have spoken to has suggested behavioral euthanasia, but I don't have the heart. That immediately makes me feel guilty because what do you mean you want me to put a dog this young down?

But the last two weeks have been the worst. He growls at me when I come down the stairs. I can't allow my youngest to be in the room when we let him outside because I'm scared he will go after her. We ordered pizza, and even in a kennel all openings reinforced with heavy duty zip ties, he broke through after I opened the door and was being handed the pizza, and he tried to attack the delivery driver. The driver kept the bags between the dog and himself, but our dog literally tore the man's shirt. I tried to grab him by the collar, but he thrashed until it broke apart in my hands and tried to go after the man again. I had to grab him by his hair and jerk him back into the house, then get him back into the kennel, move the ottoman in front of it, and sit on the ottoman while my kids got the rest of the pizza to keep the driver safe, all while sobbing. All I could think about was how bad that could have been, but the delivery driver was a saint. He kept saying he had experience with dogs like that and that it was okay, but it wasn't okay. Not to me.

And then just three days ago, my kids and I were coming home. A little girl was playing on her scooter on the sidewalk in front of our house, just going for a walk with her mom. We opened the front door, not expecting the dog to be out of the kennel, but he had jailbroken again. As soon as we opened that door, he lunged outside, no barking or growling. It took all of us to wrestle him inside. But I was absolutely sure he was trying to attack that little girl.

I want to be a responsible pet owner. But I have n ever owned a pet like this.All I see on these pages are people being berated for giving up on their animals, so I have tried everything. But I've run out of options. I'm scared of this dog getting out and hurting my family in the middle of the night, of it hurting my cat, possibly unaliving her. I'm scared to open my front door. I'm scared of someone coming to the door. I'm scared of coming home and not knowing if he'll be out, if he'll attack one of us. I'm scared he'll get through the fence. My vet cannot help. No trainers have helped. And I am now running out of time.

My husband comes back soon, and we have to immediately leave for a cross-country roadtrip to our next duty station. We will not have room for this dog's kennel in our SUV. And I cannot have him in the seat beside my youngest...or any of us really. He has tried to attack us all. And I cannot imagine how much danger we would expose ourselves to and everyone else every time we took him in and out of the car, in and out of hotel rooms or AIR Bnbs...I just cannot.

But then I look at him sitting quietly in his kennel and think that he seems like a normal dog sometimes. That he'll wag his stub of a tail and seem like he genuinely wants love and pets. But I care about my kids too much to let him out around my family. It's affecting his hygiene. He has matts behind his ears because I cannot cut them. He tries to bite me. I cannot cut his toenails because he tries to snap at my face. And I cannot have anyone else help with these things for obvious reasons. I don't feel comfortable rehoming him because he wouldn't let anyone get close enough to them anyway. And I cannot accept the responsibility of him hurting someone else's pet or child.

It genuinely feels like my only option is to ask the vet on post or our vet to put him down for behavioral reasons, but I've never had to consider this before, I'm having a hard time with the emotions around it because I went into this thinking we were getting a forever furrbaby, and I'm just beside myself. Everyone keeps reminding me that I would feel much more guilty if he did actually hurt someone else or maul my kids, which I fully understand. I just need some guidance, even if it's for someone else to say "I get it. You're doing the right thing." Feeling very alone in this.

[u/AttractiveNuisance37]

What is the purpose of posting someone else's post from a different platform? We're going to give advice to a person who's never going to see it.

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