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My dog is a foster failure and i need help.

3K views 10 replies 8 participants last post by  Cressrb 
#1 · (Edited)
Hello DT. I haven't been much on the forum since Stella went to rainbow bridge, but I haven’t stopped trying to be a good Doberman parent. Today though, I need your help.

This is Max. He was raised in a diesel repair shop, the last in a long line of guard dogs that guarded this particular shop. The owners of this shop would get a guard dog and when that dog got old, they would get a puppy of the opposite sex, for the old dog to “train”. Max was raised by an older female Doberman for a couple of years and then he was on his own to guard the shop. He was free-fed, not house broken, not neutered, rewarded for being aggressive and never socialized.

The owner of the diesel shop started suffering from the ailments of old age in the spring of 2013 and had to close the shop. Max’s family was aware that if he went to the pound he would be put down. Through a friend of a friend, they found me and asked if we could find him a home. Max was surrendered in March of 2013 to Brazos Valley Doberman rescue. My wife and I were volunteers at the time and we took custody of him.

Knowing little about him except that he was a shop dog for 5 or 6 years, I was careful to introduce him to our female dog Lady. He tried to mount her and she bit him and that was that. They’ve been a pretty good pack after that initial meeting.

Max was overweight and heart worm + and needed to be neutered. We also found out he is mostly deaf. (he has no ear holes). It took a lot of work and a year of treatment, but Max was finally house broken, healthy, on a regular feeding schedule and somewhat obedient .

Over the years we did discover that Max has a very high prey drive and is extremely male aggressive. He gets tunnel vision and it’s hard to break his focus when he wants to attack something. He also attacks indiscriminately. We later found out he would regularly kill cats, possums, raccoons and other dogs that would wander into the shop areas.

We have not been able to break him of this type of behavior. We have not been able to socialize him successfully and I fear that at his age, it may be too late.

Our main concern is that he could hurt a child (baby or toddler, Max has been around older children and is fine as long as they are bigger than him). To this day he has not attacked a child, but he has hurt one by jumping up and hitting them in the mouth with his head and he did pull down a child by the shirt. I was with him both times and nothing more came of those incidents.

My wife and I are expecting our first child and we are at a loss about what to do with Max. When we took him in 2013, we surely thought we would be able to find him a home. With his age, health issues and behavioral problems, that didn’t happen.

We still volunteer for the local Houston rescue and have reached out to everyone we know and due to his history of aggression and age, Max isn’t a candidate for re-homing or adoption. We have been in contact with a well-respected trainer and she has consulted with behaviorists and the consensus seems to be that Max is too much of a liability to be around small children and should be put down.

I understand the logic behind this and I am in complete agreement that we have to do anything to protect our children.

This is basically a last ditch effort to avoid having to kill my dog. In the last 4 years Max has become part of our family and we have seen him progress exponentially. He’s a great dog for someone who doesn’t have kids or small animals. He gets along great with adults and understands boundaries. He sleeps on the floor in my room and spends the day on the couch while I'm at work. He likes to go on walks and is content to cuddle on the couch. He has never shown aggression toward strangers when I am present but he has tackled the front door and fence a few times when unexpected people show up. He is still very much a guard dog, although not a great one since he's deaf.

I would rather he live out the rest of his days with an adult that wants companionship or on a ranch or in a shop again with people who care about him rather than to have him put down. I know there are hundreds of younger, better behaved dogs that need a home and the logical thing to do is realize that at least we gave Max almost 4 more years than he would have otherwise had.

Is there anyone out there that can take him?









 
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#3 ·
It sounds like you have done a lot for him. Probably more than anyone else could have done. Whatever you decide, I am thankful for the time you gave him and that he could at least know a different side of life than the one he had. Thank you.
 
#7 ·
We have a lab rescue that has/had a lot of behavior issues (though they were different than yours, more anxiety based aggression) and I was worried about him with the baby when the baby came. He went on Prozac (the dog, not the baby :laugh:) which helped some and I never trusted them in the same room. If the baby was within dog reach (below table height) I was closer than the dog and kept a VERY close watch on him or the dog went outside (he couldn't handle a crate).

I will say the dog spent a decent time outside, but I decided lounging on the porch was better than being dead. He ended up being good with the baby. Since he wasn't allowed closer than about 5 feet away he would sit or lay 5 feet away, looking out, "guarding" the baby... from the cat because she was the only other living thing around besides me lol. He would glare at her as she walked by and move her along if she dared to stop.

If you can't find him a home just go day by day and figure every day is one more day you can give him. You are right to never trust him and you shouldn't, but you can still "crate and rotate" for the first year or so. Babies sleep a lot, and that is when he can be with you and free to roam around the house. Your life will be full of baby gates anyway, just get tall extra sturdy ones and make sure he is always on the other side, of two of them if you are worried about fingers and toes stuck through the bars.

FYI By the time my son was three he was learning to leave that dog alone and the dog knew my son was strictly off limits and was allowed back inside more often. Even though my son was mobile and generally down at ground level, they could be in the same room as long as I was still closer and the dog stayed calm and left him alone. Now my son is in grade school and he and the dog are fine. Then again the dog is also quite old.

All this being said, only you can know your situation and I totally get and respect the decision to put him down if you think you need to if you can't find him a home. Best of luck in a very tough situation. You have already given the dog several wonderful years he wouldn't have otherwise had.
 
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