Rehoming my wife's Dog/Animal Aggression assistance

[immamac 41336]

Putting this here for now, but moving to CYHMWT later on.

My wife has had a min pin chihuahua mix that is aggressive towards our 1 year old child. Our German Shepherd Blacklab (JoJo) was not a fan of the constant aggression towards my child from Henry and attacked him today. Long story short, Henry's gotta go and JoJo needs to get some professional training/we need to take additional precautions when JoJo exhibits any aggressive behavior protecting our kid or anything from others. 

Anyone interested in taking up a stitched up min pin that has to wear a diaper inside (will pee and poop inside). He also is mostly blind with cataracts, and is hard of hearing. He also has very few teeth and is animal and small people aggressive. He can't really be around other animals and does not play nice with other dogs. He's a good snuggler and likes women and all that. Doesn't bark a whole lot, but can go through fits and doesn't have separation anxiety. He's 11+ years old, has a severe heart murmur and really just lays around most of the day and we've had to have him locked up most of the time since he can't be out when the kid is awake or home. 

JoJo is not aggressive at all towards people and has never had a person aggressive bite history. She also does not have a history of dog or cat aggression. She hates deer, coyotes, other critters that clearly shouldn't be on the property (4+ Acre). She's a good guard dog, but I definitely need someone to coach us on how to deal with her or how we can get her to understand when aggression/protection is not needed/wanted.

thanks for reading my wall of text.

[Handcruser 2799]

That sounds like a swell deal! I’ll take 2!

[billfromlaketravis 11265]

Four words for dog owners with small children. Get a Bassett Hound.

If anything they might make your infants/toddlers sleep more. The most chill/peaceful dogs you'll ever encounter. They sleep 23 hours a day. They spend their 1 waking hour per day trying to get their tummies rubbed. 

[Pato del Muerto 51913]

My opinion is you can’t rehome an aggressive dog, any more than a shelter or rescue would do it. 

[Fuck Tim Beck 3778]

That dog sounds like the canine version of ArmyBrat. 

[immamac 41336]

9 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

My opinion is you can’t rehome an aggressive dog, any more than a shelter or rescue would do it. 

The dog is still alive - we weighed euthanizing him, but don't feel like that is fair to him as he is fine around adult humans who want to give him attention. If we can't rehome him he will be destroyed at our cost. 

[Longhornstampede 3171]

That's a really heartbreaking situation for the min pin. Dogs just want to love someone, even asshole dogs. And the fact that he is a senior dog makes me feel so sorry for him and for your situation with the kiddo because it's so incompatible. I pray that you find a solution that doesn't cause someone a whole lot of heartbreak.

[Parliament 13979]

Put an add on Craigslist and hope for the best.  But prepare yourself for eventually having to "send him to a farm."

[Continental Op 3934]

Austin Pets Alive might be able to help you out with some of this:

https://www.austinpetsalive.org/resources/pet-help/rehome

[Deej 76080]

4 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Four words for dog owners with small children. Get a Bassett Hound.

If anything they might make your infants/toddlers sleep more. The most chill/peaceful dogs you'll ever encounter. They sleep 23 hours a day. They spend their 1 waking hour per day barking for the sake of barking. 

fify.

[Nice Guy Eddie 13267]

Sounds like you need an old person that doesn’t have grandkids and wants a small dog. Not being housebroken is a problem.

[Kennythetiger 9271]

Man I read this title three times and I still thought “Someone is helping Blacklab’s wife chase neighborhood cars?  That’s pretty weird, but whatever.”  

[Armybrat 40464]

8 hours ago, Fuck Tim Beck said:

That dog sounds like the canine version of ArmyBrat. 

Where’s that finger emoji?

[Armybrat 40464]

1 hour ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Sounds like you need an old person that doesn’t have grandkids and wants a small dog. Not being housebroken is a problem.

No shit.

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

Let’s hope your wife is better at picking husbands than she is at picking dogs.

[Armybrat 40464]

Our tiny granddog Shelby is in the same shape and has the same demeanor as Henry. 
shelby has worn out her welcome here after just three days of dogsitting her while my Son & DIL are living it up in Vegas. It’ll be a blessing when she goes home this evening.
 

 

[Errestaurants 2570]

Probably easier to just rehome the 1 year old

[Deej 76080]

Oh, and obligatory...

 

[immamac 41336]

Maybe I wasnt super clear about what I meant when I said JoJo attacked henry. It was a major incident requiring surgery to close up some substantial (but superficial) wounds. He cannot come back to the house or jojo will likely finish the job. About a month ago when henry started actively attacking our child is when jojo started being a bit more outwardly aggressive towards henry. Swiping him with her paws. Barking at him when our kids was around etc. I think jojo has already identified henry as a threat and there's no way to untrain her at this point. 

[DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt 12301]

15 minutes ago, immamac said:

Maybe I wasnt super clear about what I meant when I said JoJo attacked henry. It was a major incident requiring surgery to close up some substantial (but superficial) wounds. He cannot come back to the house or jojo will likely finish the job. About a month ago when henry started actively attacking our child is when jojo started being a bit more outwardly aggressive towards henry. Swiping him with her paws. Barking at him when our kids was around etc. I think jojo has already identified henry as a threat and there's no way to untrain her at this point. 

it is a threat and she's doing her job. obviously it's a moot point, but no need to retrain the shepherd...she's just doing her job. good doggo.

[sdm 828]

You need help with your pack leader skills, time to call in Cesar Millan.

[immamac 41336]

41 minutes ago, DefinitelyNotHollywoodColt said:

it is a threat and she's doing her job. obviously it's a moot point, but no need to retrain the shepherd...she's just doing her job. good doggo.

Yeah, jojo didn't do anything "wrong" she was doing her job and she was doing it well. It's just now very obvious that Henry cannot stay here. My mother is taking him while we try to find a place for him to go permanently. 

[Armybrat 40464]

Seriously, Henry’s quality of life sucks, and you’re doing him no favors by postponing the inevitable.

Same for our granddog Shelby.

Shit, my Dad welcomed his own end... after exclaiming for 2 or 3 years that he had “lived too damn long”. He passed quietly in his sleep to end his misery. I hope for the same myself when living gets to be unbearable.

[immamac 41336]

I brought it up with the vet last night and the vet wasn't necessarily adamant about it from a you should keep all dogs alive point of view, but from a this dog still has plenty of life left to live and this is just a flesh wound type response. 

I'd have much rather paid less to have him put down than to have him stitched up (850 bucks), but in talking to the vet it didn't seem like the right thing to do all things considered. There are lots of people out there who want dogs like Henry apparently, now we just have to find one.

[horn4life 3748]

3 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Sounds like you need an old person that doesn’t have grandkids and wants a small dog. Not being housebroken is a problem.

Depends on the old person.  A lot of them can't smell shit! 
 

More seriously the Vets always want you to "think about it."  Let me explain something, by the time we bring in a family member to the Vet to be euthanized we ALREADY have fucking thought about it a lot!  We didn't wake up and say WTF let's put him or her down. We have been agonizing over the decision for weeks and months.  Now I realize that for some folks maybe they do just say fuck it, but for most I think that is not the case.  

I also would have hated to pay the $850, but in the heat of the moment that is what I likely would have done as well.  As simply saying fuck it doc, it's cheaper to kill him, while racing through my mind, would probably not win out. As my emotional sympathy would be with the little one that got torn up.  But the end is near.  I hope you gan indeed find somebody to adopt. But I will also say that our yorkie we had to put down a few years ago got a LOT more snappy than she had before.  But hell who of us might not get a little snappy being blind while peeing and pooping ourselves?

[UTPhil2006 3753]

1 hour ago, immamac said:

I brought it up with the vet last night and the vet wasn't necessarily adamant about it from a you should keep all dogs alive point of view, but from a this dog still has plenty of life left to live and this is just a flesh wound type response. 

I'd have much rather paid less to have him put down than to have him stitched up (850 bucks), but in talking to the vet it didn't seem like the right thing to do all things considered. There are lots of people out there who want dogs like Henry apparently, now we just have to find one.

Seems to me if they're blind, deaf, angry, and incontinent and have no teeth the quality of life is all but gone from the plenty of life to live perspective.

[ABSR 5266]

2 hours ago, Errestaurants said:

Probably easier to just rehome the 1 year old

The inspections, questions, in-home visits and sanctimonious comments would definitely be less if you went with this option.

[Samson's Wig 3154]

Sounds very much like Jojo is a great dog who likely doesn't need a bit of correction or training for this behavior.  That's precisely what you want out of your dog.  If she becomes aggressive about protecting people/things that is unreasonable, then I would be concerned.  If this was the only situation she was protective, you're all set.

Henry needs to be put down, I don't care what the vet said.  I would likely have been suckered into paying the $850 for the stitches as well, not wanting to make a tough decision like that in the moment.  But a blind, toothless, incontinent, and aggressive dog needs to call it a life.  I suspect your wife doesn't want any part of that decision, and if that's the case you'll have to be the one to step up and put your foot down.  The only person who would take a dog like this is an old person who is also some combination of blind, toothless, incontinent, and aggressive.  And that's not really a win for them or the dog. 

[MissingInAction 24262]

JoJo did her job, and she will continue to protect your child with her life. 

If she gets aggressive for no good reason, then training would be required.

Edited January 18, 2021 by MissingInAction

[TwiceHorn 30715]

49 minutes ago, horn4life said:

More seriously the Vets always want you to "think about it."  Let me explain something, by the time we bring in a family member to the Vet to be euthanized we ALREADY have fucking thought about it a lot!  We didn't wake up and say WTF let's put him or her down. We have been agonizing over the decision for weeks and months.  Now I realize that for some folks maybe they do just say fuck it, but for most I think that is not the case.  

 

I mean that's certainly true of decent people.

But there are a lot of shitbags that have pets and dispose of them whenever it becomes convenient.  I suppose most of the shitbags don't go to the vet to have them mercifully put down, though.

[Incredulity 11141]

1 hour ago, Samson's Wig said:

But a blind, toothless, incontinent, and aggressive dog needs to call it a life

Totally this.  It's a shit decision to take a life, but it's inhumane to drag it on.

[Armybrat 40464]

It is an excruciatingly hard & painful decision to make.

That’s why we have never adopted another dog since Good Ol’ Squirt had to cross that rainbow bridge to the big Dog Park in the sky. Still brings tears to my eyes, as do Puddles, Wimpy, Bartles, Jeep (the cat), and Muffin.

Edited January 18, 2021 by Armybrat

[workswithseed 2012]

13 hours ago, billfromlaketravis said:

Four words for dog owners with small children. Get a Bassett Hound.

If anything they might make your infants/toddlers sleep more. The most chill/peaceful dogs you'll ever encounter. They sleep 23 hours a day. They spend their 1 waking hour per day trying to get their tummies rubbed. 

I used to try to bite the white tip of our Bassett Hound's tail. I miss Asia. Such a good girl.

[burntorangebongos 10641]

Listen, this is what my friend did when she inherited her mom's ancient psycho cat. Her other cat and dog hated that hell cat and would have killed her. So she isolated her in a bedroom and had all her things to get her comfortable there. And basically left her mostly in peace. The cat only liked her presence so she spent time with her. She would lock up her other pets and let the cat out in her yard or roam in her kitchen but mostly, the cat lived in the room isolated because she was crazy and only sweet to her. That fucking cat lived 3 years and died at 20. If you have garage space or a spare room you could fix it up for him. Maybe Henry could deal with that especially if your wife spent time with him. You guys could try that if you can't find a home.

[luke duke 6359]

Putting this here for now, but moving to CYHMWT later on.
My wife has had a min pin chihuahua mix that is aggressive towards our 1 year old child. Our German Shepherd Blacklab (JoJo) was not a fan of the constant aggression towards my child from Henry and attacked him today. Long story short, Henry's gotta go and JoJo needs to get some professional training/we need to take additional precautions when JoJo exhibits any aggressive behavior protecting our kid or anything from others. 
Anyone interested in taking up a stitched up min pin that has to wear a diaper inside (will pee and poop inside). He also is mostly blind with cataracts, and is hard of hearing. He also has very few teeth and is animal and small people aggressive. He can't really be around other animals and does not play nice with other dogs. He's a good snuggler and likes women and all that. Doesn't bark a whole lot, but can go through fits and doesn't have separation anxiety. He's 11+ years old, has a severe heart murmur and really just lays around most of the day and we've had to have him locked up most of the time since he can't be out when the kid is awake or home. 
JoJo is not aggressive at all towards people and has never had a person aggressive bite history. She also does not have a history of dog or cat aggression. She hates deer, coyotes, other critters that clearly shouldn't be on the property (4+ Acre). She's a good guard dog, but I definitely need someone to coach us on how to deal with her or how we can get her to understand when aggression/protection is not needed/wanted.
thanks for reading my wall of text.

Please tell me you aren’t in sales.

[mchookem 15429]

this is like the bizarro 'My dog is awesome' thread. 

poor fella🙁

[Mighty fine 169]

JoJo did her job, and she will continue to protect your child with her life. 
If she gets aggressive for no good reason, then training would be required.

Regarding JoJo, this is spot on (especially for dogs with shepherd in them). In my experience, obedience training won't get rid of this instinct; you have to get more into the attack/guard dog training, and this comes with some other trade offs.

She just said enough of this shit and laid down the law to Henry; you are correct in your assessment that Henry's got to go.

[BabaYaga 15115]

A min-pin, with a diaper, aggression issues, heart murmur, and cataracts?  Rehome?  Costs?

Do you not own a shovel?

[workswithseed 2012]

7 minutes ago, BabaYaga said:

A min-pin, with a diaper, aggression issues, heart murmur, and cataracts?  Rehome?  Costs?

Do you not own a shovel?

I feel that a gun would do a better job than a shovel.

[Hank Scorpio 17691]

Get the baby a gun so the dog doesn’t need to defend it. Most problems can be solved with guns. 

[workswithseed 2012]

2 minutes ago, Hank Scorpio said:

Get the baby a gun so the dog doesn’t need to defend it. Most problems can be solved with guns. 

Why not give everyone guns? Seems to be the actual answer. Last one standing is the man of the family. 

[BabaYaga 15115]

9 minutes ago, workswithseed said:

I feel that a gun would do a better job than a shovel.

Less noise in the city 

[workswithseed 2012]

1 minute ago, BabaYaga said:

Less noise in the city 

Subsonic ammo

[ztejas 42744]

Hell of a thing killin a dog. You take away everything he's got, and everything he's ever gonna have. 

[BabaYaga 15115]

[52-80 18962]

the only thing that chihuahua's  missing is a coupla USB ports

[fattyflattie 4631]

5 hours ago, Samson's Wig said:

I suspect your wife doesn't want any part of that decision, and if that's the case you'll have to be the one to step up and put your foot down.

I've had to do this.  It sucks, but sometimes it is necessary.  Doesn't make it any easier. 

[Underdog 27966]

Regarding Henry, does he like Ritz? 

[BabaYaga 15115]

[immamac 41336]

Something that the vet left out prior to surgery and we would have never consented to surgery if we knew. He is paralyzed in his rear legs with low likelihood of regaining function of them. He went with my mom to fort worth and luckily the folks at ridglea animal hospital are going to do a short notice euthanasia before they close tonight at 6PM. 

 

There is no reason to have him continue suffering if he will just heal and not be able to walk. Thank you all for the level headed responses and help.