I have a positive and negative rejoining story.

A friend of ours got a puppy at the end of her pregnancy. Puppy plus baby was too much for them, and they were looking to rehome him. I was just a few months pregnant, and our dog had died rather suddenly. We took the dog, and he was almost a year when I had my daughter. He the best dog I ever had, and I still fondly remember the 12 years we had with him.

Fast forward a few years. My 18 y/o daughter has been asking for a bull terrier for years. I found one that had some “snapping issues” and crate aggression. I adopted her from an older couple. Within a week, she had bitten me twice and my daughter once. They were not playful bites, instead coupled with very scary dog vocalizations. I had to go to the ER for one of the bites. On the advice of someone very knowledgeable, I surrendered her to the county shelter to see if they could find a place that could help her. It was a heartbreaking experience. If you want all of the details, please see my “euthanizing an aggressive dog” thread. It’s probably on page 2 of this forum.

Anonymous wrote:You adopted a pit bull at the same time you had a baby??? What in the actual F?

I think OP is a troll. No sane person would do this.

Why in the world did you adopt a puppy when you were expecting? If you’ve actually owned dogs, as you claim, you’d know that having a puppy is basically like having a baby. Putting her in that position was cruel. Just return her to the rescue and hope for the best

I would only take advice from the behaviorist.

We rehomed a dog when we had a baby and a toddler who had a sensory integration disorder and they used to grab at the dog and squeeze it too hard.
We had to keep the dog behind gates all of the time and physically separate him from the children (and we were having therapists come into the home to work with the children, too).

It so happened that we had a friend who was looking for a dog like ours who had an older child and the parent was a part-time worker who was home a lot and wanted company in the house during the day.

We did go to a vet for advice. We thought the dog had cancerous cysts as well. It turned out the dog had great health and many years of life left in them.
The vet let us know that if the dog bit one of our kids, even if my kid caused it, they would be euthanized by the time we got home from the ER.

We tried:

Training
Moving to a house with a fenced in yard
Gates
Medication
Vet advice
Animal rescue volunteer advice

We were very conflicted about it, but we also didn't ask for our child to have these characteristics that were not good for the dog (and we worked and worked on it) so:

TALK TO ANIMAL EXPERTS and listen to your gut.

If people on the internet think you are a bad person, oh well. You are going to get extreme opinions on both sides here, because those are the people who are passionate enough to post.


Your dog is under a year old and that's a really adoptable age.

My dog now is possessive of food and it is so easy to manage because just all know how to work around it. We have a 2nd dog who also has learned to give the hungry dog some space.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:You adopted a pit bull at the same time you had a baby??? What in the actual F?

Yeah, this is strange for sure. What a recipe for failure.

Right? Have you not seen all the articles about puts who maul babies and toddlers to death? I agree with the person up thread who said euthanize.

Anonymous wrote:You adopted a pit bull at the same time you had a baby??? What in the actual F?

Yeah, this is strange for sure. What a recipe for failure.

You adopted a pit bull at the same time you had a baby??? What in the actual F?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:Is he growling and baring his teeth? While you're working out the details of rehoming, you absolutely MUST NOT let that continue. The first and only time my puppy tried this, he was a teen like yours, and I yelled at him in the strongest voice I could muster, hauled him about by the scruff of his neck and kept shouting at him for at least a minute, which is a lot. You need to physically impress upon him that he cannot do that, ever. Then I purposefully had him sit and wait before getting to his filled dish. I purposefully took toys out of his mouth, or kibble out of his dish, and gave them back to him, as an exercise to prevent resource guarding.

Of course, if your dog has been doing this for weeks, you have more uphill work to do, because he now thinks he's allowed to resource guard. Start by having him sit and wait before eating. Hand him his food, but before he eats it, take it away again and have him sit again. Etc. Same before you hand him a toy. If you're afraid he's going to bite, lure him with a treat to prise to toy away or the food dish away. Always give everything back with lavish praise. You want to work up to him letting you take anything away at any time.

Do you brush his teeth? Its a good way to get him used to you doing stuff in and around his mouth. Groom him yourself with a comb or brush, clip or dremel his nails, bathe him, etc... so he gets used to handling. It's a large part of accepting a human's right to manage his body, food and possessions.

Wrong way to do that. All you're teaching him is that he can't warn you that he doesn't like something or that he shouldn't growl. You're not changing the underlying sentiment. There are many ways to train a dog out of resource guarding. Don't give bad advice just because you were lucky with your dog.

Sorry, I know way more than you about the subject.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We have an 8-month-old lab/pit/retriever mix who’s an absolute doll 98% of the time but the other 2% she’s a pretty bad resource guarder (e.g. gets possessive of some toys/food and certain places). We’ve been working with a behaviorist and she’s doing SO much better but we also have a 6-month-old baby and the dog’s guarding is unpredictable enough that we are finally accepting we are going to have to rehome the dog. It’s really hard because as I said she’s such a lover (currently cuddled up asleep in my husband’s lap) and she also has bad anxiety so I’m worried she’ll be sad at a new home. I know, realistically, she’ll do so much better at a quieter home outside the city without kids, but would appreciate hearing anyone else’s positive experiences with rehoming a dog - and if anyone has tips on rehoming a dog with behavioral issues, that’s extra appreciated!

I hope you don't decide to adopt another animal. Not to be mean but, honestly animals are work and you can't expect them to be perfect all the time. Your puppy is only 8 months old. What has your behaviorist said? Do they say it is hopeless?

OP here. I've had pets/animals before, so am quite aware that pets aren't perfect all the time. Resource guarding is a very specific issue, and our trainer and behaviorist have both said it's a problem that can be managed but not cured -- and with a small child that won't understand boundaries, management can be tough/risky. The dog growls and sometimes snaps if we get too close to something she's deemed as "hers," and this includes food and spaces. Two adults can handle this with no problem, but again, throwing a baby into the mix makes this much riskier. Both experts have also said they think living in the city increases the dog's anxiety. We are trying to do what's best for this dog -- find her a quieter home where she will thrive, but we love her so it's also sad for us, which I why I was hoping to hear from others who have successfully rehomed their pups. REALLY don't need suggestions that we euthanize her (what the actual f*ck), or the judgment that comes with statements that start "not to be mean"...

That statement is very misleading. When taken early and treated correctly, resource guarding is 100% fixable. However, its not your fault if you adopted this dog recently and it had already developed that issue prior to the adoption - in that case I agree that it will be harder to fix, and you might never trust that dog.

At what age did you get the dog, how did you react when she first started, and what did the trainers tell you to implement?

I agree that it is curable, but you will only ever be able to "cure" it with you and your DH--not a child. We had a rescue Rottweiler that had resource guarding issues (quite severe) that eventually would allow us to take anything away from her: bones, toys, food dish. But our kids were older and specifically told not to do it themselves as they didn't have the time to work through it with her. She allowed it, but (visibly) more grudgingly. A stranger would have been in trouble.

Long story short, the dog can have a happy long life with someone who has the time. Don't feel bad, rehoming her quickly is the best thing for her. Someone with much older kids or no kids (and none planned) is the best bet. Call the rescue people, or ask your trainer. She'll be fine. GL.

Anonymous wrote:I wish you would euthanize the dog. These dogs with anxiety problems just get passed around from place to place until something bad happens. So many people wanted to adopt a dog during the pandemic and the behavior problems are just overwhelming, but there are so many adopters and adoption agencies that are willing to place them in homes even when doing so is clearly irresponsible. You took responsibility for the dog, you should see it through.

Resource guarding and anxiety are not reason to euthanize a dog. I wish people that suggested this would have to be the ones to kill their own pets.

Anonymous wrote:Is he growling and baring his teeth? While you're working out the details of rehoming, you absolutely MUST NOT let that continue. The first and only time my puppy tried this, he was a teen like yours, and I yelled at him in the strongest voice I could muster, hauled him about by the scruff of his neck and kept shouting at him for at least a minute, which is a lot. You need to physically impress upon him that he cannot do that, ever. Then I purposefully had him sit and wait before getting to his filled dish. I purposefully took toys out of his mouth, or kibble out of his dish, and gave them back to him, as an exercise to prevent resource guarding.

Of course, if your dog has been doing this for weeks, you have more uphill work to do, because he now thinks he's allowed to resource guard. Start by having him sit and wait before eating. Hand him his food, but before he eats it, take it away again and have him sit again. Etc. Same before you hand him a toy. If you're afraid he's going to bite, lure him with a treat to prise to toy away or the food dish away. Always give everything back with lavish praise. You want to work up to him letting you take anything away at any time.

Do you brush his teeth? Its a good way to get him used to you doing stuff in and around his mouth. Groom him yourself with a comb or brush, clip or dremel his nails, bathe him, etc... so he gets used to handling. It's a large part of accepting a human's right to manage his body, food and possessions.

Wrong way to do that. All you're teaching him is that he can't warn you that he doesn't like something or that he shouldn't growl. You're not changing the underlying sentiment. There are many ways to train a dog out of resource guarding. Don't give bad advice just because you were lucky with your dog.