Effort to find help for an aggressive foster.

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#1
I acquired a dog from a woman who had too many dogs. She was going to take the dog to the shelter because she said the dog snapped at her 2 year old in the face. I figured it was either her not watching the kid and the kid bothering the dog while she was eating, or something was going on because the dog is said to be just 7? months old. The woman recommended a home without children or small dogs because of the dog's "dominating" demeanor. I have a large dog and a medium sized dog. Both are very socialized and have tried to let her have her space, but they were here first.

So I went and got her and everything was fine until the second day when she started resource guarding and snapping at my dogs. My one dog said no and the other one is a silly boy who lets other dogs run over him. Not good. She has begun going after him when she feels he gets too close to "her" stuff. She doesn't stop at growling, she will go after him. She has grabbed him by the neck, but he has a pretty thick coat that she didn't penetrate. When I correct her, she growls at me and I feel like she's going to take it further when she starts testing the waters. She even guards me from the other dogs for food and attention. She will sit on my feet and snip at the other dogs and run them off. If I move, she moves. I don't have the ability to deal with an aggressive dog like this. When she starts going after my existing dogs, that's a problem. I took her because the woman was going to take her to the shelter and I figured she was just didn't have time to deal with her amongst the other six dogs and maybe there was more to the story. Well, after having her almost a week I understand why she wanted to get rid of her. It didn't take long for these behaviours to surface.

Now I just need to find someone who can work with this type of behaviour and will take a dog like this. I don't feel comfortable giving her to anyone knowing what her temperament is like now. If anyone has any information, I live near Memphis, TN. She is an approx 7 month old black and tan mix dog who is unaltered and has no history of vaccines.

Thank you for your time,
Megan.
 

*blackrose

"I'm kupo for kupo nuts!"
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#3
In all reality, finding a rescue to take an aggressive dog is going to be very, very difficult. Even if she could become a stable companion with training, there are so many more dogs that need help that have stellar temperaments, that the ones that have more than just a mild case of aggression typically can't be helped due to lack of resources.

Even if she does respond well to training, at least in my experience resource guarding to that extreme is a behavior that never 100% goes away. Whoever ends up with her will always need to manage her environment to make sure she doesn't get above her threshold.

I also know that my girl Chloe does not generalize well at all when it comes to what I call her "touchy feely issues" - I can groom her, restrain her, and pull dead birds out of her mouth without any issues because I am the one that worked with her on all of those things. She still snaps at her groomer when she brushes her (and then if I get the brush and start grooming her in the exact same spot she's fine), she doesn't let strangers manhandle/restrain her, and my family members can't walk up to her and take away a high valued item from her without her tensing/getting growly (they just trade with her and all is well). So there is always a chance that even if the dog responds well to training and to that handler, it might regress horribly when put into a new environment with a new person.

It never hurts to try to find a rescue...but a mixed breed dog with aggression issues isn't going to be high on anyone's list. :(
 

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