I posted a while back here about my pit bull, Athena. I don't know if anyone remembers, but she was starting to show resource guarding traits. We started feeding her outside and most of the other animals left the house so the problems pretty much stopped. Recently, though, she's been going after the one cat we have left. We've been able to tell when it's going to happen because she tenses up and lowers her head before she does anything else. Then she explodes toward the cat, growling and trying to rip her apart. We've been able to stop her before she got to the cat every time. The biggest problem is that it's no longer during feeding time, it just happens when it happens. Sometimes they're fine together, but sometimes the dog just goes nuts.
We've been reading and watching shows, trying to figure out how to solve the problem and we've been making a lot of progress, but today she took a huge step back. The cat came down the stairs and the dog saw her, got stiff and lowered her head. I grabbed her before she could do anything, but that set her off and she tried to get to the cat. The cat ran off and I had the dog on the ground, but she kept growling. My wife came to try to help but that made the dog more angry and tried to bite her. She kept snarling and growling in a way I've never seen her before. I tried to get her to her box, but she refused to stand and it was hard to get her to move because she wanted to bite. I ended up pretty much dragging her to her box and throwing her in.
We can't deal with this. We're getting ready to move across the country, find new jobs, try to build ourselves up again, and there is way too much stress to be dealing with a dog like this. It wouldn't be too bad, and we would keep her, but we obviously don't know how to handle these kind of situations because they keep happening, and we can't afford to hire someone to help. I don't want her put down, so I want to find some sort of pit bull rescue or something. I want to find a place that will take her, won't put her down, and fix her of this problem. She is a really good dog, and happy most of the time. She loves to play, loves attention and listens to many commands, but she just has this problem that we can't solve. Perhaps she can be a good dog for another family after she is better, but unfortunately it doesn't look like we can keep her.
I don't know how to go about finding things like this. Please help me.
I don't want to give her up, but I think it's best for everyone.
We've been reading and watching shows, trying to figure out how to solve the problem and we've been making a lot of progress, but today she took a huge step back. The cat came down the stairs and the dog saw her, got stiff and lowered her head. I grabbed her before she could do anything, but that set her off and she tried to get to the cat. The cat ran off and I had the dog on the ground, but she kept growling. My wife came to try to help but that made the dog more angry and tried to bite her. She kept snarling and growling in a way I've never seen her before. I tried to get her to her box, but she refused to stand and it was hard to get her to move because she wanted to bite. I ended up pretty much dragging her to her box and throwing her in.
We can't deal with this. We're getting ready to move across the country, find new jobs, try to build ourselves up again, and there is way too much stress to be dealing with a dog like this. It wouldn't be too bad, and we would keep her, but we obviously don't know how to handle these kind of situations because they keep happening, and we can't afford to hire someone to help. I don't want her put down, so I want to find some sort of pit bull rescue or something. I want to find a place that will take her, won't put her down, and fix her of this problem. She is a really good dog, and happy most of the time. She loves to play, loves attention and listens to many commands, but she just has this problem that we can't solve. Perhaps she can be a good dog for another family after she is better, but unfortunately it doesn't look like we can keep her.
I don't know how to go about finding things like this. Please help me.
I don't want to give her up, but I think it's best for everyone.