Here is the situation for you all. I want you input on things I can work on when my dog comes back home to see if we can come over this hump or if he needs to just stay where he is.

Moose is our 2.5 year old male GSP. He was neutered about a month or so ago. Early to Mid summer he started to get agressive towards our dog Rajah whom he grew up with since 8 weeks old. Rajah has never been intact so there should be no issues as far as male you know what going on. It has progressivly gotten worse to the point where he gives no more warning to Rajah and just will go after him in our bedroom or if Rajah is "in his space".

Here is the second situation we are dealing with. Our son is almost 2. Is eye level with Moose and Moose will just growl and shake if our son comes near him. Our son has NEVER mistreated him as we make sure all the dogs and our son are closly supervised. Jayden LOVES to pet the dogs nice and give them hugs and kisses. We can't let him do this to Moose for our concern of Moose not reacting well.

The last straw was on Saturday last week. We were staying in a hotel in Novi, MI and Moose went after Rajah. Unprovoked and with no growl warning. Moose immediatly got put in his crate for the rest of the night. Normaly he will give a growl even but not this time.

It made me really evaluate where we are and what we should do.  So here were the things that I went through in my mind.....

1.He ONLY has issues with Rajah. The other male dog. The two females in our home he NEVER has growled or anything at.

2.He has never offered to bite a person but his growling worries me A LOT with our son. What if he is in the wrong place at the wrong time.

3.What if the boys get into it so quickly and fiercly that we can't separate them in time and major damage is done.

So a friend of ours that we do dock jumping with offered to take him for two weeks while we sorted things out on our end etc. This guy has 3 female Goldens. All spayed. So we let him stay with him. He has had no growling issues to this point with the other dogs or with our friend.

I have gotten some great training advice as far as what we could work on as far as curbing his agression issues.

I want your opinions on possibly more training advice for me along with the options of just letting him stay where he is past the two weeks (our friend is willing to try him out for as long as needed in his home to see if he would want to keep him) or do we bring him home next weekend and start the training things that have been suggested and get a muzzle as a just incase type of thing......

I am very attatched to Moose and he and I both went through some major emotional times Sunday,Monday and Tuesday. But he has really started to mesh well at his "vacation" home and I am starting to settle in with out him here and trying to wead through everything and make the right decision!

HELP!

I'm with Bruce. Growling at humans has honestly never happened in my house, but I promise you it would be dealt with swiftly. If we had a toddler in the house it would ZERO TOLERANCE to the extreme. I personally would not have the dog in my house because I would worry that my son was at risk if I were in your shoes.

Growling at another dog and fighting is another issue, and if you didn't have a toddler in the house, you may be able to work through that. However, your situation is different. Your son could get seriously injured if he got caught in the middle of a dogfight.

My heart goes out to you. It's not easy to make this decision. Your child comes first though. Before ANY dog.

My two cents - Jean

Beth, I have to agree with Bruce. It brings such tears and heartache to part with a dog you raised from a pup. Jayden is number one and if Moose is a possible threat to him, he has to go.  Cause think of the deeper pain you would feel of Moose bit Jaydon. That would be a worse pain.

I know this cause we lived thur this with a Lab pup will adopted from our neighbors who bred Labs. Sterling was beautiful Lab and good around everyone except our youngest son, Dennis who was 8 years old at the time. One night in our livingroom, Sterling was laying on his rug chewing on a bone. Dennis cuddled around Sterlings head while chewing and bit Dennis in the face with no warning. We decided that night we had to place Sterling in a home who had no children. There were many tears shed at the time, especially when his new adopted forever Mom came to get him. Our older Son Mike, being a typical older brother who loved Sterling and scrabbled with his little brother said,"Get rid of Dennis and we will keep Sterling."  as a solution to the problem. Until  we found Sterling his new home I had to place a muzzle on him when Dennis and his friends were over to play.  Mike and his friends, Sterling was OK cause they were older and calmer.  It was a very sad time.

Will pray for you and your family to make the right decision as it is very tough. 

Beth,

My heart goes out to you.  I feel your pain.  I was an ER nurse for many years, now a flight nurse for many years and have seen the devastation, both physically and mentally, from dogs bites in both the young and the old. 

I took in a doberman mix puppy many years ago as he was abandoned by a family in the local housing project.  The plan was to get him healthy and to find a home for him.  Well, he and my lab puppy, same age ,got along so well that he became part of the family for almost 8 years.  I had him put down after he grabbed the neighbor boys hand when he went to pet him.  I couldn't put another child/adult through a bite after taking care of many in the ED as I didn't know what this dogs family lines were.  It was a very agonizing painful decision for me but one that I had made when I decided to keep him.  So I can feel your pain because I know how much you love your Moose.  I know this is not your exact situation but very similar and I know how agonizing it is.  All of  your children (human and fur)  mean the world to you.   Please know that you are in our thoughts and prayers as you go through this situation. 

Deb

 This will be hard to do no matter what, but you could look at it as placing a dog in a  positive invironment for the new family to love like not other. Sterling went to a family in where there was fence yard, the husband was a cross country truck driver and their son was 17 years old.(not small child). Sterling's new forever Mom, needed a big dog to live with as she was afraid of being alone in the house when her husband traveled.

Do not feel like a failure  you need to do something else in training,  I felt that way and one of my neighbors who loved Sterling felt like he ruined Sterling, felt guilty as he trained past dogs and felt he could have trained Sterling not to be a bite dog with children..

. Good news for you too, you have other furkins to dry your tears on their long GSP ears.  

About the same time another well meaning person dropped a 3 yr old high energy GSP with us named Dixie. Their baby son was allergic to Dixie so had to place her right now in another home. She was not a biter, but she did not like little boys fighting. When our sons would rumble in our livingroom, she would bark them into separate corners. So I ended up placing her in a home with 3 fighting boys who Mom had shot nerves from her boys fighting. The 3 boys lived on a farm,spent alot of hours playing ball with Dixie outside and ceased their fighting in the house around their Mom. We cried when Dixie went out the door with her new family too, even though we only had her 6 months. She was a lover and would lay on my lap at night on the couch...Finally our next door neighbor found Snickers, our Chese/lab girl who we kept, loved, was gun shy, but made a great family house dog.

I greatly admire those who foster dogs, cause it must  be although happy to find a new Forever Home, there has to be a tinge of sadness in your heart when  the Foster  goes out your door to the new home for the final time.

What a tough situation.  I don't have any better advice than what has already been give, but I did want to let you know I am thinking about you and praying for a resolution that is good for all.

FWIW this is where I'd come out on it. Kids change our lives, abilities, and priorities in all kinds of ways. I know there are people who would argue otherwise, but I think rehoming Moose is a very reasonable course of action.