Rehoming a dog with agression issues in Washington state is opening yourself up for serious liability. My understanding is that if the dog hurts someone in the new home, they can go back and sue the previous owner if the dog was known to be 'dangerous' when it was passed on.

I realize everyone approaches these things differently, but if one of my dogs pulled this kind of stunt without provocation I would probably have to put him/her down. I LOVE my dogs dearly, and I feel that I'm a responsible owner, but as a parent I have a very hard time gambling my child's current home and future educational opportunities for the sake of keeping a pet with severe problems who's antics could wipe us out financially. And then there's the moral responsibility I feel I have for keeping my community reasonably safe and pleasant...

And therein lies the rub: the choices in these cases are personal, but the consequences often impact animals and people with no voice in the decision. Renee loves Bean and is clearly upset, but I'm sure the owner of the little dog that got attacked loves her pet too and is probably REALLY fried.

*sigh* I guess I'm trying to say that words like "love" and "responsibile pet owner" often get tossed around as reasons to keep a problematic dog, but if the owner arrives at a different conclusion it DOES NOT automatically mean they are "irresponsible" or "don't love their pet".

OK, I gotta get ready for work, back later....

OK, this is a whole lot different than BEAN causing the damage, and MAJOR thumbs up for Renee picking up the tab since this is a gray area to say the least.

Years ago we had a Lab that was fine with other dogs until she was attacked twice by the neighbors little yappy dog that they allowed to run loose.  The little dog was out of control and drew blood on Sunny's ankles and chest.  After that Sunny went into defensive mode with the attitude that if she got them first they wouldn't get her.  She had no problems with big dogs, but the little ones scared the heck out of her.  We did a lot of obedience training and worked with a trainer to get her to focus attention away from other dogs.  She got better but never got over it completely especially around small yappy dogs. 

We weren't the only ones that had problems with that dog. Uunfortunaletly after us and several other neighbors told them to keep the thing in their yard they only got the hint after the police became involved when the dog nipped a kid.

 YES that is the story, I just did not want it to look like I was blaming the other dogs......

Chelsea is not what I would call dog-aggressive but more than once she has been, in my opinion, forced to show "back off!" aggression towards  (usually) a small dog that just wouldn't stop harassing her or respect her boundaries.  Some of them just do not get the point and as others have said, their owners tend not to enforce good behavior because they're small and "harmless."  She has never drawn blood but a small dog is just vulnerable to a big dog's bite.   Similarly, a friend was recently very upset when her young Aussie, on a leash, "pinned" a cocker spaniel that had run out its front door and was charging him (and my friend), barking furiously.  She took Toby to a trainer who evaluated him with other well-behaved dogs and said "that's not an aggressive dog."   I'm aware (and so is my friend) that we have to be alert to our surroundings when we are out with our dogs and avoid unrestrained, ill-behaved dogs, but we don't think WE have the problem. 

Dogs get in a bickering match, an owner picks up a small dog that's involved, and it bites the crap outta her... who knows who actually started the bickering, but the teeth that did the damage belonged to the ankle biter. So YEAH I'd blame the little dog!

At the mushing events I'm at, if dogs on anybody's truck start going at it we all run in to get it stopped before a dog gets hurt. The owner may or may not be around and we'd all appreciate someone doing the same for us. Sled dogs are normally pretty laid back so it's reletively rare, but sometimes the exciting atmosphere of the event amps them up into behavior they wouldn't normally participate in, or the musher is in a hurry and puts dogs next to each other that shouldn't be, or trucks inadvertently park too close, etc. Anyway... NOBODY puts hands down there, we wade in stomping with heavy insulated carhartts and boots, and possibly waving a stick, food ladle, poop scoop, or whatever we can grab quickly. Many experienced dog people sport impressive scars and stories from breaking up fights anyway, often as not from the dog that's NOT instigating it just because they've got so much fear and adrenaline going when someone attempts to drag them to safety.

The funny one was at an event where someone had a bunch of Swingly type hounds packed in on tight drops around the truck... the musher had gone off to deal with something and I was standing in the bed of my truck about 30 feet away getting gear out. I suddenly saw two young looking males on the front fender rear up, lock front feet at the chest with mouths open and lips pulled back.... and basically stand there lip to lip cussing at each other. I instinctively stood up and yelled "HEY!!!" at them. The look on their face as they were still reared up with front legs locked together was priceless: "oh crap, we're busted...." and immediately they put all 4 on the floor, looking rather sheepish, lol.

I've refrained from posting on this topic until now. I encountered a similar situation today as my neighbor allowed her 7 pound poodle mix to run around the apartment complex unleashed.  It took all my strength to keep Sophie from hurting Benjy, accidentally or otherwise.  She is a 35+ pound large breed puppy and you just never know. 

It started in our hallway where Benjy ran towards us (the dogs have never met or played before) with a forward body posture barking.  Soph remained stoic as the neighbor took her time locking her door before coming to collect her dog.  Sophie got excited when she finally came to collect Benjy and we made sure to wait until she got down the stairs and out the outside gate before going down.  Unbeknown to me, Benjy was still unleashed in the street and came up to the fence barking and trying to fit between the bars.  It took him about 30 seconds to wrangle his way under the fence to the side we were on while his owner made a lame attempt to call him back from 50 feet away.  Needless to say Sophie was going crazy wanting a chance to play and jump and scratched the hell out of my legs as I tried to restrain her.  I know she did not have the intention to hurt her Benjy, she plays with an Italian Greyhound all the time and just got amped up.  Nevertheless, something could have easily gone awry and I would have been the one who was blamed because I have the "big dog." 

It really is infuriating.  I work my tail off trying to keep my dog behaved and being aware of my surroundings only to have someone else foil my efforts.  The neighbor's reaction was "Benjy, you are not acting appropriately, it is time to go on your leash."  Well no s***!!! It was time when you walked out in public with a dog that doesn't have a recall and approaches in an unfriendly manner.

Sorry for the vent.  I understand how sometimes unfortunate situations arise and it seems Bean was the wrong dog to tick off.  I empathize with you, Rene.  Good luck to anyone else who faces an irresponsible dog owner, no matter the size of the dog. 

When I was a kid there was a lady on the block who would walk her dog (meaning, she had her own very nice big yard but wanted her dog to crap elsewhere) down our block and never picked up any poo. My dad organized the neighbors to save it for two weeks. At the end of the two weeks, he had a brown grocery sack probably half full (no joke - she must have fed that dog Ol Roy) of dog crap. He waited for her to pass, and presented the bag in very chivalrous style to her saying "This is yours, the neighbors all got together and saved it for you". She never walked on our block again.

Jean

Reminds me of an incident we had at our local nursing home,  When we certify dogs for the therapy program the second part of certification is three visits at the nursing home.  Well this particular nursing home has an open door policy, meaning anyone can bring their dog for a visit.  We had three teams (dog and handler) and were walking down the hall when a crazy, poodle came running down the hall barking and nipping at the legs of the potential therapy dogs.  The owner was an elderly women running after the poodle trying to catch her.  We told our group of teams to turn around and keep walking and keep your dog focused on you! Thankfully we had no incident but it could of turned ugly. 

I don't care what kind of dog people have big or little, if they are well mannered I will like them, they can be the ugliest dog ever but I will still like them.  The thing I despise is a poor mannered dog. 

We recently had our yearly meeting with TDV.  We had a barbecue outside with about 20-25 dogs 75% were little dogs- all extremely well behaved.  It was truly amazing to see that many dogs together with no problems at all - a total reflection on the handlers.

Renee-so sorry this had to happen to you and bean.  You worked so hard with bean and are a responsible owner, sometimes things can get out of hand in life and as we all know life is not fair at times...I wish you and bean well.

My last GSP Jacob that past at 10 yrs had years 3 to 9 of his life on a short leash.  For some reason he didn't want anything to do with any dog during those years, he was VERY aggressive towards them, fortunately for me I caught this behavior before incident and took precautions.  The last year and a half of his life he settled and made friends with the neighborhood dogs. I guess Jake was making peace, we could actually have neighbors over with there dogs off leash and never had an incident, it almost brought tears to ones eyes to see Jake interact like a normal dog for once. 

UPDATE

we have been walking a normal routine ( our trail has various obstacles )  But today I was really in tune with Bean and her attitude

 we walked our OLD route ( where she had been on a flexi & allowed to wander )

 we had new rules ( same as our trail walk ) meaning heel and we're on a six footer...we walked about an hour, then met up with a Doxie on a flexi, I told Bean "leave it " because she does not need to meet every dog she sees and we walked side by sorta side ( the flexi )...with Bean not even looking at the dog

The dog she has walked with 4 or five months back & it is my Mom's wiener dog

Bean did not even give me cause for concern

I felt really great about that

then we went the other 1/2 of our walk & there was  J Russell off leash.............Bean saw it..........I said leave it & we continued on our route....the dog never approached us

But I felt great about Beans demeanor

we're just not a meet and greet happy lovey dovey...dog pair

   Thanks again for all the feedback

 and I did buy the book "the other end of the leash"  trying to save it for our camping trip....BUT I keep picking it up and reading !!!!!!!!!!!!