Scott and I came to the very hard decision last night that we could no longer keep our dog, Duke. For a couple weeks now, he has been displaying extremely aggressive behavior, and despite all my research and efforts to correct this, the situation only escalated.
In our situation right now, there are so many problems that arise from having an aggressive dog: if we have a child in the next three years, I would be constantly worried. If he hurts a stranger, we would be liable from a legal standpoint.
Mostly, his behavior has been a distraction- instead of being a friendly dog that makes people come up to us, people stay away from him because he barks and chases strangers. And I have also been spending more time trying to learn how to handle him rather than acutally playing with him.
We decided to give him three strikes, hoping that as he matured and as we trained he would grow out of it, but he struck out yesterday when he bit a child who was talking to me in the garden.
We were very happy and blessed to be able to give him to a friend who is crazy about him- she lives in a smaller village and has a dog already, so we think Duke will be very happy because he can come and go in and out of their house as he pleases, and will have a doggy friend!
Scott and I hope to find another dog in the future, but will make a more educated decision knowing now the personality we are looking for! Any insights or advice will be very welcome, as we miss very much the pitter patter of little paws.
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