Opinions on this dogs behaviour please

[Aru]

This dog is not rehomable. An older dogs with a bite history and unpredictable dog aggression....who would take that on? And its placing the animal in another situation of fear and uncertainty..I dont understand why its always advised as a solution.it isnt the solution for all dogs .Imo a life in a kennel for a previous house dog is no life. There are worse things then death for the poor animal.
Thats before you add in the mix of breeds involved....tbh this is an entirely predictable temperment for that mix in the wrong hands imo. Both those breeds are challenging enough on their own. mixing them is lunacy.

If the owners are commited and get help plus muzzle train,use baby gates etc you may have some hope of managing this dog with a baby in the house but good luck once the child is old enough to be toddling round or having other children over....children are unpredictable and a very bad mix with an animal of nervous or unstable temperment.

Given hes this age and no mention of behaviorist etc and you have a scared female owner whos already faced teeth the real question now is how much damage is he likely to get to do before hes euthanised and how to do damage control at this point.

Unless they are willing to go the whole hog of behavioural training with a proper behaviorist,learning to read and control his behaviour, proper muzzle training, walk in a muzzle and on lead plus appropriate confinement and mangement with their new future child.....I would recommend putting this dog to sleep without any hesitation. There was no damage in this attack...but escalation is a very real possibility and is common.

Mental health is important as physical health. This dog does not sound particularily mentally stable.

 

[cbmcts]

I agree with the PTS opinion - for the dogs sake. Rehoming would be next to impossible and the attempts really stressful for the dog.
I can empathise with the owner though I have a 55kg Mastiff/Rott rescue who has shown that he will bite if put under enough pressure. At home he is a big lapdog who is scared of the 3kg cat but if a stranger gets in his face or appears to be going for his collar he will lunge and snap. At the vets he is lethal - he wants to keep them away from him and I'm certain that he would have them given the opportunity. The other thing is that my OH is very wary with him and, not being a natural 'animal' person he tends to do things like flap his hands at the dog to shoo him away or try and hold his collar to move him. I could not in all conscience risk having in a house with a child - even if he was fine with the child I can imagine that he would be insanely protective of them.

Keeping a dog like this is hard work. I manage the hell out of him - he's muzzled at the vets or anywhere he has to come into close contact with people.The rest of the time he's walked in a dogmatic so I can always control his head. With visitors he's shut in another room or for those who I can trust to follow instructions (very few!) he is introduced on a lead and I watch him like a hawk. He's not interested in other dogs at all but will front up if another male comes up stiff legged. He's well trained, walks on a loose lead, great recall, can be let off lead but I only do so when I have a clear field of vision as his other issue is that he is incredibly protective of me and I'm sure that if someone came round a corner fast or unexpectedly he would react,

The only other person who is allowed to walk him is my dog walker who is also my trainer so knows what he is capable of. He is also walked solo so that her attention is focussed on him.

I adore this dog. He is such a good boy, bright, funny, trainable, affectionate and I can do anything with him (except make him get in the boot of the car. He just flops to the ground and wags his tail when you ask and no I can't pick him up!). But he is also a liability as I'm very aware that he will bite and as a result, I will not allow him to be around most people. Maybe unfair as 99% of the time he is very easy due to all the training we have done but just an example if any other dog of mine had got loose I would've worried about a RTA - this one my worry would be that someone would be bitten if they tried to catch him by his collar...

 

[Clodagh]

put it to sleep before it attacks anything else. my last dog was attacked without provocation by a dog that lots of people had tried to rehabilitate-mine a lovely family dog that had never hurt so much as a fly and who was minding his own business-that dog had dragged his owner over to mine before slipping its halti and attacking mine. It came to light it had attacked several dogs and the owner had had several people 'help' her with it. my ex used to operate on dogs attacked by other dogs and saw too many that ended up dead or ruined. no-one has the right to put other people's good dogs at risk like that, there's no point to keeping this sort of dog alive.

This completely, even if your dog recovers physically from a mauling the mental scars can cause problems.

 

[Pearlsasinger]

OP you have my sympathies on this one, it must be very distressing for you. I adopted a large breed rescue dog a few years ago who came with a reputation very similar to the one you described in your post and have found that being in a home with confident people we have never had a problem with him. I think that given over the past year the dog has gone from shut down and not interacting to engaging with people comfortably, has stopped pulling on walks even in situations when many would such as random squirrels running down the path, and has been ignoring dogs and calmly walking past them I would have said that if not for yesterday's incident then many people would have considered the dog to be "rehabilitated". I mean how long does a dog have to be unreactive even in the face of aggressive off lead dogs before you can say that they don't have issues anymore? In relation to someone saying you shouldn't have taken on walking the dog in case this happened I guess that means probably no one should of, my OH is over 15 stones and very fit yet he dislocated his shoulder last year walking a friends rottie cross for them while they were on holiday as the dog suddenly bolted after after a ball that another dog walker threw for their dog, he was literally pulled off his feet by the sudden pull of the dog and as I said ended up with a dislocated shoulder as a result.

We have 2 Rottweilers, who apart from socialisation and training, won't pull the walker over because they both wear fig 8 leads round their muzzles, as well as harnesses with leads designed to absorb the 'pull'.

 

[pippixox]

people with far more knowledge than me have already said lots of good advise.
I have 2 rescue dogs and previously had a GSD who was rescue as well and he was reactive to some other dogs, so it was constant management if we walked where other dogs were. but in general he was chilled- great with kids, and I had farm land for safe off lead exercise. he was no where near as 'troubled' as this poor dog sounds, but we did had an incident when he nipped a dog he actually had met before OK, which nearly resulted in big trouble. luckily the owner was understanding and I put a muzzle on him and lead if there were maybe at the farm at the same time as me. he did not try to attack other dogs, there is a difference I think between aggression and reactivity. he wanted to get away, but if he couldn't he would react.

personally, the kindest option for the dog, and safest option for people and dogs, is to call it a day and PTS, horrible after the work you have put in, but in my opinion the only sensible option.

 

[Blazingsaddles]

Every day the owners are taking a gamble with this dog. He is unpredictable. Let down by idiots from the moment of his conception. Very sad.