Sad for dog

[Flowerofthefen]

A friend has had a dog on trial. Kc reg lab. It's current family have said its nasty and are looking to pts. It's 14 months old or around that area. They have put it in kennels and if they can't find a home then that's it. Friend picked it up yesterday. Took it for a walk with his dogs, no issue at all, we saw it yesterday and it's a lovely looking dog. Just full of itself which is understandable. Unfortunately friend was stroking it tonight and it's turned on him. He dare not keep it now as he is worried incase it turns on his other dogs. It showed absolutely no aggression here yesterday. Anyone want a challenge? I know there's worse fates fir dogs than pts but he is so young, it's such a shame.

 

[Honey08]

Have they contacted their nearest lab rescue?
It would be good to know what the family has experienced to say it’s nasty. So the reason may perhaps be found..

 

[Clodagh]

Black retriever x might help. They have rehomed dogs with similar issues.
Poor thing.

 

[cbmcts]

Honestly? There are a lot worse fates than PTS such as it being passed on again and again. That cycle has already started. What is really sad is that a young dog already has a bite history and neither home that he has had want to put time in to give him a chance and try and sort the problem - it could me medical, fear or more likely adolescent male with a bit of attitude but what makes anyone think that homes number 3,4,5 will put that effort in?

Not aimed at OP but this is a bit of a sore subject ATM.

 

[Clodagh]

I am not experienced enough to help but I would guess he’s giving mixed messages and they are being missed.
I’d guess he’s insecure.
Agree that pts not the worst thing. He’s been failed.

 

[Tiddlypom]

Maybe the sort of person who wants a lab, dogs who are known to be normally amenable, are not the right person to sort out a biter?

I wouldn’t want to keep a dog who bites unless it was a one off response to a very clear trigger or mishandling.

I wouldn’t be too hard on the previous people without knowing what happened.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Maybe the sort of person who wants a lab, dogs who are known to be normally amenable, are not the right person to sort out a biter?

I wouldn’t want to keep a dog who bites unless it was a one off response to a very clear trigger or mishandling.

I wouldn’t be too hard on the previous people without knowing what happened.

I'd be very hard on the family who had him for the last 12 months or so!
Why haven't they taken responsibility for the poor dog and either got help to find out why he is aggressive, or taken him to be pts?

 

[Amymay Again]

We often have a friend's dog to stay. He's nice enough, but has a well ingrained nasty streak which has to be managed carefully. He's been in his home since a puppy. Has never been abused, is very loved and has sensible, knowledgeable owners. He is, thankfully, a small dog. Not a lab.

So whilst you may feel sorry for this particular dog. Without knowing it's back story you can't know if the aggression is through being failed, or whether it's just not a particularly nice dog.

 

[skinnydipper]

We will never know what happened in the first home, how many ways the dog tried to communicate before he felt he had to resort to a bite to be heard.

He went from his home, to kennels, to a home trial and on his first day what happened? Was he given time to settle and adjust to his new surroundings or was he in at the deep end, not only coping with new surroundings. new people, new dogs but in addition meeting more strangers unnecessarily on his first day?

I can imagine he was more than a bit overwhelmed.

What exactly happened? Did the dog invite attention, was he asking to be stroked? Was it a nip or a full bite? Did the bite break skin?

 

[skinnydipper]

Has he had a vet check?

 

[cbmcts]

We often have a friend's dog to stay. He's nice enough, but has a well ingrained nasty streak which has to be managed carefully. He's been in his home since a puppy. Has never been abused, is very loved and has sensible, knowledgeable owners. He is, thankfully, a small dog. Not a lab.

So whilst you may feel sorry for this particular dog. Without knowing it's back story you can't know if the aggression is through being failed, or whether it's just not a particularly nice dog.

You see I think his first owners have failed him, not because they couldn't cope with him but because they passed him on.

 

[Barton Bounty]

I dont think his first owners have failed him at all, for all we know they could have children in the house and a bigger dog biting the child could be deadly.
Good on the owners for trying to find him a new home first.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

Reading between the lines I think he doesn't fit in to their lifestyle anymore. Apparently friend was just stroking him and he really went for him and got his arm. I think if it was an only dog they would have tried for longer but they can't risk him turning on their other dogs.

 

[Clodagh]

That really is just an excuse. The fact he bit a human is bad, but there’s no reason to expect he’d attack other dogs.
Just be honest with themselves and say they are scared of him biting again. Which is fair enough tbh.

 

[Pearlsacarolsinger]

Reading between the lines I think he doesn't fit in to their lifestyle anymore. Apparently friend was just stroking him and he really went for him and got his arm. I think if it was an only dog they would have tried for longer but they can't risk him turning on their other dogs.

I should imagine that the poor dog was completely overwhelmed by that point. Why on earth didn't they just give him a very quiet day with their own dogs and leave him alone to get used to his surroundings and change of circumstances on his first day with them?

 

[skinnydipper]

Trigger stacking. How much can a dog take before its stress bucket overflows.

Also, when a dog is stressed, don't forget the 4 Fs. Fight, flight, freeze and fool around.

Fool around could be pushy, over the top behaviour.

Just full of itself which is understandable.

 

[Sandstone1]

Has the dog had a vet check? Is he in pain from something like a ear infection or a bad or broken tooth? Could be anything. Dogs do not often bite with no warning. A proper vet check should be the first step. If he is rehomed he should be allowed time to decompress.
If he has pain somewhere at the new owner touched him in a sore place its no wonder he bit. Poor dog.

 

[Bellaboo18]

A few things that stand out to me;

He expected a lot off a dog that he'd had for a day..why were you meeting it? Along with a new home and walk with a new dog, meeting new people, that's a lot.

He was very optimistic to think a dog that was due to be pts for being 'nasty' was going to slot in on day 1 without issues. Did he have a plan, vet check etc?

There's worse things than being pts especially an already struggling dog.

There's no link between people and dog aggression. I don't believe he's returning the dog due to his other dog more that he's shocked he's been badly bitten.

 

[CorvusCorax]

Agree that when a dog goes straight to biting with no warning at all (and the warnings do not always involve overt aggression) then there's usually a pain or a pain association issue.

With the caveat that IME, even lifelong dog owners can't seem to identify stress signals.

It does sound like a busy first day for the dog.

 

[skinnydipper]

It does sound like a busy first day for the dog.

I’m surprised he didn’t take him to PaH.

 

[Sandstone1]

Dog needs a full vet check, then needs assessing in a quiet knowledgeable home. I know its not that simple but its what needs to be done. Poor dog.

 

[Thistle]

My springer can be a right mardy so and so when he's tired. Even from a teenage pup. In the evening we know not to stroke, touch or interact with him unless he comes and asks for it. He likes his space when he's tired, the only way he can tell us is to growl and warn. If we listen and leave him be then he's absolutely fine, chills out in his bed with us and 3 other dogs in the same room, no problems. If we were to approach him and try to fuss him he's tell us no in the only way he can, to growl and snap"

Overnight he is the the kitchen alone and the others in the utility, just in case. We don't let his idiosyncrasies become an issue.

 

[Teaselmeg]

I would at least give the dog a thorough vet check, before rehoming again or PTS. So many behaviour issues are related to pain or feeling unwell.

 

[CorvusCorax]

My springer can be a right mardy so and so when he's tired. Even from a teenage pup. In the evening we know not to stroke, touch or interact with him unless he comes and asks for it. He likes his space when he's tired, the only way he can tell us is to growl and warn. If we listen and leave him be then he's absolutely fine, chills out in his bed with us and 3 other dogs, no problems. If we were to approach him and try to fuss him he's tell us no in the only way he can, to growl and snap"

Overnight he is the the kitchen alone and the others in the utility, just in case. We don't let his idiosyncrasies become an issue.

With this in mind (and not getting at the OP, it's a generalisation that I have been thinking about), we absolutely get and accept that over-tired kids can act out and be cranky and miserable, but it's somehow fine to run dogs ragged to 'tire them out' for our own convenience, and then wonder why they become aggressive or weird.

 

[skinnydipper]

I dont think his first owners have failed him at all, for all we know they could have children in the house and a bigger dog biting the child could be deadly.
Good on the owners for trying to find him a new home first.

Funnily enough this came up on Facebook today.

I don't follow him but I think sometimes Facebook reads my mind.

635.251 Aufrufe · 17.762 Reaktionen | More nonsense! Life isn’t a Disney film. DO NOT leave your children unattended with your dogs. It’s that simple. | By Unleashed - Danny Wells Dog Training | Facebook

More nonsense! Life isn’t a Disney film. DO NOT leave your children unattended with your dogs. It’s that simple.

www.facebook.com

 

[Barton Bounty]

Funnily enough this came up on Facebook today.

I don't follow him but I think sometimes Facebook reads my mind.

635.251 Aufrufe · 17.762 Reaktionen | More nonsense! Life isn’t a Disney film. DO NOT leave your children unattended with your dogs. It’s that simple. | By Unleashed - Danny Wells Dog Training | Facebook

More nonsense! Life isn’t a Disney film. DO NOT leave your children unattended with your dogs. It’s that simple.

www.facebook.com

This is the stuff nightmares are made of!!! There is no way in holy cowland that that should ever happen.

I have been in the position where my own staffy(which we think was a x) pinned my baby and bit my own son on the back of the head while he was in between my legs. That was like a horror movie and something I will never be able to forget.

The dog doesnt need passed around family homes, the dog needs to go somewhere an expert can try or sadly he should probably be pts.

 

[Goldenstar]

I think the temptation to overwhelm a new dog seems to overwhelming for many people.
Dogs in new environments need time to observe and learn.
Dogs assess by watching,also learn far more from a dog by quietly watching it than fussing it.
This dogs needs a vet work up if he’s not had one and no one should shy away from PTS better safe than sorry .

 

[TPO]

I'm sure I've posted about this before. My aunt and uncle (experienced owners) bought a yellow lab. Raised and trained him well. Mum took them out training to do searches and working trials stuff, all good.

The dog started being aggressive towards my aunt. "Mardy" behaviour that escalated to growling. They took him to the vet it was that out of character but no physical issues.

Mum (dog trainer and experienced with retraining "problem" dogs) went to help but he didn't display the behaviour. It was only happening when aunt was alone.

He was purebred and lines known, parents health tested etc. He was a huge dog, the biggest lab I've ever seen.

Then he started squaring up to my uncle. The dog was extremely aggressive for no apparent reason. Back to vets in case it was something like a brain tumour but nothing was found.

He was pts because his behaviour was so aggressive. I think he may have bitten my aunt at one point, maybe initially. If he's really decided to go he could have done a lot of damage.

I guess my point is even although labs are generally amenable and a good first dog, they can still have issues.

Not sure if I'm making this up but I think there was found to be something where labs were aggressive. Not sure if it was the equivalent of cocker rage. This was ~ 15 years ago.

Pts seems like a sensible option for a dog that attacks for not apparent reason.

 

[Flowerofthefen]

I've known 2 nasty labs. One was years ago, the other is a gun dog that my OH sees regularly through the season. It's a great gundog but everyone has been warned not to even try and fuss it otherwise you might loose your face!! OH has seen it in action and it's very very nasty.

 

[I'm Dun]

It was a lab that half killed my whippet. 6 months later he's still having physio and osteo and doing remedial exercises to fix the damage the damn thing did. It was enormous with a big block head and if I hadn't beaten it and jabbed my fingers in its eyes, and tried to rip its vile fat head off while booting the hell out of it, it would have killed him. It was ragging him like doll. I was very, very lucky it didn't redirect onto me looking back. It meant business and just came charging round a bend and went for him, luckily he was by my side, so I was there to get it off. Its done it to other dogs. And anecdotally there's a breeder in the Oxford area, churning out these big labs with awful temperaments. Not all labs are nice characters, some seem to be flawed.