You are not a saint. You are a sucker. Your heart broke for the shelter sob story. You are helping no kill shelters offload their most dangerous animals to keep their status and YOU ARE NOT AN EXPERT DOG BEHAVIORIST TRAINED PROFESSIONAL. it’s more likely the dog has already worked with training staff and written off as a lost cause. You taking this animal home is noble but foolish and irresponsible. You’ve brought a danger into the community and love will not be enough to keep you and your family and neighbors and postmen and other pets safe. There are plenty of last chance dogs at risk to make space with no issues. Do that. Leave the others on death row.
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who the hell is adopting dogs with attack histories lol… we just kill them where im from
I only know of one person who did this. They’re currently getting evicted because of the dog. Not to mention the injuries it’s caused.
It’s entirely possible to have a reactive dog safely. The real issue, is people walking their dogs off leash when they can’t control them. You can manage a leashed dog just fine, but someone else’s uncontrolled un leashed dog? You can’t control that.
I understand the reasoning behind your opinion, but in the world of caring for dogs, who have been mismanaged in the past, the issue is people, as per usual.
Yeah I care about all animals and dogs in particular but not at the risk of my family or my current pets safety. People who do this need to be off in rural farm-like areas and shouldn’t be allowed in populated areas!
I volunteered at a shelter in California. It’s illegal to adopt dogs with violent bite histories there. They can’t even go to no kill shelters.
Hate to say it but no kill shelters are fundamentally flawed. If they get an aggressive pitbull that’s bit multiple people then the workers will still feel obligated to push the dog off to somebody so that way it doesn’t spend its entire life in a cage. A lot of these shelters are known to pull shit like saying “oh we don’t know what breed he is”, when it’s clearly a pit. Or saying things like “not great for kids” when they mean “this thing might kill any living thing it sees”
I adopted a corso that had an attack history. Now he’s such a good boy and all he needed was love and discipline.
I don’t have kids and I work in canine behaviour (ABTC accredited qualification)
I personally am up for homing a reactive dog within reason, however it is 100% an issue of people intentionally getting reactive dogs despite having no background or experience in behaviour work. It’s also drastically different if a dog is reactive to a person or another dog as well as if there’s a known event in their life for the reactiveness. Dog vs dog reactiveness is more easily managed. I personally adore large breeds but I know it would be irresponsible for me to get one even if they are not reactive. As god forbid I got a German shepherd, then that dog gets attacked and becomes reactive, then I have a high likihood of not being strong enough to not be unbalanced/dragged if they are reactive while on leads. Unfortunately a lot of other people don’t think of this and end up with large reactive dogs they cannot safely manage
Though I do think that if someone not in this industry wants to home a reactive dog they need need to 100% book sessions with a behaviourist and be responsible.
For example I never let a dog with any reactiveness/history of any sort of aggression however minor off a lead in public. As even if they go months or even years without an incident it’s not worth the risk. (Private dog fields when you can book sessions are great for reactive dogs to get off lead time in a field)
The biggest issue with reactive dogs is people thinking they can manage that behaviour despite having no experience in canine behaviour. Plus a lot refuse to keep their reactive dogs on leads in public or to use an basket muzzle if it’s a severe case
If I did choose to have kids however I wouldn’t get a reactive dog at the same time. As all it takes is to look away for a split second and the kid grabs them in a wrong way.
There’s also numerous factors to take into account when a behaviourist makes a management plan. As reactive due to past trauma is not the same as reactive/aggression due to genetics. I’m not saying every dog of a breed is reactive due to genetics, just that aggression has been shown to be potentially inherited from parents. Which is harder to manage than a trauma based reactiveness.
Some health issues can also cause an outburst. Which often when it gets treated the reactiveness goes away. (However some conditions are not curable, for example brain tumours can cause severe aggression and a vet may recommend PTS in this case due to quality of life)