I’ve had my dog, we will call her X, since she was a puppy. My boyfriend at the time bought her and when we broke up he did not want her. I kept her even though I could not afford to nor did I have any time at home between full time school and full time work. Was this a stupid decision? Yep. But I was young, naive, loved that pup, and thought I was doing the right thing at the time.
X slowly started getting aggressive to people and dogs that weren’t me. I didn’t know why.
I took her to all my social activities but she started scaring others. She bit a guys arm when he gave me a high five so I stopped socializing her. I didn’t have money for training.
Met my now husband, we will call him Q and my dog HATED him. Push him away, threaten him, everything. A year later Q gets a puppy of his own, we will call her T. X hates her too. Aggressive and threatening all the time. I take her to the vet for help. They say behavioral therapy , but I’m still broke. This is when I find out from my ex roommates that they used to verbally and physically abuse X while I was in class/work. F-ing furious.
5 years into my relationship with Q she gets really sick - like deathbed sick. Q nurtured her back to health and now she finally approves of him. Still tormented T though. One time T came and sat in my lap and X bit a chunk of her ear off. Still couldn’t f-ing afford behavioral therapy but I took an affordable animal psych course which helped me guide her and navigate the relationship between those two pups.
Now these girls are older. X is 12 and T is 10. They are mostly ok. Occasionally X will get possessive of me or the water bowl but we know how to diffuse the situation.
The issue is that we now have a kid. We have tried everything we’ve read online to introduce them properly, positive reinforcements, reading X’s body language cues..
But we are terrified that we are going to miss a cue or a gate is going to slip open and our child will be attacked. We’ve tried for 2 years and are more scared than when we first brought the kid home.
As much as I feel like rehoming her to someone who understands her history is what is best for her, the thought of her waiting for me in her last hours of life is so f-d. I’m her person. What the f- do I do?
X slowly started getting aggressive to people and dogs that weren’t me. I didn’t know why.
I took her to all my social activities but she started scaring others. She bit a guys arm when he gave me a high five so I stopped socializing her. I didn’t have money for training.
Met my now husband, we will call him Q and my dog HATED him. Push him away, threaten him, everything. A year later Q gets a puppy of his own, we will call her T. X hates her too. Aggressive and threatening all the time. I take her to the vet for help. They say behavioral therapy , but I’m still broke. This is when I find out from my ex roommates that they used to verbally and physically abuse X while I was in class/work. F-ing furious.
5 years into my relationship with Q she gets really sick - like deathbed sick. Q nurtured her back to health and now she finally approves of him. Still tormented T though. One time T came and sat in my lap and X bit a chunk of her ear off. Still couldn’t f-ing afford behavioral therapy but I took an affordable animal psych course which helped me guide her and navigate the relationship between those two pups.
Now these girls are older. X is 12 and T is 10. They are mostly ok. Occasionally X will get possessive of me or the water bowl but we know how to diffuse the situation.
The issue is that we now have a kid. We have tried everything we’ve read online to introduce them properly, positive reinforcements, reading X’s body language cues..
But we are terrified that we are going to miss a cue or a gate is going to slip open and our child will be attacked. We’ve tried for 2 years and are more scared than when we first brought the kid home.
As much as I feel like rehoming her to someone who understands her history is what is best for her, the thought of her waiting for me in her last hours of life is so f-d. I’m her person. What the f- do I do?
