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[nononono]

Originally posted by bold_n_brazen
About six years ago, my then-husband brought home a dog that he had seen injured while racing. In fact, he carried her off the track, to the orthopedic surgeon's office, where we spent a small fortune on surgery and rehabilitation.

Problem was, we already had two retired racers at home already. And we'd already had a pretty established pack order going on.

Within 2 weeks of bringing the new dog into our house, she made everyone of us bleed at one point or another. She and our other (alpha-ish) female really went at it, in a way that was actually pretty scary. Our male dog got bitten once and let it be known that he'd stay out of her way. She bit my then-husband while he tried to rescue her from some metal grillwork she'd gotten stuck in. Me, she bit a couple of times for really no apparent reason.

I remember sitting on the couch with then-husband and having a discussion with him that basically went "Well, if we can't make her a pet, no one can. So the choices are, figure out how to make her a pet or put her down."*

I'm happy to say that she's lying at my feet at the moment, happily snoring away. (I am less happy to report that she is also farting up a storm.)

Some of it was dogged (heh!) determination to make it work. Some of it was stupidity. You've gotten pretty good advice here. Don't be afraid to ask breed-specific listservs for advice. My dog spent a fair amount of time in a crate and in a muzzle at first. It was a way to moderate her temper and her propensity to bite when she got frightened or overwhelmed.

I will say she is mosly a love now, except for every once in a while when she will bark at me or show me her teeth. She'll instantly be remorseful, and there is no question who is in charge in this house. But every now and then, she does slip.

Still, she's a good dog. And I'm not sorry I put in the work to make her part of my family.

*I am not suggesting that we were model dog owners, or the only dog owners who knew what they were doing. But we already had 2 of these dogs, and were really involved in breed rescue and knew a lot about the dogs (both ours and the breed in general). At the time, it seemed like if people like us couldn't make it work, foisting her on someone else would have been unfair. At best.

Thanks, bnb - neither my ex- nor I want to put him down (though this is not his first incident, it is the first of this much ferocity - my leg is still black and blue where he bit), and I think it's on us to try what we can to make it work. I'm not sure it will ever be an easy peace, and I don't want the whole family to have to tiptoe around the scary dog, but I am somewhat hopeful.