False assessment, what should I do??

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Monkey
Posts: 88
Joined: Sun Sep 21, 2008 12:43 pm
Location: Hicksville, NY
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False assessment, what should I do??

Post by Monkey »

Urgh this is a long story so forgive me..

I have privately taken in a foster, he was very aggressive when coming here. I could not touch him, he was emaciated, peed indoors, etc..
He did not like people nor cars when being on the lead. He lunged, snarled and growled. If you guys saw me or the dog US tonight, he was like that boxer but quite a bit worse, on top of that the only person he did somewhat trust had left him. When we took him to the vet he needed double muzzle and tranqualizer and he still tried to bite us..

However, tons of work, clicker, hot dogs, basic obediance, housebreaking training, he is decent. he still lunges quite a bit, BUT, he is easy to reach and break out of it and he cools down faster than he did in the beginning.
At first he could stare and lunge after a person or a car dissapereing in the distance, now he does a quick grumble/ruff and then breaks..
A lot of the times he dont even react, he can go up to a stranger while I non stop feed him treats and when we reach the person he asks for cuddle.

Midnights reaction is barrier frustration and fear..
During his first four years he has barely had exercise, training nor socialization. Prior owner has worked him with chain al'a cesar Millan..

If something is too close without him being able to check it out, then he feels threatened and react. if it is close enough to check out, he stops and goes and look at it (so we are working on that he gets to when he is calm). and cars is fear/chase mix, which makes it a bit troublesum, so we are training on not reacting on them at all. I often stand next to the road do sit, down and feed feed feed feed to keep him busy and it goes well. His improvement is a lot.. but this is 6 months and next owner needs to keep it up.. However, he is not trying to bite anyone as he did at first, he has shown to LOVE humans affection, and even roll over on his back to get belly rubs from strangers..

He is just VERY behind.. However, in the wrong hands, this dog can turn into a 130 lbs monster, it would be VERY easy to take his fear and turn him into something dangerous with the wrong training methods..

This rescue group has told me that they were willing to help but needed a "real" assessment from one of their trainers... I agreed to it in hope that their contacts would give me something so I dont have to PTS (cause we are struggeling to keep the house right now, if we can't we will have issues finding anything with three dogs and in the wrong hands he is dangerous so I can not just adopt him out to anyone either). said and done I meet their trainer... First it was one guy and he said he would bite the dog if the dog bit him... Awesome.. Second one was cesar Millans baby bro, I promise, looks, sounds, voice, and yank..

Granted Midnight did not lunge at all, he walked like he was the perfect dog, but he was showing massive eye white, pooped three times dihareea, panting, ears back, everything..
and the giuy told me that Midnight is dominating me when leaning on me, when walking ahead of me, putting a paw on me, you guys know the drill.. When we cam eback Midnight was lunging worse than ever, he was hard to get contact with again (partially shut down due to massive stress) the dude walked him in the middle of the street, yanking heeling him with cars swooshing on both side.. It was like the stress built up and the lunge was more powerfull than I have felt in a long while, and he kept on thrashing after the cars like he did in the beginning....

However, the rescue group are SO satisfied with his "progress' that he is such a good dog, yadi yadi.. (which he is but not cause of that). Problem is, if someone keep up that work with him like he did, chances are that he will bite. He snipped at that trainer when he tried to push his bottom down. Midnight is verylong legged so sit takes a bit time for him cause he needs to rearrange his legs like a great dane. So what the rescue group sees as a blessing I see as a liability..

Problem is, 1. I don't have any contacts where I can find a serious owner that are willing to keep up the intensive work it is to deal with with a very stress/fear reactive dog. 2. Now I can get the right contact, problem is, if the person train as that guy I might get a message in two months saying that he is either rehomed again, or that he attacked someone, or hurt a kid cause some person couldn't handle him.

I can't kep him despite I really want to, I rather not put him to sleep however I doubt he would be happy in any home where he don't get worked the proper way. And the rescue has a false assessment at hands that he is not dangerous at all.. Which he might very well become if someone unlearns all the good he has learnt.. He is easy to break down.. I mean 4 years bad stuff vs 6 months of good.

So one part of me almost want to pts than risk that that happens..

The rescue told me that have had biting accidents with dogs that had been deemed safe, I can now understand why, but they are th eonly rescue that has offered to help. I tried to approach them about the assessment, but they feel that I need to broaden my views despite I know better, and they rather listen to him than me cause they know him. However I know I am right (and I have bad self esteem and rarely see myself as right) so it takes a lot for me to feel that I KNOW this...

Do anyone understand the emotional pickle I am in?

Hope I make some sence...
The problem is in the other end of the leash!
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