# Rescuing with an aggressive dog



## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

So, I was just thinking ahead to what it would be like to try to adopt another dog if I have Tucker. No guarantees that he will be mine, mom still might want to keep him, but let's just say I take him.

How do most rescue groups feel about adopting out to someone with a human aggressive, somewhat dog fearful dog?


I'm worried about the home visit because Tucker would have a complete meltdown, though not all places do home visits. The biggest thing though is that Tucker is fearful in new places, and most places require you to have the two dogs meet before the adoption. I think that's a good idea, obviously you want to know if they get along, but Tucker would be so scared at the shelter that he would likely lash out at any dog who tried interacting with him. And bringing the dog to my house to have them meet would not work because Tucker would be busy flipping out at the person bringing the dog. I would want Tucker to meet any potential adoptee before I got him, but I just don't know how a rescue would allow us to do it in a way that Tucker would be acting normally. I mean, the only "good" way for Tucker to meet another dog is on a walk (though he's becoming reactive towards large dogs on walks now) or in the park. Or he'd have to be able to spend an hour in whatever meeting area the shelter uses for the dogs to meet prior to bringing the other dog in, and that dog would have to be leashed because Tucker gets nervous about strange dogs crowding him. I just don't see most places being that accommodating. Plus, do rescues even approve of homes that have aggressive dogs or do they assume the owner must be bad because they raised a "bad" dog?


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

The best option to introduce two dogs is neutral territory. I foster many dogs in my house for B.T rescue and I have a male who is DA, I use metal baby gates that are screwed into the door jambs to control dogs going from place to place. Rescues will look at the fact that you have a fearful insecure dog, or at least they should but depending on the breed it sometimes will work out for the fearful dogs advantage.


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## BearMurphy (Feb 29, 2012)

I don't work for a rescue, but I would think that they would want to know why you are getting another dog. I am assuming you think it will improve Tucker's life and not stress him. Do you have any examples of this to backup your opinion? that might help you

Depending on the rescue and how much they want to move dogs I think they may not adopt out a dog to you if it wouldn't be a good situation for Tucker but then again if they think you can handle it or they care more about moving dogs through then it may not prevent you from adopting.

You could always go through a shelter instead that won't do a home visit but then you might not know much about the dog you are adopting because it wasn't fostered first.


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

I think if you are completely up front about it you should be fine. But I also think you'd be better off going through a rescue rather than shelter. Rescues can be more accommodating. Do you have a breed preference? I can talk to the rescue I'm involved with and see what they say. Also your 100% certain your guy will enjoy the company of another dog? And it there anyway to get your dog used to a volunteer over time, or is he unable to warm up to new ppl at all? 

I know I'm going to run into issues when I decide to adopt again as well because Avery does not like new ppl in our house and sometimes it takes him a bit of time to warm up...or he doesn't at all


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

I know from my own personal experience that sometimes when you have a dog who has no confidence introducing a confident dog is a blessing for the insecure one. My male who was a rescue had a very low confidence level as to why he is DA but in being with my female he has gained his security back by taking them together on walks everyday and introducing new things together. When I tried to do it on his own he became very fearful.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

What about fostering? That way you could have the dog in your house for awhile and introduce them however slowly you wanted, with a friend he knows maybe walking the other dog? Then you would have the home visit if there is one already out of the way and you'd have some time to see how the dogs interact. I've adopted twice and neither required a home visit, also fostered for a while locally even though my male is DA, we just keep strange dogs away from him entirely. It's a very small shelter though. When we adopted Ripley she was a foster and it was over a month before we let Nero interact with her and took some time to convince him not to eat her. When we adopted Nero we had to bring our other girl down so they could meet and that shelter had a very nice park area and they let my b/f and I each take a dog and walk them together for a bit, they were a bit snarky but nothing serious and the shelter workers didn't really interact with our dog at all.


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

I *almost* guarantee he'd enjoy living with another dog. My uncle's Shih Tzu comes over fairly frequently, she is not a huge Tucker fan (avoids him) but boy does he try to get her to play with him. It's sad, for both of them. He wants her to play so badly, he's pretty good at it too, he's gotten her to play a few times now by doing all the right things. She was terrified of him when he was a puppy though, so it's getting better.

He loves several neighborhood and park dogs. His only issues with dogs comes down to the initial interaction, if it goes well (he doesn't get too spooked) he is the dog's friends and wants to play. If it goes badly he may become aggressive (he's never bit a dog, but has put on pretty big displays twice-both large exuberant dogs that ignored his growling and teeth showing, this is why we don't go to the park anymore). I just know that in unfamiliar places he is likely going to be too afraid to even show interest in the dog, he'll want it to leave him alone so he can be alert and aware in case something bad happens. Even back when he was 100% I LOVE ALL THE DOGS, if I took him to a pet store he would show no interest in other dogs because he was nervous being in the pet store. The first time I took him to the park he was too nervous to want anything to do with the dogs. But the second time he was all about playing, because he was comfortable there. So I do think he needs to meet new dogs off his property, but I think it would need to still be familiar property, even just meeting at the top of the street and then walking them to my house together.

His human aggression is more difficult though. It takes hours for him to warm up, and it requires a gradual increase of attention. He must be leashed when people come, it takes a few minutes to stop the barking and then it's still not GONE, he can be easily set back off my the littlest of attention from the guest. I need to do LAT for looking at the guest, then the guest can slowly over time introduce brief eye contact, moving around, saying one word to him, etc. until he becomes comfortable with the person. He needs to be able to sniff the person without them paying ANY attention. He can warm up to the point of petting in maybe 3 hours. Off property he will ignore people without dogs unless they talk to him. If the off property person has a dog he will ignore the person unless they try to touch him and even then he usually only dodges away (I obviously don't let people do this but sometimes they do it before I have time to say no). The dog makes him happy so he is less concerned about the person. If a person without a dog tries to touch him he might try to bite.


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

Fostering is definitely a possibility, in fact I bet that is likely something I will do before I adopt another dog (and after). Maybe that way I can introduce them my own way, since Ill be bringing the dog home myself.


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

I don't know about going postals area but in my area it's very hard to foster without having a home visit...but you maybe able to find one, who knows?

I asked around my rescue and our trainer suggested working on management and muzzling so that at least he can safely be around ppl. If your looking for bully type dogs the rescue i volunteer with stretches up and down the east coast...


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

I have been working very hard to desensitize him to the muzzle. It's hard because he lives with my parents at the moment and they don't work on anything. We are getting there with that. It's really hard to practice with him and people, I mean we have someone he doesn't know over once every 3 months at the most. It's hard to get a lot of repetition in with such little foot traffic. He's become comfortable with some extended family and a few friends, but they only come over like twice a year so it takes a while. I am sure if we were able to have random people come over on a regular basis simply for the purpose of training Tucker he would progress more, but those people don't exist outside of TV shows. 


This isn't for at least 4 years anyway (unless my life takes a weird turn), so I am hoping to see a behaviorist about Tucker in the mean time. We can't currently afford to do that. I'd also like to see about the possibility of medication for him. 

A pit bull has always been my dream dog, but I always planned on it being my only dog, as I'm not really sure I'd be capable of handling DA between dogs in the same home and I feel it's irresponsible to choose a pit bull knowing DA is a common breed trait and that I can't handle that trait if it is directed at another dog in the home. But I REALLY want one lol. They just make my heart flutter, I love them.


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## lauren43 (Feb 6, 2011)

Well I hear you on having a hard time just having strangers come over for the dog. That's where I stand as well with Avery. The biggest reaction I every see out of him is when a new person comes into the house. Otherwise, it's really random outdoors but so far Avery hasn't gone past barking at someone he's not comfortable with.

And that's too bad your parents won't work with him. Not sure how old Tucker is but in four years you may (or may not) as I don't actually know him want to just wait for another dog, there is a small chance he could get worse with age and some dogs (as do ppl) get grumpier as they age. 

Now don't swear off Pit Bulls as single dogs only. While I do agree that they *can* have issues with other dogs that does not by any means mean they will all have issues with other dogs. And that being said once they are fully mature (after 2-3 years) most have decided how they feel about other dogs, so adopting an older dog is an option (but I do know dog behavior is by no means static). And although we always say DA from what I've seen, more often than not its DS (dog selective) and that is very very manageable.


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## Maxy24 (Mar 5, 2011)

He's only two. My mom and dad got him two weeks before I left for college. Mom insisted on a puppy to "raise him right". We got him when he was ten weeks old from a rescue that takes dogs from southern shelters and ships them up north. He was born in a foster home, had one other sibling, their mom had been found wandering the street with an intact male, likely the dad. We bought him without meeting him first. He was handed to us off the transport truck and we brought him over to the grass and put him down and he wasn't shy with us at all. But as soon as we brought him home I knew he wasn't quite right. He wouldn't approach my uncle, took days to not shy away from my brothers if they were standing, was scared of my dad if he was wearing boots. Two days after we got him I brought him to the park and he refused to play with me, he just lied there, when a person came over to pet him he hid under my mom's folding chair and refused to come out the entire time the man was there. He tried giving him treats, tried coaxing him out, and tried ignoring him. He was there for like 20 minutes and Tucker wanted him to go away the entire time. I volunteered in dog shelters all through high school and I had never in my life encountered a puppy that acted like that. Some were shy and then warmed up, most were just ecstatic to see people, none just completely refused interaction. Socialization to people was not possible, he would not warm up them period, so couldn't meet them. I have his brother's owner's email and they are like the exact same dog (even down to their love of flip flops). The one difference they did have was that Tucker was 100% dog friendly and his brother reacted badly to dogs, especially big dogs, that walked by the house or that he encountered on walks. Now they have that in common too. Anyone who doesn't think behavior can be genetic doesn't know what they are talking about. We might have been able to handle his shyness differently so that it didn't become aggression (we tried too hard to make him interact with people when he was young), but I'm not sure how big of a difference it would have made. He started being aggressive when he was 4 months old.

So basically he's a lot of responsibility for my parents. They are not "into" dogs like me (and other forum people). They enjoy them, love them, but don't find joy in dog training and will not read dog behavior books. They just wanted a nice pet. Dad wants me to take him, mom isn't sure. She and Tucker do have a bond and she loves him (except when he eats her shoes). So we'll see if she wants to keep him or not. I'm out of the dorms next year so that may be when I'd take him.




> Now don't swear off Pit Bulls as single dogs only. While I do agree that they *can* have issues with other dogs that does not by any means mean they will all have issues with other dogs. And that being said once they are fully mature (after 2-3 years) most have decided how they feel about other dogs, so adopting an older dog is an option (but I do know dog behavior is by no means static). And although we always say DA from what I've seen, more often than not its DS (dog selective) and that is very very manageable


I know, and it's very possible I'll get one anyways. I just really don't want to be that person who you know, gets a Sheltie and then gets rid of it for barking too much, or gets a Husky and gets rid of it because it killed the neighbor's cat, or gets a Border Collie and gets rid of it for being too high energy, if you know what I mean. But I find it hard to imagine myself not getting a pit bull.


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