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My sister was weighing her options when my toddler niece had her face ripped open by their Aussie. The dog had shown jealously since the little girl's birth and was resentful of her presence. The signs had been there all along and they chose to ignore them.
She's 30 now, loves and owns dogs, but will carry that facial scar until the day she dies. I carry the picture of her torn face with the adipose tissue poking out of the bloody gash seared in my brain, as I showed up on the scene 10 minutes after it happened.
Anyway, that's where I'm coming from. Kids first, dogs second.
Oh gosh, I really feel for you but this is not a good start. What concerns me as you have only had him for a week and already he is showing a lot of worrying signs.
It sounds like the Rescue where you adopted him from failed him miserably from a poor evaluation to not bothering to neuter him
I personally would not try to work this one out if you have a small child around. You are never going to be able to relax around him or trust him.
I found a couple of breed specific rescue links for you. i know you said he isn't a pure GSP, but they may be able to help you.
I feel for you so much, what a dreadful situation. Sounds like he needs some intense rehabilitation, poor baby.
Do not delay. Your daughter's safety must come first. The dog now senses YOUR feelings of fear and insecurity and that increases his own feelings of insecurity and AGGRESSION.
His growling and aggressive staring at your husband are clear indicators this is not going to work for you. Please find him another shelter ASAP before anything more serious occurs. And keep him crated except for short periods out to do his business and be exercised. If possible, can he be allowed some room to roam in a basement or garage?
This dog is not appropriate for your family. It will just get more difficult the longer you keep him. It is not your fault that the dog is a "nipper." The fact is he nips you and your child. That's not acceptable and it may or may not be possible to correct this, but that's not your primary role in life.
See if you can find a rescue to take him, and fully disclose the issues openly. No secrets, no passing him off as something he's not.
Good luck. I know this is difficult. I have been in this situation. The longer you wait, the more difficult and emotionally traumatic this will be for you.
I had to change my initial reply as it wasn't applicable in your case.
I would seek the advice of a behaviourist/trainer, and keep the dog separate from your child for now.
I haven't encountered this type of problem but we weren't sure how Duke would re-act to our grandson so we harness and leashed Duke when they were in the same room together and we gave Duke time out in the kitchen for him to rest.
I love both my dogs (including a pointer) and would do almost anything for them but if the safety of a small child was at stake the child would have to come first. Just my opinion.
Also, pointers are NOT mellow dogs at all. Our dog is crazy when he does not have a ton of exercise and I've heard the same from other pointer owners.
I agree with the posters above: as much as I feel sorry for the dog who's been abused and hurt and is now lashing out, your child has to come first. Try to send him to a no-kill shelter asap. You don't want to be in the position where you could have stopped a serious injury to your daughter and did nothing.
It reads as if you took him back to the shelter it would mean certain death. Is it possible to find another more suitable home, with someone experienced with training dogs with behavior issues, or employ a trainer to help you?
I've spent over two days searching for a rescue organization that would take Cole, and only one out of 20 that I contacted was willing to take him (this might be because many of them don't take animals from the public) but the one that was willing to take him doesn't have a shelter with kennels and didn't have a foster situation to place him into. So as much as I DON'T want to, I will have to take him back to the original shelter tomorrow. The original shelter told me that, they would be working towards getting him into a rescue immediately since they don't have the time to work through his issues and he is currently deemed "un-adoptable." So hopefully this means that he would not be euthanized, I am afraid though that if he were to stay at the original shelter and not get into a rescue organization that he might be euthanized if there was an over population situation. So, I'm still frantically working to see if there are any other rescues, "no-kill" shelters, or sanctuaries that would take him. It has unfortunately become even clearer that we CANNOT keep him, as the nipping as has increased, he has nipped my daughter a total of 6 times now, breaking the skin 2x since we got him, and attempted to nip her over 12 times. We no longer allow them in the same room together, since we can't predict when he will nip her—often she is doing nothing but sitting minding her own business when he will come up and nip her on the leg or arm. The entire situation has me emotionally drained, and I keep breaking down sobbing on the phone with staffers of rescue organization, vets, and private trainers...sigh. I really wanted to thank everyone for their kind words, advice, rescue organization leads and understanding of this very difficult situation.
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