Love Bitten

Malcolm has predatory aggression.  It’s not something that can be trained out of a dog.  Maybe early on as a puppy it could have been redirected, but not this late in his development.  He probably was left in a yard for the main portion of his life because his first owners didn’t know how to handle it, and his behaviors deepened and he developed stereotypical behavior…compulsive behaviors like animals in zoos demonstrate.  I’ve done my absolute best to give him a life out in the world - but also away from his triggers that no matter how much training went into him - he only got worse.  After some of the training, he has excelled in certain commands better than any other dog that I’ve had, but the one behavior I cannot get him to stop is his aggression toward other dogs, and worse, he displays the same reaction toward children from a distance as I see him react when he sees another dog.  As careful as anyone could possibly be right out the door with a dog like this, I see that it is inevitable that a slip up can and will happen.  Malcolm went in for a kill.  He spotted an unthreatening dog from a block away, without half a second of time to think or respond, went for it, grabbed the dog over the neck and shook - which is the location of the brainstem.  This is not an attack of defense from fear or protectiveness, it was out of pure enjoyment - this happens from irresponsible breeding and lack of socialization early on.  When I got him off the other dog, his body language was happy and ready to go in for more.  Positive reinforcement amplifies his behavior and a correction such as a prong collar or shock gives him more reasons to attack the next time he is triggered.

Six months without a mistake after witnessing what he is capable of, I feel lucky we’ve gotten this far without anything or anyone getting hurt.  But now I’m faced with a decision that has no easy way out.  The hot potato landed in my lap and I am faced with the hard decision to do what is the most responsible thing to do for this dog, for me, and for the safety of others.  Staying in a house with a yard, driving him out of town to walk and paying for Sniffspots twice a day was not realistic or sustainable - and the dog was not getting enough and would occasionally bite me.  We could live in the woods, still slightly at risk, but luckily after 6 years of traveling in a van, I do know a lot of spots that I feel confident we won’t run into anyone else, and if we did, there would be plenty of room to escape.  I won’t be able to come into town to recharge or use cell service and upload bracelets onto the website - especially during the summer heat.  Town will only be quick in and out visits to get food, water, empty tanks, and laundry…laundry I still haven’t been able to do and we are about to be on week 4 - which isn’t that long into a life that I plan on sustaining long term…but already is exhausting with a dog that feels like carrying around a loaded gun with my finger attached to the trigger - one trip, it goes off.  The other option is to euthanize - which I don’t obviously take lightly, can’t picture myself doing after all the time and love I’ve put into this dog, after him being the only thing that is fail-proof on getting me out of bed from a paralyzing depression, but I also can’t imagine being the one holding the leash if he kills another dog or god forbid a child - and the trial and error method is simply too dangerous to apply here.

I could try to re-home him and pass the responsibility onto someone else, but holy shit, I would never wish this situation upon anybody - and honestly, I don’t see how anybody could do any more for this dog than I have.  So we are currently hiding out in the woods.  Please refrain from sending a list of trainers.  That was the elementary stage of handling this dog - square one.  I’m on square ten.  Anyone who says that any dog is trainable, or has watched edited television shows, is trying to make a buck but any of the real experts know, it’s simply not true.  I appreciate peoples concern and support, but I think what I’d like people to get from this post the most is awareness around the situation we have with dogs in shelters.  We love to say “adopt don’t shop” to “rescue” - but that’s not the root of the problem.  Just like the pro-life people who think you can solve everything with adoption - it’s simply not true and it’s passing on irresponsible decisions onto someone else to deal with which just keeps snowballing into bigger problems and more pain.  Stop irresponsible breeding.  Get your dogs fixed.  Stop trying to give your dogs the “experience of being a mother” or your children the “experience of raising puppies” or making your beautiful dog have offspring without knowing anything about temperament or genetics.  Stop profiting off of living things.  You’re not saving lives, you’re breeding pain and even death.  According to the ASPCA, about 1.5 million shelter animals are euthanized each year in the US, which includes about 670,000 dogs and 860,000 cats.  Human adoptees are 4 times more likely to commit suicide than non-adoptees.  Keep your kids or take responsibility and terminate your pregnancy.  Stop passing on your mistake, your ignorance, and your pain for someone else to deal with.  You’re not saving anyone or anything - you’re just avoiding taking accountability and responsibility for your problem and letting someone else suffer for it while someone else profits on it.