Aggressive Behaviour

My name is April and I live in Zimbabwe. My husband and I have a 6 year old spayed Boerboel bitch called Koko (55 kg) that came to us 6 months ago, desperately needing a home. We had very little information about her early life, other than that she was an outside dog for at least 4 years, after which she spend a while in an animal foundation and a underwent a 6 week attempt at rehoming that failed. Our first month was fairly smooth, with no obvious problems with our 5 year old Boerboel male (Chiko, 60 kg - also a rescue of sorts), but things have been steadily deteriorating and the situation is fast becoming untenable. From being nervy and submissive, she is now incredibly dominant – she has all but chased Chiko out of the house and fights with him virtually every day now – a very unpleasant and potentially dangerous situation, since they are both very powerful dogs. She is also quite unpredictable in that she barks and snarls threateningly at virtually all our friends and family, including our permanent staff, so we are vigilant around her at all times. She adores us, loves being in the house and is very happy - despite the fact that she is on daily meds for severe arthritis and twice weekly pills for incontinence – but I am breaking my heart because I know that she she should probably be put to sleep. We keep hoping that things will improve, but can’t help being afraid that one of our grandchildren or visitors might get caught up in the fray and be hurt. Do you think that there might be another course of action for us? We do see that both dogs get a huge amount of exercise - running at least 5 kms and swimming almost every day – as well as a reasonable degree of discipline (I think?!) – so I do hope that you can come up with something positive for us to try... Thank you...
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Im really sorry you are going through this, but to be honest, ( and this is only MY opinion) I would have to seriously think about putting her to sleep, you have courageously taken on an otherwise un -rehomeable dog, you have given her the chance no one else would to try to make it work, this is not fair on your boy , he must be so stressed living in this situation, not to mention the danger of his temperament changing, then you have all the people coming and going,and the most serious of all, if you are worried about grandchildren, being the target of her behaviour, than sadly that would be the last straw for me.

I don't know much about the breed other than they need early socialization and sadly this girl has missed out on that.

Unless you can find someone who can deal with her problems who would take her , and has no other dogs , OR you can separate her from your boy and grandchildren whilst you work with her issues, then I think you need to take priority , your resident dog and grandchildren .

A sad sad case, I feel for you , you are trying to do the right thing, but there are worse things for a dog than being PTS.

Sorry my opinion may not sit well with others, its fine for people to say try this or that, you may be able to work through it but you may not , remember all the while you are trying your other dog and grandchildren may be at risk.

I am not offering you any solutions to work with her, as the above is the route I would sadly take.

Good luck with what ever you decide.

I am sorry AnAna but you answered your own question and for the sake of the dog and your peace of mind I am sure you know what to do. Very sorry but better to be honest than not. Just to say I have had to help so many people with this problem and at the end of the day the owners have always felt a sense of relief because of the weight that has been taken off their shoulders. It is never an easy decision to make.

Thank you for being so honest.

Thank you too for being so honest.

I took on a dog which breed rescue didn't feel they could rehome due to her history. I was basically her last chance.

She was fine to begin with no real problems but gradually as she found her feet things changed she would chase and snap at my two boys who never retaliated but started to keep away from her as much as possible.

Then she bit me twice once I let go as I was grooming her and may well have hurt her or just gone on too long.

Next time I went to put her lead on to take her out for a walk and she just grabbed my wrist not just a nip she meant it.

She was pts the next day as she couldn't have been rehomed. Hard but the best thing for everyone including her.

It sits fine with me Jackie ... your post is extremely rational and well thought out. The dog in question, although a bitch, seems to be exactly what we were facing with Ben - except that Ben was not a threat to humans - it sounds like this bitch had a similar very bad start to Ben, and the result is a very frightened, unpredictable dog. Frightened dogs can be very dangerous dogs, and bearing in mind this girl's breeding, I absolutely and totally agree that she should be euthanised. Were Ben with humans like he can be with other dogs, he most definitely would not still be with us. His saving grace is that he is excellent with humans, especially little ones.

I am so sorry for the OP and this beautiful girl - I hope somehow a safe solution can be found, but my personal thoughts are for the best of everyone and especially the dog, she should be euthanised.

I am sending you and your beautiful girl big hugs ... we are all here for you on Dogsey - I think most of us, me included, have had to face the possibility of euthanising a perfectly healthy dog. It is a horrible thing to have to do, and of course the choice and the decision is your's.

The very best of luck to you. x Gnasher x

Hello April, your description sounds very much like our Baruska except that she came to us at apprx. 4 months after the first owners were considering PTS. (Only a randon call from the breeder saved her and he gave her to us)

It is my firm belief that some dogs have a very strong 'pack leader' gene and will not tolerate any confrontation such as your other dog might be showing, and why not, he was there first and has lived there most of his life.

Shortly after we got Baruska it seemed to us she was bored so we thought another dog would be good, so we got a puppy, I thought they would play together, sleep together, be best mates - it didn't happen Baruska gave her a hard time at the start and Rianna was only 'accepted' because she quickly learned to submit, lie down, roll over, and show subservience to Baruska. They then lived together for the following 8 years with no problems but hardly ever played and always sleept a distance apart.

Like your dog we also found that Baruska had at least three major medical conditions to do with her breathing, her heart, and her digestion. I think now she might have been in pain quite a lot of the time, I was once trying to rub her tummy (Most dogs like that) but she growled at me and snapped and I never tried that again.

One night just over two years ago she died in the night, her agonising cries will haunt me forever, I went out to her at 2 in the morning, the one and only time she really wanted something from me and I couldn't provide it. She died sometime between 2am and 6am.

So if you do decide on PTS bear in mind that (hard as it is) it is something they don't know is happening and they go peacefully, I would hate for you to have Koko die in the night, and since you said she has some medical problems then this could happen.

At five years old I don't think Chiko will change, he isn't going to suddenly become subservient (As our Rianna did) and being a male doesn' help. Koko is trying to 'create' a pack with her as leader, that's how dogs survived ten thousand years ago, the bigger the pack the more chance of survival, but there had to be a leader and there had to be the foot soldiers.