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6 Posts
Hi Everyone,
We are new Basset owners, we adopted a basset two-and-a-half weeks ago. He is a 1.5 year old male who was returned to the breeder by his original owner about 6 months ago. Previous owner didn't have the time to spend with/care for him, and said he was showing some signs of aggression. We went to the breeder to meet his dogs, to make sure that this was the breed for us, we have 3 kids, 2, 6, and 9. While we were there he told us about this dog, and said he was looking for just the right home for him. Told us what the previous owner said, and added that this dog was very underweight and malnourished when he was returned to him(the breeder). He also said that the only aggression he had seen in the dog was over food on the second day he had him, but attributed that to having been underfed for so long before. Said it only happened once, and that he hadn't seen anything else since, and he had been around other children with no problems. After a few days, we decided to adopt him...we had been considering a rescue anyway, and he was local.
All was well until the second night he was with us, he showed my husband his teeth. The dog (Bongo) was licking the dishes in the dishwasher and my husband told him no, and tried to move him away. He didn't do it roughly, he put a hand on his shoulder and tried to move him back, and Bongo snarled/snapped at him. We attributed this to being unsettled by his new home, and didn't worry too much about it. We began making sure he sat before he got his food, or went outside, and made sure he waited for us to go through doorways first, etc. Couple days later during a vet exam (we took him just to have a basic well-check and shots) he growled, snarled and snapped at the vet 3 times during his exam/shots. We called a reputable local trainer to have an evaluation to determine if his grumpiness was "fixable", or if our home just wasn't the right one for Bongo. He thought Bongo needed basic obedience training, and to have my husband and I make sure we are strong leaders of the "goggie", as my 2 year old calls him. It's been two weeks since the vet appointment, and things have been relatively peaceful, but dotted by small incidences of lip curling and slight teeth-showing. Yesterday and today, he has snarled/growled at two of our kids, and snapped at my husband. I've been reading these message boards for a couple of weeks now, and I know that if he had meant to hurt them, he would have, I understand that he was telling them that he didn't like what they were doing. I think he gets scared by sudden movement toward him, and with my kids, one of them grabbed his tail, and the other one grabbed his muzzle. I was only a few feet away in both cases, and he wasn't hurt either time, I guess he just didn't like what they were doing. We are closely supervising our kids with him, and are teaching them to be respectful of Bongo, but they are young children and can be unpredictable.
I'm sorry for the length of this post, but some of the folks I see posting regularly on here seem to be very knowledgeable and level-headed. I have fallen in love with this dog, in spite of his grumpiness, and really want him to be a permanent family member. But we cannot have a dog that can't be trusted with our family. As I said before, I realize that no dog should be left unsupervised with young children, and he isn't, but there will always be times that they disappear around a corner out of sight for a minute or two. We have scheduled the trainer to come out today for our first lesson. This training is expensive, and we can't afford to spend that amount of money on a pet we don't end up keeping. I'd really appreciate any advice and opinions you all might have.
Thank you,
Kim
We are new Basset owners, we adopted a basset two-and-a-half weeks ago. He is a 1.5 year old male who was returned to the breeder by his original owner about 6 months ago. Previous owner didn't have the time to spend with/care for him, and said he was showing some signs of aggression. We went to the breeder to meet his dogs, to make sure that this was the breed for us, we have 3 kids, 2, 6, and 9. While we were there he told us about this dog, and said he was looking for just the right home for him. Told us what the previous owner said, and added that this dog was very underweight and malnourished when he was returned to him(the breeder). He also said that the only aggression he had seen in the dog was over food on the second day he had him, but attributed that to having been underfed for so long before. Said it only happened once, and that he hadn't seen anything else since, and he had been around other children with no problems. After a few days, we decided to adopt him...we had been considering a rescue anyway, and he was local.
All was well until the second night he was with us, he showed my husband his teeth. The dog (Bongo) was licking the dishes in the dishwasher and my husband told him no, and tried to move him away. He didn't do it roughly, he put a hand on his shoulder and tried to move him back, and Bongo snarled/snapped at him. We attributed this to being unsettled by his new home, and didn't worry too much about it. We began making sure he sat before he got his food, or went outside, and made sure he waited for us to go through doorways first, etc. Couple days later during a vet exam (we took him just to have a basic well-check and shots) he growled, snarled and snapped at the vet 3 times during his exam/shots. We called a reputable local trainer to have an evaluation to determine if his grumpiness was "fixable", or if our home just wasn't the right one for Bongo. He thought Bongo needed basic obedience training, and to have my husband and I make sure we are strong leaders of the "goggie", as my 2 year old calls him. It's been two weeks since the vet appointment, and things have been relatively peaceful, but dotted by small incidences of lip curling and slight teeth-showing. Yesterday and today, he has snarled/growled at two of our kids, and snapped at my husband. I've been reading these message boards for a couple of weeks now, and I know that if he had meant to hurt them, he would have, I understand that he was telling them that he didn't like what they were doing. I think he gets scared by sudden movement toward him, and with my kids, one of them grabbed his tail, and the other one grabbed his muzzle. I was only a few feet away in both cases, and he wasn't hurt either time, I guess he just didn't like what they were doing. We are closely supervising our kids with him, and are teaching them to be respectful of Bongo, but they are young children and can be unpredictable.
I'm sorry for the length of this post, but some of the folks I see posting regularly on here seem to be very knowledgeable and level-headed. I have fallen in love with this dog, in spite of his grumpiness, and really want him to be a permanent family member. But we cannot have a dog that can't be trusted with our family. As I said before, I realize that no dog should be left unsupervised with young children, and he isn't, but there will always be times that they disappear around a corner out of sight for a minute or two. We have scheduled the trainer to come out today for our first lesson. This training is expensive, and we can't afford to spend that amount of money on a pet we don't end up keeping. I'd really appreciate any advice and opinions you all might have.
Thank you,
Kim