This 40-year-old woman has an elderly dog who is currently 13. Her dog is losing her eyesight, and she is deaf.
As her dog has gotten older, she’s become grumpier, but she’s in pretty excellent health. Lately, her dog has started to bark constantly at nothing in particular. If you happen to brush against her tail, she snarls at you.
“She’s previously only had one instance of showing aggression, and that was with a groomer, where she tried to bite the blow dryer,” she explained.
“Now, last week, she bit our 5-year-old’s finger. I wasn’t in the room, so [I] couldn’t see what happened, but he’s autistic and has always been very gentle with our dogs, so I can’t imagine he did anything to knowingly instigate, but getting his side of the story is a struggle.”
“The bite was small, but it broke the skin and upset him (and me) quite a bit, understandably. Since then, I’ve noticed she is less tolerant of our kids, barking and growling at them with her hair raised when they are playing in the same room but not near her.”
She no longer leaves her dog alone with her children, and if she has to exit the room with them in there together, she moves her dog to the bedroom.
She knows this isn’t a perfect solution, and it’s bad for her dog’s quality of life to have to be put away on her own so much.
Her mom and dad have offered to take her dog, since she can no longer trust her with the kids. Her parents adore her dog and would hate for her to rehome her with another family.
“My husband is very much opposed to this,” she said. “He thinks she’s fine and nothing needs to change.”
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