this is my 3 year old golden retriever and border collie mix, Nacho. I’ve had him since he was 8 weeks old and he turns 4 in April. He weighs about 70 pounds and most of the time he is so sweet. He’s my first dog and I love him more than life so I’m crying as I type this. Starting last June, so about a year now, he began having extreme aggressive outbursts. He has bitten people severely on 3 different occasions since last June. First, he began growling and barking and snapping at people when they would tell him to get off the bed, or stop jumping on them. Then, in November of last year he ran out of the front door while we were visiting my moms house. He has always been a runner so I did what I normally do and just ran after him, leashed him and walked him back to the house like ive done at least 20 other times when he’s dashed as soon as he sees the front door opened. As soon as we walked back into my mom’s house, my dad takes the leash to lead him to the backyard, Nacho turns around and immediately attacks him. My dad is attempting to get away from him but nacho keeps going, he bites my dad severely on his leg, leaving two deep holes. My brother and I manage to grab his leash and push him into the garage to calm down. I go into the garage about 30 minutes later and he’s perfectly fine as if he doesn’t even remember what he did.

The second instance was a few weeks ago, as we were leaving my mom’s house. I always guide him by his leash to my truck and say the command “get in” and he jumps in but about half of the time he doesn’t listen so I have to pick him up and put him in the truck. I did that this time and he turns around as soon as I attempt to lift him and barks, and bites me in my face. I’m 4’11 and we are the same height when he stands on his hind legs so he got pretty close. I let his leash go out of fear in the moment and he just runs back to my mom’s front door and sits at the door waiting to go back in as if nothing happened. In between both of these attacks, he growls, barks and snaps at people all the time. Even on walks, he approaches strangers, acts like he’s excited and the moment they attempt to touch him he snaps. Otherwise, when it’s just me and him alone he’s really sweet. We lay in the bed together, go on long walks and spend a great deal of time together.

His third instance happened tonight. I am currently 6 months pregnant and was laying in bed, nacho walks over and stands on his hind legs to be eye level with me while I am laying down but his paws are pressing my belly. I say “nacho down” and he ignores me so my boyfriend says “nacho down” louder. Nacho starts growling really loudly and my boyfriend stands up take him to our garage or bathroom since thats where he seems to like to go when he needs to calm down. Nacho immediately barks and jumps up to attack him. My boyfriend attempts to pin him down to stop him from biting but nacho gets out of his hold, and bites him twice on the arm. My boyfriend has been around him since he was 8 weeks old as well, we got him together. My boyfriend’s arm is badly bitten up, and he has to go to the hospital but he manages to get nacho in the bathroom and closes him in because I was afraid of him at the moment. I go in the bathroom about 20 minutes later with his leash and collar and he is acting completely normal again. I lead him to the garage, where he is right now and he’s in there whining to come out. I would never think about giving my dog up but my baby is due in December and im so afraid of nacho being around her because he seems so unpredictable now. Ive paid $2500 for months long training for him last year, that hasn’t helped at all. I’m just so unsure what to do. I want to know every possible option I have before having to surrender him. I love him and I know he loves me too, but I don’t know why he acts like this sometimes.

UPDATE: Thank you all for the advice, even if some of it is brutal. I typically don’t have my face in dogs faces but this is something he frequently initiates, I should have known better than to do it in his bed though. Another trigger I think happened is I have been over significantly more and in the “human” bed likely taking up his space.
With all of your comments and advice from friends who have had reactive dogs, it sounds like this was a territorial/guarding response. I am talking to my boyfriend more about options but for now the dog is kenneled when I am over.
Comments are off now I think, wasn’t me so unsure of why but saw a lot were deleted so assuming it got mean while I was offline lol

So some background, my boyfriend’s dog is a 4 y/o unfixed pit but has been the sweetest boy over the almost 2 years I’ve known him.

I was cuddling with him as I always do (laying down petting his head, face near his and kisses back and forth) but he was on his new bed for the first time. I sat up after the snuggling (still on the bed but a foot or two away) and with no obvious warning the dog attacked my face, took apart of my lip and ended up with me in the hospital. It was only for a second or two, it all happened so fast outside of my boyfriends vision that I’m not sure exactly how I reacted but I’m assuming he decided to let go on his own.

My boyfriend said it is up to me, if I don’t feel comfortable around the dog then he’s getting rid of it. We agreed absolutely NO pound and that I just wouldn’t come over until we find someone that specializes with fostering/rehoming reactive dogs.
I don’t want him to get rid of the dog, I’m not sure if this is something we could consult a trainer about and fix or if rehoming him might be the best option.

We don’t live together yet but plan on moving in together next year. I have two dogs as well so I am worried about how this dog might respond to my dogs if a boundary is crossed (they’ve met several times so far and things have been fine but out in the back is VERY different than in the home)

Does anyone have any advice on what we should do? I’m honestly so torn because I love this dog and I don’t want to be the reason he gets rehomed. At the same time I’m concerned now for my safety as well as the potential future safety of my other dogs.

Any advice on what to do and what I might have done wrong is appreciated.

I’m posting because my partner and I are in a situation we never expected to be in, and I’m hoping to hear from people who have actually dealt with something similar — whether you ultimately kept the dog, surrendered them, worked with a behaviorist, or made the decision to euthanize.

About 4 weeks ago, we adopted a ~1.5-year-old, 46 lb neutered male dog named Obi. He was originally a stray. We’re first-time dog owners, and we honestly fell in love with him pretty quickly.

Most of the time, Obi is an incredibly sweet dog. He cuddles with us on the couch, settles and sleeps while I work from home, loves playing outside, and has generally been very affectionate with both of us. We’ve been working on training, crate training, recall, leash walking, and slowly introducing him to our two cats. We knew he had some things to work on, but until recently I genuinely thought we were making good progress.

There had been one earlier incident that concerned us. I grabbed his collar when he didn’t want to come inside after playing, and he reacted by biting/grabbing at my shorts/leg. It did not injure me, but afterward we realized that physically forcing or grabbing him was clearly something we needed to avoid.

Then a few days ago something much more serious happened. I had just gotten out of the shower and called Obi upstairs. He came up carrying a small wooden coffee lid that he wasn’t supposed to have. When I noticed it, he went to the bedroom, tried to hide it, and eventually went into his crate with it.
I got one of his bones and tried to trade him for the lid. I reached into the crate with the bone, and he snapped at me.

This was not a quick warning nip. He bit my hand and held on, then bit me multiple additional times as I tried to get away. He eventually went after my leg as well. I was finally able to get behind a baby gate and separate myself from him. I felt he would’ve kept going if I didn’t escape.

I had multiple deep puncture wounds to my hand and leg and had to go to the emergency department. Based on the descriptions I’ve read, at least some of the individual bites appear consistent with Level 4 on the Dunbar scale, and because there were multiple serious bites during the same attack I understand it could be level 5.

Physically, I’m going to be okay. Mentally, I’m struggling a lot more than I expected.

I’m scared of him now. That is incredibly difficult to reconcile with the dog who has spent so many hours sleeping against me on the couch and following me around the house. I work from home, so I’m also his primary caregiver and the person who spends the most time with him.

Since the incident, we’ve been keeping him separated and managing him very carefully. We have a veterinary appointment scheduled and have a couple of appointments to get professional behavioral help. We’re also contacting the shelter/SPCA and rescues to understand what options actually exist, but because of the bite history now, most won’t accept, or if they do, it results in euthanasia.

We also have two cats, which makes the risk calculation even harder. They have been separated from Obi while we’ve been working through a very slow introduction process.

I know that I made mistakes during the incident. I should not have reached into his crate when he had something he valued. I understand much more about resource guarding now than I did when we adopted him.

At the same time, I’m struggling with how to separate “I triggered this situation” from the reality that the resulting attack was severe. I don’t want guilt over my mistake to cause us to ignore a legitimate safety risk.
We love this dog. We also don’t want to spend the next 10+ years afraid that one management mistake, dropped piece of food, stolen object, visitor, or unexpected situation could result in another serious attack.

I’m looking for realistic advice from people who have actually lived through serious aggression or resource guarding.

If you’ve experienced something comparable: Did you ever feel safe with your dog again? If you kept the dog, what did management realistically look like long-term? If you surrendered or rehomed, were you actually able to find an organization equipped to take a dog with a serious bite history? And if behavioral euthanasia ultimately became the recommendation, how did you come to terms with that decision?

We’re trying very hard to make a responsible decision for Obi, ourselves, our cats, and anyone else who could potentially interact with him.

I adopted my dog Bunny from the county shelter in 2024 where she had ended up after being abandoned and left to starve. We figured out she had probably lived that entire time on a chain because she did not mind going potty on her bed and then lying down and sleeping in it. Seemed like she had grown up not having the option to potty separate from her sleeping space. She was 35 pounds when she came home with me and very timid. She was afraid of everyone at first. We were told she is good with other dogs.

A couple of weeks out of the shelter, I take her with me to my family's annual dog-friendly beach house trip. My parents' dog Matilda is there. Matilda is a large shelter dog who gets on well with most other dogs, I'm told. Throughout the week we are there, Matilda body checked Bunny while running together. Bunny gave multiple signs that she was uncomfortable, growling and baring her teeth first, pinning and snapping second time, and then the third time there was light teeth contact. Each time I intervened immediately at this behavior and separated them and we decided they had to be kept separate and walked separately because we didn't want to risk further disaster. Unfortunately at one point I was walking Bunny on leash when my Mom brought Matilda to the same area off leash. Matilda immediately charged Bunny and Bunny latched onto her. Matilda bit back but Bunny was definitely Queen Biter of the match.

She quickly warmed up to me and to my 8 year old son, but was very protective of us, including when there would be playful wrestling or heated conversation. She was very anxious when kids were in the pool, especially if there was laughing or splashing or shouting, and acted like she wanted to drag the kid out by the top of their head. Sweet instinct probably but obviously we can't let that happen, so she's not allowed outside when people are in the pool anymore. I keep her away from kids who are playing rough.

One day we are walking as a family and my husband is rough-housing with my son and a visiting friend. Bunny jumps at my husband and lightly nips his calf. She did not puncture his skin or latch and it did not read as aggressive behavior to me. Nevertheless, he is understandably wary.

Simultaneously it becomes very clear that my husband is extremely allergic to her. There are a lot of fights about it. I made the mistake of trying to introduce puppy pads to her once early on and after that it takes a lot of unlearning to teach her to stop peeing on rugs. I rented a shampoo machine and did all the rugs in the house twice. Then I got my own home carpet shampooer and immediately cleaned up any messes in the house as soon as I found them. Gradually she got better and better with going potty outside.

I took her to group training classes and she did wonderfully. She is very smart and eager to please. She stays guarded with other dogs in the room, but we are gradually able to increase the size of her tolerance bubble. She remains on high alert around other dogs, but no incidents happen. One day we are walking in our neighborhood and a neighbor dog who had been leashed to a wall in a garage busts the chain off the wall and comes running up to us barking. His owner immediately grabs him and I successfully keep him and Bunny separated. This dog is a German Shepherd whose adopted sibling is a Corgi.

Several months later, when we are driving into the neighborhood, i say hi to the humans of the shepherd and the corgi as we drive by. I park the car in the garage and leave the door open for her to follow me inside, but she bolts for the two dogs. She bites the corgi. He is okay. Fortunately it is superficial this time. No more loose leash for her. I keep her in a harness attached to two leashes, both of which are attached to a waist loop I wear. I do not let her "walk herself in" anymore.

I see a behaviorist trainer. We move out and give my husband a respite. Bunny makes human friends in her new neighborhood. She's much better with people, as long as they don't surprise her and let her do a sniff without eye contact. There are lots of new dogs there and those put her on High Alert, but if she stays cool she gets spray cheese and she gets really good at it, as long as they stay about a townhouse-width away from us.

Eventually I take her to a doggy daycare. I explain this history in detail. I express concern about the risk. They give her a temperament test for the group play sessions and she passes. I'm assured they are experts in dog behavior and will intervene before anything goes too far. About a year later, there's an incident where a dog gets rambunctious with her, and she bites the dog's sibling. She had to be pried off by multiple people. No more playgroup.

This morning, we are walking in our neighborhood. We saw a dog on leash but it stayed far enough away not to trigger Bunny. Good girl, spray cheese, move on. End of the walk, a neighbor's dog runs outside off leash. It sees us and bolts for us. "HEY, NO!! Get your dog!!! No!!!" I am shouting, but this doodle charges us. The people get there too late. Bunny has her teeth in the dog. She doesn't get at its neck or its organs but still, she's locked on and won't let go. Everyone is shouting and screaming. We have to use a stick to pry her mouth open. I cut my thumb on her teeth trying to get her mouth open.

Now, what do I do?? People keep saying it isn't my fault. But I made a lot of mistakes I can't take back and this is objectively a problem. I'm thinking about a basket muzzle, which I probably should have done two years ago, and wondering if that's enough. I'm vigilant about keeping her attached to me so she can't get away and rush anyone, but that's not enough. What if she digs under the fence and escapes?? How do I walk her until I get the muzzle? In the middle of the night? Is that even enough?

I love her dearly and have really been trying to give her a good shot at a healthy life but, like her namesake Bunny Lebowski, trouble seems to follow her. I really don't want to do BE but I am worried about danger. She is now 65 lb and muscular. Please help me understand what good options we have and what danger I am exposing to the other members of my family and community. Am I just being an idiot thinking I can manage her environment enough to keep everyone safe?

I honestly don’t know what else to do, and I think I’m finally at the point where I need advice from people who have actually lived through this.
I’ve had my dog, Munchi, for almost two years. I rescued him from the shelter, and I love him more than anything. Giving him up isn’t something I can imagine doing. He’s my best friend.
The problem is… I’m drowning.
I’m single, I live alone, and I’m the only person who can walk him, feed him, train him, or really handle him. There are no days off. Every single responsibility falls on me.
I’ve spent thousands of dollars on training. I even sent him to a board-and-train program because I had to leave town for work. Looking back, I honestly think it traumatized him more than it helped. Since then I’ve worked with another trainer who uses positive reinforcement, and we’ve made progress, but it’s expensive and I can’t afford to keep doing it forever.
The hardest part is that I know he’s trying.
He’s made progress. I can see it. He’s not a bad dog. He’s just constantly overwhelmed by the world, and I feel like I’m constantly overwhelmed trying to help him.
He reacts to dogs, cars, bikes, people—pretty much everything. We also live on a busy road, so the second we walk out the front door we’re already surrounded by triggers. There’s really nowhere quiet for us to start. Our yard is tiny, so I can’t just let him burn energy outside either. I’ve put down artificial turf, bought enrichment toys, played games with him, and tried to make our little space the best I can.
Some days it feels like nothing is enough.
There have been situations where he has bitten people. A couple of those times he was genuinely protecting me, and one incident honestly makes me believe he may have saved my life. But there have also been times where he reacted to people who weren’t a threat, and that’s where I feel completely lost.
Lately I’ve found myself yelling because I’m so overwhelmed, and then I immediately feel guilty because I know that’s not helping either of us. I end so many days crying because I feel like I’m failing him.
I got a dog thinking we’d go on adventures together, relax on the couch, take walks, maybe visit friends or dog-friendly places. Instead, every outing feels like a military operation, and every day feels like I’m just trying to survive until bedtime.
I don’t want to give up on him. I don’t think he’s beyond help. But I am exhausted, confused, and honestly starting to feel completely alone.
Has anyone else been in this place? Did it ever get better? What finally helped you? Because right now I feel like I’m at the end of my rope, and I just need to hear from people who understand what this is like.

I had an uncomfortable situation on our walk today and I'm feeling pretty conflicted about how I handled it.
My dog is reactive to other dogs, especially dogs that are running around. I normally walk him on a flat buckle collar because I'm confident that I can control him, and in most situations that's been fine. However, today's situation made me realize that I may be relying too much on being able to physically manage him, and I'm worried that the next encounter might not be as straightforward.
We were walking down our street, which is a crescent, and a man was playing fetch with his Golden Retriever in his unfenced front yard. My dog saw the Golden and immediately became very upset. He wasn't barking or trying to attack, but he was pulling hard, his hackles were up, and he was clearly highly aroused.
I asked the man if he could hold his dog for a moment so that I could safely get past. He said no and told me I could just go by. I had to hold my dog by the collar to keep enough control to get past.
While I was trying to pass, he continued throwing the ball, so his dog was repeatedly running around (no sidewalks street, I was on the opposite side). My dog reacted each time. I asked again if he could please hold his dog for a moment and explained that I could see this was affecting my dog. He responded with something along the lines of, “He's not touching you.”
I agreed that his dog wasn't physically touching me or my dog, but that wasn't the issue. My dog was clearly reacting to the other dog's running around. I asked him if he could at least acknowledge that he could see it was affecting my dog, and he waved his hand dismissively.
What really bothered me was that, as I was finally passing, he seemed to wait until we were directly alongside/in eyesight and then threw the ball again, which caused another reaction from my dog. I obviously can't know his intentions, but given that I had already explicitly explained what was happening, it felt deliberate to me.
I've also seen this dog run out into the street while chasing the ball in the past, so I'm concerned that this isn't just about my dog's reactivity. The yard isn't fenced, and I worry about what could happen if the dog runs into the roadway or toward another dog/person.
I did eventually get past him safely, but afterward I felt pretty bad and started wondering whether I should have handled the situation differently. Should I have immediately turned around and taken the long way around rather than trying to pass? Should I have done something differently with my dog physically? Is a flat buckle collar still appropriate if I'm confident I can control him most of the time but concerned about a situation like this escalating?
I'm also wondering what you would do about the neighbour. I don't want to create unnecessary conflict or expect everyone in the neighbourhood to accommodate my reactive dog. At the same time, I don't think it's unreasonable to ask someone to briefly hold their dog when another dog is clearly struggling to safely get past.
What would you have done differently in this situation, and what would you do going forward? I'm particularly interested in practical advice for handling a situation where someone refuses to give you space while their dog is running around nearby.

We have an almost 2 year old Golden Retriever and honestly, he is an amazing dog 90% of the time. He’s incredibly sweet, playful and loving, and to me he’s basically like a brother.

The problem is that we’ve had around 3-4 incidents where he has bitten either me or my mom hard enough to break skin and bleed. We’ve had to get vaccinations after the bites. Most of the incidents seem to be related to resource guarding, but sometimes it feels like he randomly switches up.
I’m not scared of him even after being bitten because I know how sweet he normally is, and I love him way too much to just give up on him. The last time he bit me, I convinced my mom that we could work through it.

My mom originally didn’t even want a dog, but she ended up loving him. However, today he bit her again, and I think this may have genuinely scared her enough that she wants him gone.
I really don’t want to rehome him, but I also understand that this is serious and we can’t just keep hoping it won’t happen again.
He’s never bitten my dad either, which I don’t know if that means anything.

He’s also not neutered yet. Could neutering actually help with this kind of aggression/resource guarding, or is that unrelated?
For anyone who has dealt with a dog like this, what actually worked for you? Should we be looking specifically for a veterinary behaviourist rather than a normal trainer? Is resource guarding after multiple bites something that can realistically be managed?

I really want to keep him and I’m willing to put the work in. I just want to know if there’s a safe way forward because I really don’t want to lose him.

I don't even know where to begin. I'm shaking as I write this.

I adopted Willow, a 3.5 year old female Great Dane, in January 2025. She came from a horrible byb situation. I finally got access to her complete veterinary records and I'm absolutely horrified by what I'm discovering. The rescue did not disclose this, merely stated she wasn't good with kids and needed slow introductions to female dogs.

January 2025 - When I first brought her home to meet my mother, my mom reached out to offer her a treat and Willow snapped at her but didn't break skin.

March 2025 - I attempted to adopt another female Great Dane. Despite a slow introduction, they got into a horrible dog fight. It took 3 people to separate them. She's been an only dog since.

April 2025 - Snapped at a woman at the park. To be fair, the woman asked to pet her but then swooped in for a hug without warning.

April 2025 - While staying with my experienced friend (who works at a vet clinic) during my surgery recovery, a male visitor dropped something and bent down to pick it up. Willow snapped at him but didn't make contact.

Willow was spayed before I adopted her & had blood-work showing her to be healthy. She has had anal gland issues her whole life and will probably need them removed at some point, but is otherwise sound.

Her separation anxiety worsened after my surgery, so we put her on prozac which has helped some. She's no longer frantic when I leave, and is less anxious in some ways. That said, she's more recently become more anxious with any change in my routine. If I'm ever upset, she'll follow me from room to room and her whole body will shake and her teeth will chatter.

I love this dog and she's wonderful with me, but her unpredictability is really starting to get to me.

1. Could the chronic pain from mastitis have caused the previous aggression? Now that she's spayed and on Prozac, is there hope?
2. Is fostering other dogs ever going to be possible with her history?
3. Am I being irresponsible keeping her when she has this history? She's amazing with me but I'm hesitant to have friends over and trust her with anyone other than me, which is starting to affect me.

Our 4-yr old Staffordshire terrier mix bit me on my face today without any warning. He caused puncture wounds on my nose and some more small cuts close to my eyebrow and I looked up the Dunbar scale and it seems to be a level 4 bite :(

A little background.. We rescued our dog about 2.5 years ago and we fostered him for more than a year, before adopting him. About 90% of the time, he's such a lovable, funny goofball. He has brought so much joy to us and honestly, we treat him like he's our own child, not a pet. He follows all the commands we taught him, he's super smart and so careful around our things in the house. He loves chasing squirrels and birds in the backyard and sunbathing. He goes nuts for pizza, chicken nuggets, cheese and Starbucks pupcups (all of which he gets in moderation). But, he's also always been fearful and skittish of new people, places and he's also dog selective. We have tried everything to help him, including seeing a behaviorist and getting him medication.

I posted on this group once before and that time it was a level 2 bite on my hand and after discussing with his behaviorist, we adjusted his medication dosage and he was doing much better. He seemed a little more relaxed, though his noise sensitivity didn't improve all that much. He still barks at doorbells, garbage trucks and anyone walking close to our house. But, he was allowing us to pet him more and giving us paw shakes and kisses and we were feeling so positive about these improvements.

Fast forward to today, I was lying down on our bed and he was in the down position next to me... Not sleeping, just lying down. He hadn't eaten his breakfast yet and was refusing his favorite dog treats too... And his stomach was making rumbling sounds like he was hungry, so I asked my husband to get him one of the chick-fil-a grilled chicken nuggets from the fridge because he goes nuts for it. I wanted to see if he refuses that, then that would mean he might have some tummy troubles. My husband left the room and I turned towards our dog (about a foot away from me at this point) and told him, "Chewie, look Daddy's gone to get you a chicken nugget".. and that's all I said. I didn't pet him, didn't make eye contact. He gave me no warning signs and kinda jumped aggressively towards me and went for my nose. This was the hardest he's ever bitten me or my husband and there was a lot of bleeding. One side is a puncture wound. I went to the urgent care and they said it looks like the wound would heal well on its own and sent me home with some antibiotics. They were kind enough to not make me fill in a bite report, since I downplayed the incident.

I'm at a loss on where to go from here. I've been crying all day and my heart is completely broken. I'm also 9 weeks pregnant right now, and feeling extra sensitive. I wish I could understand what goes on in his head and I wish I could help him more, but I feel like I've exhausted my options. We adopted him at a time when we were convinced that we could not get pregnant, and since we knew he wouldn't do well in a household with children, we ended up adopting him. But, then by some miracle I'm pregnant now and I have been thinking deeply about all the changes/accommodations we would have to make in the house to keep him and our baby safe and then this happened today.

I called his vet office and asked them to give me a call back when his vet was available. But, I already know what she's going to say and she's mentioned BE before too, because she believed that some dogs have serious neurological issues that just can't be fixed. But, we wanted to try everything we possibly could to avoid BE.. but, today it seems like I have no other option. He's become too unpredictable and I can't confidently say that we'll ever feel fully safe around him or if he would ever have the quality of life that we him to have. I have never experienced this level of sadness or pain before and I didn't know where else to go, so I came here for some support or advice.

Thank you for reading my long post and I apologize for any typos, I'm a complete mess right now.

I have a 1.5 year old reactive pitbull. Since we found her (at about 5 months old) she showed fear-based reactivity towards certain people/strangers, but was fine with everyone else. I have 3 kids, and she is the sweetest, gentlest dog with my kids/family as well as my nieces and nephews.

There is one 10 year old girl in my neighborhood though that for whatever reason she has always hated and barked at aggressively when she came by.

We worked with her with a trainer a few month’s back and she has been great ever since - of course she is still reactive, but she is 10x better and will listen to me when I call her back so that I can successfully remove her from the situation when I see her getting reactive. We have not had any issues with her in several months and I thought we had things under control, until today.

My son was playing just outside of my fenced in yard with a couple neighborhood kids, including the child the dog does not like. My backdoor is currently broken and is not latching properly (which is supposed to be fixed tomorrow), so my 2 dogs ran into the fenced backyard and started barking at the kids. The neighbor kids decided to start taunting the dogs and running back and forth in front of the fence yelling, causing my dogs to go crazy. I tried to get the kids to stop and to call my dogs back, but they were so riled up that my recall was not working. Then the dogs realized that one of the fence doors was not closed, and ran out. My reactive dog bit the little girl twice in the leg, requiring 2 stitches.

I am devastated and don’t know what to do. I have always said that if the dog bit someone we would have to get rid of her, but now that it happened I am just torn. My kids are extremely attached to the dog and they have been crying all afternoon at the prospect of having to get rid of her.
On the one hand, I feel like the dog was being provoked and it was a perfect storm type of situation, which could be avoided/managed in the future. On the other hand, I am very concerned that now that she has bitten once, she is going to bite again.

How bad is this? Am I being naive to think we can manage this behavior? My current thought is that we start kenneling her when people are around, but I just don’t know.

when i first got her she was lush loved cuddles soo much and learned everything instantly, at around 5 months she started becoming extremely aggressive towards me to the point it was hard to take care of her. i was told to crate train her which i did and then it got better. then was really good till 1-2 months ago she started resource guarding and now she has just started attacking me multiple times a day. there’s no cause to it i can just stand up and it happens, she can walk up to me, if i come through the door, if i stop petting her she will attack. i’m covered in cuts and bruzes and i genuinely don’t know how to get her to stop. i’ve tried everything, telling her firmly no and stop but when i react to it she gets 100x more aggressive. and it’s so much worse now the weather is hot as im in shorts and tshirt so my skin is bare meaning i get more hurt. i just cry everyday, i really don’t want to end up having to give her up. she means a lot to me, i got her after my best friend had taken her life and she gave me the will to live and get better but i cannot live like this anymore. does anyone have any advice- i have reached out to trainers but i don’t want to spend thousands of pounds and it not working considering she behaved like this before, or for it to work but then she go back and by that time she will be older and less likely to be adopted. i also want to add i live on my own, but my mum comes over when she can work from home and my dog does not attack her or if she tries anything she listens to her when she says stop.
her daily routine is-
wake up- between 6.30-8.30
toilet outside then breakfast
then play for abit and chill
lunch time- toilet break and have a frozen kong toy
then she normally chills or naps round the house, if she lies on my bed but keeps getting up because she hears something i’ll put her in her crate for 1.30-2hr for a nap

wake up -go toilet, play
dinner & walk
bed in crate- 9-11pm
btw i’m currently home all day not working until i get my car back.

please any advice appreciated 🩷

My mom has a Great Pyrenees named Pearl who is about 2 years old. She has had her for around a year after adopting her from a rescue. We don’t know much about Pearl’s life before the rescue, but it is very clear that she had a difficult start and has some significant behavioral issues as a result.
Pearl is reactive, guards her food, and can be unpredictable around people. My mom has gotten pretty good at recognizing her cues and has worked extremely hard to manage her, but Pearl has still snapped at people seemingly without much warning.
Unfortunately, things have escalated. Pearl has now bitten my stepfather multiple times, and most recently, she bit him multiple times during one incident. At this point, my mom is genuinely afraid that someone could get seriously injured, and she no longer feels that she can safely keep Pearl in the home.
My mom has tried **trainers, behavioral specialists, therapy, and numerous other interventions**, but unfortunately nothing has been successful enough to make the situation safe.
After the most recent incident, my mom contacted the rescue she originally adopted Pearl from to see if they could help. They told her there was nothing they could do and that, because of Pearl’s bite history, taking her back would be unethical.
**We absolutely do NOT want to euthanize Pearl.** She is still a young dog, and my mom loves her very much. At the same time, we understand that rehoming a dog with a bite history comes with serious ethical and safety considerations. We do not want to give her to someone who is unaware of her history or put another family in danger.
So I’m hoping people here may have some advice.
Are there any **Great Pyrenees rescues, sanctuary programs, behavior rehabilitation facilities, or other organizations** that specifically work with dogs with serious behavioral issues and bite histories?
Are there any other options we should be considering besides euthanasia?
We are located in **Massachusetts/New England**, but we are willing to travel if there is a legitimate organization that could safely take her.
We are being completely transparent about Pearl’s history because finding a safe and responsible solution is our priority. We just want to exhaust every possible option before making an irreversible decision.
Thank you to anyone who has experience with this or can point us toward an organization or resource we may not know about.

Bottom line upfront: My 2yo Staffy has always been good with dogs; maybe a little meek/cautious when meeting new dogs but super friendly. Today, at my girlfriend’s parents’ house, he suddenly started stalking, chasing and trying to bite their Shiba, whom he’s known since puppyhood. He eventually bit the Shiba’s leg hard enough to draw blood. He has never behaved like this at our own home (where he lives with our 5 yo female maltese). It was shocking to see this sudden change, as he’s always been a happy-go-lucky pup getting along with everyone, and would simply avoid conflict if another dog wanted to initiate anything.

Our Staffy has known this older Shiba since he was a puppy. We visit this house 4–5 times a year and at times he stays there for several days to weeks; and they’ve always gotten along or generally ignored each other. The Shiba is extremely mellow and generally avoids other dogs.

Today, our Staffy started stalking and chasing him and repeatedly trying to bite him. He also became fixated on the neighbor’s dog behind the fence in a similar way.

Later, we took them for a walk and they were completely fine. We came back inside and again they were fine for the first ~5 minutes. Then, he went after the Shiba again, caught his back leg and made it bleed.

There was no obvious trigger that I could identify; no food, toy, or obvious resource (which he usually doesn’t guard at all)

At our own home, our Staffy is completely normal with our Maltese and has never shown anything like this toward dogs.

What could cause such a dramatic, environment-specific change? Territorial/resource guarding of the house or people? Chase/predatory behavior? Something else? Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Hello, our dog is a male pitbull/boxer mix who is a year and a half old. We’ve had him about a year now and we got him from our local shelter at around 7 months old. At first he didn’t show any signs of any behavior issues but within the first few days of having him he started to show his true personality, food aggression, resource guarding, etc. (which can be decently managed) but he developed a habit of lashing out at random and with almost no warning which is the big problem. At the moment he has bitten/drawn blood from my father 3 times and me 2 times but this most recent time he got me so bad that I had to go to the ER and my hand was pretty badly damaged including broken bones and damaged tendons and due to this I had to file a bite report and we were given basically two options, let animal control take him and handle it their way or let him go peacefully with us at our local vet. So we scheduled an appointment with our vet to have him let go and I’m just wondering if there was anything else I could have done to have given him another chance at life? For context over the last year I’ve met with multiple vets, dog trainers, behavioral experts and they have all recommend the same action for him. I love this dog so unbelievably much and my heart is fucking shattering right now and I just need some input on if this is really the only option I have left. Thank you so much for any input I really appreciate it!

We are devastated. My dog (5 year old intact male Golden retriever) bit someone over the summer. Our friend laid down on top of him And wouldn’t get up and our dog bit him. We took our friend to the ER, reported it. Friend is ok. Now today, I take my dog for a regular check up. I explained about the bite and how it happened. My dog was fine with the blood draw and the exam but once the vet started his vaccine injection, he flipped out and bit her. When the tech tried to step in, he bit her as well. We are beyond worried for the vet staff and we are devastated over this. I have ordered a muzzle. I don’t know what else to do. Has anyone had this happen? Thanks in advance!

I’m pregnant and currently living in a home with my husband and his dog (staffy) of 10 years. I need an outside, behaviorist-style perspective on whether this situation is realistically manageable or if I’m right to feel like it’s becoming unsafe.

Background:
- My husband’s dog has a long history of reactivity and aggression (he says it used to be much worse and has improved over time). He has bitten multiple dogs and humans in the past, on an occasion resulting in stitches needed and animal control was called.

- We moved into our home together a month ago with my 6 year old golden retriever who is properly dog socialized and very docile in nature. He largely leaves the 10 year old alone and calmly coexists.

- There have been multiple bite incidents with me specifically , including: a prior bite to my face (broke skin and bled) before we were married, more recent bites in our current home, a bite to my hand after a containment failure and high arousal situation and I tried to pet him.

- The dog is highly territorial, especially around space, items, and food, and has tried to attack my dog multiple times. Including one occasion where he charged and attacked my dog out of no where while he was eating food and he was in “place” command. My husband had to dive on top of him to prevent extensive contact.

- We already use extensive management: gates, full separation, leashes, muzzles, he’s e-collar trained and on it whenever he’s outside of his “space,” structured movement, etc.

- However, containment has failed at least once recently, leading to a serious incident.

- My husband believes the dog is “managed, and that the introduction of another dog in the home is what’s causing this escalation in the month we’ve lived together. And that he “knows his dog” and handles him through correction/training.

- After the most recent bite, I have brought up rehoming for the safety of our newborn. Not that I think my husbands training isn’t effective, I just think the situation is beyond our ability to create a predictability safe home for our child. He has refused rehoming and believes we need to give him all the opportunity to improve until the baby comes.

My experience:
- I am constantly on high alert in my own home.
- I have panic attacks, nightmares, and chronic fear about the dog escaping or harming my dog or future baby.
-I only feel safe when the dog is fully contained in one room.
- I feel like the household revolves entirely around managing his behavior and preventing incidents.
- I feel emotionally dismissed when I express concern; my husband says I “feel unsafe but am not actually unsafe.”
- We’ve had 5 large escalation attempts in a 2 week time period.

Current conflict:
My husband wants to continue training and management until the baby arrives before making any major decisions.
I feel like the current level of stress, unpredictability, and recent escalation is not sustainable for me during pregnancy or postpartum.

He feels I am making an ultimatum about rehoming and says he would not give up his dog under pressure.

My question:
From a behaviorist/veterinary behavior perspective, is this kind of situation realistically manageable long-term in a household with a newborn and another dog?

At what point does management vs rehoming become the more appropriate recommendation in cases with repeated bites and escalating territorial aggression?

I’m trying to separate emotion from risk assessment and understand what a professional would actually recommend here.

Hi there, I have a four year old golden retriever male who I love more then anything. He has been my special boy and comfort since I got him so this is actually breaking my heart right.

From the start we had issues with him resource guarding, food sticks you name it. My partner and I read a bunch of books like mine etc when he was young. We went to numerous obedience trainings with him etc. his resource guarding continued to worsen so over a year ago we started working with a trainer and he did a board and train with her for almost three weeks and we did sessions after.

We saw a fairly significant improvement at that point with his resource guarding but the main training point was to correct him using a slip leash and she did it hard. Looking back now as I cry in a room I can see how problematic this was and I am really upset with myself for this. He was significantly better for a time and it slowly escalated backwards.

A couple weeks ago he bit my hand which shocked us immensely. He had a stick and guarding it and I went to pull his leash a bit and lead him over to me (he wasn’t wearing his slip leash so no correction) and he bit my hand pretty significantly breaking skin. We were absolutely horrified and I blame myself for it. I feel like we taught him to fear the correction and now he’s escalated and it’s my fault. He followed me around for days after since he knew I was upset. We were on vacation so once we returned we were going to reach back out to our trainer etc I don’t think we fully grasped the situation.

But we are at a cottage now and he got tangled in fishing line while we were redoing a rod and my father in law went to untangle him and he stiffened and I could see it happening but he bit his hand!!!!!!!! I am beside myself to be honest since we had thought it was leash related and we’re just incredibly stupid/naive I guess to put others in that situation.

I am so upset I can’t stop crying, he’s bit and broken skin twice which is very serious if it had been reported he would be euthanized. We are reeling in what to do now and what steps to take.

We are ordering a muzzle to start training but I am just shocked and I overwhelmed. He’s such a mommy’s boy, is so cuddly and sweet but then he can do this. I am scared how his life is going to be because I can’t trust him forever moving forward. If we have kids eventually or at gatherings, he can never go to a kennel or the groomer really, I feel like it’s my fault and right now I can’t see how I work through this.

Any advice would be appreciated.

Hello all! My dog is almost five years old and I adopted him when he was a little over the age of 1. Since having miso he has gotten more and more reactive and I’m not sure as to what I should do. For starters, he doesn’t like it when other people come into our home. If I don’t do proper introductions it’s almost guaranteed that he will bark and bite. He’s bitten friends and relatives on 5 separate counts since I owned him. One bite happened just two days ago with my nephew who came to visit from Florida. Outside of our home he’s more so wary of people. Not biting but if a hand goes near him to pet, then he will scamper backwards but doesn’t do anything more than that. Occasionally he will have episodes of just randomly wagging his tail and going towards a person on his own even if we’ve never seen him before. This issue with people coming into our homes is manageable but it’s other dogs that I have problems with. In general he has two dog friends (neighbor & my own friend) and he’s good with our cat whom we’ve had since a kitten (last august). But for dogs besides that he constantly barks, lunges, and even after smelling will continue to smell, bark, lunge, smell. I haven’t seen him bite another dog (I usually never let him get super close) but if he even sees another dog he will lunge and bark. Sometimes the other dog doesn’t even show signs of aggression or bark/lunge at all but he will still do it. He doesn’t like muzzles (I’ve tried) and I’m not sure as to how to go about things.

Should I do some metal stimulation with puzzles before walks? Do the walks need to be longer? (About 45 min daily outside, about 5-10 min mental session inside). Within my neighborhood we’ve always had dogs but for the past year and a half a lot of construction has been going on which my dog has hated. I’m not sure if I should talk to the vet about giving him anxiety meds.

If I had to rage his dog biting on a scale I’d say it were a 3 or less. Usually at the ankles since he’s small. Never really any blood but you could describe it like a cat scratch.

2.5 year old Rottweiler. He started out as an all-dog loving boy. His biggest downfall initially was he wanted to play way rougher than most dogs, otherwise he was friendly to all. Then prednisone happened. Reoccurring ear infections & what we thought was a trusted vet put him on a hefty dose of prednisone- was supposed to be a forever thing for him. After a few months we noticed massive weight gain happening & slowly more & more aggression. It started off with just other big dogs then all dogs. He was okay with cats at one point too & now that’s no longer a thing. All other animals are a big no now. Unfortunately we didn’t think prednisone was a factor as we trusted our vet & she said the biggest negative side effect was increased appetite & frequent urination. So he was on it for quite a while. We ended up taking him to to the vet again for the weight gain & it was a different vet, same place. They said the prednisone was overkill and that it’s known to cause weight gain in dogs … and aggression. Not that I expected it to really, but the aggression did not go away with stopping the medication.

We’ve called around & did a ton of research on training. We are going with a guy who trains with us (not a boarding situation , we are with him during all sessions), 11 one hour sessions for roughly $1,500. He doesn’t use treats, just positive attention/love to reward good behavior & that sounded great to me. Although my dog is highly food motivated, it seemed less affective that way anyway.

I guess I’m just worried that 11 sessions isn’t enough to shake this out of him. He is VERY reactive/aggressive. He unfortunately did get ahold of a small stray dog on one of our walks once, the dog was okay & I was able to separate them. But seeing the way he got ahold of that tiny dog, shook me to the core. He will kill another animal if given the chance. Now his walks are only done late at night, after midnight, muzzled & mostly on non-residential streets to avoid strays now too. I did ask the trainer about how 11 hours is enough to get him to follow the training & he seems very confident. He said worst case scenario we just pay for a couple more sessions. He’s recommending I do the bigger package ($3000) for off leash training which of course he’s going to push for his biggest service but he says it does become more efficient for the aggressive dogs in the long run however even with training I do not plan to ever have him off leash. For the safety of everyone including him.

The last year has been rough transitioning from a playful loving dog to a dangerous to others dog, he is not living the life he should be having to be so sheltered from everything to keep everyone safe & I just want to do what’s best for him (and everyone else.)

One of our two dogs viciously attacked my adult daughter tonight. It looks like maybe he didn’t break the skin, but it is possible that it did and there is bacteria in there. She says it really hurts but she won’t let me tend to it.

Prior to when we got our second dog in December 2020, Murphy had bitten her several times. She’s never gone to the doctor, though she probably should have. She has a few bad scars. I’ve always been so scared that if she went to the doctor he would be reported and potentially taken away or euthanized.

She didn’t do anything tonight to trigger him in the moment. She was just sitting there. He just snapped out of the blue. I was sitting next to him on one side and she was on the other side. I don’t know what happened.

My daughter lives at home because she has a mental illness. She used to try to squeeze him with cute aggression while squealing right next to his head and ignoring his signals. She also ignored our urging to leave him alone when he gives even the smallest sign of wanting her to leave him alone. Our dogs have both witnessed her in episodes many times when she’s been screaming/yelling extremely loudly and crying. She hadn’t had many bad episodes in the last 5 years and because of that and that she switched her focus to our other dog. Murphy hasn’t actually bitten her in that time. I believe that her behaviors caused his extreme reactions to her. She’s decompensated badly in the last two months and has had many episodes in front of the dogs. I know her episodes scare Murphy.

We adopted Murphy in 2019. He was a former street dog in Moscow, Russia and was one of many brought over by a Russian woman to help them find homes. He was extremely traumatized and fearful. Once we got him home, he quickly decided that he was more safe with me than anyone else, and was much slower to get comfortable with others in the family. If he wasn’t hiding in the closet, he was glued to my side. He still hard trembles at any sudden sound and any time there’s a thunderstorm or he hears the sound of the air conditioner, the heating system, the snow plow, etc. We’ve had our second dog for the last 5 years, and Murphy has been much less reactive since we’ve had the new dog. During that time, my daughter has had many fewer episodes, and she’s transferred the lion’s share of her attention to the other dog, who stoically allows her attentions. Murphy has given her a couple of warnings and even snaps over the last few years, but hadn’t made contact since we’ve got the other dog, until tonight.

He’s never bitten anyone else, but my daughter has scars from all their incidences.

Tonight’s attack terrified all of us, and in the immediate aftermath, my daughter said he should be euthanized. She feel like we value him more than her.

This is my soul dog, and I don’t want to give him up, but I can understand why she’s feels that way.

I have to find a solution so we’re not left without options. One thing I thought of is those training boot camps some behaviorists run where they take your dog for a few weeks and train them intensively. Does anyone have experience with one of those during circumstances similar to what I’ve described? Does anyone have any advice or ideas that might help? I’m sorry for the lengthy post—I’m a little desperate!

I’ll try to keep a long story short.

We have a 6 year old Potcake, named Ziggy, that we’ve had since he was 12 weeks. He started showing signs of reactivity towards strangers and other dogs when he was quite young (~5 months) and we’ve been managing it ever since. He adores is big dog brother Thor, a 8 year old golden retriever. He also loves his human brothers, a 3.5 year old and a 1 year old. However, their presence has certainly made him more on edge.

We’ve worked with 3 different trainers and a behaviourist. He’s been medicated on fluoxetine and gabapentin for years. We haven’t been able to safely introduce him to a new dog or person in about 4 years. His world is very small and we’re diligent in avoiding his triggers.

Over the years, he has inflicted a level 4 bite on my husbands aunt (while dog was under care of husband’s mom), a few minor bites to other dogs, snapped at my eldest when he was 18 months and again at 3. Most recently, he’s attacked Thor twice this month - once resource guarding when baby dropped a banana and the second time completely unprovoked. Attacking Thor is a new development and we suspect it is because Thor’s health declining (arthritis and reoccurring hotspots).

If he were to get out of the house by an accident, or access to a stranger in the house, I have no doubt he’d immediately attack. And with my 3.5 year old having recently learned to unlock doors, we’ve already had 2 close calls.

Despite his reactivity, he’s the sweetest dog in the whole world when we’re in the house. He’s snuggly, happy and so loving. He’s the perfect dog 99% of the time at home. He has never shown any signs of aggression towards me or my husband.

The most recent (and unprovoked) attack on Thor has us seriously conflicted on how to proceed. On top of that, it’s becoming increasingly challenging to manage his environment as the kids become more independent.

My vet and a trainer both recommended behavioural euthanasia and said he is not a candidate for rehoming. It feels like an impossible decision to make. Everyone I know who has had to do BE did it as a result of an obvious and serious offence, but ziggy hasn’t really made any serious offence that immediately forced us to BE.

Part of me knows that if we keep him, it’s a matter of when something will go wrong, not if. But on the other hand, what if nothing ever goes wrong and I’m putting down my physically healthy dog?

My elderly parents adopted a purebred Catahoula dog a few years ago, lied to the breeder about their lifestyles in order to get the dog because they thought he was soo cute (he is cute ill give them that) but he’s been raised poorly through no fault of his own. He’s grown into a VERY aggressive reactive dog, even after a very in depth training course by multiple professional he’s still attacked multiple people and other animals.

Theres very little I’m able to do to step in, they don’t want to listen & always reply that he was just feeling sleepy or it was a fluke.

I’m not necessarily advocating that he be put down. I do think that with the proper environment, he could be a really good dog. I’ve seen him thrive when he was in his training classes.
Does anybody know of a space in the Pacific Northwest that somebody could rehome a dog like this too or at this point is being put to sleep the only option? I have to have a serious talk with my parents and I’d like resources from other people who clearly love the breed.

Unfortunately, them keeping this dog is not an option, although they seem to think it is…
They don’t have the time, dedication, or strength at their age/health to handle him.

He’s just sent my mom to hospital with yet another attack and she’s lied saying it was a stray dog.

Recently while on a work trip, I got a call from my husband saying that my dog had attacked my baby (9 months old) while our nanny was there. We were part of a nanny share, and the other mom had come to pick up her son and opened the gate to the loft where both of the kids were playing. This let our dog in and at some point within 3-4 min they say he had attacked her, paws on her chest and had to be pulled off by the other mom. No one can tell us if she touched him, hurt him, etc. We don’t really know what happened as there were no cameras in the room and neither of us were there. I don’t think we ever will.

She had to be taken to the ER in an ambulance and received 20+ stitches to her face. Luckily, she is recovering well and healing quickly but it was without doubt the scariest moment of my life.

The thing is, in the aftermath, my husband and I are on different pages with what comes next. He thinks this was an isolated incident in which the nanny was at fault (I’m sure some blame does rest here), but I feel like this was an accident waiting to happen as we’d never seen this behavior from the dog and had never drawn firm boundaries about the dog not being around our child. Of course, we always supervised and didn’t let her touch him when we were around.

He took the dog to a behavioral vet who ruled out most physical issues aside from mild pain (he is 8.5) and she gave us some pain meds + an SSRI. My husband thinks we need to do everything possible to treat and keep the dog. I am sad because he was such a beloved and sweet member of our family for over 8 years, but I just can’t fundamentally trust him anymore and feel that won’t ever change even with meds.

For additional context, our dog got in a fight with 2 dogs in our previous neighborhood and lost part of his ear in May. A couple years back he also got into a fight with a different dog and the owner claimed our dog bit him in the process of trying to separate them. He has never liked dogs but had always been friendly to people and other kids, so we never anticipated an issue like this. We both are aware that rehoming with a bite history is difficult, and that is much of the problem. I just can’t risk another incident with my baby.

My husband believes this will never happen again while we’re around and that we can put up gates to mitigate the issue. I’m not convinced - not to mention never being able to invite over friends with kids, etc. I feel weird walking our dog around our neighborhood full of kids like something could go wrong at any point.

I feel horrible for suggesting to rehome the dog that previous my best friend and love of my life, but I feel like it’s the right thing to protect my baby. I guess just looking for advice on what comes next from anyone who has been through this.

I let her off leash in the yard (which I shouldn’t have done bc her breed runs away easily and they should never be trusted off leash so this is def on me) but she tried to run away so i grabbed her and she bit me in the face. She’s bit my brother before too, from resource guarding. We had to take him to urgent care too cuz she drew blood.

Ever since then, my family and I thought ok, don’t take anything out of her mouth. But the situation that happened to me hadn’t happened before.

I’ve researched that the aggressiveness can be attributed to an underlying health issue so we plan to take her to the vet, and then a behavior specialist/trainer. But after research I got scared seeing opinions from others suggesting to put their dogs down/rehome, and that seems just like not an option we love her so much. But I do feel really scared and can’t be in the same room as her nor look at her.

She is really good and loving 99% of the time, apart from these two mishaps where we couldn’t predict or notice her body language. And obviously, we don’t want another situation in which it takes her biting to know why she bit in the first place. I understand this can be very dangerous.

Any advice will help, not sure what to do. Thanks.

Hi, guys!

This might be a bit different from other posts as I'm not an owner of this dog but a best friend of his mother who I help babysit him quite regularly: my best friend has had this 25kg pitbull since he was around one year old (he turned six, recently) and he's the sweetest, most loving boy ever towards people he knows.

He's very reactive to joggers, other male dogs (including my male dog), bicycles and off-leashed dogs.

She lives in a very family-oriented neigbourhood and usually whenever I babysit him, I always walk him with a muzzle on as he has a history of launching and attacking other dogs before and she actually got fined for that at least twice already.

Today we had some incident concerning a child who ran up from behind us and he launched at that child. Thankfully, he's had his muzzle on so no harm done although I was threatened by his guardian to call the police on us but we had several witnesses backing us up and she left with her child.

Here comes the problem: my best friend doesn't want to put a muzzle on him because he doesn't like it.

We have had this discussion several times as he's a big, strong, and very reactive dog and has some history. And yes, he does hate the muzzle and always tries to take it off several times whenever I put it on him for a walk.

I really thought today's experience would really make my friend change her mind and finally put him on a muzzle whenever they're out on a walk but she said she would get the GoPro camera that record everything to prove that he 'never' attacks first and still joked about the muzzle, saying that she knows he should be on a muzzle but "you know how I feel about it."

I'm genuinely getting upset and worried for him as his reactivity cannot really be controlled and I don't want another accident to happen with him because it can be detrimental to everyone, including her dog.

So here I am, genuinely looking for an advice on how to help him with the fact that his mum refuses to put a muzzle on him to keep him and everyone safe.

Thank you <3

EDIT: I have called her out for being irresponsible for everyone’s safety including his own and given her a finality to not see her and her dog anymore unless she started putting a muzzle on him again (she used to do that for some time but stopped after awhile because another dog owner she has an issue with keeps harassing her and her dog) and she said she’s reconsidering it.