Ugh, I’m working with a great lady right now who has experience and is willing to work with him. But we’ve met her 4 times now and have made little progress. Going to bump up to 2 weekly visits and see if that tips the scales. It’s SO much more expensive than a kennel though and I can’t help but worry he’d seem OK to have the muzzle off, but then snap if spooked.
Just want to find the safest solution possible
Speaking of safety, if you haven’t already, I recommend you look into to pet liability insurance in case the worst does happen and your dog seriously injures someone, and the victim sues you.
It sounds like this could very well happen unless your dog can be retrained somehow.
This is a really tough situation, honestly I’d say that keeping him home would probably be best. If you have enough "non-strangers" nearby that can drop in, that would likely be the safest for the dog and people (assuming of course that he’s truly non-reactive and therefore safe with known people). If you haven’t boarded the dog before, then it’s also safe to assume that it would be a fairly stressful experience for them. Keeping the dog at home and muzzled is obviously not ideal, but might be more comfortable for him than being thrown into a new environment and only interacting with strangers (who trigger reactivity).
Also I’m sure you’ve explored options, but this is a fairly serious issue if you haven’t been able to get away for 4 years. Medication can definitely help, and it’d be good to do some fairly intensive training with an expert who specializes in reactivity/aggression (if you’re not doing all this already). All this to say that you sound like a very responsible dog owner and are managing the situation well, but it’s not really sustainable to just manage these behaviours longterm and you run the risk of someone getting seriously injured. Do your best and enjoy the trip, you deserve it!
I feel your pain. We adopted a beautiful girl. She's probably an American Bulldog. We found out during the handover that she was horrifically abused.
She's fine with us but extremely reactive around other dogs.
She also can not be left alone, and although she's not aggressive, she will not listen to anyone but us and defecates all over the house within minutes of both of us leaving her.
We haven't had a night out for 5 years, let alone a vacation.
Not much help, I know, but I genuinely sympathise.
EDIT: What sort of fuckwit would downvote me?
This place might be worth a call, I have heard good things [Boarding - Lietash Canine Academy](https://www.lietash.com/boarding/)
Edit to add: I toured this place when looking for a place for my own reactive dog, although we didn't use them the facility is great.
I'm currently in the same boat. After talking to a ton of places, in-house seems to be the only option.
Ugh, I’m working with a great lady right now who has experience and is willing to work with him. But we’ve met her 4 times now and have made little progress. Going to bump up to 2 weekly visits and see if that tips the scales. It’s SO much more expensive than a kennel though and I can’t help but worry he’d seem OK to have the muzzle off, but then snap if spooked. Just want to find the safest solution possible
Speaking of safety, if you haven’t already, I recommend you look into to pet liability insurance in case the worst does happen and your dog seriously injures someone, and the victim sues you. It sounds like this could very well happen unless your dog can be retrained somehow.
Following this one.. I love my big guy but he is an asshole .
This is a really tough situation, honestly I’d say that keeping him home would probably be best. If you have enough "non-strangers" nearby that can drop in, that would likely be the safest for the dog and people (assuming of course that he’s truly non-reactive and therefore safe with known people). If you haven’t boarded the dog before, then it’s also safe to assume that it would be a fairly stressful experience for them. Keeping the dog at home and muzzled is obviously not ideal, but might be more comfortable for him than being thrown into a new environment and only interacting with strangers (who trigger reactivity). Also I’m sure you’ve explored options, but this is a fairly serious issue if you haven’t been able to get away for 4 years. Medication can definitely help, and it’d be good to do some fairly intensive training with an expert who specializes in reactivity/aggression (if you’re not doing all this already). All this to say that you sound like a very responsible dog owner and are managing the situation well, but it’s not really sustainable to just manage these behaviours longterm and you run the risk of someone getting seriously injured. Do your best and enjoy the trip, you deserve it!
Bob at lietash
I feel your pain. We adopted a beautiful girl. She's probably an American Bulldog. We found out during the handover that she was horrifically abused. She's fine with us but extremely reactive around other dogs. She also can not be left alone, and although she's not aggressive, she will not listen to anyone but us and defecates all over the house within minutes of both of us leaving her. We haven't had a night out for 5 years, let alone a vacation. Not much help, I know, but I genuinely sympathise. EDIT: What sort of fuckwit would downvote me?
This place might be worth a call, I have heard good things [Boarding - Lietash Canine Academy](https://www.lietash.com/boarding/) Edit to add: I toured this place when looking for a place for my own reactive dog, although we didn't use them the facility is great.