So there has been a few things going on at home that I haven't told you guys or blogged about, mostly because it is so heartbreaking that I can't even talk about it without crying.
When we brought Little Pit home, Lil' Pup wasn't thrilled, but he was seemingly ok with it. We did everything they tell you to do, introduced him to the nursery, let him sniff all of her clothes and bedding and all that stuff. We brought the receiving blanket home for him to sniff once she was born and did our best to prepare him for what was coming.
Unfortunately, Lil' Pup is just not a fan of hers. Especially now that she is crawling, he really can't stand her and growls at her whenever she gets near him and has snapped at her a few times, once coming really close. Since she will be toddling soon, and probably falling over a lot while trying to figure out how best to walk, we are just really concerned about any future interaction. He doesn't react well when he's startled, and with a falling infant, we really believe that this could get very dangerous for her very soon.
We of course did our best over the past 7 months to get them acquainted and tried to get Lil' Pup to understand that she was part of the family and that he should treat her like he treated us. However, he has not gotten any better and now that Little Pit is really starting to move, we feel that it is in her best interest, and our best interest being her safety, that Lil' Pup goes back to the rescue.
I can't tell you how hard it was to make this decision. There have been tears. LOTS of tears over this decision, but we just can't knowingly put our daughter in danger with an unpredictable dog.
You all know how I feel about rescue dogs, and how happy I was to rescue him knowing how hard it was for him at the kennel. You know that my motto is that there are no bad dogs and only bad owners.
I truly do not feel that he is a bad dog, I just think that he really needs to be a true ONLY dog and ONLY child, and that is not a situation that we can put him in. If only we got him as a puppy and had any control of his life before we found him.
I hope you all don't hate me or Mr. Pit, we really worked so hard and for the past few weeks have been exhausting all the resources we can to try to help him and our situation, but what most trainers tell us, is, that if it were their daughter, and he was their dog, they wouldn't hesitate to remove him from the house for her safety. Also, we have worked really hard over the past 3 years to give him the life he deserved and really worked on his dog aggression as well. We have spent countless hours and thousands of dollars on trainers and methods and they have just not had the overall effect that we have wanted them to.
It truly breaks my heart to think that we have to give him back, but it would break my heart more if he ever hurt Little Pit and then we'd have to relocate him after that anyway, and at the rate he is going, an accident is going to happen sometime soon.
I know that some of you may be thinking that we can just separate them for the day, but that is no way for him or us to live. There is no point in having a dog if we can't interact with him, and to lock him upstairs or in his crate for the day isn't fair for him either. He deserves a family, just one without kids that crawl or toddle after him like Little Pit does.
I don't know exactly when we will give him back, we made the final decision tonight after talking to yet another professional dog trainer that said sometimes dogs and kids just can't mix no matter how hard you try, and that it is just too dangerous to risk it.
What I also want to stress, is that I don't want this post to discourage anyone from ever rescuing an animal in the future. I don't think that we did the wrong thing by rescuing him, I am happy that we could give him a loving home for as long as we did and I am so hopeful that he will get rescued by another family that is better suited to the lifestyle that he needs sometime soon.
I truly believe that rescuing animals is the right thing to do, and that there are GREAT dogs that need homes. Little Pup is a GREAT dog, he just isn't kid friendly and a lot of pure bred dogs aren't kid friendly either. I don't think this has ANYTHING to do with him being part Pit bull either. Pit bulls are KNOWN for being great with kids, I think this has much more to do with his puppyhood which unfortunately neither us nor the rescue where we got him has any clue about. He was rescued from another rescue, so his first few years of life are completely undocumented. We think he may have been abused as a puppy but we really have no idea.
When we got him we didn't think he could hurt a fly, but with his behavior towards Little Pit bordering on really dangerous, we were sadly proven wrong. He reacts so badly whenever she gets anywhere near him, if he were a true older sibling it would be called severe jealousy and we could combat it, but we can't seem to train the behavior out of him no matter how hard we try.
Anyways, so after the highs of this past weekend, here is our biggest low of this entire year.
I will cry every time I walk by where his water and food bowls were, as well as his bed and all his toys. I am crying as I type this because I feel like a complete and utter failure as a dog-mom. I feel that I have failed him in the most basic of senses, as I was supposed to rescue him from a life in the kennel and now all I am doing is giving him back. I know it is for the best, and that we HAVE to put Little Pit first, she is our flesh and blood and has to be protected, that is truly my job as a mother. I just wish I didn't have to protect one thing I love from another.
Please please please no nasty comments. I don't think I could take it. Please believe me that we did everything we could and that this decision is the hardest one we've made in our entire marriage.
Thanks, Mrs. Pit
