Desperate for suggestions for my sweet demon
I have a 6 year old English Bulldog that we rescued 8 months ago today. I Lost my soul dog last June and vowed I’d never go through that again (she was put down due to old age). 3 months later my current dog came into our lives unexpectedly and I was convinced he was sent to us by my soul dog. At first all was fine with the exception of guarding toys. He’s not huge into toys so the “no toy” rule was implemented and the problem was solved. So we thought. About 2 months in, he would get aggressive with my husband (never me) for no apparent reason. He has bitten my husband 5 times and the last time ended us in the ER and stitches. 99% of the time he is fine with my husband until he is not. He lashes out at him and as fast as it happens it is over and he is fine. He does give a warning before he goes into his “mode”. He has no issues with my husband feeding him or letting him out to potty. We hired a trainer. Used an E Collar (which did not stop the behavior) and have started muzzle training. He loves people. My son visited for 5 days and zero issues with him and only 1 growling issue with my husband and my son was able to redirect him immediately. He is currently on Prozac which has helped a lot but has not alleviated the issue. We keep a slip collar on him constantly so it’s easy to grab when necessary and when we try to relax in the evening he stays by me and I have the leash in hand as most episodes happen in the evening. I love this dog. He is amazing with kids and guests. He is very well trained with commands. The ONLY person he has an issue with is my husband. Both the trainer and the vet feel he is guarding me but no one can figure out why it’s only occasionally. As you can imagine, it is exhausting being “on guard” constantly. After the ER visit, I told my husband he had to go but my husband loves him too and feels he is a good dog except for this issue and hopes we can correct it. We both know if there is one more incident, he will have to go which will devastate me. I do feel he could be rehomed to a single person with no issues (we would be 1000% transparent with his guarding issues) but know behavioral euthanasia may have to be an option. Has anyone else ever dealt with this and have any suggestions on how to correct this behavior? He is doing great with muzzle training but we have yet to put it on him. We are hoping once muzzle trained my husband will be able to be more dominate with him and maybe that will help. I am so desperate and don’t want to lose my dog! Any suggestions are welcome!