Originally Posted by Mary4  Charlie is our beautiful 18-month old Yorkie. (We think. He may not be a full Yorkie.) We got him at 12 weeks old. Long story short, my cousin's wife made a post on Facebook that she knew of a beautiful Yorkie puppy who needed a home. We had lost our toy poodle the year before and everyone was heartbroken. At the time, I said never again, but at that point I thought we were ready.
I have four kids (19, 16, 13, and 12,) and they are great with him. In hindsight, I believe we got him from a BYB. At the time, I knew nothing about any of that. (Or puppy mills or pet stores.) It was after I found this forum that I realized how bad they all are. But at that point, he was on his way. And we got lucky. I took him to our vet, and he was healthy.
He was 12 weeks old and perfect. He just was a great fit for us and we for him. From the start, he was anxious around men. Little boys were okay but when a man would come in he would get nervous, shake or run away. My own boys he was fine with. My dad, who lives with us, he would stay away from. Even my 19-year old daughter's male friends he didn't like.
Time goes by and he doesn't get much better with the men. Then he started barking (primarily at men.) If my dad comes into my room, Charlie gets very aggressive, barking, etc. In the past few weeks, instead of just barking or getting anxious, he's started acting like he's going to bite. He got my brother on the pants leg, and I just found out today he bit my son's friend (who's 12) and left a mark, though didn't break the skin.
I got home today and found out he bit my son and did break the skin. My son was running down the stairs and Charlie went running down after him and he jumped up and bit him on the thigh. He's not afraid of the kids. If they had to take his food away or went to add more food to how bowl, he doesn't get aggressive with that. He sleeps in my bed and if my son comes in to watch a movie and falls asleep, Charlie will curl up next to him.
When we first got him, I was wondering why he was so nervous around men. I had asked my cousin if he had ever been abused and he told me know. Same cousin came to visit 3 weeks ago and I mentioned again how skittish and aggressive he can get with big boys/men, and then he said, "Yeah, I think he may have been abused a bit."
Question is: what do I do? Do I need to rehome him? My kids are already crying about this. I love Charlie and I'll be heartbroken if we have to give him up, but I can't have a dog that bites with so many kids coming in and out of here.
I hope someone can offer some advice. If I do rehome him, how do I go about that? He is truly a lovely dog, and I would want to make sure he was with the right person. I can't believe I'm even considering this. But I don't want a child to get hurt and I don't want to get sued. |