My partner and I are considering the hard decision of rehoming our pitbull. This is going to be very long, but I want to make sure to provide all the information. We recently had a baby and he has unfortunately shown too many signs of aggression towards her that I realized we no longer have the home suited for his needs. To provide story and context: Hussle was adopted from a shelter in the summer of 2022. He was a stray, so the shelter had no information on his background but due to his breed, they told us to just be weary of possible aggression. He at first was very reluctant to show any sort of trust, until he felt safe. He is honestly just a big baby that wants love and attention 24/7. He loves to cuddle and be wrapped up in a blanket with you. He enjoys laying on you, following you and just about anything you let him do with you by his side, he will do.
From the beginning, Hussle exhibited a lot of anxiety around big dogs, dogs of his size, and unhoused people, this typically looks like barking, lunging, pulling, growling, you name it…he does it. He always did really well around our family, friends, and some strangers. He spent time around kids 7 and up and never seemed to have much issues with children up until we had our own baby. During my pregnancy, he was very close to me, protective even and seemed to gravitate towards me more. When we brought our baby home, he at first seemed very avoidant. He really didn’t have interest in her, he left the room when she cried. We even took her hospital blanket home to him, a few days before we got home and he didn’t really care for it. I figured that he just needed to adjust to her a little more. As time went on, he then seemed to become relatively fixated on her. He would just watch her and watch everything we did with her. The very first time he had an aggressive reaction towards her, was during tummy time for her. He ran towards her and lunged while barking and growling very aggressively. We thought that perhaps he was curious of her and her contrast cards that we were using with her. Unfortunately, that was not the case. He had several other aggressive reactions towards her in other instances (seemingly all unprovoked: for instance, once while she was just sitting on my lap. Wasn’t crying or making noise), which all included him lunging at her and growling. We hired a dog psychologist who did an evaluation and believes he’s a high anxiety pup who gets trigger stacked from day to day activities and environment. She also believes children cause him a high amount of anxiety because they are unpredictable and he needs things to be less stressful for him. She provided us tools and suggestions for desensitization and they seemed to make him more angry and more reactive to her.
At this point, I realize that we unfortunately do not have the home he needs anymore, but he is not a safe dog to have around our daughter. Ultimately, her safety is our priority and after several attempts of trying to make it work (4 months), we feel it’s time he’s rehoused in home that fits his needs.
This is very difficult and most especially for my partner, as he and hussle have a very close and strong bond.