Please Help Us. We Really Need Advice and Help
Posted: Wed Oct 25, 2017 3:54 am
Hello Everyone,
I am new on this forum and am asking for more than just advice. I have been a dog lover my whole life and in July 2016 finally had to let my best friend, Harvey a15 year old labradoodle go. I have a 13 year old daughter who was devastated to lose her best friend and brother. After lots of research, visiting dog shows and numerous phone conversations with the President of the Chow Chow Association, we were introduced to a reputable breeder. We visited the breeder on three occasions and met their Chows and finally we were advised that a litter was on its way. We were involved with the puppy from before its birth and on my daughter's 13th birthday, we were advised that our Julius and his siblings were safely born.
Julius is now 8.5 months old and he is breaking our hearts. I don't think he likes us and we are at the point where we love him but don't like him very much. From the day we collected him and brought him home, we noticed that his behaviour was very strange. His biting, aggression and disobedience was shocking. He growled in a frightening manner when he didn't get what he wanted. We took him to puppy pre-school, we introduced the NILF method of training and still, I would be out in the backyard at 11pm in the freezing Winter begging him to come in, with him thinking it was game and racing around the backyard, almost laughing at me.
Our vet treats 6 other chows and says that he only puts Julius in a muzzle when at the clinic. All the other chows are fine. We have been in touch with our breeders constantly about his behaviour and are told that we are not strong enough and we should smack him with a rolled up newspaper. I was against this but tried it over and over again and all that happened was Julius thought it was a game and it only encouraged his biting, growling and crazy running dangerously around the house more.
The vet has diagnosed him with hip dysplasia (50% displaced in his left hip) at only 8 months and recommended that we put him on anti-inflammatories, have him de-*Censored Word* and then put him on Clomicalm (half a tablet twice a day) at $136 for 3 months, to adjust his aggression. We have employed a professional ex Police dog trainer to help up and he has told us that Julius is the 1% of dogs that will not respond to normal dog training. We have a special program and he attends to Julius with us every Friday afternoon for one hour.
The Clomicalm worked for two weeks and our training program was really working well. We had some peace and fell in love with our baby all over again. We were strict, firm and rewarding good behaviour with his daily amount of food throughout the day. We could even invite friend over for dinner last Saturday night. This week he has reverted to his old personality. He is biting, growling, barking in a high pitched, scary manner and jumping all over the furniture, eating cushions and peeing wherever he feels like it. Today was so dangerous as he jumped up on our outside setting and could have fallen over the balcony.
He will now only go on his bed when we ask him to, if he is sure that we have food. I mean absolutely sure that he will be getting food so the NILF has stopped working.
My 13 year old has gone to bed in tears (again). I am sitting in a fortress on the couch with all the dining room chairs around me protecting the leather couch that is scratched, with all the cushions in a cupboard whilst I type this post.
We desperately love Julius but he doesn't seem to love us. We did all the research on Chows, met the breeder's dogs including his mother and have tried everything. Our training has been consistent. I have tears welling up in my eyes as I type this. I think that we are going to have to find a new home for him for send him back to the breeder. I just don't know what to do so that we can all be a happy family.
On a side note, we have formed a friendship with Julius' brother who lives in another state and his owners have advised me that he has severe Uveo Dermalogic Syndrome (UDS) and may be blind in his right eye before he is a year old. This poor pup had a bleeding nose, weeping eyes, peeling skin and a pink tongue with hot spots from the auto-immune disease. My Julius is showing some of the early symptoms (weeping eyes, whitening of the fur and around the eyes) and I have made an appointment with a canine ophthalmologist for Monday for a biopsy and diagnosis.
Do you think that we are not suitable for our Julius' strong personality? Maybe he needs a male in his household? Maybe he just doesn't like us? I don't want to give up on him but he makes us cry, increases my anxiety because he is so silly that he does dangerous things and I am frightened that he will bite someone other than us and then be ordered to be put down. Today, the bites on my arms are very painful. I can't even look at him sometimes, I am so hurt and angry.
I am so sorry for the long post. I am just at my wit's end. I want to protect my daughter, protect others, protect Julius and for us all to be happy together. How could a breeder sell me a dog with hip dysplasia so bad at such a young age? How could his brother have severe Uveo at such a young age? These breeders were recommended to us by the Chow Chow Association. How could we have been given such an aggressive puppy?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
Julius' Mother
I am new on this forum and am asking for more than just advice. I have been a dog lover my whole life and in July 2016 finally had to let my best friend, Harvey a15 year old labradoodle go. I have a 13 year old daughter who was devastated to lose her best friend and brother. After lots of research, visiting dog shows and numerous phone conversations with the President of the Chow Chow Association, we were introduced to a reputable breeder. We visited the breeder on three occasions and met their Chows and finally we were advised that a litter was on its way. We were involved with the puppy from before its birth and on my daughter's 13th birthday, we were advised that our Julius and his siblings were safely born.
Julius is now 8.5 months old and he is breaking our hearts. I don't think he likes us and we are at the point where we love him but don't like him very much. From the day we collected him and brought him home, we noticed that his behaviour was very strange. His biting, aggression and disobedience was shocking. He growled in a frightening manner when he didn't get what he wanted. We took him to puppy pre-school, we introduced the NILF method of training and still, I would be out in the backyard at 11pm in the freezing Winter begging him to come in, with him thinking it was game and racing around the backyard, almost laughing at me.
Our vet treats 6 other chows and says that he only puts Julius in a muzzle when at the clinic. All the other chows are fine. We have been in touch with our breeders constantly about his behaviour and are told that we are not strong enough and we should smack him with a rolled up newspaper. I was against this but tried it over and over again and all that happened was Julius thought it was a game and it only encouraged his biting, growling and crazy running dangerously around the house more.
The vet has diagnosed him with hip dysplasia (50% displaced in his left hip) at only 8 months and recommended that we put him on anti-inflammatories, have him de-*Censored Word* and then put him on Clomicalm (half a tablet twice a day) at $136 for 3 months, to adjust his aggression. We have employed a professional ex Police dog trainer to help up and he has told us that Julius is the 1% of dogs that will not respond to normal dog training. We have a special program and he attends to Julius with us every Friday afternoon for one hour.
The Clomicalm worked for two weeks and our training program was really working well. We had some peace and fell in love with our baby all over again. We were strict, firm and rewarding good behaviour with his daily amount of food throughout the day. We could even invite friend over for dinner last Saturday night. This week he has reverted to his old personality. He is biting, growling, barking in a high pitched, scary manner and jumping all over the furniture, eating cushions and peeing wherever he feels like it. Today was so dangerous as he jumped up on our outside setting and could have fallen over the balcony.
He will now only go on his bed when we ask him to, if he is sure that we have food. I mean absolutely sure that he will be getting food so the NILF has stopped working.
My 13 year old has gone to bed in tears (again). I am sitting in a fortress on the couch with all the dining room chairs around me protecting the leather couch that is scratched, with all the cushions in a cupboard whilst I type this post.
We desperately love Julius but he doesn't seem to love us. We did all the research on Chows, met the breeder's dogs including his mother and have tried everything. Our training has been consistent. I have tears welling up in my eyes as I type this. I think that we are going to have to find a new home for him for send him back to the breeder. I just don't know what to do so that we can all be a happy family.
On a side note, we have formed a friendship with Julius' brother who lives in another state and his owners have advised me that he has severe Uveo Dermalogic Syndrome (UDS) and may be blind in his right eye before he is a year old. This poor pup had a bleeding nose, weeping eyes, peeling skin and a pink tongue with hot spots from the auto-immune disease. My Julius is showing some of the early symptoms (weeping eyes, whitening of the fur and around the eyes) and I have made an appointment with a canine ophthalmologist for Monday for a biopsy and diagnosis.
Do you think that we are not suitable for our Julius' strong personality? Maybe he needs a male in his household? Maybe he just doesn't like us? I don't want to give up on him but he makes us cry, increases my anxiety because he is so silly that he does dangerous things and I am frightened that he will bite someone other than us and then be ordered to be put down. Today, the bites on my arms are very painful. I can't even look at him sometimes, I am so hurt and angry.
I am so sorry for the long post. I am just at my wit's end. I want to protect my daughter, protect others, protect Julius and for us all to be happy together. How could a breeder sell me a dog with hip dysplasia so bad at such a young age? How could his brother have severe Uveo at such a young age? These breeders were recommended to us by the Chow Chow Association. How could we have been given such an aggressive puppy?
Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you so much.
Julius' Mother