This decision is approximately two years in the making. Mambo was a juvenile when we adopted him. He was a mangy stray that was darting from behind trees and bushes and cars at my mother in laws house. We won him over with some food, found him to be very skittish, totally adorable, and I brought him home to the first house that I had bought with my husband. He was my first daughters first dog. We had him neutered and treated for severe intestinal parasites, and we just assumed with some basic dog training, socialization, that he would snap out of his funk.
You tend to block bad things out of your mind and live in denial. This is the guard dog that makes me feel safe in my own home. Hes chow chow and German Shepherd... so hes a big dog with a spotty tongue.. and a strange sense of gentleness, I can pull his tongue out of his mouth and tickle his mouth. I brush his teeth. No hassles... No problems. He sleeps next to my bed. When I go to the bathroom, Mambo goes with. When I go to sleep, Mambo goes to sleep.
I really believe it was the birth of my second daughter almost 3 years ago (April 2012 will be three year) that set him off where I just felt like I didnt trust him. I cant tell you what it was exactly. He did get left outside more (babies, toddler, waving their arms, pulling his ears, all of that spooked him... and especially being inside where doors, windows and linoleum are so scary to him),.. We mostly interacted with him on the deck. Or in the big fenced in back yard where he could have many exit routes. But cage him in inside, and he would get spooked, you could actually see the whites of his eyes.
If I carried the laundry baskets upstairs and changed my silhouette, this would spook him. On Saturday night I came home and I was wearing a green pea coat he hadnt seen and I went to let him in, it was about midnight, and I had the jacket unbuttoned. Its double breasted and it swung open on each side like big bat wings. This freaked him out but I was able to verbally coax him inside.
He has tried to go for (never successfully bitten) a couple children. The more we spoke about it and I reminisced with my six year old, the more names we added on to the list. First there was Logan. Then Travis. Then Garrett. Then Justin... Who happens to be a 30 year old man...Yesterday he attempted to bite a neighbours son, Thomas, on the back... Which started this whole process again. I called my husband almost in tears and said Mambo has to go. We cant have that liability on our hands and heads. And then wow, today, this memory, about a year ago (cant remember)... My husband said "Mambo scratched him with his teeth by mistake"... It was supposed to be all of my husbands fault for spooking Mambo when he was sleeping....
I mean it just washes over you. The numerous excuses we have made for him because we love him. He has every right to be here, because he has faults should not be reason enough to have him put to his early death. But then the thing that keeps washing over me, I could never forgive myself if he hurt a child. Took out a childs eye. Scared a child (the boy yesterday was fine, he just shrugged it off, it was me who was a blubbering wreck on his mothers doorstep)...
I grew up with Rotties and Chows. My dad trained them. We had one that was a man-eater (bit people who should never have been on our property regularly), but we grew up in South Africa. You needed dogs like that for protection. Most people had big dogs. Boerbulls. Mastiffs. Chinese Racing Pigs (Bull Terriers). Staffordshire Terriers (Like the Amstaff Pit Bull Terriers). But it was more socially acceptable to have them there. You kinda assumed every dog was a flesh eating animal because they probably were. Because you NEED dogs like that there. But here, in our basic little wooden fence neighbourhood (very unlike the 8 foot solid concrete and brick walls we had in South Africa, topped with electric fencing and shards of glass standing upright in a concrete bed)... we only have the need for family dogs.
With more and more social interaction being dictated to by our childrens growing social needs, we have to protect their friends first. So we have decided to take irrevocable steps to make this a child friendly house. Sorry if you dont agree with our decisions. I only hope, that my own children are as safe in your house hold.
So my six year old thinks Mambo is going to be a guard dog on a farm.... And of course... When she broke down... I immediately offered her a replacement puppy... We will get another small one in the spring from the animal shelter. She said "Lilah will be so lonely"... and it just killed me. Cuz our Parsons Terrier will be so lonely.
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