So I was 37m single set on not having kids when I got an Australian cattle dog. Literally the day he got his final parvovirus vaccine I took him out with me to drinks with a couple coworkers where I met my now wife who was a friend of a coworker.
Fast-forward 4 years I’m married have 2 kids (both conceived after marriage tyvm #firstinmyfamily #generationalfamilyissues #omgwhyisthisboomerusing hashtags #causeimaddandalreadyinsideaparenthesies) and my dog is a absolute love but very protective and has a biting problem.
He’s never broken skin on me my wife or kids but he does regularly bite my older daughter. He has broken skin on several people we are close to though. I’m not worried he will mail our daughters but it’s very difficult to have a dog you have to lock away whenever people are over and my wife hates that he bites our daughter.
Should I try and re-house him, are there ways to fix this. I love the guy but he is a problem.
Edit: I would have never gotten an ACD if I thought this was going to be my future. I knew what I was getting into with the breed, I just didn’t think I was ever going to have a family. He does love our daughters too but a two year old doesn’t understand why he bites.
From someone who has only watched videos and TV shows about this and not practiced what im about to preach, take this with a grain of salt.
From what I’ve seen, it’s a dominance issue. They believe that they are in a position to doll out “punishment for transgressions”. They believe that they are alpha or close to it.
Lot of the time it comes down to them not being challenged in other ways. Not enough exercise. This breed loves to work and run, run, run.
My late friend used to have a border mix that was similar. She loved chasing his 4wheelers. And definitely thought that she had some amount of rank over other people. But it did get a bit better after he moved to his last house and she had tons of room to run. And not just run, run for a purpose, to herd the 4 wheeler.
Not sure if this helps at all, but i wish you the best. Really sucks to feel like you may have to pick. Been there, for other reasons.