Category: Top Dog

Tldr: dog is killing animals outside and worried he will kill my indoor cats, on top of having severe separation anxiety. considering behavioral euth

Very long story short: I have an ~11yr neutered male large mixed breed dog with an incredibly high prey drive and separation anxiety. I have one other dog who he gets along well with. I have four cats.

I did not intend to adopt this dog – 3 years ago I volunteered to foster him to stop him from being euthanized at my local shelter (I live in the south and there is incredible overpopulation – he was a stray that was going to be euthanized because of lack of space). After I took possession of him, the rescue group ghosted me and I had to assume ownership. I intended to find an adopter but ended up keeping him due to behavioral issues (and falling in love with him, of course).

My household is kept separated between dogs and cats. There is always at least 2 shut doors between the dogs and the cats due to my dogs prey drive. The dogs never see the cats. This has been working well.

However… My dog has killed 3 cats and several possums in my yard. These are all stray cats, of which there are plenty in my neighborhood. I never feed the outside cats and scare them away when I see them on the property for their safety. After the first cat, we began muzzle training him and only letting him in the yard with a basket muzzle on. He has never acclimated to the muzzle despite we extensive muzzle training and manages to get it off regularly, which is how the other attacks happened. He is only allowed out with supervision and we check the yard for animals before letting him out but he has still managed to find critters.

He also has extreme separation anxiety and had to have an $8k surgery to remove cloth from his intestines in March of this year. He is on high doses of medication for his anxiety which has helped, along with training. But it has not mitigated it completely. When left alone, he will destroy and consume inedible things such as couch cushions or plastic bags, maybe about once a month. We try our best to dog proof the house as much as possible but he will find things that I wouldn't have even expected him to find or eat. I cannot crate him because he injures himself out of panic. He has multiple broken teeth and cut his mouth and tongue trying to escape. I have even gotten an indestructible kennel which he managed to injure himself in. We only have one veterinary behaviorist in my city and the wait list in several months.

He used to be aggressive towards strangers in the home but we have overcome that. He is dog-selective, but generally aggressive towards strange dogs.

Most of the time, he's fine. He sleeps when we're not home and is fine. Then he will eat something and I am full of stress that he will need another surgery I can't afford, or he will manage to get his muzzle off and attack an animal in the yard.

I am extremely worried that something will go wrong someday and he will manage to get to one of my own cats. I love him with all of my heart but am beginning to resent him. My boyfriend is not as animal savvy as I am (I am a vet tech and work in animal welfare and have for years. He loves animals but is not as experienced.) He gets incredibly upset when he attacks an animal (understandable) and resents him more than I do for it. He thinks he's being an asshole while I recognize that he is just being a dog with prey drive and anxiety issues.

He killed another cat in our yard last night and I don't know what to do. It is at the point that I'm considering behavioral euth. I very much doubt I can rehome him as he is a large senior dog with human and animal aggression and separation anxiety. But I don't know if me or my boyfriend could forgive ourself or him if he attacked one of our own cats. Our household is working being separated but I am so stressed that a door will be left open and he will kill them. Or that he will eat something and need another surgery that I simply cannot afford, I am still paying off the loan for his $8k surgery.

Any advice is welcome.

For context the dog is a Australian Shepherd mix who is about 3.5 years old. We have had aggressive issues since about 6-7 months. My husband is the one who typically takes the brunt of it. He has been bit more times than I can count. I have been snipped and growled at a few times. I can't tell if it's fear, aggression, reactivity or what. He's scared to grab his toys off the vents in the house. He will bark and jump at you if you leave the room and close the door with him on the other side (think leaving to go somewhere or we have baby gates that he's blocked from going into the kitchen and our son's playroom. He has not bit our son but he has growled at him but never in close proximity. It's usually when he is in his playroom throwing a ball around and the dog will start barking at him. His crate is in our bedroom and the only way we can get him in the crate is with treats (which is manageable and not an issue) once he is in the crate and he hears one of us enter the room or if my son is being particularly rowdy on the bed (walking around and doing standard 2 year old things) he'll start barking like crazy and almost try to jump out of the crate. He's weird about his paws being touched and he also is weird about if you touch him at all. He has random quirks that you often don't find out about until he's growling at you. I will say it is nice that he at least growls first. As of right now, we have come to the agreement that if it's my husband bit then he can deal with it. But if either me or my son get bit the dog is gone. However, I'm currently pregnant with my second and as I was taking him out this morning he stepped in poop and got it all in his paws (again he does not like his paws to be messed with) it took me a good 10 minutes just to convince him to let me clean his paws and even then I still wasn't able to fully clean them and he was growling the entire time. I took breaks to reassure him and make sure he knew he was fine. I'm just really concerned because #1 I don't really want to wait for him to bite one of us before doing something. and #2 I am also super concerned about bringing another baby in the equation. It was fine when I just had the one because my attention was undivided however, when this second baby arrives my attention will be divided between the toddler and newborn. We have tried aggression training in the past and it helped with his reactivity walking around other people (he would literally lunge and bark at people making walks almost impossible.) But it has not helped at all with his behavior in the home. It's really tough too because I'm basically ready to be done with him but I do care about him and if we don't have him that would mean he needs to get put down. Which I'm not a fan of but knowing his behavior toward other people I know that he wouldn't do well with strangers. My husband is absolutely against doing anything unless something bad happens but again I really don't want to wait for that. Does anyone have any guidance? Or has anyone been in a similar situation?

I should also add that he does not resource guard, and does not have any health conditions that would cause aggressive behavior. There were I believe 7 pups in his litter and at least 2 of which have already been put down due to the aggression. I believe I included everything if not I will add as needed.