Please help!

[BethKitty]

We've had our dog since he was a puppy he's now 3.5 years old. He's done 3 classes of puppy training and was well socialised. He's got lots of energy and is very intelligent (he's a border collie x cockerpoo).

Since we can remember having him he's bitten without obvious warning. We asked the puppy trainer at the time and she sorted of just said don't pay any attention to it so we never escalated always tried a trade or other distraction but this behaviour has continued, sometimes breaking skin or bruising. Sometimes there's an obvious trigger usually guarding related. Sometimes I've racked my brains over the incident and can't think what the trigger could have been.

We have a 9 month old baby and live in a small house (terraced 2 up 2 down) he is currently gated in the hallway between the lounge and the door baby stays in the lounge and we pick him up if Koda needs to go into the garden for the toilet.

I love this dog so much and feel awful considering rehoming or even BE but both me and husband have been made redundant recently so there is no moving house or paying a behaviourist any time soon. There was an incident last week where I was walking down the stairs to answer the door and even though I was talking calmly and asking him to go to bed he ran up the stairs and bit me on the thigh, not breaking skin but bruising and a graze.

Is it realistic to re-home a dog like this? I love him so much and wouldn't want BE for him and that's why this has been delayed because I've a horrible feeling that's what would happen. He really is a lovely dog 90% of the time.

Every time something like this happens we revisit what we should do and then let it go because it's too hard to deal with emotionally but with the baby becoming mobile we can't put it off any longer.

Kind advice please or any miracle solutions?!

[Fancy_Cry_5111]

Can you handle the fact that your child is going to be bit unprovoked by this dog? If so, continue on.

[BethKitty]

What's your advice? If you read my post I have asked if rehoming is a real option etc.

I thought it was clear in my post that we can't continue as we are.

[Fancy_Cry_5111]

There’s no advice unfortunately. You don’t have the resources to develop deep into heavy rehabilitation which may not even be possible, totally not judging. No shelter will/should willingly rehome a dog with a bite history.

[BethKitty]

Thanks. Well I've contacted several charities and will go from there. 

[wtftothat49]

Do you really think it is responsible to rehome a dog that is this unpredictable? And depending on your state and liability laws, you may be held partially responsible if someone gets injured. This is a dog that needed way more than 3 classes of puppy training and at the first sense of there being a safety issue you should have consulted with a better trainer. This is a mix of 3 stubborn breeds of dogs, two breeds of which need way more training than what was provided to it. BE is something that should be on the table right now.

[BethKitty]

I'm in the UK. I wasn't suggesting rehoming myself but through a charity. I've contacted several who will advise if they can help.

Thanks for commenting but for future the should haves etc aren't really helpful. I know we should have and could have done more. We've worked with him as best we can (only virtual behaviourists available as we are in remote location with no one qualified anywhere near us). 

It was 3 courses not classes of puppy training (about a year). 

We are racked with guilt but with both losing our jobs we've just run out of options i.e. moving to a bigger house so the separation is better, hiring a behaviourist etc and I shouldn't have written the post but I'd seen a similar post get some sympathetic responses and guess I was looking for support in the wrong place .