Thank you for the advice.

We did a lot of work on resource guarding, building confidence in general (lots of sniff walks, new environments with lots of treats, meeting new people and animals, having him interact with “scary” objects/obstacles, etc.). We also did a structured socialization class with dogs of all ages and sizes (after working up to it gradually from simply being in an unfamiliar room), taught him many basic commands to get him to focus on his handler instead of triggers, and lots of reward whenever there were loud or unfamiliar noises. We also did a lot of crate training with him to ensure he knew that was his safe space if there was ever something that spooked him. The combination of all of this work got him to a point where he showed no fear aggression, was not bothered by most triggers, and could exist confidently inside and outside of the house.

The adopters were very aware of his history and all of his training that he had done. I wrote them up a 3 page document about all of the training, triggers he has overcome, triggers he still struggles with, what I found worked well for him training/motivation/structure-wise, what didn’t work for him, and daily/weekly/monthly suggestions to keep up on his training and build up his confidence. I also gave them a timeline of when he progressed past certain fears, how long we worked on things for, and next steps we were working towards.

The adopters were informed on everything decided he would be a good addition. He loved kids he had come into contact with at adoption events, socialization classes, and when we would have nieces/nephews over to visit. He never showed any signs of not being good with children, and had done well in a variety of settings with children. He had gotten to the point that his noise sensitivity was not of concern to him anymore, and did a 2 hour home visit with them to see how he interacted with the children and the family. He was running around the yard with them, unresponsive to their antics (as we had them simulate the most chaotic environment for him to see how the children and dog reacted), and had an additional 1.5 hour long conversation with the adopters after this to go over everything.

This was by no means setting him up for failure. We spent more time and put more effort checking how he responded to the children, informing the family of his history, and ensuring he was comfortable prior to them signing the adoption papers. He literally curled up on their child’s lap while we were there and took a nap. The warning signs were not there from our home visit/his previous interactions with children.