Big Paws Only Dog Forums

Hello!

It has been awhile since I have been on here so maybe I should re-introduce myself.  My name is Amy Lynn and my husband and  I are blessed with 6 little girls, a male Chessie mix and a female Saint Bernard. 

We adore both of our dogs. We have had our Chessie for 11 and a half years. He is now 12 years old. Our Saint is 4 years old and we have only had her for 16 months. Her name is Isis. She is the sweetest and most gentle dog and we love her to pieces. The problem is that over the past 6 months, we have noticed that she doesn't like kids other than the ones in our family. We had our neighbor boy over and we were all talking and she just suddenly leaned forward at him and gave him a VERY scary warning bark. It really worried me because I had no idea why she would do that. After that we began to notice her barking ferociously at children behind the fence when they are out in their yards. Some of the kids are only toddlers, others are older. Our neighbor boy came in again and she did it to him again.   After that incident, we put Isis in our bedroom when he would come to visit.

Just this past weekend, we had two of my nieces and one nephew stay with us. The first night, I was in one of the bedrooms and Isis was lying on the floor between me and the door. She seemed calm and relaxed. I called my niece into the room and Isis went into the warning bark at her and scared her! I wondered if she was trying to protect me and the baby as I was holding the baby in my arms. Later, she did the same thing to my 4 year old niece and she did absolutely nothing to her, or around her. The next morning, she did it to my 2 year old nephew. That time, she also lunged at him with the bark. I was monitoring her and the kids the whole time. They were never left unattended with the dog. I truly have no idea why she is doing this. We ended up having to have her stay with my parents until they went home.

We are so heart-broken over this because we feel like although we trust her completely with our own children, we aren't sure we can trust her around other children. We are afraid to walk her because we are not sure if the warning bark will turn into something bad if we encounter a child.    Our neighborhood is full of children. 

My husband & I have set up an appointment to talk with a trainer/dog behaviorist, but we have so many people telling us that you can't train out aggression & that we should find another home for her.    We are so confused & unsure of what to do. We love her & the last thing we want is to have to give her up. Has anyone else ever dealt with this? Can we learn to trust her around other children again? Does anyone have any advice?

Thank you so much in advance for any help.
Blessings!
Amy Lynn

Hello!

I just wanted to thank you all for your kind words about Isis. We took her in to the Vet and had the Heartworm test done and they called today and told us that she was Negative for heartworm!!! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!! So, now they want to do a chest X-Ray to make sure there was no damage to the heart before we have her spayed. They don't know how severe of a case she had and want to be sure it is safe before they put her through the surgery.

We have her scheduled for the XRay on Jan 18th and if everything looks good then, they will go ahead and spay her then. I am nervous about the appointment. I hope everything will go well for her.

Thanks again for your kind words and advice.
Blessings!
Amy Lynn

We recently were blessed with a 2 year old Saint Bernard, named Isis. We have had her since November 3rd and absolutely love her to pieces. She has been the sweetest dog we could ever ask for. We got her from a family that was moving out of the country. I shared the long story on here quite awhile ago.

Anyway, I have been trying to contact the previous owners to see if they can give me her vet records, or even just the name of their vet so that we can get her vaccines and also have her records. They won't reply to my messages.   When they do reply, they won't give us the vet info we keep asking for. It has been so frustrating! We were told that she needs vaccines this month. I got tired of waiting for them to give me the info, so I just started calling vets in the area where they lived and asking if they had a Saint Bernard, named Isis in their computer. The first Vet I called was the right one. They confirmed that it was truly our Isis that was their patient. They were wonderful in working with me and said they would fax her records to our Vet, without consent from the previous owners, due to the situation of them moving out of the country. The lady from their office told me that she had to mention to me that she saw in her files that Isis had tested heartworm positive!   They never told us that!!! We were told that she was healthy and just needed vaccines in Jan.   She also told us that they were given the advanced medication and were told to return a month later and never came back in for the follow up! So...We have no idea if Isis is fully cured from heartworm, or not. This happened a year ago and I guess you are supposed to have a follow up blood test a year after treatment, so they should have told us so that she would be sure to have her follow up.  

I am so worried about our girl. SHe is so sweet and our entire family adores her. I immediately called our vet and they can't get her in until Saturday morning at 8:30am. The results won't be in until Monday.   We also have another dog and the lady at the Vet told us to try to keep him isolated from her. We have already had her since Nov 3rd. I am thinking that it may be too late to keep them seperated. I am wondering if anyone knows the incubation period for heartworm symptoms? Our other dog isn't showing any symptoms. Isis does occasionally have a weird cough, but our Vet checked her out for that and wasn't concerned about it.  

I'm sorry for the LONG post. I just had to tell someone who would understand. She is our baby and we are so upset about this. We're just hoping they treated her and just maybe didn't get a chance to bring her back in.  

THanks for listening.
Blessings!
Amy Lynn

Awwwwwwwwwwww!!! What sweet photos.

Hi Dayna!

Welcome to BPO! Congratulation s on your new Saint pup. What an adorable puppy!!!

My name is Amy Lynn and I have 5 little girls and another little girl on the way. We have a Chessie mix, named Cooper and a new Saint Bernard girl, named Isis. She is two.

I'm glad you are here and I can't wait to see more photos of your crew!

Blessings!
Amy Lynn

What an absolute doll!!! 

Is it one photo of each dog? If we have more than one dog, can we send in one photo of each, or is it one photo per person? Sorry if this is a silly question.

Blessings!
Amy Lynn

Thank you so much!

Great idea of changing the routine, too. I will definitely try to rule out the infection first and then try that.
Thanks.

Blessings!
Amy