We can't keep Gizmo. Heartbroken.

[Gizmodo]

We cannot keep Gizmo. He bit my husband, Rob, on the mouth this evening. It was a pretty bad bite - we had to go to the emergency room and get it stitched up, and it may require a little plastic surgery in the end, depending on how it heals. We are not sure what caused Gizmo to bite. We were all sitting on the couch. I was eating popcorn, and Gizmo was sitting on Rob's lap, and Rob was petting him. Gizmo was watching me eating the popcorn, and I looked over at him and I noticed he was doing something a little weird with his face. I can only describe it as his cheeks kind of puffed up a little...I don't know, I just knew it didn't look right. Thinking about it now, I guess it was the start of a snarl, but with him having a puggy face, it did not look like a full-on snarl like you'd normally see when a dog is about to attack. He wasn't growling or doing anything else to indicate he was about to attack. I was about to ask Rob to take a look at what Gizmo was doing when Gizmo jumped up and bit Rob on the mouth. Rob immediately pulled Gizmo off of his face and tossed him down to the floor. After seeing how bad the bite was, we rushed out to go to the emergency room, and I called my mother to come look after Gizmo. She said he was calm when she arrived and was sitting by his crate. She took him out to potty, and he was still calm. She placed him in his crate, and that's where we have him now.

I don't know if Gizmo has bitten any other people before we got him; I do know that his foster mom said she had trouble between him and her other dogs. She told me that one day, she came home and one of her male pugs had him pinned down and had torn a gash in Gizmo's neck. She seemed to think that it was just an issue with that one dog, so she began crating that dog when she was not home. Then, she said trouble started between Gizmo and one of her female pugs. We figured this was just an issue of Gizmo needing to be an only dog, but now I'm guessing he has some bigger aggression issues. We've noticed that he will growl a LOT if you touch him at all when he's playing with his duckie toy or when he's chewing on a rawhide. We had thought that was something that we could work on when we started obedience classes next month and was only related to when he was chewing on something.

We are horrified and heartbroken over this. I know we've only had him for a couple of weeks, but we love this dog. He's been such a sweet, sweet dog otherwise. But we just can't keep him now. We don't know what caused him to bite, and we don't know if/when he'll do it again. I wish this night had never happened.

[Snifter]

Oh dear. Please contact a rescue that will conduct a proper evaluation of his behaviour to see whether an experienced foster family can work with his issues.

I'm so sorry this has happened.

[Pug Ranch]

oh i'm so sorry as i agree with snifter they will be able to evaluate him and hopefully find what the issue is.I'm sorry this happened to your family please take care as my thoughts are with you.

[Russ]

I too have been bitten on the upper lip by a pug, not a fun time. It was not Mz Tilly, or Princess. In this case said pug was on a bed and did not want to get off, I was sitting, started to pick the pug up and she snapped, lunged, bit lip then prances around like King of the hill. I know know how to tell when she is in that mood. She's also given my forearm a blood blister. But she is a sweet dog all other times.

[Tinker's mom]

Oh, I'm so sorry this happened to your husband. Please get him to a rescue to see if they can evaluate him. What a scary and heart breaking thing to happen.Hope your husband doesn't need more surgery.

[Gizmodo]

I too have been bitten on the upper lip by a pug, not a fun time. It was not Mz Tilly, or Princess. In this case said pug was on a bed and did not want to get off, I was sitting, started to pick the pug up and she snapped, lunged, bit lip then prances around like King of the hill. I know know how to tell when she is in that mood. She's also given my forearm a blood blister. But she is a sweet dog all other times.

You were able to keep her after she bit you? How can you tell when she's going to bite?

I keep going back and forth on this in my head. I hate the thought of giving him up. I still love the little guy, but now I'm afraid of him. My husband is not conflicted on this at all - for him, this is a completely different dog now. He can't see beyond the bite, which I completely understand. I just feel horrible about this whole situation. I emailed the rescue society we got him from, and I'm trying to get ahold of them by phone as well.

I don't know what will happen to him when we give him back. I'm having a hard time imagining that another family will take him in with this history now. I feel terrible, and I miss him already.

[Daisyduke12]

Oh, I'm so sorry this happened to your husband. Please get him to a rescue to see if they can evaluate him. What a scary and heart breaking thing to happen.Hope your husband doesn't need more surgery.

This! Im sorry your husband was bit.

[Tinker's mom]

I understand your husband's feelings completely. We had a springer that bite my daughter on the leg as she was getting into bed, completely unprovoked.We got him as a puppy so he had no history but he was hyper and very difficult at the vet's too.I never felt the same about him after that and I took him to a no kill shelter. He ended up on a farm with lots of room to run and no children.My first springer was a completely different personality, just a beautiful soul. Good luck with your decision.

[Niki01]

Oh no, that is terrible! Prim will get playful and kind of nippy and she has nipped mine and Jacobs face. But it is all done out of excitement when she gets a little wild and playful. We try and correct the behavior right there and scold her and sometimes we put her in "time out". Of course he is only 3 months old completely different from your situation. I can understand your fear of taking him back to the foster program... Hopefully someone who understands dogs which are like him can take him and "rehabilitate" him. Let us know what happens.

[Wally 'n' Leto]

I'm so sorry about your husband. Just a thought, would you be open to having a consultation with a behaviourist before giving Gizmo up? If a professional could find a reason for the bite, you might be able to work on it. However, given the situation if you decided to give him up it would certainly be understandable. A facial bite is not a minor matter. But your story just made me think of my friend, whose horse bit her on the lip and nearly tore it off.... it turned out the mare had been asleep and had a previously undiagnosed visual problem, and my friend had woken her up and startled her, and she struck at the sound she couldn't see. I just wonder if something like this is at work here... some problem that could be worked.

My heart goes out to you -- what a difficult decision to have to make.