[Julie-at-home]

I have followed the advice I received here before as close as possible for me and my family. However, I am having major issues and I need some more advice. I spent the past two days making phone calls and talking to several Rottie Rescue groups. Their advice is not pretty. My 6 month old girl is becoming more and more dominant/aggressive towards my children each week. She was spayed last week, and it seems to be even worse since then. She is unpredictable and does not show any signals of distress (growling, showing teeth, posturing, etc) before she snaps, unprevoked. Yes, she is right at my side. My daughter leaned down to pet her 2 nights ago and she lashed out and bit her. The dog is not sick, she is not in any pain. She doesn't even pay a bit of attention to her stitches. This behavior started before the spay, but is getting worse. There have been several other incidents. I am right there with her at my side. She layed down beside my son, who was playing game cube, and he reached over to pet her and she snarled and tried to bite him. she had a chewy and, I think, was protecting it. However, we can't live like this. My children have so many rules about the dog that they certainly don't enjoy her. I have spent hours going into great detail about our situation with several Rottie Rescues and I am being told that this is not normal Rottie behavior, that we are doing nothing wrong, and that I should not keep her. One woman, who I will not name but will say has rescued over 1000 Rotties and has received many awards, told me to have her put down immediately. She said she has inherited aggression, which is not fixable, and she is not adoptable. And she said no one is to blame but the breeder. By the way, I took this girl in when her original owner "couldn't keep her due to a move" at 12 weeks of age. I thought I was doing the right thing by saving her, and that I got her young enough that I could raise her correctly. I am being told there is nothing I can do to change an inherited aggression. The others I spoke with had little advice, but told me I should not keep her, due to the danger. I love this dog. I am so confused and I don't know what to do. We have worked so hard to do everything we can to raise her right and prevent this kind of thing from happening. The children are not to blame. I have kept her at my side for weeks now, as advised. It is so unpredictale that is was not preventable, unless no one goes near her, because there was nothing that happened to cause the snapping. Yes, she broke skin and punctured my daughter's hand. She is scared to death of this dog now. She was seen by the vet before the spay, there is nothing "physically" wrong with her. It does not make sense to me either.