I adopted a dog from my friend's sister. She straight told me she stole the dog because they were using her as a bait dog in a dog fighting ring. First time I met her she bit me in the face (she thought I was trying to hurt one of the kids). I pinned her down and held her there, not hurting her, until she gave up. Then I told her if she ever got rid of her, I want her. Came back the next day and brought her home.

It took her forever to trust anyone she hadn't met before. Took even longer for her to trust other dogs. She immediately fell in love with my cat though. I took her to this really great dog trainer. Told him her story.

He told me, dogs are like people. They have a small window to learn how to socialize and how to exist with other dogs and humans and it's the first 9 weeks of their life. If she was only subjected to pain and aggression during that time, it's hard wired in her brain. He said with repetition, you can make things a lot better but, she could never be trusted with new people without someone around because the instinct is, fear, and aggression.

We did well with her. She bit 2 people, one snuck up on her, they scared the shit out of each other, dude understood he messed up (neighbor, houses were very close together). We paid his hospital bills because my ex knew he fucked up leaving her outside on her leash by herself. The other was a friend who I gave explicit instructions on what to do and not do around her and immediately did what I told him not to do. She didn't break skin on him.

13 years out of 13 and a half she lived I had her. Everyone who took the time to get to know her, fell in love. She was never the dog you could take in public but she was always the dog you had 10 funny ridiculous stories about. She was also just small enough that when I would take her for walks and she tried to be a big badass, I'd pick her up and laugh at her which always diffused the situation.

She wasn't the perfect dog. She was an insane amount of work, she was exhausting half the time. But god damn do I miss her.

I'm sorry you didn't get to have a good experience with that poor dog but I can tell you tried your best. It's really hard for them to adjust when they only know one thing.