Linus bit me

Linus bit me yesterday, not the first time but this is the first time that he really meant it and really tried to hurt me.  He broke the skin and I have a bruise. It's not bad, just the back of my hand where he managed to pull up some skin and pinch really hard to get me to let go of his foot.  I was retrying a behavior he did from the other week....when I thought he had something stuck in his pad and looked at his foot. That day he closed his mouth over my hand and bit down, hard enough to hurt but not hard enough to break the skin or make me let go.  I was trying it again but going to use the "uhuh" words to see if he accepted correction.  Well, half of the time he does and half of the time he will bite the hell out of me.  Seems like when he's had enough and feels he needs to pull away, a panic reaction sets in and he can't control himself and other times when he's more relaxed (and there can be just minutes in between) he tolerates it.  But tolerates not without some pulling and a definite head and shoulder turn away from me to let me know he's really uncomfortable.

Sadly, this brings and end to the Rosebud diaries since I am not going to personally keep this dog and I don't have endless resources to rehabilitate him.  Now that he has bitten he is no longer able to be rehomed.  I know that would come as a surprise to some as many rescue groups give biting dogs a second chance.  Because of his breed, the liability associated with biting and the sheer numbers of homeless dogs, we don't feel it is the right choice to take the chance that he wont' bite again.  We know that once he has bitten, he is more likely to do it again.  My concern all along was once he started to gain confidence that he would potentially become a fear biter.  He just seemed to have been too roughly treated and probably had a more delicate temperament to begin with.  I do think there's been a head injury in his past because of the way he holds it and because of the way he searches for fallen food as if he can't see it. He makes wide strange sweeping motions with his head because he can't locate what he's looking for on the ground.