Just to elaborate a little bit if one of my dogs were displaying these symptoms I would be keeping them on canine bed rest. Crated, no stress, until the vet and I found out what was wrong and treated it.

Hi Jennifer and welcome.

1) Take your dog to the vet, as Betty and others have mentioned, to make SURE that he was not injured when he and the pitbull got into it.

2) If you are ever in the situation where a larger dog approaches and is not on a leash, pick your dog up immediately.

3) Have you seen any of the free info or videos for purchase here relating to pack structure and marker training and housebreaking?

4) You sound like a caring person who wants to keep this dog. You need to live up to the responsibility of owning a dog by learning as much as you can about dog behavior, training, and cohabitating safely with a dog who may not be the best around small children. This can be done, but you have a lot of homework to do. There is nothing in what you have posted which would warrant you putting this 10 month old pup to sleep.

Please ask questions!

 Quote: Lynne Barrows

... Please ask questions!

YES! And please let us know how he is.

Well said everyone...and one more thing...

When he's better from the shaking, more exercise and with the training it will help w/ his boredom. Dachshunds are high prey drive.

I hope the shaking didn't cause any spinal problems (usually they arch their backs if this happens). I had a long backed dog, I'd take him to a chiropractor for checkups. Even my dutchie goes to one because he is so active. (My chiropractor does pets for free.)

Let us know how your little guy is doing. Good luck.

Sounds to me like alot of this happened in a relatively short time span. Your dog was still getting over the traumatic experience with the pit, when he was tied to a tree with his food and scared by the kids who got bit.

Your dog defended himself with his mouth as a last resort, and now associates food with a scarey experience which he needs to guard himself. You as the leader are supposed to be his line of defense. You weren't, so now he has become submissive and fearful.

Learning pack structure is a good start. Managing his new found fear is going to be another ball game. There are alot of threads on this forum that deal with fearfulness, food aggression, and guarding. I would be reading alot, and like Lynne said "Please ask questions!"

The only dumb question is the one never asked. Sometimes the truth hurts a bit, but then we learn and grow from it. We all started from the same place, but now with effort on our part our dogs are better for it.

You can do this, all its going to take is effort from you and the right knowledge.