Christina Haack, Christina El Moussa and Christina Anstead are all the same person. After changing her name for two marriages, she’s back to her maiden name, Haack. She’s the star – along with her now-ex-husband Tarek El Moussa – of HGTV’s Flip or Flop and other shows. Christina has had a chaotic five years or so. Her marriage to Tarek ended, she started up with Ant Anstead, she gave birth to her third child (with Ant), she got married for a second time, her marriage to Ant ended in less than two years, and she’s currently engaged to some other guy. She has three kids, a lucrative HGTV contract and she’s business partners with an ex-husband who regularly screams at her in front of the crew. She’s also a dog-mom. She added a Rottweiler puppy to her brood last December. She named him Biggie and she posted photos of Biggie throughout this year. Until Biggie disappeared from her IG. So what happened?
Christina Haack had to rehome her dog Biggie after experiencing some behavioral issues. The HGTV star, who has faced questions about the Rottweiler’s whereabouts after she stopped sharing photos of him on Instagram, explained to a follower that she made the decision for the sake of her children’s safety.
“Due to behavioral issues, I made the hard decision to have Biggie re-homed in the best interest of my children,” she captioned a photo of her with her two sons, Brayden, 6, and Hudson, 2, posing with pups Cash and Stella. Haack is also mom to 11-year-old daughter Taylor.
The “Flip or Flop” star, 38, first introduced fans to Biggie via Instagram in December 2020, just three months after announcing her separation from Ant Anstead.
“Too cute not to share. Meet the newest member of our family – Biggie. We are all obsessed and in love. 💘,” she shared at the time. The photo — and all subsequent photos of Biggie — have since been deleted from her account.
Rottweilers are pretty intelligent dogs but they’re very big dogs, and I wonder if it just got too chaotic in her house with three kids under the age of 11 and two other dogs (which are apparently still there). I think if you’re raising a puppy and that puppy has behavioral issues, it is on the dog-parents. I sincerely hope Biggie is okay and he’s with people who love and care for him, because I doubt he was getting that at Christina’s house. I’ve never re-homed an animal, but I have received animals which other people have re-homed. That’s how I got my old dog, who was a Rottweiler-Newfie mix. That’s how I got my cat Dexter too. So… yeah. Animals should go where they’re loved, and I know it’s complicated. But she sounds like an a–hole who thought Biggie would stay a cute puppy.
Photos courtesy of Christina’s social media, Avalon Red.
In light of all the bodies in the house and other animals, another puppy would be just too much. Rotties are really smart and they need a firm hand. Add to that sauce puppy training too? She should have never gotten a puppy in the first place.
Slightly off topic but the woman needs to write a book on How To Get Married. Because she is engaged AGAIN?! AGAIN??!!
I’m impressed, scared and impressed
It’s pretty easy if you don’t intend to stay married lol
Girrrllll, I was thinking that myself! What does she do that makes them want to marry her? Most guys don’t marry so quickly!
She’s thin, white, rich and famous.
I grew up with 4 Rottweilers. This is totally not fair.
She should spend less time on her social life and more time at home with her kids and a dog trainer. I feel for those children. I hope that beautiful pup got the loving, attentive home he deserves.
Yeah it sounds like she wasn’t prepared to actually train and take on a puppy. My pup is difficult to train but I could never rehome him. He’s family, plus my kid is super attached to him.
He just needs to stop eating our house lol
Rottweilers get big fast, heavy and strong. I can easily see that being a problem with young kids, especially a toddler. Even a very well trained Rottweiler when they are young can still act like puppies. Probably wasn’t the best choice of dog for her and her growing family. At least she had the sense to rehome the dog.
This is what I think! I don’t understand the uproar when someone ‘rehomes’ a pet. If the dog isn’t in the right home, then the best thing to do (for the owners as well as the pet) is to rehome it. Especially if there are behavioral issues. Kids come first, and protecting them in their own home is the first priority, imo. With that said, the breed may have been the wrong choice and paying for some training would most likely have helped – assuming she didn’t. I’m sure the dog is much better off out of their home.
Just to add: I am a huge dog person and I have always had a dog or two. But I now also have my autistic 10 year old son. If a dog I brought into my home couldn’t handle him, or vice versa I’d have no choice but to find an alternative home for the dog. I wouldn’t be rehoming my son.
@Voominvava, thanks for this level-headed take! Rehoming needs to happen sometimes, and shaming people around it serves no one.
Voominvava, Totally agree! Very responsible of her..Probably a tough decision…
Rehoming comes with risks. Animals are very much like people – they bond to the people they live with, form attachments, etc. When you remove them from the home, those attachments are broken. In some ways, it can be worse for the animal because, unlike a person, they cannot rationally understand why they may need to leave. In some animals, that can lead to things like anxiety, fear, etc. Which can then manifest itself in behavioral issues, aggression, etc. – things that tend to make the animal harder to place into a new home. And then that can lead to another rehoming, and another, etc, and the issues get worse. Re-homing can kick off a vicious cycle that can, sadly, spell the end for many pets.
Some re-homing is unavoidable. Owners die. They become disabled, sick, unable to care for the animal in an appropriate way. If the animal has conflict with another pet in the home, etc. Its not always avoidable, but it should be viewed as an action of last resort. When you bring an animal into your home, you are bringing in a family member who you should show a commitment to.
Rotties are very sweet dogs, but they are sensitive. They need owners who can show them the level of attention and care they need. It sounds like she wasn’t doing that. Anybody who knows Rotties would have told her this, and an ethical breeder would have too. It is her fault for not doing the research and knowing exactly what she was getting into. There are also the other questions – did she exhaust all the options before rehoming him? Was a behavior specialist called? If she has small children, why get a dog that would grow into something very big and strong that could possibly hurt a child, even without bad intentions?
I hope Biggie is doing well in his new home, with owners more careful and kind-hearted than this woman.
I understand what you’re saying, and it all should be a decision not made lightly – getting the puppy, which breed, rehoming it, etc. but kids come first. I am sure the dog went to a better place where it will be able to create a new bond and not be stressed out in a home where it is not wanted or can’t get the attention it needs. I actually appreciate that she made that decision as it isn’t an easy one.. also knowing the judgement she would probably get.
I think it’s just the idea that if you’re rehoming your dog, especially after having them long enough to bond with them and them with you, but not long enough to have actually gone through all the options of training them and trying to figure out what they need that you’re not giving, then it just seems like you didn’t really think very hard about getting the dog to begin with and when it ended up needing attention, you bailed because that was hard. Especially if you bought a puppy and then “need to” rehome it before it’s first birthday. That dog isn’t even an adult yet, so it’s not like all the possible adult dog training methods could have failed already. It seems more like an impulse purchase, like you didn’t do your research, you didn’t think ahead about how big the dog would get, how expensive it would be, what kind of vet care it would need, how much time and energy you would have to spend training and exercising it; you didn’t think about if this was the right dog for your home, kids, other pets, or work schedule, or if you were the right house/family/owner for this dog, and that’s frustrating to see.
I’ve seen more than one post on Nextdoor that’s basically like “my kid asked me for a dog during the pandemic, so we got one, but now I’m going back to work and don’t have time for it anymore so I need to rehome.” Did they think the pandemic would last for 15 years? If not, why didn’t they think about how they would care for the dog when they went back to work ahead of time? It seems like there are some people who treat dogs like stuffed animals: something cute and fun to have around, something that will give you unconditional love and affection without needing anything in return, something that it’s not going to be that big of a deal if you or your kid “grow out of” wanting. I would guess that that’s probably what’s going on in about 80% of rehoming situations, so it seems like the dog was put through this big ordeal of being poorly cared for and thus super frustrated to the point where they now have a bunch of behavioral issues by the time they’re even a year old, and now they have to deal with being rehomed or sent to a shelter when it probably could have all been avoided if people had just made better choices in the beginning.
I wrote about about how a family I worked for saw an ad on Facebook for Great Dane puppies at 6PM on a Sunday night, and even though they knew they had to go to work in like 13 hours and would be gone 12 hours a day M-F for the foreseeable future, they went and bought the puppy anyways and then left me to deal with it. It was a total impulse purchase and the dog doesn’t fit well into their family or lifestyle, and now it’s causing huge problems and the dog is a total mess. And it happened gradually. You have to ignore a lot of signs of a frustrated dog to get to the point where your only option is to rehome now because they’re a danger to your kids.
Sam the pink
Never in my life have I met an ethical breeder. That will refuse a sale because they do not feel the dog is going to a safe and loving forever home.
Im sure she said she knew everything and her credit card was approved. Poor puppy.
Absolutely. I worked in animal rescue and responsible rehoming isn’t a problem- sometimes it’s the best solution. I’m guessing the dog’s behavior problems were pretty normal puppy things that she either didn’t have the skill or time to correct. She made the right decision, hopefully she is more thoughtful when bringing another pet home.
@ Voominvava : I think people are upset because she said the dog had behavioral issues. I fostered rescue dogs for years and found the dogs given up for “behavioral issues” were always dogs who needed some training and more exercise. The owners weren’t willing to do the work basically and then blamed the dog because it acted out when its needs weren’t being met.
+1
“But she sounds like an a–hole who thought Biggie would stay a cute puppy.”
She should have gotten a small breed, then. Like a poodle.
agreed. she needed one whose temperament suited her family dynamic.
Yes, she chose poorly. You don’t adopt a behemoth of a Rottweiler and expect the dog not to knock down children. They are enormous and have a very sound placement of their mass. It was apparently an enormous mistake and stupidity on her part.
Bothsides-
I had a rottie when my son was a baby and a toddler and he never knocked him over not even once. I also had a boxer at the same time. They would cuddle together and watch tv. After my rottie passed I got a rottie mix when my son was 3. She also never knocked him over.
The people I used to work for (I was their nanny) told me a couple of hours before one of my shifts that “SURPRISE! We got a new puppy last night! You’ll be with him today!” They we’re in the middle of of a messy home renovation project (think house covered in drywall dust) and at like 6PM on a Sunday night saw an ad on Facebook for puppies and just went and bought one with no plans. He was a Great Dane and they got zero training for him, they never exercised him, they didn’t ever take him to the vet to get neutered, and they left me to potty train him and acclimatize him to the house, other dog, and kids on the very first day they had him. They had to have puppy pads and puppy food delivered to me the first day because they both left for work around 7AM and just didn’t think about it. The dog peed or pooped literally every 10 minutes that first day. They had no way to contain him on hard floor either. He just had free roam of the house and would pee and poo and puke everywhere. And I had to clean it up. They also didn’t have a fenced in yard every time he needed to go out, which was all the time, I had to leash him and walk around with him. This left no time to watch the kids or make meals. It was horrible the first few weeks.
That dog is maybe 10-11 months old now and he was so hard to deal with. He would hover over you, getting into your face, and bark and bark and bark just because he was bored and didn’t know what to do, and if you tried to stand up or move him away from you he would bite you. Play-biting, but I’m sure it’s going to get worse, there’s going to be an accident. He jumps on kids and knocks kids down constantly. He pushed a 3 year old down the steps because he wanted to walk down at the same time she was so he just ran into her. Neighbor kids used to come and play in the yard with the kids all the time but they stopped coming because this dog knocks them over and chases them and bites at them. If we left him inside while we were outside he would scratch at the doors and eat the furniture. If he was outside while we were in he would bark and scratch the doors. There was no escaping him, he had to be with you all the time but then he’d knock people over and bark and bite in their faces. The parents just expected me to deal with all of this. The $1/hour raise they gave me was not worth it.
They had another dog already, too, and that dog was notoriously anxious and weird with other dogs. So the two dogs would fight a lot and it was scary. One of them ended up with a puncture wound from the other and when people would ask what happened they would lie about it and say they didn’t know.
Wow, that’s horrible. I’m sorry you had to go through that. How irresponsible and disrespectful.
WTAF?? That is some pathological sh-t on the part of the adults in that household. They were seeing another living being as an acquisition rather than a responsibility for care and opportunity for love. That poor dog.
I can’t imagine what working in that environment must have been like, glad you got out.
There was an entire episode of Christina on the Coast where they show her getting Biggie. She specifically talks about how she wants a BIG dog, just…..cause? I guess? Then she brought the puppy home and it immediately started chewing on things and it’s clear she never had the time to actually train it or treat it well. She’s a psycho just like Tarek. I can’t imagine her children will grow up very well. Their oldest daughter already seems to hate her mom.
While I agree both parents have HUGE issues, her daughter, at 11, is going through puberty and has a *lot* of hormonal shizz going on. “Hating” her mother (and/or father) is pretty normal at this time lol.
I saw that episode and didn’t think the dog was a good idea because it’s obvious she doesn’t have time for it. The whole thing seemed like it was done for the cameras.
YES re: the episode where they got the dog. She did absolutely nothing to train him. He had the run of the whole house, was peeing and pooping everywhere, the daughter was literally walking through the pee puddles. The poor pup was on his own, chewing on everything, no guidance, no boundaries. She seems to have zero understanding of how to care for a puppy and merge him into a new home. It was very sad. Poor Biggie was a trophy dog, not a family pet. The whole thing was ignorant and careless and thank god he’s at a new home. I hope it’s a better place than with her, because she seems like she’s a hot mess.
I guess people will get mad about this, but far better she re-home than be a bad owner. Sure she should have thought through this ahead of time but better late than never. Rotties are one of those breeds where things can go very wrong if they are living with neglectful, absentee owners, or whatever was the issue here—and then people blame the dog.
Agreed. Rottweilers are great dogs but they can kill if not we’ll trained. As sad as it is for the poor dog, she did the right thing if she was unable to handle him. It was not worth the risk to her children and others.
Years ago, one of my co-workers who was pregnant with her first child, was planning to get a Rottweiler. Conveniently, one of our teammates had several Rotties and was very involved in a Rottweiler rescue. She strongly advised against it because Rotties need lots of training and attention. A young couple with a baby in the house, and both parents working, is not the best environment for raising a Rottie. Our friend took the advice and got a breed that was more appropriate for a busy family with a young child.
I also know of several folks who’ve sent their huskies to Husky Rescue. (When everyone moves to Colorado, they are compelled to get large dogs.) Again, a great breed, but they are bred as working dogs. They aren’t great with young kids and will dig holes all over your suburban backyard. I really wish people would do their homework and be honest with themselves about what pet will suit their lifestyle. There is a good home for every dog — but it’s not necessarily YOUR home.
Amen, Malificent! So many people gets dogs because they fit an image or look cute or are trendy. But each breed has its quirks and every breed requires time and energy. That’s why I admire puppies but will never adopt one – I don’t have that kind of time and energy!
“There is a good home for every dog — but it’s not necessarily YOUR home.”
YES! Don’t get me started on people who get Pointers and then complain about having their APARTMENTS destroyed. Like, why would you have a hunting dog in a tiny apartment and then not be there most of the time? Dogs need exercise!
OMG this….had a friend who adopted a rescue husky and he was it’s third home because he kept digging, hopping fences, etc. Friend died and somehow I ended up with him. Funnily enough because I walked him a lot, lived near an enclosed area where he could flat out run for awhile every day, and actually took him for training, he never tried to escape when I had him. The only thing I didn’t know at first was they also have a pretty high prey drive, found out the hard way when he got a neighbors cat (luckily we were able to catch it and the cat was fine).
I agree. If you realize you have made a mistake with a dog, and are truly unable to make it work, better to rehome ASAP rather than risk bad behavior (due to the owners inability to train/control) that untimely may lead to the dog being put down or hurting someone. The sooner the better
Of course, one hopes the owner does as much research as possible on both breed and how to train so this doesn’t happen, but it’s just not always the case.
Well, she did the right thing by re-homing him. Lord knows what she was thinking getting him in the first place. Engaged AGAIN?! Jeez Louise.
Yes I’m way more horrified by her engagement than I am by her rehoming that poor dog she never should have gotten to begin with. She seems like an impulsive whackadoo.
LOL this!
Rotties need a lot of firm discipline. I have had a pure bred and a mix and they were both wonderful dogs and very intelligent. My husband spent a lot of time training the pure bred. He won’t get another because he knows I won’t be as firm as they need and because they don’t live long enough and we had a ton of issues with our pure bred’s health.
yes. not only rotties, even bulldogs. they need an alpha to be their master.
I currently have 2 pit mixes that were rescues so we had no clue what breeds they were when we adopted them. My youngest I’m convinced is also part demon and that didn’t show up on the DNA test. My husband is the alpha and he’s the only one she listens to. I’m the one who’s home with them all day. She humors me most of the time but makes it very clear at other times that she’s higher than me in the pack order.
My guess is she didn’t do proper training, and all the mischief isn’t so cute when it’s a big dog, not a pudgy puppy anymore. Hopefully the new home is good and loving and will work with the dog.
I actually had a nightmare last night that I rehomed one of my cats, and I was so upset I was crying when I woke up.
I had a friend who had to rehome one of her schnauzers. She got both of the dogs before she got pregnant and had a baby (she got the dogs at separate times, not both at once). The second schnauzer had a very different personality from the first one, he had more energy and had random episodes of aggression, including towards her son (and I think may have bit him a few times). His behavior also seemed to change the first dog’s personality as my friend claimed her first schnauzer was pretty calm and chill until the second schnauzer came along. When her husband died suddenly, she was left to deal with the two dogs and her baby son (she has since remarried and is now expecting her second baby so she is okay now). She tried everything, getting an expensive trainer and working with the dog but it came down to her son’s safety and what she could manage. I believe she ended up giving the dog to a schnauzer rescue so they could rehome him in a more appropriate household, hopefully one with no young kids. She also said her first schnauzer went back to being his old self and seemed less stressed without the other dog in the house. Rehoming a pet isn’t always a bad thing, there are always extenuating circumstances.
I do think Christina has a bit of an impulsive personality, just judging the chaos of the last five years. She got divorced, remarried, had a kid, got divorced again, got another dog/rehomed the dog, and got engaged in the span of just a few years. Just typing that out made me tired. But she probably did the right thing for her family and will hopefully be more careful getting any future pets. It was a big lesson to learn.
I agree. I am naturally impulsive myself so I can empathize but she seems chaotic.
We had to rehome a dog who treated our kids like prey. We spent a fortune on dog training but both the trainer and vet recommended that she live in a home with no children. She was a large dog and she bit my daughter on the face. Luckily, we had done a lot of bite inhibition work so no long lasting damage done but it could have been bad.
I want to know what she means by “rehome” – did she contact a reputable Rottweiler rescue, or did she just give it to a “friend” who just loves dogs? Very different things in my opinion.
I’ve never had a rottweiler, but my limited knowledge of them is that they are big, strong, and intelligent, and that’s a combination that means lots of training and attention, and it sounds like she either wasn’t prepared for that or just didn’t feel like doing it, so at that point rehoming properly is probably best for the dog.
Most breeders, at least reputable ones, have it in the purchase contract that if the dog is going to be re-homed it goes back to them. It’s also often in the contract the dog cannot be spayed or neutered for a certain amount of time because the breeder may want a litter or two from the dog.
💯 I hope it’s the former.
Honestly in watching her show (Christina on the Coast) I think the problem was her puppy was a puppy. Puppies are pretty destructive and you have to put in a significant time investment to work on training those behaviors out of them. And you have to understand that it’s not going to stop overnight. My guess is she was either unwilling or unable (or both) to do that and eventually it reached a point she didn’t want to deal with it so she rehomed.
My in-laws, experienced large breed owners, adopted a Rottweiler pup when my son was 18 months old. Firm hand, consistent training and lots of attention and Buck still knocked my son over and nipped his thigh. Yes, he was playing and showing affection. Yes, the father in-law reacted appropriately and yes, it happened again. Buck was rehomed to a childfree environment and was hapoy as a clam.
Sometimes large puppies and toddlers don’t mix. It’s sad but true.
that’s right. our local animal shelter has many dogs up for adoption and they mention the specifics for each dog. e.g. should be the only animal in the house, does not do well with other dogs, no cats please, prefers a child free home etc. And this is even after having a trained specialist work to properly socialize the dogs. I think it is fine to rehome, because like people, they have their own personalities and preferences.
This. The shaming for rehoming just means dogs end up staying in bad situations when they could be in loving homes. Situations change. You may know and love someone else’s dog of the same breed, but your dog ended up with a very different temperament, or you didn’t realize how different your home was.
Judge for having made a bad choice in choosing a dog, but not for rehoming.
Maybe she should take a break from making major life changes for a while and simply focus on caring for those that depend on her already.
Waiting for a new show from her called “Flip or Flop – Husband Edition”
@kaiser please post a pic of your old dog in Twitter. My favorite breed is Newfie and I’d love to see what the mix looks like.
I think this is probably a case of someone not doing their research. I’m a 3rd generation big dog breeder (Irish Wolfhounds) and have a soft spot for all large breeds, but there’s no getting around the fact that they’re generally not a good match for families with small children. This is especially true for first-time owners of these breeds. When you have a new baby or a curious toddler running around, it’s NOT the time to experiment and improvise training techniques, Even if you enroll the dog in obedience school or something like that, new/busy parents are unlikely to have the time and energy to reinforce that training at home. They should probably just stick to lazy lapdogs.
It could be that the dog is too big and possibly jumping or playing rough and a danger around the children. She clearly still has other dogs in the house so it’s not like pets are an inconvenience to her.
I imagine rehoming can be the best thing for the dog and the humans involved if done the right way and for the right reasons. However. This woman had no business getting a Rottweiler puppy in the first place. She’s clearly very busy, and has three young children and two other dogs. As others have said this breed requires a lot of training and firm boundaries. This – doesn’t seem like the home for a Rottweiler.
Nothing wrong with changing your name when you get married if you want to (I did). But changing it twice, divorcing twice (second marriage being very short), changing it back to your maiden name, then getting engaged again pretty quickly (and let’s be honest, probably gonna change it again)… I hope she takes some time to figure out who she is and what she really wants. She seems a lot nicer than her a-hole first husband, so at least there’s that.
I’ve heard plenty of horror stories about Rottweilers and toddlers, however all of them had to do with female dog’s instincts and not their training. (For instance, in one of them the dog tried to grab the baby by the neck as if they were a puppy).
This story makes this woman sound like an irresponsible dog owner, she either didn’t give the dog the attention and training it needed or she didn’t think it through before bringing the dog to a home with small children and other dogs.
She’s not my favorite, but sometimes dogs just don’t work with kids. I don’t know anything about rottweilers, but I have a rat terrier who is very very wary towards kids. I have to watch him and my three year old like a hawk because if the kid gets too aggressive or crazy around the dog, he growls and I am pretty sure will snap at her. Mom-ing is hard, so if she can’t watch her kids 100% of the time around the dog, I won’t judge. I respect her decision in rehoming the dog because it’s probably what’s best for her family and the dog himself.
Rotties are wonderful, affectionate dogs but they need a firm hand in training or they WILL run the household. My cousin and her husband had a wonderful rottie but they really spoiled him so visits with them would entail him leaping all over you (80 lbs of dog jumping on you is not fun), humping your leg, trying to grab food out of your hands, etc. It was exhausting, he was constantly trying to alpha male everyone. She did a stupid thing getting the dog but re-homing was the best option.
IIRC they had the puppy for a short time, she did a post that it was going away for training for 3 months, then the dog was never seen again.
I think the latest dog in the pics belongs to the latest fiancé.
I’ve never owned a Rottie but the ones I have been in contact with are sweet and obedient. I have a Border Collie mix that I got as a rehome from an employee of an animal shelter who took her in as a foster puppy and really trained her well in obedience and ended up adopting her. Three years later this lady rehomed her. I never asked why I just know I got a great dog that’s very friendly with people and is very obedient.
She is the worst.
These types of stories, of celebrities who make their pets a part of their brand/image on SM and then give them up are really unsettling. (see Lena Dunham, Chris Pratt & Anna Faris).
Regardless of the circumstances in which you adopted your pet, if you can’t care for them then the right thing to do is find them a good forever home. It can be a hard and painful choice, but if you are truly not capable it is the best thing you can do for them.
But this hand-wavy “We had to rehome them because we have kids, so sad. Byyyyeeee” and deleting all their photos on Instagram or whatever as a way to get people off your back doesn’t cut it.
I don’t think people should be shamed for ‘rehoming’ animals they can’t care for but I do think that if you’ve used your pet to market yourself on SM then you can do better by sharing the details of that experience and how you found them a new home so that others can learn from it.
But this is all assuming that their pet adoption wasn’t a fundamentally selfish endeavor from the get-go…
I hope her dog found a home that is better suited for him. I love Rotties but they need firm consistent training. Does anyone remember the children’s book series about the Rottie that watches/cares for the kids, “Good Dog, Carl”?