Putting your Dog Down

[goat]

For those GSD owner's that have had aggression issues/bad bites, etc, what was the final straw for you to decide to put your dog down?

Was it once incident, many?

[Emoore]

This wasn't my dog, it was a foster female German Shepherd. Everybody in this poor girl's life had failed her and she was a bag of issues. She couldn't be left alone without destroying the house, couldn't be crated without seriously injuring herself, and she was fear aggressive. She had a particular fear of men's feet.

She was lying in a corner of the dining room, apparently asleep, and one of our friends walked by. She lashed out faster than anyone could see and latched on to his pant leg. We figured maybe she had been startled out of a sound sleep and besides, she didn't get flesh so we continued training. At this time we were also working with a behaviorist trainer on her being left alone issue and her aggression issue. The final straw came when the exact same thing happened again. She was lying in a coroner of the room when another friend walked by. This time she bit his leg and broke skin.

There was nothing we could do at that point. She couldn't be crated, couldn't be left alone, and had a bite history. The rescue can't in good conscience adopt out a dog like that, so we made the choice to put her down. I took her to the vet's myself and held her as she died.

[msvette2u]

Has your dog bitten again??

[Stella's Mom]

Last week during one of our Shutzhund chats with fellow members, our VP mentioned that he has worked a lot with military and police folk. He said that one of the military members said that sometimes some dogs are just meant to take a bullet. It sounds so harsh and so sad, but in reality some dogs can really hurt someone and are as dangerous as a loaded gun.

What would make this even worse, is if the dog was good, but was abused by the former owner, thereby making the dog fearfully aggressive.

[Stella's Mom]

Originally Posted by Emoore

This wasn't my dog, it was a foster female German Shepherd. Everybody in this poor girl's life had failed her and she was a bag of issues. She couldn't be left alone without destroying the house, couldn't be crated without seriously injuring herself, and she was fear aggressive. She had a particular fear of men's feet.

She was lying in a corner of the dining room, apparently asleep, and one of our friends walked by. She lashed out faster than anyone could see and latched on to his pant leg. We figured maybe she had been startled out of a sound sleep and besides, she didn't get flesh so we continued training. At this time we were also working with a behaviorist trainer on her being left alone issue and her aggression issue. The final straw came when the exact same thing happened again. She was lying in a coroner of the room when another friend walked by. This time she bit his leg and broke skin.

There was nothing we could do at that point. She couldn't be crated, couldn't be left alone, and had a bite history. The rescue can't in good conscience adopt out a dog like that, so we made the choice to put her down. I took her to the vet's myself and held her as she died.

This is so sad. At least she had you there to hold her in the end.

[gsdraven]

Originally Posted by Emoore

She was lying in a coroner of the room when another friend walked by.

This slip made me giggle a bit.


Luckily, I haven't had to make that kind of decision yet.

I think the decision needs to be based on many things. One bite should be all it takes before you do EVERYTHING in your power to make sure it never happens again. If you can't keep your dog and others safe, then euthanization may be a consideration.

[goat]

Originally Posted by msvette2u

Has your dog bitten again??

no msvette, just wondering how some dog owners handle such a tough decision.

[msvette2u]

I'd never put a dog down for what your dog did...it could really be considered a provoked bite.

Has he been to the vet to see if he's got painful areas? Did you ask your vet's opinion on the bite?

Your dog sounds like a stable dog that just got tired of the kids' liberties with him.

He's not an unstable wreck. In our case, we've euthanized for aggression only when the dog's overall picture is one of instability, when the dog is overall a problem, not just for one bite or nip.

And rescues are a much different story than owned dogs. I was bitten by a foster one day when taking ahold of the back of her collar (something you should be able to do in most cases). I knew that if her new home (hadn't had interest in her yet) didn't do that particular thing, she'd probably not bite - but I also knew that we could not guarantee she'd never experience that again, and I knew I could not guarantee she'd never be around kids.
I took her to the vet and showed the vet the bite, and she agreed.

Had it been my dog, it would have been an entirely different story but rescues/fosters must be held to a higher standard than owned dogs.

[Josh's mom]

Only once did we have a problem with this. We had a male dalmatian a couple of decades ago. He had kidney problems to start with so not in the best of health, he started acting weird toward me while I was pregnant with #2 daughter. He bit me a few times while I was putting down his food. Then he bit a girl who came in our front yard to pet him. After our daughter was born, when she was learning to crawl and toddle around he used to growl at her whenever she was on the floor. She could be across the room , nowhere near him and he'd still be growling. That was the last straw, and the vet agreed, better to put him down than risk my daughters life.