Euthanizing A Dog That Bites

taterz

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#1
I breaks my heart to read stories like this. http://petregale.com/euthanizing-aggressive-dogs/

I have had dogs all my life and never had an aggressive one. Nothing but sweethearts.

My parents had an agressive dog after I moved out but the situation never became so dire that they had to put him down. They were afraid for their safety a few times when he got scared during things like thunderstorms or fireworks. He would act that way out of fear so it was a different situation.

They knew just to leave him alone and to toss him a treat with a sedative in it that the vet prescribed to help him relax.

I hope none of you have had to deal with a truly dangerous dog. I know that if it happened to me it would be too much for me to handle. I pray that I would be able to make the right decision.
 

JacksonsMom

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#2
My childhood German Shepherd Sadie had to be put down at 4 years old after attacking someone who came into our yard.

We tried to manage her to the best of our ability but it wasn't enough. There had been signs for a while. She started growling at neighbors etc. Then we could eventually no longer have people over our house without locking her up. She bit an uncle. Then she tried to bite one of my friends (I was 13 at the time). Then she bit my step-moms dad.

At home she was great with just us. She loved my at the time new born brother. She was MY dog through and through. She was very over protective of me. We trusted her 100% with our immediate family. It was just... everyone else.

One day she had gotten outside and we did not even know it. The worker came to our house to fix our air conditioning and she charged him. Gave him 4 puncture wounds. He actually felt terrible that he had to call AC but since he was on the job, he had to. AC came and I think they had given my dad the option to save her but I guess because of the severity of the wounds she inflicted, there was major rules, like always muzzled, had to be in a certain size pen outside etc, I don't recall the specifics since I was young. I think my dad just figured at this point it was more humane to put her to sleep. He had already went to jail for her the year prior (we had idiotic neighbors who claimed she barked all night which was not true, she was in my room every night, and my dad installed cameras to prove otherwise, but they sent in so many complaints to the courts that my dad had overlapping court dates and a police officer came to our door to arrest him. Yeah. True story.) So I think at this point he was just done. lol

It was my first day of high school at a brand new school in a new city and I came home to my dog dead. Most of my old neighbors were all "good riddance" when they heard but god I loved her. I bawled my eyes out for days. My dad felt guilty. My stepmom felt guilty because she had let her out by accident. It was a horrible horrible experience that I never wish upon anyone. It sucks to love a dog so much yet have no one else understand or see how you could love "such a beast".
 
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#3
If you're around dogs for long enough I think the odds are bound to catch up.

My parents pro-actively euthanized their foster under really awful conditions because family situations basically made it a matter of when, not if, she bit somebody.

My very first private client as a trainer was a puppy that the owners ended up euthanizing because she had 3 severe bites, needing medical attention, under her belt at 4 months old.

It sucks. Not all dogs that bite are bad dogs. And a bite is not a bite is not a bite. Every situation is different. In many cases, euthanizing is absolutely the best course of action for everyone involved, dog included. But it's always heartbreaking.
 

Beanie

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#4
There are absolutely people here who have had to make that call.

It sucks. Not all dogs that bite are bad dogs. And a bite is not a bite is not a bite. Every situation is different. In many cases, euthanizing is absolutely the best course of action for everyone involved, dog included. But it's always heartbreaking.
Quoted for truth.
I subbed a class for another teacher once and ended up having the conversation with one of the students. She had not elaborated to the other teacher what was happening and the other teacher didn't ask the questions either (when the student first asked me about it, I thought she was asking about a very mild issue, but when I started asking questions I found out it was far far worse.)
The absolute worst conversation I have ever had with a client. There were children involved which made the situation even worse. I sent her to a vet I trusted to be thorough and honest to make sure there wasn't something medically going on. There was not.

Sometimes it really is a great gift to release a dog from their demons.
 
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#5
One of my childhood dogs had to be put down due to aggression with ... everyone. There was no one he was safe with. He was a pet store purchase, a jack russell / beagle mix, and the cutest thing you ever saw. But something was definitely not right with that dog.

My parents had him euthanized prior to one year of age, and in the entire time we had him, none of us could handle him. I mean not one person in the family could put hands on him. It was nuts.

In retrospect, I can't believe my parents kept him around as long as they did. The final straw was a fairly serious attack on my youngest brother who was about 5 years old at the time. Completely unprovoked. As always.
 

amberdyan

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#6
We had to put down a few aggressive dogs at the shelter but one really stood out. His family didn't have the heart to euthanize him, they kept him for over a year but he was just insanely aggressive with EVERYONE the woman who had raised him. She met a guy and he moved in and they couldn't handle it. He would be laying across and the room and the guy would move and he would just go for him. I guess he bit (left bruises) multiple times before he bit and left punctures and tearing and they decided he had to go to the shelter. We warned them that he would be euthanized and she just said she couldn't have it done herself. It sucked because he was insanely stressed out and just monstrously freaking out. It was really sad.

I definitely feel like it was the best thing for him though. I can't imagine what life was like for him. Muzzling him didn't keep him from lunging and freaking out so she couldn't really take him anywhere. He was turned away by 5 different private trainers.
 

RD

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#7
One of my childhood dogs was euthanized due to aggressive behavior that my family didn't know how to control. He was a very large, dangerous dog with some feral or wolfy lineage and my parents and the vet decided that he wasn't safe to keep (we lived on a remote cattle ranch, it was about as ideal a place for a dog as it was possible to be) or to rehome. The vet speculated that something was wrong with his brain due to some of his behavior. He was my 4H dog and he was really awesome until he just wasn't. Never showed aggression to me. I wish I'd have known more about dog behavior back then. I think we could've saved him had we known how to approach his attitude.
 

smkie

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#8
There was a lab at the kennels when I was a teen working there that had bite a young woman, doing severe damage to her breast. They didn't have the heart to pts either, or turn over, instead they put him in a wire and concrete cell where he spent the rest of his life, there are worse things than death.
 

Dekka

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#9
Sometimes it really is a great gift to release a dog from their demons.
I had to fight with the JRT rescue to have a dog I was fostering euthanized. It was such a weird and hard thing to fight for. But this dog had demons. He was clearly not comfortable in his own skin. He hated men with a passion. We tried to get him slowly to associate males with great things. He got to the point he would accept food from my then husband. However once the food was gone it was like he would 'wake up' to the fact there was a man their and lose his mind.

He had been great with kids and then one day he woke up and hated Darien (who was maybe 5 at the time) I know for a fact nothing happened. This dog was so athletic and aggressive there was no chance Darien would have had any alone time with him. Now when he saw a child he did the same thing as when he saw a man, snarling, snapping attacking the crate in a frenzied way. It was very hard to watch.

The hard part was that with me he was the sweetest dog ever. Happy and physically healthy. At first the rescue was like we could adopt him to a lesbian couple with no kids. I had to explain that this dog could do swimmers turn off walls at my chest height, he chewed through leashes and tethers, he dug. There was no way this dog could be safely restrained long term without locking him up. Even if you found a man hating lesbian couple who didn't like children, this dog would eventually get out and attack someone. Assuming he didn't wake up one day and decide all humans were scary.

Poor Sammy, I still think of him.
 

DJEtzel

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#10
I came close to this decision with a foster dog in June. 8 mo old puppy that would turn into cujo if you tried putting him into a crate, or left him in any sort of containment (car, pen, etc) or if he thought you were going to try to do any of those things.

After expending all resources in about a week, being bitten and cornered in my own home many times, and some very close situations in the car, it came time
to either highly medicate or euthanize. Thankfully a friend stepped up to do some really awesome e collar work with him and within about 4 days, that problem was a safe problem and he was able to be placed.
 

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