My family and I find ourselves in a difficult situation about our four legged family members.

Here it is, we have 3 dogs and have had them for years. We have a 5 year old St. Bernard-male, a 7 year old Golden Retriever-male and a 4 year old blond golden retriever-female. They have all been fixed.

The St. Bernard, Griffey, attacked my male Golden, Wrigley, about 3 years ago, over a fight of a bone. He was injured and was taken to the hospital and they drained his neck, packed it and was on medication. Is was very serious and expensive.

Then about a year and a half ago, my husband and I were walking the St. Bernard, Griffey, and came across a neighbor who was also walking his dog, a Golden Retriever, and we stopped and talked for a few minutes, when all of a sudden Griffey attacked his dog for no reason. He didn’t draw blood but it was quite scary and the owner of the dog was quite scared and upset.

We live on 1.5 acre lot and it is now fenced in because the only dog that would stay within the electrical fence boundaries was the olden Golden, Wrigley. He is a very gentle dog. The other two were going through the fence in order to chase deer, and they would be running the neighborhood, because of Griffey’s size, people would be scared of him. Accordingly, we put up a $4,000 fence to contain them.

Last evening, the dogs were outside in the fenced area and then they came up in the patio area where the pool is, my husband and I were inside, we heard Griffey’s attack growl and bark and new it was not good. When we got outside on the patio, Griffey had Wrigley pinned down at the neck and it was a fight. My husband was yelling/screaming/kicking Griffey to get his off of Wrigley and it just wasn’t working, he was finally able to pull his collar and I pulled Wrigley away and took him inside to inspect him for wounds. I cleaned him up, bathed him and he just has a couple of puncture wounds, nothing like what he received 3 years ago from Griffey.

My husband put Griffey in the pool house and began looking around the pool area, when he found a dead, full grown cat at the back door of the house, Griffey must have killed it and brought it up to the back door, and Wrigley must have gone to check out what it was, when Griffey attacked him.

Dogs chase cats, not kill them, cats are quick, quicker than a St. Bernard, unless I guess if the cat was sick. I know the cat could jump over the 4.5 foot fence with no problem, I just don’t know how Griffey was able to get it.

Anyway, with all the above being said, I want to put Griffey down. I’m not comfortable with the idea that this can once again happen. We also have 2 small grandchildren, my husband owns his own restaurant for over 25 years and is very busy, I work full time still and I just don’t want to have to worry about him attacking dogs, cats, people. My husband, on the other hand will agree to it, but I know he will be extremely sad.

What are your thoughts and or advice?

There will be a lot of great advise given here! My question is, are you willing to make changes to the way your dogs interact with each other and/or how you train and walk your dogs?
I don't think putting him to sleep is the only resolution to the problems that have arisen. I'm guessing some of the great experts will be posting after their work day is done.

If you're not comfortable, you're not comfortable.

It sucks that you didn't do more with a known aggressive dog and allowed 3 attacks to happen, but thats happened and done with.

I would say I agree with your decision, though. It just sucks all the way around, but I'm sure it is more multi-faceted than an internet posting could detail.

You have other dogs it isn't fair to. As far as I'm concerned, Grif doesn't get to be around ANY other dogs, people or children anymore for the rest of his life. There are fates worse than death, and social isolation is one, IMO. Obviously you aren't up to the task of being that proactive, so for the sake of others that may find themselves around Grif, this is probably best.

Just being realistic with the info given about the situation.

Some dogs do kill cats.

Some dogs resource guard. (dead cat, bone)

Very manageable situations.

To Kill a dog over the above issue is just not right in my book.

As Amy started to say... are you willing to change the way your dogs interact? Specifically, complete separation of the 2 male dog? (or isolate the Saint from both Golden's, period.) Do you crate, or kennel the dogs while you are not home? Complete separation is a pain, but it would ensure that your male Golden does not get attacked anymore.

While out on walks, are you ready to ensure that your Saint has 0 opportunities to meet/greet other dogs? This could mean chasing away loose dogs, or even muzzling your dog to extremely cautious.

It could mean a slight adjustment to they way you live your lives, but it would mean saving the life of your dog.

Did you find out who the cat belonged to? Were all 3 dogs out in the backyard? I can easily see 3 dogs being able to corner and attack a cat- even if full grown and healthy.
For me personally, this would be a better solution then euthanizing one of my pets.

I understand how traumatic it is to see your dog attacking another pet. I also understand how traumatic it is to see your dog kill a cat, or think he killed a cat.

I've been there. I had an American Bulldog who was a certified cat killer, a grizzly resource guarder, and nearly killed a smaller dog because he sniffed her pine cone.

The fact is that dogs DO kill cats. Cats are not always faster than dogs, and they're not always smart. It's a fact of life that predatory animals will kill other animals. If you can't accept that, then you shouldn't have any dogs.

The fact is that your St. B more than likely told your golden to back the F off and the golden, like so many I've known, was completely clueless or blatantly ignored the warning and was sorely beaten. That's an easy fix - keep the St. B away from the other dogs if you cannot be there to watch him. If you don't have enough time to set up a separate yard for him to not be pestered by your other dogs, then you shouldn't have any dogs.

The fact that your dog attacked another dog, and possibly killed a cat has NOTHING to do with your grand children or people. Your St. B sounds like a saint for sure, since he didn't turn around and teach your husband a lesson for screaming and kicking at him like that. Unless you left out the part where the St. B turned around and threatened your husband or you, I wouldn't even worry about your grand children. Keep the dogs separated when you cannot watch them, and you won't have any more fights. If you have no more fights there's no way your grand children can possibly stick themselves in the way and be hurt.

And another note - dogs do not attack other dogs 'for no reason'. There is always a reason. Perhaps your neighbors dog was giving him the hairy eyeball and your dog didn't like it. Perhaps your neighbors dog was posturing and no one noticed it. Regardless, don't ever say 'he did it out of no where' or 'he had no reason to'. Unless your dog is mentally ill, he had a reason. It's not his fault that you don't speak Dog so he can tell you why.

... dogs do not attack other dogs 'for no reason'. There is always a reason. Perhaps your neighbors dog was giving him the hairy eyeball and your dog didn't like it. Perhaps your neighbors dog was posturing and no one noticed it. Regardless, don't ever say 'he did it out of no where' or 'he had no reason to'. Unless your dog is mentally ill, he had a reason. It's not his fault that you don't speak Dog so he can tell you why.

This is not only an important point here, but may be a positive one too. Not seeing and understanding the pre-attack displays doesn't mean they don't exist. But thinking they didn't happen turns the dog into an unstable or vicious attacker in your mind.

Michael hit it on the head when he said how it sucks that even after you were warned, more attacks were allowed to happen.

It really does boil down to what every poster has said: Are you ready to change the way you live with this dog? Because right now, the other dogs don't have a pack leader protecting them, and this dog isn't being kept out of harm's way. It's up to you to fix it. If you aren't able to step up, then there may be nothing to do to keep the rest of the pack safe than PTS.

I'm glad you posted, BTW.

Thank you for all of your thoughts and/or advice. Wow, nobody sugar coats anything that's for sure. As a child, there was always a dog in our home, when it was sick, it was taken to the vet, fenced in yard, etc. There wasn't the resources that there are today that you can go to in order to educated about certain situations. My husband and I are responsible pet owners. They are cared for, loved, taken to the vet, they are chipped, etc. We also have 5 kids, with activities, and animals must adjust. They live in a very good home and they are loved. They are no longer crated, we could separate them, but it wouldn't be consistent, because kids come home, forget, or don't remember and they would be together. After the first time over the bone incident, they were isoldated for months, and then we gradually put them back together. It isn't that we are not up to the task of being proactive and diligent, but I work full time, my husband owns his own restaurant and our kids have things in their lives going on too.

I do not mean to insult or offend anyone here, but I am being proactive, more imporantly, I am trying to take some preventative measures so that no animal or person is harmed by Griffey.

Furthermore, we did research about getting a saint bernard, and nothing that we found indicated that they are aggressive, by nature.

We did take steps to change the way Griffey was in our home, after the first attack, he was isolated, went on walks with just us and was outside for periods of time with just himself, then the other incident occurred when we were walking him with the other dog.

We do live in a neighborhood, where other dogs behave and their owners are not walking down the streets chooing every animal away, etc. The dogs are on the leash, with their owners and they are not attacking people or other animals as they are walked.

Perhaps you could think about rehoming your other 2 dogs to give Griffey a better chance at keeping his life? Many people think about how to fix the problem with the dog that is instigating, but a good solution for him may be to stay. Given the circumstances, golden retrievers of any age have a much better chance of finding loving, caring homes, where you may be your St's only chance.
I didn't see any mention of people agression, so I wouldn't worry much about your grandchildren. Especially if there are no previous issues. I would be sure to keep high value items away from any dog when kids are present though. It's just responsible ownership.

No, we don't sugar coat things- our first and foremost concern is the welfare of the animals.

So with the preventative measures ideas we've offered, these are not feasible for you, and Griffey will be put down?