the other day at the animal shelter I volunteer at a woman brought a st Bernard to be put down because it "almost" bit her brother I don't get that either the dog bites or it does not. one of the women I work with begged them to keep him alive the shelter agreed not to put him down immediately . Tomorrow I am going to find out if he was put to sleep or she found a rescue to take him in

you mean to tell me...
your dog has been in multiple fights, been thrown into a back yard with NO suppervission with a older dog who has been in a fight with him already, has killed a cat (again no suppervision) and was guarding it, is possessive over his bones, has attacked a dog with absolutly no warning and no reason, you have been given advice in the past and have not used it, and NOW you want to know if you should put him to sleep or not?
whew...where to begin...
IF you do decide to put him to sleep understand ONE thing. It's YOUR fault he is the way he is. Dogs need training and leadership..with out those things they become the leader of the house, destructive, aggressive, frustrated, and unsafe to be around.
AND WHY would you throw an older dog in the back yard with a BIG dog who has already attacked him before?
my advice...get on Craigslist and find him a new home who has the ability to own a large powerful dog, has knowlege about how to correctly train a dog, correctly correct a dog, and who knows how to be a leader in their family.

You obviously don't have the time or even the desire to train, correct, watch, or anything with your dogs.

BUT if you have a change of heart and WANT to fix this you can! it takes time..it takes training...and above all else it takes LOVE to fix this problem. and I don't see any of that based on your OP.

YOU'RE at fault here..and if you do decide to take that step..his blood is on your hands..i am going to go hug my ST. now.

 Quote: lisa brazeau

Last point, and then I'll shut up about it -

During agg evals, it is very common (in my experience) for the client to leave out the 'really troublesome' stuff about their dog (much like the OP in this scenario). Their opening statements usually go something like this -
"He's a really good dog. He's very loving. He just seems to have a problem with...."

They care about their dog, and want to frame them in a good light. I have to ask many follow up questions to really get the full scope of the aggression problem.

Point is, people tend to down-play (knowingly or unknowingly) the true extent of their dog's problems. So, usually, the problem is actually worse than the person is willing to express at the moment. (Like this OP)

This statement is *so* true that it should be a sticky on the forum!!

Just an observation - I get the feeling the OP exited stage left quite some time ago.....

I have (quite rightly) had my arse handed to me a few times on the board, sometimes I have been a bit stung, mostly in the early days of posting, but the longer I hung around the more I understood the validity of the comments, one time, a person who doesn't post any more, layed in to me suggesting I was running a puppy mill (??!!) which I thought was uneccesary and absurd, and I was considering running for the hills, but the majority of veteran posters have given constructive advice and opinions; I refrain from offering my own take on a subject because whilst I have had dogs for many years, I don't feel, as a relative newbie, it is my place to do so, I defer to those with more experience.

Of course, there will awlays be first time posters who don't get the reply they were looking for and go and find forums with a gentler touch; this forum, while at times formidable, is always brutally honest and on the side of the dog.

What ever the final outcome was regarding Griffey, I hope it was the right one for HIM.

Yes, I think she has too, although I think when you ask something like that on a board and people take the time to try to give the help you asked for, you should reply. But no I think she is gone also.