Lisa - I am so sorry for your loss.

Bob - in defence of shelters and rescues, Lisa had the dog since it was 5 weeks old, it was 2 years old, and these issues just surfaced this past summer after kids abusing it - I don't think most would be able to screen this at 5 weeks.

Lisa,

I know it doesn't help now, but you did the very best you could with a very bad situation. In this case doing the right thing is also the most difficult. If you are invovled with dogs for any lenght of time you will come up against one that you just can't fix. It is always heart breaking. You are right, the only thing that will make it better is time. The only thing that you may take comfort in for the future is that you did the best you could with a situation you didn't create.

Lisa, My sympathy to you and your family for your loss. I respect your decision and am sure it was an unfortunate last resort for you. As heavy hearted as you are, experiencing this hard and valuable lesson has promoted the safety of your children, which undoubtedly comes first. You have done what is right for you and your family. Take Care.

Lisa, My sympathy to you and your family on losing a K-9 family member.
Remember all the good times you shared, I know they outnumber the trying times you recently had.

Let's hope we never have have to make this so hard of a decission again. I dread the day that I have to do so to ease the pain my male GSD endures everyday.

Our prayers and thoughts are with you and your family.

Lisa,
First of all, let me say I am very sorry for your loss.
I am new to this board, and have up until now just been reading the posts, but I wanted to say something about this one. About 2 months ago, I had to have my six year old Chow mix Dakotah (also a rescue) put to sleep due to agression. She also had gotten to the point where she was turning on family members, as well as my other dogs.
She was a wonderful, smart, intelligent dog, but it seemed that when she turned 5, she started getting an attitude problem. No amount of training helped, and believe me I tried EVERYTHING.
Again, I am terribly sorry for your loss.

OK, I suppose I may not be going with the flow here, but I am not convinced that putting the dog to sleep was necessary here!!

1st, this behavior was new(3 weeks),and seemingly caused by other kids( not family) s/p teasing.I don't think that 3 weeks is enough time to have worked out an issue that the dog may have been dealing with. The dog was eating, and a child stepped in front of it. The dog's behavior was very likely defensive. I think that it most certainly could have broken the skin of a 4 year old if the dog meant to cause harm by attacking. It seems that the dog was warning the child in a dogs way to stay away.

As a mother of 4, youngest just 13 months, I too have had to wrestle with dog aggression and how to protect my children. My bitch Bella bit my 6 year old on the arm once when she was 6 mos. old, and left a bruise.THe dog was eating a bone and the child had reached down to pat her on the head. The dogs reaction was unacceptable, and I took steps to make sure that never happened again, BUT......I will tell you that my 1st gut reaction as a mother was to think that I had a vicious dog that had to be destroyed to protect my children and others. Had it not been 8pm on a weekend, who knows what I might have done...I talked to my trainer at lenght to come up w/ solutions to the behavior.

This brings me to my 2nd point.I feel that perhaps if this dog was not considered trustworthy anymore by the owner to be around children, then why not supervise the sitautions more closely, crate when not able to, and give the dog up for adoption to a home with out children.

As an adoption counselor for a rescue group, it is not unusual for me to see dogs that are not child receptive go to adult only homes with great outcomes.

Perhaps it IS wrong for me to second guess what Lisa felt she had no choice but to do, and I , as a mother , can see and understand the emotional factors that can cause a situation such as this to occur, BUT, I can't help but think that perhaps there was another way to go here.

I feel very bad for the children, who cannot understand anything but their loss.

The 12 pound child eater should have bee given away to someone with out kids. Dogs are not disposable. And yes I have a four month old daughter and if my dogs showed any agression towards her I would do my best to place them in homes without kids before putting them down.

Dogs are not disposable? You better talk to the US Humane society then, because they kill everyday. Healthy, safe, SANE, dogs. Reguardless of your feelings that the dog should be placed in another home without children, that is not responsible to do. Even in a home with people without children, they are EVERYWHERE. Case in point, I am staying in an all-adult neighborhood right now and in the last 7 days I have seen over a dozen kids all of which were not under parental supervision. If you can find a home where the dog will be kept in a bubble and the vet will come to them, then you have found the ideal home.... :rolleyes:

Unfortunately, the damage had been done but I will not let this turn into a bashing session for what Lisa had to do. On that note... this thread is closed.