| How do I know when his behavior is beyond correcting?
You may have seen my previous posts about Sampsons regression in behavior and our vets advice that his illness has progressed to the point we should consider putting Sampson down. I am having such a hard time making that decision. It seems I am the only one, though. My husband and the vet are convinced it needs to be done. Sampson has always been so mellow and has never so much as nipped at anyone (once he outgrew the puppy nips that is). In the last 2 weeks he snapped at my husband when he reprimanded Sampson for stealing food. I did not see this happen, but Mike said that Sampson also snapped at our 2 year old son for no reason. Justin was sitting near Sampson watching TV when he said Sampson made a move to bite his arm. Thank God it didn't happen since Justin moved at just the right time. Believe me I would never condone that behavior and it upset me to the point of taking him to the vet. The vet said he is 100% convinced that Sampson's illness has progressed to the point that he his behavior can not be trusted and that he will become more and more unpredictable. I don't want to take any chances but I am so afriad that we are giving up on him. The decision would be so easy for me if I could see that Sampson was in obvious pain. The vet says he must be uncomfortable to show the behavior change. It's just so hard for me to see. I look at him and he is happy and still pretty energetic for a 6 1/2 year old. It's hard for me to see my sweet guy as a dog who may turn on us. He has always been called the gentle giant by our neighbors. I know part of this is denial on my part since I can't bear the thought of losing him. I just worry that we are giving up too soon. What if going back to school and working harder on training would help. Am I making excuses here? Am I just in total denial? How do I know when his behavior is beyond help? I worry that we have failed him in some way. Has anyone else ever been in this position?  |