Dog Nearly Bites Friend - Urgent Advice Needed

[4zenuff]

My God...this thread has brought me to tears. I have a fear aggressive dog who is also named Roscoe. Although he is not a rottie, he had a lot of the same symptoms as the OP's dog.

I am SO thankful for this thread. I was once told by a trainer that my dog is a danger to society and should be put down. But it was a trainer from Petsmart that saw something special in my Roscoe and encouraged me. She offered her help for weeks before I even signed him up for official classes.

I make this post to say thank for this thread. My Roscoe is doing a hundred times better, but can be such a handful at times. There are times when I can get a little lazy on his training, but I won't anymore.

I will remember this thread and remember how things may end up if I stop or ease up on the training he so needs.

Again, thank you and Godspeed OP's Rosco!

[moondog]

Originally Posted by debbiej

... may I respectfully suggest that such a dog, even without proper training, does not have a proper temperament.

That's precisely where my thoughts on this have led me. In a different home, perhaps this dog could have been MANAGED safely, but his temperament was what it was. There are hundreds of neglected and severely abused dogs that have never threatened anyone as this dog did.

Originally Posted by debbiej

...and this decision was probably for the good of the breed.

Yes. Nobody got bit.

[poohbearsmom]

In my world, humans rank above dogs.

When will some of you realize it's OK to put a dog down? It is a SELFLESS act to take responsibility to the end, not a selfish one.

[Kev]

I to feel very sorry for this dog, I have no sympathy what so ever for Ckimba99. He/She had no business taking a dog in the first place. Has no business EVER having another one to ruin and then kill.

Ckimba99: You took a whole 20 minutes to make the decision to kill your dog. You are pathetic There are more than enough people on this board, myself included, that had to make that decision because our dogs were old and/or very ill. I did not put my girl to sleep because I was too lazy to get off my butt and help her through her issues and believe me, when a dog spends it's first year being beaten and neglected and half starved, there are some issues. We spent 8.5 years working through them. Julie and I agonized for a tad more than 20 minutes over the decision we made to PTS. We are still struggling with that decision and it was made to not allow her to suffer the pain of cancer. Yet you come here and get some very good advice and ignore it because you would rather talk about it than do anything about it and then when things didn't go your way by your rules you toss the poor dog away another disposable dog. DON'T YOU EVER, EVER, EVER GET ANOTHER ANIMAL YOU DON'T DESERVE ONE. In my opinion it should be you that was PTS.

[moz205]

Originally Posted by poohbearsmom

In my world, humans rank above dogs.

When will some of you realize it's OK to put a dog down? It is a SELFLESS act to take responsibility to the end, not a selfish one.

Absolutely poohbearsmom, but not for the sake of convenience or because the owner was neglectful or didn't take advice and get professional help other than phone calls and then ended up with a problem for which the easiest solution was to PTS.

[damp]

Originally Posted by Kev

In my opinion it should be you that was PTS.

Sorry but I fail to understand you sense of proportion! and common sense too for that matter!

[TrinaJ]

Originally Posted by poohbearsmom

In my world, humans rank above dogs.

When will some of you realize it's OK to put a dog down? It is a SELFLESS act to take responsibility to the end, not a selfish one.

I agree with you partly on this Elizabeth, Yes humans DO rank above dogs, but he did not make a selfless act, he didn't act at all and because of that "NON ACT" (no other words come to mind) the dog was pts. Had he taken the advice given my so many people here and taken the dog to training, socialised the dog etc things MAY have worked out differently for Roscoe. We will never know because he NEVER tried. I also find it hard to believe that he actually DID take the dog to the trainer in the end...but that's just me, i could be wrong, but i doubt it.

[TrinaJ]

Originally Posted by damp

Sorry but I fail to understand you sense of proportion! and common sense too for that matter!

I agree, Kev that part of your reply was not called for.

[zorro13]

Originally Posted by poohbearsmom

In my world, humans rank above dogs.

When will some of you realize it's OK to put a dog down? It is a SELFLESS act to take responsibility to the end, not a selfish one.

Ok, so you are saying, you are ok with this person's beginning and ending with this dog and you yourself are a breeder if I'm not mistaken????? This just gets better and better.

[Valentine]

My goodness this really sounds like what happened to me.

Ckimba.
DO NOT put him down!! YOU WILL REGRET IT!!! Trust me on this! It has been so long now since I had my boy PTS because of the SAME issues you have now! DON'T give up on Roscoe!!

People of RDN, stop telling her she failed!! She DID NOT FAIL, she stumbled and needs to pick herself up off the ground and try again! He is a young dog and still very trainable!

Now ME, I failed. I slept in on my boys ONE chance to save his life and for that he suffered from being muzzled all the time on walks, he had NO freedom because of my stupid actions! He ended up getting so tense from not being able to have the freedom he had all his life that he bit my roomate!

You did not fail him. He is not dead, nor is he deemed dangerous by your city! You have alot of options and you need to stop procrastinating!

Have him neutered, that is the first step to saving his life. YOU, the owner, the provider, and the protector of Roscoe need to take the lead and show him that YOU are the boss and YOU decide if/ when to "attack"...YOU call the shots, not him.

Please don't give up on him. I still shed a tear almost everyday thinking of my boy...I miss him so much

I failed hon....you still have a fighting chance...


Cree

[Valentine]

I just re-read the last page....I can't believe you did it...20 mins (it took me 2 months)....why....OMG I feel so sad now....


RIP Roscoe

Ckimba,

YOU DID FAIL Please never get another rottie, you don't deserve it

[Anne]

Originally Posted by Valentine

Ckimba.
DO NOT put him down!! YOU WILL REGRET IT!!! Trust me on this! It has been so long now since I had my boy PTS because of the SAME issues you have now! DON'T give up on Roscoe!!

People of RDN, stop telling her she failed!! She DID NOT FAIL, she stumbled and needs to pick herself up off the ground and try again! He is a young dog and still very trainable!

Cree

Afraid you're way too late Valentine. The dog was euthanised 4 days ago.

I do not believe that this was a selfless act at all. Ckimba had plenty of opportunity to actually DO something and train this dog. He/she did nothing.
To call this a selfless act is to devalue the life of the dog or any dog really.

We don't know anything about this dog or it's temperament, we only know what we've been told by the owner who took no action in training his/her dog.

My sympathy is with this poor dog who never had a chance and I truly hope this person will never get another dog.

[lengel]

I so appreciate the concerns being expressed here but the deed is done. Ckimba has his regrets. The entire situation is tragic but the decision has been made.

I am asking that the readers of this thread redirect their energies to other people on this site. In particular new "parents" who, in my opinion, need help. Please visit other forums like Puppy Development and Vets Corner and give new owners your experienced opinions on a regular basis. Newbies need your help so that this kind of thing has a fighting chance of not happening with other participants here.

Thank you.

[poohbearsmom]

Originally Posted by zorro13

Ok, so you are saying, you are ok with this person's beginning and ending with this dog and you yourself are a breeder if I'm not mistaken????? This just gets better and better.

Yes, I do breed. What on Earth does this have to do with Ckimba's situation? Did he buy the dog from me?

I have no doubt that Ckimba loved his dog beyond words. Ckimba has already admitted that he is quite young to be taking on the responsibility of dog ownership. If you will read through the posts, I strongly pushed Ckimba to seek the help of qualified trainers/behaviorists, and actually gave him contact names.

After some months, Ckimba comes back. The dog's behaviors have obviously escalated, and Ckimba understands now why this happened.

Bottom line, this was Ckimba's dog. It was his responsibility to do what was necessary to ensure that no one got hurt by this dog. He did what was right for HIM. There is NO shame in that whatsoever.

In my life so far, I have put down 3 dogs that looked perfectly healthy on the outside, but were NOT healthy in the brain. (No, zorro, I didn't breed them, either!) It hurts like hell, but it is one responsible choice to make. I would do it again if the situation called for it. Digging holes is not what I call fun on a Monday afternoon.

It's awfully easy to cast stones folks. Think about the true ramifications if Ckimba had simply chosen to pawn this dog off onto someone else, or if he'd totally ignored the situation. I'm reasonably sure that if the dog was wired correctly to begin with, things would not have gotten so far out of hand for him.

Get off your soapboxes folks and put your pitchforks away. Sometimes humane euthenasia is not a bad thing. We're all human. Humans make mistakes. At least Ckimba appears to be learning from his.

[fostermom]

Originally Posted by zorro13

Pretty darn easy to evaluate this one. Let's see, put down food bowl and water bowl and watch rottie grow up. Do nothing....watch problems compound unto themselves, ask others for help/suggestions/treatment plan, make phone calls, DO NOTHING, then decide dog is not wired right, then kill dog.

Exactly.
Perhaps, IF SOME EFFORT HAD BEEN MADE TO WORK WITH THIS DOG, it's "issues" would still have mandated euthanasia....but the owner will never know (or care), because it's easier to just say the dog was wired wrong, blame it on the breeder and dispose of the "problem".