I am willing to look and do what I can before we resort to something like putting him down. How can I usually go about finding someone specialized in working with dogs like that?

Even though I’ve told my mom that I feel like the best option for the sake of everyone’s safety would be to humanely put him down. It would be extremely hard for me, and everyone, especially my mom. I’ve recently had a cat put down because she was suffering from a miserable disease, and even then, I felt tremendously guilty, like I did the wrong thing, or took the easy way out, I guess.

Thanks again.

I am extremely uncomfortable around dogs. My mom’s dog, who is 11 this year, is one of the most frighteningly aggressive dogs I have ever been around. I grew up being afraid that he would bite me. He was the first dog I’d ever had and the only dog I grew up with.

When he was young, he was pretty good. We would take him on wailks and he was well-behaved. This is something I’d say was always positive about him, and even today, he can behave on a walk. I would occasionally give him a bath and brush him.

Somewhere, though, he changed. He began to hate baths so much that he would lunge at my mother and not let go if she tried to bathe him. He would become aggressive if you even attempted to brush him. The vets had to administer general anesthesia when we were finally able to take him to get groomed.

What scared me was about 10 years ago, my little brother was petting him, and he lunged and bit him in the face. He narrowly missed my brother’s eye. Since then, he had become so destructive that we cannot leave anything out. If we try to take anything from him, he will attack us. He has bitten every single member of my family and my boyfriend. I have a scar where he bit me when I was petting him.

A couple of months back, he got out when he wasn’t supposed to, so my boyfriend and I went to go get him. My boyfriend patted his knee and called forhim, and then the dog lunged at my boyfriend and snarled, chasing him through the house and finally getting a hold of his leg. I could not stop him. I was so scared I started crying. We did nothing but try to call him over and he just went berserk.

My mother does not think he is dangerous. I literally do not have people over anymore because I am afraid he will bite them, too. I have told her that I am too scared to try to take him to dog training or dog obedience school (he hates cars), and so she tells me to just deal with it, and that considering euthanesia is cruel. But I think it’s crueler to put your family and other pets at risk. He can be nice sometimes, but as he’s gotten older, the times when he’s nice are outnumbered by the times he’s aggressive and destructive.

I am very sorry you have to make such a hard decision. I believe I would make the same choice if I were in your shoes. It sounds to me like you are doing the right thing. Take care.

Thank you for your story. I am a multiple pet household and took in a dog a year ago that my vet thought might be ferrel. I have been in denial of this and just thought she was abused and that my patience, love, training and routine would change her. She was not a puppy when we got her but young enough that I thought she could change. All my dogs and cats have been rescues. Sadly I will be taking her to the vet tomorrow to be euthanized. She has not bit me, but has jumped our fence and aggressively gone after children, my other dogs, our visitors and has killed one of my cats. The hardest part for me is that I feel like I failed her. She is sweet towards me but does not always trust me. I have cried for several days, but do know this is the best for my other pets (especially my senior dog) and my neighbors.

And for Peggy;

The dog that I have been talking about is an 85 pound Akita mix. She will not go into a car, under any circumstance. I had asked my vet to come out to the house to do this; he was not comfortable with that just in case anything went wrong. He gave me a frequently used sedative, you may want to ask your vet about it when the time comes.

Thanks to all the understanding people on this website; it is a very difficult and gut wrenching decision to make. No one should be so easily to judge others until they can walk a day in their shoes.

Can she see a vet if she wears a muzzle?