When Should You Euthanize Your Dog for Aggression?

When should a dog be euthanized for aggression? Are some dogs dangerous enough that they must be put to sleep?
As trainers who are called in on aggression issues all the time this is a topic that we deal with frequently. Although most aggression cases can be fixed, there are times that due to the dog, the family or the situation itself euthanasia is the right choice. Whether you call it euthanasia, putting the dog down or putting them to sleep, this is a tough choice that is hard on the entire family.
Rehoming a dog can be a great option for some aggression cases, but not for others. If your dog has resource guarding issues and you have a baby in the home then rehoming could work extremely well. On the flip side, if you have a large aggressive dog that has attacked new people, finding the right home to continue his training can be difficult or impossible.
Follow our advice in the video to think through how much of a danger your dog is to yourself and others and then consider all of your options.
#dogtraining #dogtrainer

[@erinhardick4803]

What you said about the type of dog really makes a great point. When I told my daughter I was ready to get a dog she really wanted a pittie, at the time I was renting a house. I explained that there are some dogs that places will not let you have and we got into the whole discussion about even though a chihuahua may be more likely to bite the pittie is going to do more damage if it does bite and a lot of people/insurance companies do not want to take on the risk.

[@SuburbanK9DogTraining]

Insurance is a great point that we didn't discuss enough! There are a lot of breeds that are harder to ensure that can cause financial issues for people on a tight budget. Shopping for a new insurance company is never fun!

[@11tobago]

Hi just wondering if you have the podcast on Spotify or You Tube only? Many thanks for the great Channel watching from NZ 🐾🐶🙂

[@SuburbanK9DogTraining]

Hi Kerrie! We have all of our episodes on Spotify! We only post occasional episodes on KZbin so definitely check out our Spotify Page. The podcast is called Balanced Training With Suburban K9. Our episode that comes out tomorrow is on how AI is affecting dog training. It’s a fun one! Thanks for watching!

[@11tobago]

@SuburbanK9DogTraining amazing found it, thank you so much🙏

[@FantomOfFear]

Thanks for this conversation. I adopted a ~6 month old street chihuahua/pit/etc mix from Ensenada, Mexico who is now 4 years old and 30 lbs. I've worked with 3 trainers with a balanced approach and he guards many things including me and bites out of fear. He has bitten 10 people, which have escalated from level 1 to 3 (the last 3 bites were level 3) . All were to hands or lower legs. He's not hunting people down or able to kill anyone but he is still hurting people. I could muzzle him more and have obviously made some mistakes managing situations but I am quite diligant. The last bite was to my girlfriend and she wants me to put him down because he's too stressful to deal with and I am worried about the children we want to have in a couple years especially. I know this is limited info but what are your thoughts on this? I don't know much about drugs and it seems you guys aren't fans but I haven't tried meds which makes me feel guilty for having not "done everything" for him

[@SuburbanK9DogTraining]

Sorry to hear what you are going through. We are definitely not fans of putting a dog on medication before implementing a training, socialization and exercise plan. We call this a Lifestyle Adjustment Plan. If you have done all of that and still need help then trying medication as another option is definitely worth a try. Regarding your girlfriend, I would suggest getting her involved in training. If he starts to trust and respect her then the issues towards her should disappear pretty quickly. Fear of what would happen to future children is definitely reasonable, but if you want to continue training the dog I would and see what happens if you involve another person in training and consider medication. I am not sure if you are located close to any of our trainers but if you want another opinion we have a great team located in quite a few cities across the country. Let me know if this brings up any additional questions!

[@FantomOfFear]

@@SuburbanK9DogTraining​​⁠thank you for the quick reply! His BE is schedule for Saturday but is cancellable. My girlfriend is definitely not interested in doing anything with him now, if I keep him I have to leave her. Plus, I got him with my ex girlfriend and there were still problems with her even though she was involved in the training. Maybe I didn’t do as well as I could with training but I think even with more diligent training plus possibly a medication that works for him, I believe his issues won’t be 100% eliminated which still makes it difficult to have kids with him and continues to make it difficult to travel as it always has, etc. Even without the kids currently, i feel selfish about it but idk if it’s fair to myself to continue restricting my life, relationships, plus the liability of him biting someone (fortunately it’s all been people I know so no one has pressed charges) I will check out your trainers if I keep him, but still appreciate any further thoughts you have here

[@SuburbanK9DogTraining]

It is definitely a tough situation. Overall, I value human life more than dog life (although I LOVE dogs of course). Relationships are important and your happiness is important as well as the dog's life. If your whole life is on lockdown then you definitely need a change. My best advice is to dig deep and decide if you have given it your all. If you haven't then decide if you have more to give (time, money etc.). It may be worth trying medication and being 100% diligent with training for a set period of time to see how it goes. You could give it six months and see what results you can create in that time. If you create a set plan with a timetable then maybe you could get your girlfriend on board with trying this for a while. Overall, these are just thoughts without knowing you or your dog so please keep in mind that this is just a set of options. I don't know the true severity of the bites or the odds of fixing the behavior without know the dog and having a complete history. Please let us know if you have any questions or need some guidance.

[@FantomOfFear]

@@SuburbanK9DogTraining Thank you. I just went through with it. This is the worst I've ever felt in my life.

[@SuburbanK9DogTraining]

I am sorry to hear what you are going through Andrew. I know how hard this process is. Make sure to remind yourself of the good times you had and the effort you put into fixing the issues.