Sad Day...

Today the vet took our dachshund to put her down. :cry:

Long story short, we have been having issues for a while now with her being aggressive with our other dog and with the kids. It has escalated into several fights with the other dog causing harm, breaking skin, drawing blood.

We discussed the behavior with the vet, after the 2nd visit for our other dog to be stitched up, and he feels the behavior was headed in a dangerous direction.

After quit a bit of discussion, my wife and I decided it was the best thing to do to put her down. We sat down and talked to the kids about it last night. Our oldest is taking it the hardest. We told them to be sure to spend some time with her loving on her. My oldest would just hold her, sobbing uncontrollably and telling her he was going to miss her.

Such a sad day. I think this is one of the hardest things I've ever had to do in my life.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers.

Thanks!

I feel for you and your kids! I lost my German Shepherd to a similar situation (sickness leading to aggressive behavior) and it was one of the worst days I can remember.

I put my 13 year old lab down last May. Her heart was enlarged due to fluid. It was one of the hardest things that I had ever done. Time will heal, but I still think about my dog all of the time.

Sorry,

Donald

As far as suggestions go....We've got two Golden Retrievers and LOVE them to death. We live on a lake and they swim together daily and love riding in the pontoon (not allowed in the CC's)

Katie is my pup, going on 2 now, and spends every moment of the day with me. She gets to go to work, run errands, work out, go on vacation...the works. She weighs in about 35-40 lbs full grown and was bred to be a smaller, house dog. Our other golden is a little bigger, 45 lbs and 6 years old. She's the sweetest dog ever. Great with kids and extremely obedient. I've got 8 cousins under the age of 7 and the girls are great with them!   

I know you mentioned a smaller dog but for us, Katie is just the right size!

First Swim..

Sock Monster...

Katie as a pup and Gabby after a long day on the lake...

K8 loves her Duck..

Halloween Costume.

Okie I know how you feel. When I had to have our 13yr old German Shepherd put down it broke my heart. I said I would never get another dog as they become so much a part of the family. Especially when they grow up with your kids and there are so many family memories.

Well when the kids headed off to college the wife was feeling like a "empty nester" so I got a new puppy to cheer her up. Anakin the labradoodle.

He loves to come out in the boat and is a real chick magnet

Sorry about your dog Okie. We had to put down our mixed breed terrier "Jasper" last March. He had an enlarged heart and had been on meds for about a year and also had developed an oral tumor which was cancerous and had spread to his lymph nodes. I tried everything I could to keep Jasper around just a little longer. I even took that dog to a dog-oncologist to see if he would be a candidate for a new cancer vaccine that had proven successful in dogs with his type of cancer, but it had already spread to his lymph nodes and with his heart condition it was just not looking good for him... I was a mess when we had to put him down. I still get teary eyed thinking about him. It was like losing our first child, he had been around before we had our oldest and our three kids had grown up with him.
My wife swore that we were not going to get another dog... but after about 9 months without a dog, she started sending me pictures at work of dogs she was looking at at Petfinder.com. I went to "just look" at this one dog that was on petfinder and the rescue group was going to be at the Petsmart so I went up there to take a "look" at him and ended up bringing him home. While I was in the store, this lady came up to me and asked the dog I was adopting and asked me if I wanted another... So I took her business card and told her I would talk to my wife about it... I ended up getting that dog off of her the following week! She was a single mother with a busy schedule and the dog(Kobe) was in a cage most of the time... I couldn't leave him there after I had seen him. He was skinny from being caged up all the time and when I went to her house they had him in the cage and they were home!

Take your time in finding a new dog, make sure he is going to fit in with your family and living arrangements before you bring a new dog home. Be sure he has the temperament you are looking for. Petfinder.com is a great resource for rescue dogs. It's a great thing to be able to give one of these dogs in need a much needed good home, so be sure to check into a rescue dog before you go to a breeder. The nice thing about looking at them online is that you can learn about them and see pictures before you go and look at them which is good in my case since I want to bring home every dog I see that needs a home. I love dogs, I would probably have 20 of them if I could!



It took two dogs to fill the shoes (paws) of Jasper! They get along great and they are best friends. Our family is not complete without a dog.

I hope you can remember all the great times with your dog, and maybe find another dog someday to add to the family. Very sad indeed...


Jasper (RIP)



Jasper at his last Birthday Party (Not sure who was drinking that Coors light, wasn't me or Jasper!)



Bentley, He's a Brussels Griffon 2-3 years old,



Kobe, the PO said he was a Brussels mix also, but we think he is probably a Wheaten Terrier Mix. He is about 1 year old.

This is my dog Obie he found me all beat up in the ditch about 6 years ago he was about 30lbs then / 60lbs now so he was maybe 6-10 mos old at the time.
The puppy is 5-6 weeks old. Obie was sleeping and the puppy just crawl up on the bed with him.
My wife custom sews these dog beds anyway people want them.

We got the book Dog Heaven from the library and read it with the boys. It seemed to help some for them. Also, "Heaven" by Randy Alcorn has a section that talks about animals and the Biblical view, which is good for the situation.

Andy,
Somehow I missed this thread so excuse me for bing late.

I've had to do it twice so I know very well what you and you family went through. It's not easy because it's really loosing part of the family.

Pete...no worries. Very true. It felt weird coming home Friday night after my trip and no Shatzi.

John,

Yeah, it was really tough. I've talked to a lot of "dog experts" in the last week and they've unanimously said "You did the right thing". It helps knowing it was likely for the best but it still hurt.

Sorry about your dog....that sucks. We put down pour Lab a few years ago.Never easy.

We got a Labradoodle. It is a F1B, which is a Labreadoodle (1/2 and 1/2) bred to a a standard poodle. Has more poodle. Zero shedding, great disposition, travels well. A lot less work than a Lab! I miss my Lab, but with three kids, wide open, we just didnt think we could handle another Lab. No more daily vacuuming and no more getting ready to leave with the car packed, and the Lab comes walking up soaking wet, full of mud, carrying a carcass of some animal!

Here's some new pictures and a video. This dog seems like a great fit for us and we're really enjoying him. We've noticed that he tends to cower a fair amount when I discipline him, telling him no or whatever. Much more than if my wife does. My oldest picked something up last night and lifted it up (like you would do with a rolled newspaper) and the dog also cowered. We're wondering if he was treated harshly and that's why he was found in that barn in the first place. We'll work through that with a lot of love. You can tell he is really sensitive. I don't even have to raise my voice to him...a calm "NO" when he does something wrong is all that is needed.

My wife took him on a walk to get the boys from school the other day and he barked at one of the neighbor girls quite aggressively when she came up to pet him. We're not sure what that was all about. I talked to the parents last night and they are all going to come by for a visit to see him and we'll see if he reacts differently. He may have just felt uncomfortable or something. He didn't do the same thing to any of the other kids.

Any suggestions on helping him get over the cowering?

emccallum wrote: We got a Labradoodle. It is a F1B, which is a Labreadoodle (1/2 and 1/2) bred to a a standard poodle. Has more poodle. Zero shedding, great disposition, travels well.

Anakin is the same a labradoodle mother with a full standard poodle father. The zero shedding was what got us also. It sure is great to have a dog back in our lives.

Well, we've been adjusting to Schatzi being gone and loving Alvin (we're pretty much calling him Alvi). Our older dog, Missy, got another growth on her neck that is swelling, then oozing, then subsiding. We talked to the vet and we would have to cut that one out too. He fears Missy has cancer and that is what these growths are. He feels we would just keep cutting them off her and putting her through surgeries with a couple weeks of recoveries each time and he fears it's just going to get worse. As long as they don't break open we don't "have" to put her through that. She doesn't seem to be in any pain, so we're just "treating" this growth for now trying to decide what we're going to do.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. We have some tough decisions ahead of us.