hi everyone, hope some of you can put my mind at rest. I live in a small country village with my 2 rotts, 1 cavalier and up until 20th april a beautiful Neapolitan mastiff bitch. My house has a long drive with huge wrought iron gates, my neo had always taken her guard duties seriously, but some local yobbo kids had sometimes screeched down to my gates to wind her up by shouting and throwing stones. i had on numerous occasions told them to clear off. "kira" loved kids and all people particularly when we had a visitors, but she grew increasingly fed up with these 2 idiotic kids. On the evening of 20th april my hubby and me went for a walk with her and one of my rotts, when these 2 kids sped past on their bikes and stopped right by her side.  kira jumped up and bit one of the kids on the arm but immediatley let go and looked quite sheepish ( both dogs were on leads). the inury was quite deep and was bleeding. to cut a long story short, my vet said she was not ill, so we decided after lots of thought to have her put down late that night because of what she did. the child is fine, his parents actually apologised for his behaviour and said that they wished she had not been put down. we did feel that we would never 100% trust her again, and would she have done it again?? we will never know. I have spoken to behaviour experts who said even they may not have been able to totally help her and she would have been muzzled whereever she went, she would have hated that.  we miss her so much, and we know she adored her family, maybe she was protecting us that night as well.  did i do the right thing? i have been called a callous bitch by someone for putting her down. we are torturing ourselves thinking we were too hasty. please help me come to terms with her death, i cry as i write this??  i loved her so much.       thanks xx helen

Hi Helen,
I feel desperately sorry for you to have been put in this awful situation. Please don't blame yourself - you did what you believed was the best, and the right, thing to do. It might never have happened again, but on the other hand it might, with worse consequences. The 'not-knowing' is awful, isn't it? Please try not to blame yourself.

I'm so sorry to hear your sad news :( I agree with what JG has said entirely. You made what you felt was the right desicion at the time, and I think it was a brave and responsible person who made such a hard desicion. Remember Kira in happier times, and please stop beating yourself up over this.

liberty

so sorry to hear of your sad loss I don't have the words to offer you :( I know many years ago we had a lab called sandy who bit my brother we were just kids at the time ,my dad broke his heart as she took her to the vets and I can always remember my mum crying and saying we coudn't keep her , up until then she was the best dog ever we both have many happy menories of sandy ...so so sorry your in pain x

Guest,
You did the right thing for the right reasons. Cant do anymore than that!

Best wishes.

Sometimes we have to make awful decisions and that's certaainly true in you case. I don't think anyone has the right to say you did the wrong thing I certainly wouldn't judge you.

                                                                                                     Anne

Helen

I feel for you - it is heartbreaking to have to put a young dog to sleep in these circumstances - I have been there too - and 2 years on I still cry over him. But I firmly believe noone has the right to tell you what you should do in these circumstances - you are the one who knows the dog and you are the one who is responsible for what she does - and who has to live with the uncertainty. We did that for 6 months (his attacks were illness related and against us) hoping we could make it alright - but in the end we chose our own safety. He may have improved eventually - we can't know (his illness was not curable but was being partially treated). But we couldn't live with the risk. We were also blamed. His breeder hasn't spoken to us since. But he died in our arms with dignity not in the hands of the police or strangers - another possible future had he bitten outside the family. The world is not forgiving towards dogs that bite - whatever the provocation - I know of one who was tied down, muzzled and his legs were bound together before he was put to sleep, another who was euthanised while being held against a door through a cat flap (he had gone beserk in a house and they couldn't get near him). We could not risk that for him. His last moments were peaceful and loving - I hold on to that though I miss him terribly.

You did what you felt was right. It is natural you feel guilty - you are bound to. That doesn't mean that you are. You acted out of love not anger. You can never know what the future may have held - but remember it may have been a child being badly hurt by her as much as her never biting again.  Let yourself grieve for her. Ignore those who were not there and have no right to judge. And remember her as the beautiful dog she was who loved you and your family.

Take care
Janet