I just thought I would share this here as all of you will I'm sure understand...

I just started a new job as a dog walker about a month ago. I take out between 5 - 9 dogs, go out hiking offleash for two hours, and then drop them off back home. Each dog has a book that I take and write in - where we went that day, how the dog was, anything I notice in particular.
One dog who I walk a couple times a week, Milton, is about 2 and has been through 4 or more homes, and through the SPCA many, many times. His current owner was having problems with fear aggression, and he'd gone through a few different trainers who'd dismissed him as too aggressive. My boss took him on and quickly found that he wasn't aggressive at all, he's just an overgrown puppy who's all over the place, and his owner was transmitting her fear to him and making him nervous, and therefore react to certain situations. Also, once when he'd been walking with a different walker, he'd nipped at a person riding by on a bike.
So last week Friday, I was out hiking with him and a jogger went by. Milton lunged at the lady and nipped her. I'm not even sure he made contact with her, and she was completely unhurt. However, this was obviously behavior that needed to be worked with and corrected, so when I dropped him off, I wrote about the incident in his book, and then I talked it over with my boss later that day. She was concerned that it might be "the last straw" for Milton's current owner, and that she might send him back to the SPCA. I hoped this wouldn't happen as I like Milton a lot. He's a huge dog but a big suck and very happy go lucky. He seems like he wouldn't hurt a fly.
Anyway, I just got an email from my boss saying she just got off the phone with Milton's owner, and the owner had him put down over the weekend because of "the incident". I cannot believe this. I thought at the most she would find him a new home, which would be unfortunate enough as he has gone through so many. But putting him down!? No way in the world that he deserved this. I feel a bit responsible as "the incident" (the latest one) happened under my watch.
I just needed a place to rant...Poor Milton...I can't believe I won't be seeing his big goofy grin ever again.

I'm sorry to hear this happened.

Just wanted to say I was in a similar situation. I worked with the local animal shelter (the city's "SPCA") and there was a Rottie mix who was very fearful, but once you earned her trust and showed her what was expected of her, she was one of the most wonderful dogs - very pretty at that. She was noted to have potential dog-dog aggression due to this fear and was put into the adoption program to give her a chance because the shelter staff fell in love with her after also earning her trust.

Her name was Sasha and after working with her for about a week, she was adopted by a family who lived out in the suburbs in a neighborhood that allowed dogs to run around off-leash.

2 days after Sasha's adoption, an email was sent out to the volunteers who were involved with Sasha's care when she was in the shelter. We all found out Sasha was put down for dog-dog & human aggression per shelter policy. Sasha's new owners didn't want to lose their new dog like they did their previous (ran away), so they kept her on a leash. Wanting to socialize her in hopes of getting her acquainted with everyone in the neighborhood, they took Sasha out to meet other dogs who were OFF-leash and roaming around.

(The adoption process at the shelter is quite lax - come in, fill out an application, pick a dog; leave with dog. Dog barely knows their new owner.) Naturally, Sasha felt threatened by all the new dogs and people. From what I heard, she was surrounded by dogs and people. Had the owner noticed she had NO escape route when that was what she needed most before she was forced to resort to the "fight" response, Sasha would still be alive. Sasha attacked an off-leash dog out of pure fear, rendering mild damage. The owners were shocked and reprimanded her on the spot; she turned on her owners too.

She was immediately returned to the shelter; and because regardless of the situation that caused her aggression, she did in fact bite both a human and another dog. The owner of the injured dog intended to pursue charges against Sasha owner if Sasha was not put down.

Everyone knew she was wrongly put to death; but policy could not be changed for one dog. I just wish she could have been an exception to the rule. The staff literally had NO time to find a rescue group to save her. I'm not sure about this, but I think another, more suitable dog was adopted out to the family because Sasha "didn't work out". If it were up to me, I wouldn't allow it.

Everyone at the shelter absolutely loved Sasha. I personally loved Sasha because she was a mini-Rottie. Perfect size for me. I think she was a rottie/lab mix because her head had Rottie features to it, but more the look of a lab's block head. Haha. I miss her.

Ugh... these stories really suck... poor dogs. Such a typical overreaction. Don't get me wrong, I'm all for euthanasia if the dog is truly a threat and has incidents where it has actually bitten / mauled a person or another dog out of pure aggression and it has taken physical force to get the dog to stop... but a playful nip as a bike cycles past??? come on!

That sounds like quite a natural reaction for a young pup that lacks proper training... a bit of time and effort to correct the behavior probably would have sufficed. The worst part of all is the "double standard" - I've seen poodles attacking large dogs and pugs biting children's legs but everyone seems to think it's "cute" or "pretending to be tough" until the moment a large dog tries anything HALF as bad... then it's the lethal injection. It's so unfair. *sigh*

That is just awful but sadly happens over and over again all around the world. I wish more people who took dogs on would be responsible and perhaps they should all watch Ceasar Milan and see the good work he does for the dogs.