You’ve tried trainers, behaviorists, management and meds but your dog is still aggressive and biting people. At this stage, behavioral euthanasia is recommended. But it’s a taboo topic. As trainers, we want to be able to “fix” all behavior problems and sometimes owners are distraught because they feel they could-or should-have done more. And there aren’t many resources available to help the dog owners who have made that choice. One of those support groups is Trish McMillan’s “Losing Lulu” facebook page.
But the truth is, sometimes dogs just aren’t hardwired correctly. They can have mental issues just as humans do. Dogs get stressed out in a shelter and react. Unfortunately, many shelters don’t have the resources to provide the care these dogs need and decisions have to be made.
Virginia Tech is doing the first-of-its-kind study on behavior euthanasia. Miranda Hitchcock is a graduate student who wants to gather as much information as possible from dog owners who have gone though this situation. She says future studies will be conducted after this “umbrella” study is completed.
We talked about behavioral euthanasia and what she hopes to do with her study in this interview.
To participate, you can fill out the survey. The deadline is July 20th.