Bad Dog, Rest In... whatever.

[Oberon]

Understand why you did it, don't agree with how, to be honest, but it's your decision. The pound would probably have been a better option although to be honest, unless it's a no-kill shelter then chances are she would have been put down anyway, so I guess in a way it was better for her to go with her master than in the hands of strangers.
I was brought up around two collies and a German Shepherd, and there were a couple of times that I did stupid things...like grab a handful of fur. What my mother did was put a child gate in the doorway between the kitchen and the living room, so the dogs stayed in the kitchen and I stayed in the living room, but obviously your situation will vary.
It would probably be best to hold off getting another dog until your son is older, it eliminates the chance of kid/dog misinteraction completely. Rescue cases are always a toughie because you don't know what the dog had been through beforehand and with her getting old and her senses dulling, old instincts come to the fore. Like I said, it probably would have been better to go to a shelter, some of them in the states are quite good with problem animals but alas they are rather few and far between and looking at it realistically, your local shelter probably wouldn't be one of them, and thus she would have spent the rest of her (probably short) life in a pound full of constantly barking dogs, confused and scared, and being even more aggressive because of it and ultimately being destroyed because she was unrehomable.

[tater]

My son is VERY gentle. He tried to pet her because he loves doggies. Not grab, just a pet. Bam. She's growled before at both kids, immediately knew it was wrong, then skulked outside.

Snapping, however, is an escalation. All it takes is a kid (kids run through the house, after all) falling on her, or god forbid they try to be nice to her. That was pretty much a 50/50 chance of dog rolling over to be nice, or a growl. and yes, she'd had full work ups at the vet to determine if anything was wrong (bloods drawn, the works).

Fobbing her off on the pound I obviously thought about briefly, but I'd feel responsible, and she has growled at both my wife and I many times (she'd growl most times from her crate if we got up in the night, and a really serious, ugly growl (though shar pei sound that way often regardless cause they have fat faces)).

[Armistead]

Most pounds or animal adoption agencies would do the same. If they bring in any dog that shows any aggresion, if they can't resolve it being 100% sure, dog is put down. Any dog that growls for no obvious reason when being petted, that dog would have to go.

You did right by not taking it to the pound, wouldn't be fair to the owner and think if it got through and later turned and seriously hurt someone....

Obvious, you love animals and I'm sure the loss hurts just the same.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by tater

My son is VERY gentle. He tried to pet her because he loves doggies. Not grab, just a pet. Bam. She's growled before at both kids, immediately knew it was wrong, then skulked outside.

Snapping, however, is an escalation. All it takes is a kid (kids run through the house, after all) falling on her, or god forbid they try to be nice to her. That was pretty much a 50/50 chance of dog rolling over to be nice, or a growl. and yes, she'd had full work ups at the vet to determine if anything was wrong (bloods drawn, the works).

Fobbing her off on the pound I obviously thought about briefly, but I'd feel responsible, and she has growled at both my wife and I many times (she'd growl most times from her crate if we got up in the night, and a really serious, ugly growl (though shar pei sound that way often regardless cause they have fat faces)).

You might well find if they did an autospy that she had cancer or some form of internal problem for that kind of personality degeneration. My mother worked in animal welfare for...well...most of her life, and she came across a dog I do believe it was who was as sweet as a pie, good with kids and everything until one day it turned around and darn near took someones face off. After it was put down, they did an autopsy and found it was riddled with cancer and there was a swelling on the brain, so it could be a similar occurance.


EDIT: Read the goddamn post Oberon. Still, even with bloods and things like that, some vets can still miss cancer. Our last dog was an example of that... But, at least whatever troubles she had, she is out of them now, and she had nine years of not being in a shelter. I don't know what the average lifespan of a Shar-pei is, but nine years old in any dog is a reasonable age.

[tater]

Yeah, they're doing that to check (the vet agreed, BTW, or she'd not have been put down). They also have to check for rabies even though she's current on all medical stuff of course.

She'd had aggression issues the whole time. We were the 4th house (the rescue lady had tried 3 others) she lived in, all that before she was 1. We solved her food bowl aggression literally by hand-feeding her kibble out of our palms for a few months (both meals, every day). The "random" aggression we just never figured out. Real Jekyll and Hyde behavior. Sometimes kids would tug on her the way kids do (mine only grabbed her (nylon) collar) and she'd be sweet, other times you look at her funny and she sounded like a pit bull. Thought about an empirical treatment with psyche drugs, actually, talked briefly about it at the vet last week at her checkup about doggie prozac.

Shar pei are typically listed as 8-10 years. Last one we had made it 15.

[AVGWarhawk]

We had an Irish Setter when I was a kid. Very nice dog. Great temperament. Always friendly with everyone. One day a patient of my dads (had a practice off our house) was walking up the drive and the dog reared up and went for her throat. Out of the blue. Nothing provoked the attack. Dog was put down. It is to my understanding that some breeds over the years were bred for thinner skulls resulting in brain issue. Irish Setters no exception.

There is really nothing to stop a dog that feels he is the alpha male. Growling and biting anything in the vicinity is ok in his book. Kids included. It is only a matter of time. One day I went to work with my dad in the ER. A young girl (4 years old) was bitten in the head by the family doberman. Bite wound went right to the skull. Plastic surgeon was called in to suture the wounds in hopes to reducing the scaring of the face. Kid did not provoke this dog. Again, alpha male syndrom. Dobermans also bred for smaller sleek heads.

Some dogs you are just not going to reach no matter how much you work with them.

Sorry to hear this had to happen.

[Gargamel]

Tater, my condolences. I can't imagine what I'm going to go through when I have to put mine down (or watch her die) in the near future, as she's getting old (11 this year).

I think you made the right decision. You've tried to adjust her behavior in the past, and it seems it was just senility setting in. There's no way she would have done any better in a shelter, they would have done the same within a few weeks. Nobody would have re-rescued her, not with her prognosis.

[tater]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

We had an Irish Setter when I was a kid. Very nice dog. Great temperament. Always friendly with everyone. One day a patient of my dads (had a practice off our house) was walking up the drive and the dog reared up and went for her throat. Out of the blue. Nothing provoked the attack. Dog was put down. It is to my understanding that some breeds over the years were bred for thinner skulls resulting in brain issue. Irish Setters no exception.

There is really nothing to stop a dog that feels he is the alpha male. Growling and biting anything in the vicinity is ok in his book. Kids included. It is only a matter of time. One day I went to work with my dad in the ER. A young girl (4 years old) was bitten in the head by the family doberman. Bite wound went right to the skull. Plastic surgeon was called in to suture the wounds in hopes to reducing the scaring of the face. Kid did not provoke this dog. Again, alpha male syndrom. Dobermans also bred for smaller sleek heads.

Some dogs you are just not going to reach no matter how much you work with them.

Sorry to hear this had to happen.

Yeah.

I posted in a matter of fact way, because I literally just came home from the vet. If I didn't love the stupid, crazy dog she'd not have made it 9 years. Trouble is that she never fully grasped that she wasn't 2d in line to ME, but last in line to the entire family. Heck, she'd still growl at me at night. Sometimes loudly growling as I told her to go to bed (which is all I'd have to do fo her to get in her crate, tell her to "go to your bed.").

The reality is that in a pack of dogs, growling and nipping are "legitimate" forms of communication. Dog A comes near Dog B who doesn't want to be bothered. Dog B growls, or even nips. Dog A, understanding "the rules" either fights Dog B and wins, or licks his wounds and realizes B is his boss. A nick of a cut is no big deal in the dog world, it's SOP, but it could seriously hurt (or kill) a kid.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by AVGWarhawk

There is really nothing to stop a dog that feels he is the alpha male.

Well...

Our German Shepherd was getting a bit above himself for a while, trying to make himself the alpha male...so Mum grabbed him one day, wrestled him to the ground on his back, pinned him down, grabbed the area around his neck with her teeth and growled at him.
He stopped trying to be the Alpha male after that...

Not an approach that I'd recommend for everyone though...

[tater]

I did that a few times with my dog, actually.

[sharkbit]

That's too bad. Why run the risk of a tragedy in the future. It was best to get rid of the dog one way or the other.
Personally, I'm not sure if I would have had the dog put down, but I definitely would have gotten rid of it one way or the other. I just hope I'm never faced with that situation.

[krashkart]

Originally Posted by Oberon

Well...

Our German Shepherd was getting a bit above himself for a while, trying to make himself the alpha male...so Mum grabbed him one day, wrestled him to the ground on his back, pinned him down, grabbed the area around his neck with her teeth and growled at him.
He stopped trying to be the Alpha male after that...

Not an approach that I'd recommend for everyone though...

That must have been a sight.

[Oberon]

Originally Posted by krashkart

That must have been a sight.

She's never been one for convention, I'll give her that. Wouldn't be without her though, her or the furry and feathered friends I was brought up with.

[tater]

We're not going to get another puppy til after spring break. The next 2 weeks will be the longest I've not had at least 1 dog for over 30 years (we've typically had doggy overlap).

Not a shar pei. They tend to be "one person dogs" according to many people we've talked to. They are closely related to chow chows, and are also "snappy." Again, we'd might not have picked her with kids—but we rescued her before we had kids. OTOH, our previous shar pei was a saint so we might have anyway (and remarkably smart for a shar pei—but she was co-dog with border collies). Little kids could drag her by the face and she'd just look at us with a "please make this stop" look, so we were spoiled.

My border collies simply did what they were told, and you'd not need to tell them too many times before it was their new way of life (could leave them loose in an open top off jeep in the grocery store parking lot, and they'd no so much as bark or leave the vehicle).

[Castout]

Originally Posted by Rilder

At least you aren't one of those people who talks to their dog like its sentient,

I do that all the time even calling my dog darling many times.

It's therapeutic...you know?

Make no mistake a dog can think at least to a degree and it could feel. Well it feels hunger right or scared or angry or cocky or complaining.