You think so, an honest opinion to tell someone to have their dog aggressive dog PTS, for no other reason than they dont "do" them


Exactly, the trainer (man) passed this weath of advice over the phone to the owner of the dog


When someone owns a dog aggressive dog, they can feel sometimes like they are in a vacuum of helplessness... they reach out to others for help, and can you imagine , how you would feel if the advice you got on your first port of call, was ......have the dog PTS

Does not do a lot for your esteem, or give you any hope of rehabilitating your dog ,

so its ok for a trainer who doesnt do aggression to give advice over the phone and tell owners that they should have there dog PTS the problem with this is, you cant commend them for saying they dont do aggression when there next line is, have your dog PTS... its sounds like a the trainer has a one size fits all way of doing things,
eg aggression = PTS

I would have more respect for the trainer if he had said, I dont do aggression, but here are a few names and numbers that may be able to help you

if I took that stance....and if people did what I said, there would be some cracking dogs some of which are on this forum that would no longer exist

When I got Daisy I contacted (phone & email) all the trainers / behaviourists (well, not the Jan Fennel ones) in my area. Two got back to me - one offering an hour consultation at over £100 and one offering to come out and see although she didn`t have much experience with aggression for £70 a session plus future backup. I saw her twice and we came to the end of her ideas so I tried clubs.
The only club that would consider us was the Essex Dog Training Centre`s Antisocial class. Without this class (which has since `moved` to another club) I don`t know what I`d have done.
One problem is Insurance. A WT club I went to explained that someone had just sued them because a tied-up dog had nipped someone who went up to it. So I wasn`t welcome there for financial reasons.
The other problem is that a lot of trainers (and I make no apology for saying this) seem to have gone into the trade on the strength of having been successful in training their own dog. . When faced with a challenge they blame the dog - to save face or to avoid admitting their own inability to deal with it.
The 2 trainers that I finally found helpful have years of experience working with all sorts of dogs and have learned from it.
Aggression is usually simply a learned behaviour due to mismanagement or abuse. If a dog can learn, it can learn better behaviours.

Shona, You are assuming that the trainer recommended euthanasia because they don't work with aggressive dogs. It is just as likely that this is their opinion and they believe all aggressive dogs should be euthanized.

The position is harsh and does not allow for the wide range in aggressive behavior, however that is the trainers threshhold. For others, euthanize a dog is fine if it has bitten a person, or 2 or caused serious damage or killed someone. Everyone sets their own bar on this issue. I practice protection sports and foster dogs that go to the wrong homes and come back very aggressive - for me that bar is set very high. Perhaps because of the trainer's own inability to deal with aggression it might be particularly low.

I think this view is particularly short sighted - however what I admire is the honesty and level of self awareness that you don't often find. I also don't think that people go around killing their dogs because 1 person told them to do it; this dog was never really in danger.

But we are NOT talking about human aggression here, (not sure you have picked that up) but dog on dog aggression.

For a trainer to admit he /she is not able to deal with aggression (dog) thats one thing... but to blanketly tell someone to have their dog euthanized, is something else

how can you admire honesty in someone that has talked to someone on the phone about a dog they have never met and advising termination of life!!?
and i know first hand that this dog could of been in danger,people request for dogs to be put to sleep for ridiculous reasons and if taken to the wrong vet this could of happened.

I said..

you said



my concern is, how can someone give such advice without seeing the dog? thats all, pure and simple, you dont dish out death on something you have not laid eyes on,... end of

That is just stupid how can you not do 'aggressive dogs but have advice on that it should be pts???
I guess it shows just because they put 'dog trainer' next to their name does not give them common sense

I am sorry but if you dont do 'aggressive dogs' they should not be palming out advice on their opinion of what should happen to the dog, what if the owner did take that advice? People go to trainers as a port of call with issues they have with their dogs and for a 'trainer' to say that is ignorant

Yes it is good when people know their limitations but maybe there is someone who does specialise in agressive dogs and that could be referred to rather than a phone call consult with a pts remedy as your own words state "dogs can be rehabilitated by those who have the skills to do it"

There is a difference between giving someone your personal opinion and giving professional advice. The guy was phoned in a professional capacity and as such should have given professional advice which should have included all the options available. Yes, as part of that he could have talked about pts, he could even, if pushed, have said that pts was his preferred option. But from what we have been told he did none of this and I do not believe he acted professionally.

I am also not entirely sure that his opinion was based on honesty - could it not have been that he just didn't want to admit that other trainers might be able to sort an issue which he couldn't?

Perhaps this owner wouldn't have had the dog pts on the 'professionals' say so. But there are owners who might - particularly an inexperienced owner who will believe the 'professional advice' from a 'professional'.

great post, cant give you reps, need to spread some around lol