100 dogs slaughtered at Whistler

Patrick wrote: Capt Fiero wrote: Lisa and I are facing letting go of Duke right now, so this topic really hits home for us.  He has taken dog training classes and passed them, however he is becoming more aggressive to Lisa and I, and has also snapped at Arianna. He has never bitten any of us, short of a snap on the hand the did not break skin, but we are just not sure if we want to "wait" until something does happen, and the option of giving him away is just not fair to him or a new owner knowing his tendency's. I mean what do you do with a giant lap dog that loves you, sleeps beside you, and you know would guard the house and your family till the end, however has a bad temper that scares you. Dave, I'm FAR from an expert on dogs, but from what I understand the number one reason for "bad" behavior from "good" dogs is lack of exercise. Frankie gets walked two hours a day every day on-leash, and every couple of days or so she gets two or three hours running around off-leash (usually in the woods) which is very important. If she doesn't receive this amount of exercise on a very regular basis we notice she gets a lot more snarley with other dogs. Duke might have other issues which trigger his aggression, but you may have to decide if you're willing (or able) to devote enough time to help him work off his aggressive tendencies. I wish you well with this difficult situation.

Even for us humans...need to take him out and give him quality energy, he's a big dog with alot of pent up energies...as with the rest, your family is what counts, but Duke needs an outlet to take off his edge...best of luck

I am not going to quote each persons post, but will try and address them all.

          He gets much more exercise now than he did a few years ago.  We have 2 Tennant's that are really into the outdoors.  They take him on walks everyday and during the summer they take him down to a creek pool and let him swim for hours on end.  On top of the longer walks, having a houseful of smokers, he gets taken out probably 5-10 times a day for a short walk of about 15mins as we don't smoke in the house its just natural to take duke outside and walk around, even if its just up and down the back alley and out to the street and walking over to check the mail.

                   We have taken him to the vet to get checked out, he is starting to develop issues with his hip's due to age and is not moving around as well as he should.  One of the reason for all th walks is to keep him from laying around and getting stiff.

          As to diet, it has been changed a lot over the last couple years.  He no longer gets McDonald's except on a very special occasion.  His moist food is now the casserole style that has both meet and veggies in it, and the dry is now a mix of kibble and beef that is enriched with vitamins.  

                        We don't' ever get aggressive with him IE hitting or anything.  When he growls at us, we take a firm stance, and at worst have a spray bottle with water that we use. 

       We are honestly doing everything we can to take good care of him, just are not sure at this point what else we can do.

Thank You for all your kind and concerned comments.

David