To consider putting a 'healthy' dog down?

[monkeyfacegrace]

Im trying to make one of the hardest decisions of my life.

I own 3 Pugs, two of which are 12 & 13 and have been together their whole lives.

The 13yr old bitch is literally making our lives hell.

She used to bounce with energy, and be fun and lovely.

Now, from the minute she wakes up to the minute she sleeps, she yaps. She pulls over the bin numerous times a day. She wees and poos everywhere. She will always get the kids food at mealtimes. I have to lock her in the kitchen while we eat, which results in more fucking yapping. She bullies my 5yr old pug, causes fights, and is generally total hell to live with

Im a SAHM with 6 & 4yr olds, and she drives them mad too.

Ive battled this for the last year, but now Im at my wits end.

I cant bear the thought of rehoming. She is 13 and has never been an only dog. She is a pug so would rehome easily, but it would shatter me.
It would also kill me to put her down.

What the actual fuck do I do?

Yes many dogs only think with their stomachs. They're either trained to behave themselves or put in another room while the family eats.

get a new behaviourist. praise isn't the only way to reward a dog. a good behaviourist would know this. it's page one in the training doggies book.

its odd that her behaviour has suddenly changed - defo get the vet to give her a really thorough checking over before you do anything drastic. Id say there must be an underlying issue somewhere.

stimulation is more than walking. i mean mental stimulation. what games does she enjoy, get her brain working so she is tired out and just lies down to sleep rather than yapping. i'm not into pugs so i dont know what gets them excited but i'm sure if you google you will get a whole load of advice on what games are good for them.

"Unfortunatley, these are pugs we are talking about. They only think with their stomachs, and think nothing of bulldozing onto the kids laps to grab at plates"

Then surely you would put them in a different room while your children are eating. It sounds like chaos that is being enabled to me.

Well it doesn't sound like she's got a great quality of life if she has these mobility and breathing problems, along with behavioural issues possibly linked to dementia.

Yanbu, go to the vet, see what they say. Our vet thinks that many people carry on too long with elderly (incontinent, sickly) pets. The dog doesn't sound well and happy.

We had an incontinent cat for ages. I loved her very much, but I look back and think, never again will I let a pet cover the house in shit. It's not approriate household behaviour. Different if a dog or cat can live in the garden, but it doesn't sound as though this dog could.

dcs are 6 and 4 so at school part of the day? use the time before they get home to tire her mentally so they aren't coming home to yapping and her trying to muscle in on the attention they're getting. does she have her own bed were she can hide away from everyone else?

There's something up with your poor dog, ours started to do it when his arthritis got too bad.

As for the feeding. Leave them in another room.

Agree with ArcticWaffle

I'd take her to the vets, it might be something that can be fixed. If its not though, considering her age, and thats not a nice thing to go through for the dog, then I probably would have her put down. As long as the vet also thought that was the right thing to do.

If the other dogs are 'bulldozing' onto the kid's laps to grab at their plates, some training is definitely in order. It sounds as though it's not just one dog you have a problem with.

Most dogs think with their stomachs, it's not exclusive to Pugs.

For those picking up on the table thing, see what Ive said about the shutting her in another room and yapping. And clawing at the doors. Its either that, or sitting on the floor with her while kids eat so she shuts up.

Mental stimulation is hard as she cannot be active due to flat nose/breathing issues. In summer she cannot cope with being walked at all.
She has raw lamb neck/ribs to chew on which keeps her busy for half hour.
She cant have a bed as she will wee on anything fabric, like the sofa, bottom of curtains, beds, rugs. We have had hard floors put down. She has a cage which I have carpeted, but she wont chose to go in there.

My other two are great dogs.
Clean, quiet, great recall and friendly.

I think the vet is your only answer. Hopefully they can find out if something is wrong and if not, give you professional advice on how to deal with the issues. Or at least put you in touch with someone they'd rate to help with those behaviour problems.

Definately get her checked out at the vets

We're having a similar dilemma - we have a 15 year old blind cat who is currently crapping and peeing all over the place. Generally, she's fairly healthy although not very active (doesn't go out anymore) but seems quite content, but I'm coming to the end of the road with the fact that she's using my house as a toilet. We have 2 kids and we foster so it's becoming a huge problem

I feel like I'm waiting for the day she shows signs of going downhill so we can have the discussion which makes me feel awful for even thinking like that, but at the moment she's fairly healthy so we can't have the discussion yet either.

We take her to the vet fairly regularly who hasn't bought up the subject yet, I feel like I'm waiting for permission, but we can't live like this much longer either

"How are you with the idea that your children could choose to put you to death when you get old and a bit dotty and annoying?"

If I was 95yrs old, had led a full and happy life but had sadly become senile, doubly incontinent, lashing out aggressively at everyone around me, generally making life miserable for those I loved then I would actually be very comfortable with the idea of it.

It may be that she needs painkillers now, or that her mental health is declining. In those cases, there will be a course of treatment to assess whether the situation will improve, and then the vet may suggest her being PTS if no improvement is likely. In that situation, you won't be being unreasonable. You'll have tried everything.

Is she insured? Your behaviourist sounds rubbish. Sorry, but no decent behaviourist would declare a dog unfixable - unless she was very violent. These are common problems. Your pug will respond to one way of dealing with them, its just finding the one that works.

With regards to toileting - if she needs a nappy, try one. She'll soon let you know if she's not happy in it. There are nappies created for this very purpose - you can get them from pet shops, or if she's insured, your vet may be able to prescribe them. It's a solution for now, while you work on the other problems, and it'll alleviate some of the immediate stress.

She is not happy. She doesn't have long anyway due to her age and health issues. Take her to the vet and see what they say as there might be something they can do. Pain relief perhaps if it is found to be arthritis. If not, well you cannot live like this and you cannot confine her to a smaller area suitable for an incontinent dog as this makes her even more miserable.

I'd put up with yapping (as annoying as it is) over the dogs "bulldozing" their way onto people's laps. That is really, really bad behaviour on the dog's part and shows either a lack of training in the first place or getting lax with enforcing behaviour now - both of which are your fault rather than the dogs. No wonder she does what she likes, you're telling her she's the boss!

I hope the vets goes well tomorrow, although I suspect from what you've said that all this may be to do with her old age in which case she's not a healthy, happy pug and you may have to think about what's best for her (not you).

Despite you saying she's healthy you've listed a load of things that suggest to me she's pretty messed up, physically speaking.

I'd see the vet and generally think ArcticWaffle is talking sense. You don't sound like a heartless person at all; you've done a lot more than a lot of people would I think.

at 'would you put a child down for being naughty'?

have you tried to crate train her properly? most dogs wont choose to go into a cage unless they have been trained to see it as a positive thing. i think it's important at her age she has somewhere of her own to go to away from teh dcs and younger dog. make the crate a pleasant place for her.

mental stimulation isn't necessarily physically tiring. even teaching simple tricks is tiring for her brain. tbh it sounds like she needs a bit of time spent on her commands and behaviour in the house so you can tackle this whilst tiring her at the same time. tired dogs are good (quiet) dogs.

she sounds like how our family dog ended up.
a bit like dementia but in dog way.

She was kept in a 5ft x 5ft box for 6 years while being forced to pop out puppy after puppy. After she stopped concieving she was passed to gypsies who left her tied up under a caravan in her own filth until RSPCA stepped in.

Ive done well to have her intergrated in to society to be honest.

Crate is used at night, she happily goes in. She is rewarded while in there if she stays in nicely. Doesnt stop the yapping though!

Vets at 10.10am tomorrow. Im suspecting arthritis as her hips are making her walk funny.

Insured? You have to be kidding. Trying to convince an insurance company to insure a 13yr old ex breeding bitch is as useless as a fish with tits!