Koondog Shenanigans

Hello dogblr! Know anyone who wants a cat or kitten?

Must be located in the usa. Depending on where you're at transport may be able to be arranged. They're currently in MS. All are adapting to new places with confidence and exuberance. They've been exposed to other adult vaccinated cats and a dog so far as well as multiple different people and all have been handled and played with every day for the last 2-3wks.

They've had a round of dewormer, but no vaccines because they were strays and funds are not available to take 5 cats to the vet for full visits when they aren't my friend's cats 😅

Sometimes behavioral euthanasia is your only option.

Maybe someone else could help your dog. Maybe the right trainer could turn everything around. Maybe you haven't found the med that works for your dog yet. Maybe a different or more experienced owner wouldn't have made the same choices. Maybe if there weren't kids involved. Maybe if you weren't married. Maybe if you were married. Maybe if you live out in the country. Maybe if you were more diligent. Maybe if you didn't hover so much. Maybe. Maybe. Maybemaybemaybemaybe.

Maybe.

But none of that happened. And you're here now. And it was the right choice.

It was you. In the home you have. With whoever you had to help you. Or without any support. Handling your dog to the best of your ability at that moment in time.

That includes having limited mental and emotional bandwidth. There may have been more things you were physically capable of doing, but that doesn't mean you had the emotional and mental resources to do them. You would've done them if you could have. If you knew that you should.

But i know for sure that you didn't pay a few hundred dollars so that someone would kill your friend for no reason.

You did it because you were unsafe. Or because someone else was. Or because your dog was so overwhelmed by the world that they couldn't cope.

You certainly didn't walk into a vet appointment where every choice you'd ever made regarding the dog was questioned and you were told about all the local and breed specific rescues because you didn't try.

You made that appointment and walked in and suffered through the interrogation because you loved your dog enough to know that putting them through being rehomed or institutionalized in a shelter would lower their quality of life so significantly that it wouldn't be worth living for them. Or because you knew that no one would ever be safe living with them.

You did it because you cared. Because you loved them. Because you trusted that it was the best option. Because you tried.

And it still hurt. Even if you were angry and relieved. It still hurt.

So, let me encourage you to let go of "maybe". You loved them. You tried. You cared. It was and wasn't enough all at the same time. You made the right choice.

Sometimes behavioral euthanasia is your only option.

Maybe someone else could help your dog. Maybe the right trainer could turn everything around. Maybe you haven't found the med that works for your dog yet. Maybe a different or more experienced owner wouldn't have made the same choices. Maybe if there weren't kids involved. Maybe if you weren't married. Maybe if you were married. Maybe if you live out in the country. Maybe if you were more diligent. Maybe if you didn't hover so much. Maybe. Maybe. Maybemaybemaybemaybe.

Maybe.

But none of that happened. And you're here now. And it was the right choice.

It was you. In the home you have. With whoever you had to help you. Or without any support. Handling your dog to the best of your ability at that moment in time.

That includes having limited mental and emotional bandwidth. There may have been more things you were physically capable of doing, but that doesn't mean you had the emotional and mental resources to do them. You would've done them if you could have. If you knew that you should.

But i know for sure that you didn't pay a few hundred dollars so that someone would kill your friend for no reason.

You did it because you were unsafe. Or because someone else was. Or because your dog was so overwhelmed by the world that they couldn't cope.

You certainly didn't walk into a vet appointment where every choice you'd ever made regarding the dog was questioned and you were told about all the local and breed specific rescues because you didn't try.

You made that appointment and walked in and suffered through the interrogation because you loved your dog enough to know that putting them through being rehomed or institutionalized in a shelter would lower their quality of life so significantly that it wouldn't be worth living for them. Or because you knew that no one would ever be safe living with them.

You did it because you cared. Because you loved them. Because you trusted that it was the best option. Because you tried.

And it still hurt. Even if you were angry and relieved. It still hurt.

So, let me encourage you to let go of "maybe". You loved them. You tried. You cared. It was and wasn't enough all at the same time. You made the right choice.

Yes ☝️ and also let's not forget the people who do choose to do proceed with behavioral euthanasia because it's majorly inconveniencing them and their loved ones. The management might be being successful, but they haven't been to family christmas in three years because they're too afraid to leave the animal with anyone. No family reunions. No friends coming over for dinner. No hosting playdates for the kids. No vacations. No contractors coming over to the house without serious thought about where the animal goes.

It's working.

Everyone is safe.

But it's inconvenient.

That is a perfectly valid reason to choose behavioral euthanasia as a reasonable next/last step. We are social creatures. We quite literally need regular contact with our own species to stay healthy and happy. Having a serious management animal is lowering their welfare by keeping their world small.

We need to stop vilifying death.

The dog gets sedated, surrounded by people it trusts, and then is given a large amount of opioids which causes a fatal overdose. That's it. They're gone. They didn't suffer. They didn't ever have to endure a hard time. They didn't have to think about the safety and health of everyone they may or may not come in contact with for years or months. They didn't have to plan their whole life around it.

If the vet's office is stressful, it's brief.

They got to live a very full life and then there was nothing.

The only ones who have suffered here are the people who were cutting out pieces of their lives to keep their family member alive. A family member who never even considered death as a thing in their future because they don't have the same concept of it that we do.

So, yes. People who want to euthanize an animal just because they're tired of paying for it when they have comfortably the funds, or because they don't like the maintenance of its coat, or just no longer find it cute are not included here. People who have lost a part of their lives because of their animal's management for safety reasons and euthanize because the management of that animal is inconvenient are, however, fully included in this post. These two situations are not the same even though they get lumped together under the umbrella of "convenience euthanasia". No one should be punished because they've realized that their quality of life has decreased a noticeable amount because of their beloved, but dangerous (or hopelessly overwhelmed) creature.

(Details of a personal story and an animal harming humans beneath the cut, this was an awful situation and I felt so bad for this family:)

Behavioral euthanasia is when an animal is euthanized due to behavioral problems that cannot be fully solved and/or that result in a serious risk to the animal or those around them. Common reasons are repeat bites, frequent aggression, inappropriate urination, inappropriate defecation, and extreme self-injurious compulsions.

Convenience euthanasia is when an animal is euthanized simply because the owner doesn’t want them anymore, with no real good reason for it. Common excuses given are “my kid got bored”, “it’s not a baby anymore”, “I’m tired of walking it/bathing it/cleaning the litter/cleaning the bedding/feeding it”, and “I didn’t expect the poop to stink”.

I do not know of a single case where this has happened.

Yes, I have heard 3rd or 4th hand of people taking animals to vets for euthanasia for absolutely frivolous reasons, but I've never heard a verifiable story of this happening.

People absolutely euthanize animals because their management is inconvenient as i described in the post you reblogged. This is 100% for convenience. It is 100% the correct and ethical decision for all parties involved.

I understand that it makes people sad and uncomfortable to think about an animal dying because it was negatively impacting someone's quality of life without being a direct health hazard to that person, but that animal doesn't suffer through the death process. They are there, then they are asleep, then they are dead. That's it. No pain. No agony. No suffering.

Yes there will always be a serious minority of people who would euthanize an animal for reasons I'd personally find dumb/unethical/unreasonable, but no one should be punished for euthanizing their management animal because their management has become genuinely inconvenient to their life. It's okay for them to let go. To say "this is enough"

You may disagree, but i (who has extensive experience with these situations) will not be changing my mind on this topic.

Sometimes behavioral euthanasia is your only option.

Maybe someone else could help your dog. Maybe the right trainer could turn everything around. Maybe you haven't found the med that works for your dog yet. Maybe a different or more experienced owner wouldn't have made the same choices. Maybe if there weren't kids involved. Maybe if you weren't married. Maybe if you were married. Maybe if you live out in the country. Maybe if you were more diligent. Maybe if you didn't hover so much. Maybe. Maybe. Maybemaybemaybemaybe.

Maybe.

But none of that happened. And you're here now. And it was the right choice.

It was you. In the home you have. With whoever you had to help you. Or without any support. Handling your dog to the best of your ability at that moment in time.

That includes having limited mental and emotional bandwidth. There may have been more things you were physically capable of doing, but that doesn't mean you had the emotional and mental resources to do them. You would've done them if you could have. If you knew that you should.

But i know for sure that you didn't pay a few hundred dollars so that someone would kill your friend for no reason.

You did it because you were unsafe. Or because someone else was. Or because your dog was so overwhelmed by the world that they couldn't cope.

You certainly didn't walk into a vet appointment where every choice you'd ever made regarding the dog was questioned and you were told about all the local and breed specific rescues because you didn't try.

You made that appointment and walked in and suffered through the interrogation because you loved your dog enough to know that putting them through being rehomed or institutionalized in a shelter would lower their quality of life so significantly that it wouldn't be worth living for them. Or because you knew that no one would ever be safe living with them.

You did it because you cared. Because you loved them. Because you trusted that it was the best option. Because you tried.

And it still hurt. Even if you were angry and relieved. It still hurt.

So, let me encourage you to let go of "maybe". You loved them. You tried. You cared. It was and wasn't enough all at the same time. You made the right choice.

Yes ☝️ and also let's not forget the people who do choose to do proceed with behavioral euthanasia because it's majorly inconveniencing them and their loved ones. The management might be being successful, but they haven't been to family christmas in three years because they're too afraid to leave the animal with anyone. No family reunions. No friends coming over for dinner. No hosting playdates for the kids. No vacations. No contractors coming over to the house without serious thought about where the animal goes.

It's working.

Everyone is safe.

But it's inconvenient.

That is a perfectly valid reason to choose behavioral euthanasia as a reasonable next/last step. We are social creatures. We quite literally need regular contact with our own species to stay healthy and happy. Having a serious management animal is lowering their welfare by keeping their world small.

We need to stop vilifying death.

The dog gets sedated, surrounded by people it trusts, and then is given a large amount of opioids which causes a fatal overdose. That's it. They're gone. They didn't suffer. They didn't ever have to endure a hard time. They didn't have to think about the safety and health of everyone they may or may not come in contact with for years or months. They didn't have to plan their whole life around it.

If the vet's office is stressful, it's brief.

They got to live a very full life and then there was nothing.

The only ones who have suffered here are the people who were cutting out pieces of their lives to keep their family member alive. A family member who never even considered death as a thing in their future because they don't have the same concept of it that we do.

So, yes. People who want to euthanize an animal just because they're tired of paying for it when they have comfortably the funds, or because they don't like the maintenance of its coat, or just no longer find it cute are not included here. People who have lost a part of their lives because of their animal's management for safety reasons and euthanize because the management of that animal is inconvenient are, however, fully included in this post. These two situations are not the same even though they get lumped together under the umbrella of "convenience euthanasia". No one should be punished because they've realized that their quality of life has decreased a noticeable amount because of their beloved, but dangerous (or hopelessly overwhelmed) creature.

(Details of a personal story and an animal harming humans beneath the cut, this was an awful situation and I felt so bad for this family:)

Behavioral euthanasia is when an animal is euthanized due to behavioral problems that cannot be fully solved and/or that result in a serious risk to the animal or those around them. Common reasons are repeat bites, frequent aggression, inappropriate urination, inappropriate defecation, and extreme self-injurious compulsions.

Convenience euthanasia is when an animal is euthanized simply because the owner doesn’t want them anymore, with no real good reason for it. Common excuses given are “my kid got bored”, “it’s not a baby anymore”, “I’m tired of walking it/bathing it/cleaning the litter/cleaning the bedding/feeding it”, and “I didn’t expect the poop to stink”.

Sometimes behavioral euthanasia is your only option.

Maybe someone else could help your dog. Maybe the right trainer could turn everything around. Maybe you haven't found the med that works for your dog yet. Maybe a different or more experienced owner wouldn't have made the same choices. Maybe if there weren't kids involved. Maybe if you weren't married. Maybe if you were married. Maybe if you live out in the country. Maybe if you were more diligent. Maybe if you didn't hover so much. Maybe. Maybe. Maybemaybemaybemaybe.

Maybe.

But none of that happened. And you're here now. And it was the right choice.

It was you. In the home you have. With whoever you had to help you. Or without any support. Handling your dog to the best of your ability at that moment in time.

That includes having limited mental and emotional bandwidth. There may have been more things you were physically capable of doing, but that doesn't mean you had the emotional and mental resources to do them. You would've done them if you could have. If you knew that you should.

But i know for sure that you didn't pay a few hundred dollars so that someone would kill your friend for no reason.

You did it because you were unsafe. Or because someone else was. Or because your dog was so overwhelmed by the world that they couldn't cope.

You certainly didn't walk into a vet appointment where every choice you'd ever made regarding the dog was questioned and you were told about all the local and breed specific rescues because you didn't try.

You made that appointment and walked in and suffered through the interrogation because you loved your dog enough to know that putting them through being rehomed or institutionalized in a shelter would lower their quality of life so significantly that it wouldn't be worth living for them. Or because you knew that no one would ever be safe living with them.

You did it because you cared. Because you loved them. Because you trusted that it was the best option. Because you tried.

And it still hurt. Even if you were angry and relieved. It still hurt.

So, let me encourage you to let go of "maybe". You loved them. You tried. You cared. It was and wasn't enough all at the same time. You made the right choice.

Yes ☝️ and also let's not forget the people who do choose to do proceed with behavioral euthanasia because it's majorly inconveniencing them and their loved ones. The management might be being successful, but they haven't been to family christmas in three years because they're too afraid to leave the animal with anyone. No family reunions. No friends coming over for dinner. No hosting playdates for the kids. No vacations. No contractors coming over to the house without serious thought about where the animal goes.

It's working.

Everyone is safe.

But it's inconvenient.

That is a perfectly valid reason to choose behavioral euthanasia as a reasonable next/last step. We are social creatures. We quite literally need regular contact with our own species to stay healthy and happy. Having a serious management animal is lowering their welfare by keeping their world small.

We need to stop vilifying death.

The dog gets sedated, surrounded by people it trusts, and then is given a large amount of opioids which causes a fatal overdose. That's it. They're gone. They didn't suffer. They didn't ever have to endure a hard time. They didn't have to think about the safety and health of everyone they may or may not come in contact with for years or months. They didn't have to plan their whole life around it.

If the vet's office is stressful, it's brief.

They got to live a very full life and then there was nothing.

The only ones who have suffered here are the people who were cutting out pieces of their lives to keep their family member alive. A family member who never even considered death as a thing in their future because they don't have the same concept of it that we do.

So, yes. People who want to euthanize an animal just because they're tired of paying for it when they have comfortably the funds, or because they don't like the maintenance of its coat, or just no longer find it cute are not included here. People who have lost a part of their lives because of their animal's management for safety reasons and euthanize because the management of that animal is inconvenient are, however, fully included in this post. These two situations are not the same even though they get lumped together under the umbrella of "convenience euthanasia". No one should be punished because they've realized that their quality of life has decreased a noticeable amount because of their beloved, but dangerous (or hopelessly overwhelmed) creature.

(Details of a personal story and an animal harming humans beneath the cut, this was an awful situation and I felt so bad for this family:)

The problem with this is: even if you get the result you want, it won't bring those resources back. That time is gone. So is the money. So is your peace of mind from before this all started. It doesn't come back. It's already been used regardless of what the outcome is. There's no point in spending another 5k on training and meds for a dog that's already had 4k of training and meds put into them without improvement to the situation. The additional 5k doesn't bring back the 4k. It means you've spend 9k.

These are arbitrary numbers and I'm not saying to stop trying if there is some actual improvement. I'm saying that there must be noticable and trackable improvement to everyone's quality of life for resource expenditure to continue. Stop thinking of it like investment and start thinking of it like subscription. There is no ROI here. There's not some magic amount of resources you can pour in to get that 7%-12% return. It's about spending resources with the hope and aim of increasing quality of life for everyone involved. You're paying for services and drugs and vet care on a subscription to see if that regime resolves the issues. If it doesn't, then there's no need to keep paying for the subscription.

There can even be fallout to continuing to subscribe in this instance.

That dog is still mauling people. It's still attacking them. There's still something about its experience of the world that makes high-effort and high-risk aggressive behaviors seem like a reasonable decision.

The thing that people don't get is that comfortable dogs, dogs that are happy and healthy and pain free, don't attack the people and other animals that they trust. About 80% of my aggression cases are pain-based. We do no training. I now require aggression cases to do a 24hr pain med trial with their vet before I'll let them pay me for training. About 80% of the time, the dog flips a 180 and the aggression disappears into the abyss. Never to be seen again. Or never to be seen again at that intensity. Sometimes I refer to a PT.

The 20% that's leftover gets training and oftentimes psych meds. Because they still aren't comfortable. It's my honest opinion that we just haven't found what it is about their experience that's wrong. Sometimes the thing that's wrong isn't fixable. Sometimes it's a digestion issue that needs management or allergies where we can decrease discomfort but not fully remove it.

Yes, yes, I do believe that, like people, some dogs are assholes but I also believe that most people that are assholes are uncomfortable in some way. It's the genuine minority that are cruel because they enjoy it or find it exciting. (In my experience, there IS an interesting cross-over between dogs that seek out high-intensity activities and dogs that have pain. My theory is that endorphins from these activities decrease pain and thus we get adrenaline junkies who repeatedly seek high-arousal states to mask the pain they're feeling.)

Sometimes behavioral euthanasia is your only option.

Maybe someone else could help your dog. Maybe the right trainer could turn everything around. Maybe you haven't found the med that works for your dog yet. Maybe a different or more experienced owner wouldn't have made the same choices. Maybe if there weren't kids involved. Maybe if you weren't married. Maybe if you were married. Maybe if you live out in the country. Maybe if you were more diligent. Maybe if you didn't hover so much. Maybe. Maybe. Maybemaybemaybemaybe.

Maybe.

But none of that happened. And you're here now. And it was the right choice.

It was you. In the home you have. With whoever you had to help you. Or without any support. Handling your dog to the best of your ability at that moment in time.

That includes having limited mental and emotional bandwidth. There may have been more things you were physically capable of doing, but that doesn't mean you had the emotional and mental resources to do them. You would've done them if you could have. If you knew that you should.

But i know for sure that you didn't pay a few hundred dollars so that someone would kill your friend for no reason.

You did it because you were unsafe. Or because someone else was. Or because your dog was so overwhelmed by the world that they couldn't cope.

You certainly didn't walk into a vet appointment where every choice you'd ever made regarding the dog was questioned and you were told about all the local and breed specific rescues because you didn't try.

You made that appointment and walked in and suffered through the interrogation because you loved your dog enough to know that putting them through being rehomed or institutionalized in a shelter would lower their quality of life so significantly that it wouldn't be worth living for them. Or because you knew that no one would ever be safe living with them.

You did it because you cared. Because you loved them. Because you trusted that it was the best option. Because you tried.

And it still hurt. Even if you were angry and relieved. It still hurt.

So, let me encourage you to let go of "maybe". You loved them. You tried. You cared. It was and wasn't enough all at the same time. You made the right choice.

Sometimes behavioral euthanasia is your only option.

Maybe someone else could help your dog. Maybe the right trainer could turn everything around. Maybe you haven't found the med that works for your dog yet. Maybe a different or more experienced owner wouldn't have made the same choices. Maybe if there weren't kids involved. Maybe if you weren't married. Maybe if you were married. Maybe if you live out in the country. Maybe if you were more diligent. Maybe if you didn't hover so much. Maybe. Maybe. Maybemaybemaybemaybe.

Maybe.

But none of that happened. And you're here now. And it was the right choice.

It was you. In the home you have. With whoever you had to help you. Or without any support. Handling your dog to the best of your ability at that moment in time.

That includes having limited mental and emotional bandwidth. There may have been more things you were physically capable of doing, but that doesn't mean you had the emotional and mental resources to do them. You would've done them if you could have. If you knew that you should.

But i know for sure that you didn't pay a few hundred dollars so that someone would kill your friend for no reason.

You did it because you were unsafe. Or because someone else was. Or because your dog was so overwhelmed by the world that they couldn't cope.

You certainly didn't walk into a vet appointment where every choice you'd ever made regarding the dog was questioned and you were told about all the local and breed specific rescues because you didn't try.

You made that appointment and walked in and suffered through the interrogation because you loved your dog enough to know that putting them through being rehomed or institutionalized in a shelter would lower their quality of life so significantly that it wouldn't be worth living for them. Or because you knew that no one would ever be safe living with them.

You did it because you cared. Because you loved them. Because you trusted that it was the best option. Because you tried.

And it still hurt. Even if you were angry and relieved. It still hurt.

So, let me encourage you to let go of "maybe". You loved them. You tried. You cared. It was and wasn't enough all at the same time. You made the right choice.

Yes ☝️ and also let's not forget the people who do choose to do proceed with behavioral euthanasia because it's majorly inconveniencing them and their loved ones. The management might be being successful, but they haven't been to family christmas in three years because they're too afraid to leave the animal with anyone. No family reunions. No friends coming over for dinner. No hosting playdates for the kids. No vacations. No contractors coming over to the house without serious thought about where the animal goes.

It's working.

Everyone is safe.

But it's inconvenient.

That is a perfectly valid reason to choose behavioral euthanasia as a reasonable next/last step. We are social creatures. We quite literally need regular contact with our own species to stay healthy and happy. Having a serious management animal is lowering their welfare by keeping their world small.

We need to stop vilifying death.

The dog gets sedated, surrounded by people it trusts, and then is given a large amount of opioids which causes a fatal overdose. That's it. They're gone. They didn't suffer. They didn't ever have to endure a hard time. They didn't have to think about the safety and health of everyone they may or may not come in contact with for years or months. They didn't have to plan their whole life around it.

If the vet's office is stressful, it's brief.

They got to live a very full life and then there was nothing.

The only ones who have suffered here are the people who were cutting out pieces of their lives to keep their family member alive. A family member who never even considered death as a thing in their future because they don't have the same concept of it that we do.

So, yes. People who want to euthanize an animal just because they're tired of paying for it when they have comfortably the funds, or because they don't like the maintenance of its coat, or just no longer find it cute are not included here. People who have lost a part of their lives because of their animal's management for safety reasons and euthanize because the management of that animal is inconvenient are, however, fully included in this post. These two situations are not the same even though they get lumped together under the umbrella of "convenience euthanasia". No one should be punished because they've realized that their quality of life has decreased a noticeable amount because of their beloved, but dangerous (or hopelessly overwhelmed) creature.

Sometimes behavioral euthanasia is your only option.

Maybe someone else could help your dog. Maybe the right trainer could turn everything around. Maybe you haven't found the med that works for your dog yet. Maybe a different or more experienced owner wouldn't have made the same choices. Maybe if there weren't kids involved. Maybe if you weren't married. Maybe if you were married. Maybe if you live out in the country. Maybe if you were more diligent. Maybe if you didn't hover so much. Maybe. Maybe. Maybemaybemaybemaybe.

Maybe.

But none of that happened. And you're here now. And it was the right choice.

It was you. In the home you have. With whoever you had to help you. Or without any support. Handling your dog to the best of your ability at that moment in time.

That includes having limited mental and emotional bandwidth. There may have been more things you were physically capable of doing, but that doesn't mean you had the emotional and mental resources to do them. You would've done them if you could have. If you knew that you should.

But i know for sure that you didn't pay a few hundred dollars so that someone would kill your friend for no reason.

You did it because you were unsafe. Or because someone else was. Or because your dog was so overwhelmed by the world that they couldn't cope.

You certainly didn't walk into a vet appointment where every choice you'd ever made regarding the dog was questioned and you were told about all the local and breed specific rescues because you didn't try.

You made that appointment and walked in and suffered through the interrogation because you loved your dog enough to know that putting them through being rehomed or institutionalized in a shelter would lower their quality of life so significantly that it wouldn't be worth living for them. Or because you knew that no one would ever be safe living with them.

You did it because you cared. Because you loved them. Because you trusted that it was the best option. Because you tried.

And it still hurt. Even if you were angry and relieved. It still hurt.

So, let me encourage you to let go of "maybe". You loved them. You tried. You cared. It was and wasn't enough all at the same time. You made the right choice.

Basil goes in for his FHO surgery on Tuesday, since the dislocated hip he suffered when he was attacked by the loose dog hasn’t stayed in the socket and the toggle pin option for surgery is just too out of budget. His skull has healed really well, which at the time has been my biggest concern. He’s got a permanent dent above the left eye now and a lumpy ear with the scar tissue, but that’s just cosmetic. The stitches are fully dissolved on the healed lacerations to his leg.

I’ll be really glad to get him through this last hurdle of his recovery, the pain management has been keeping him mobile to go in and out for potty breaks, but it’s affected his appetite so his weight has suffered.

Between the initial emergency vet visit after he was attacked, the MRI, and the follow ups, it’s run us about $6500 so far, $1300 of which y’all contributed when I initially asked for help. Thank you so so much for everything <3