Third time my Dane has bitten me!

[keithpk1]

I had to euthanize my 5 year old Great Dane yesterday. I adopted him at a little over 2 years old from a Dane rescue in Feb. 2013. In April 2013 I started giving him frozen marrow bones. I would put a sheet on the floor so the bones mess would not get on the carpet. One night in that April he moved the bone off of the sheet and I reached down and moved it back. He gave me a look. He moved the bone again and I reached down to adjust it back on the sheet. It was then, in milliseconds I felt the level 3 bite to my hand. I had never in my life been bitten that hard by anything. No growling, just a lunge and my whole hand in his mouth. I was completely shocked by his actions. I went to the emergency room for that one. I blamed myself and not the dog. After having a 2.5 year old dane prior this one (Died of Cancer) with no aggression this really caught me off guard.

I worked around the issue, never again messing with his food or bone. A year ago I was taking his collar off while he was lying in the bed and he yelped like I just hurt him and he lunged to try and bite my hand. I never tried to take the collar off again.

In October of 2015 I adopted a 7 month old Weim. I had the habit of feeding my Dane and a mixed shepherd "" from my hand. After I received the Weim, I started to feed all of the dogs "" from my hand. One night the Dane and the Weim were next to each other with the shepherd on the other side of my legs. The Dane freaked and bit my hand again (level 3 puncture but I took care of it myself this time) while I was handing out the "".

On Monday morning July 25th 2016 I let the dogs out to go to the bathroom. They came in and the Dane had a Cactus thorn stuck on the side of his right rear foot. I saw that he looked down at it. As in the past, I moved to the side and reached down to remove the thorny multi needle plant. I was able to remove 95% of the needles. I went to reach down again and the Dane grabbed my right wrist in his jaws and bit down hard. I tried to remove my arm and then he bit harder. Another level 3 bite, four puncture wounds.

Later that night I went to clean the eye gook that sometimes sticks to his eye and he started to raise his lips.

I never thought I would ever be afraid of a dog, but I instantly became afraid of him. I contacted my Weim rescue person and told them the story. They put me in touch with a behaviorist. I spoke to my Vet also. They all agreed that this dog need to be put down. They said I was living with a ticking time-bomb. I could not let that dog hurt my other two dogs or subject myself to be bitten again.

I had him put down within hours. I am hurting with extreme guilt.

I miss him so much!

[lisacp75]

I had to euthanize my 5 year old Great Dane yesterday. I adopted him at a little over 2 years old from a Dane rescue in Feb. 2013. In April 2013 I started giving him frozen marrow bones. I would put a sheet on the floor so the bones mess would not get on the carpet. One night in that April he moved the bone off of the sheet and I reached down and moved it back. He gave me a look. He moved the bone again and I reached down to adjust it back on the sheet. It was then, in milliseconds I felt the level 3 bite to my hand. I had never in my life been bitten that hard by anything. No growling, just a lunge and my whole hand in his mouth. I was completely shocked by his actions. I went to the emergency room for that one. I blamed myself and not the dog. After having a 2.5 year old dane prior this one (Died of Cancer) with no aggression this really caught me off guard.

I worked around the issue, never again messing with his food or bone. A year ago I was taking his collar off while he was lying in the bed and he yelped like I just hurt him and he lunged to try and bite my hand. I never tried to take the collar off again.

In October of 2015 I adopted a 7 month old Weim. I had the habit of feeding my Dane and a mixed shepherd "" from my hand. After I received the Weim, I started to feed all of the dogs "" from my hand. One night the Dane and the Weim were next to each other with the shepherd on the other side of my legs. The Dane freaked and bit my hand again (level 3 puncture but I took care of it myself this time) while I was handing out the "".

On Monday morning July 25th 2016 I let the dogs out to go to the bathroom. They came in and the Dane had a Cactus thorn stuck on the side of his right rear foot. I saw that he looked down at it. As in the past, I moved to the side and reached down to remove the thorny multi needle plant. I was able to remove 95% of the needles. I went to reach down again and the Dane grabbed my right wrist in his jaws and bit down hard. I tried to remove my arm and then he bit harder. Another level 3 bite, four puncture wounds.

Later that night I went to clean the eye gook that sometimes sticks to his eye and he started to raise his lips.

I never thought I would ever be afraid of a dog, but I instantly became afraid of him. I contacted my Weim rescue person and told them the story. They put me in touch with a behaviorist. I spoke to my Vet also. They all agreed that this dog need to be put down. They said I was living with a ticking time-bomb. I could not let that dog hurt my other two dogs or subject myself to be bitten again.

I had him put down within hours. I am hurting with extreme guilt.

I miss him so much!

Oh no - so very sorry - don't beat yourself up for this! You gave him more chances than many would have and he had a wonderful life with you. You will never know what happened in his previous home that made him react so severely. Nobody should live with a pet they have come to fear, so don't feel guilty for letting him go before the situation escalated further. You did the right thing, even if it was heartbreaking. Eventually, I guarantee you will remember the good memories over the bad. Sending healing thoughts your way.

[Charlene]

i agree with lisa on this one. however, IF (God forbid), you should ever run into this situation with another dog, the FIRST thing to do is a complete vet check-up, blood work (including thyroid) and if all checks out well, perhaps a behaviorist to evaluate the dog.

there have been several members here who have opted to euthanize an aggressive dane both for the safety of the other dogs and for the humans in the household. some dogs are just "wired wrong". and lisa is right, not knowing his history prior to getting him, you just never know what he had been through.

i have had 6 rescue danes over the years (currently 2 now) and none of them had an aggressive bone in their bodies. i have been LUCKY as i know very, very little about histories.

i'm so sorry you had to go through these traumas and so very sorry you had to euthanize. obviously, it was your only option. i hope you have happy memories of your boy to look back on.

[CarolB]

You did the right thing. I have a very low tolerance for biting Great Danes.

[jrturk]

That is scary, having a giant that doesn't give a growl or anything as a warning first. I'm sorry you had to make that difficult decision.

[keithpk1]

Thank you all for your responses.

My first Dane "Belle" was a rescue also. As I stated before, I only had her a short time until she acquired bone cancer. I put her thru a lot. The vet misdiagnosed her and she endured unnecessary surgeries. Thru all of that, and all of her pain, she never exhibited any aggression towards me.

I was naive and partially in-denial after "Frankie" bit me the first time. I blamed myself for being stupid. I new he had issues from the start. I was told he grew up under a bed on the second floor of a townhouse. He was abused and had a scar on his head to prove it. He constantly kept looking at the ceiling as if waiting for an object to come down and hit him on the head. He was frightened of the ceiling fans.

This was like being in an abusive relationship where the man only beats you once a month and buys you dinner and gifts the other times. I endured this dysfunctional relationship always blaming myself. I just worked around the issues. I thought I knew the trigger points that would set him off but he tricked me and changed the game.

He was getting more aggressive showing his dominance over me and the other dogs. I used to be able to sit at the diner table and eat in peace. In the last few weeks he was pushing his nose into my plate and trying to lick the food. Many times I pushed him away and also put my face down at his level. I look back now and realize he could have bitten my face off.

I was very lucky that he never hurt anyone or anything but me. Had I realized there were such things as a dog behaviorist, I would have seeked out their opinion from the start.

[Sparrow]

So sorry you had to go through this. I agree with the others that you shouldn't feel guilty and it sounds like you did the best you could. I'm sure it doesn't help and you'll still beat yourself up though. It's hard not to when you love something that much. You'll go through all the "what ifs?" and "If onlys" and eventually the pain will get less. It will take a while though. I'm so sorry about your first Dane too. Cancer is a filthy dirtbag of a disease.

[Hiraeth]

Thank you all for your responses.

My first Dane "Belle" was a rescue also. As I stated before, I only had her a short time until she acquired bone cancer. I put her thru a lot. The vet misdiagnosed her and she endured unnecessary surgeries. Thru all of that, and all of her pain, she never exhibited any aggression towards me.

I was naive and partially in-denial after "Frankie" bit me the first time. I blamed myself for being stupid. I new he had issues from the start. I was told he grew up under a bed on the second floor of a townhouse. He was abused and had a scar on his head to prove it. He constantly kept looking at the ceiling as if waiting for an object to come down and hit him on the head. He was frightened of the ceiling fans.

This was like being in an abusive relationship where the man only beats you once a month and buys you dinner and gifts the other times. I endured this dysfunctional relationship always blaming myself. I just worked around the issues. I thought I knew the trigger points that would set him off but he tricked me and changed the game.

He was getting more aggressive showing his dominance over me and the other dogs. I used to be able to sit at the diner table and eat in peace. In the last few weeks he was pushing his nose into my plate and trying to lick the food. Many times I pushed him away and also put my face down at his level. I look back now and realize he could have bitten my face off.

I was very lucky that he never hurt anyone or anything but me. Had I realized there were such things as a dog behaviorist, I would have seeked out their opinion from the start.

I'm very sorry for your loss.

I do want to add a few things. And I don't mean to come off as rude, condescending, or harsh in light of the tragedy you've just endured. But this is an educational forum, so to glaze over this chance to help educate is not something I want to do.

The first time he bit your hand, when you were moving his bone, it *was* your fault. You should never mess with the resources of a dog you've recently gotten, especially a dog from a rescue scenario where you know abuse has occurred. Odds are that he had the "growl trained out of him" by excessive beating, which means that every time he growled to show discomfort, he got beat for it. When you train the growl out of a dog, and then they get frightened, they go straight for a bite because they have no other way to express their fear.

Same with the collar situation - he had probably been grabbed by his collar, submissive downed, or alpha rolled, and hit. So when you reached over his head for his collar, he probably thought that was about to happen to him again.

When he had a thorn in his foot, he was in pain and scared. You should always muzzle a dog, especially a dog with a bite history, before doing anything around them that may cause discomfort.

Dominance is not a personality trait. Your dog wasn't a "dominant dog". The dominance theory has been disproven. Here are a few articles if you (or anyone else reading this) is interested:

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/iss...s_20416-1.html

https://positively.com/dog-training/...eory-debunked/

Having said all of that, these are all mistakes that anyone who isn't experienced in working with extremely fearful dogs could make. You didn't make them maliciously, you were doing your best with your dog. There is no need to feel guilt, because you didn't know any better. And when we know better, we do better. So here's a bit of knowledge from someone who has dealt with fear aggressive dogs for the last decade:

1. The food/bone issue - The minute a dog displays a tendency to resource guard, it's best to take a step back, never mess with their resources, and start counter conditioning the behavior. Counter conditioning means overriding a dog's negative response in a certain situation with a positive one. So, instead of removing a bone (which is negative), you introduce a higher value treat to the dog WHILE removing the bone, which creates a positive experience. It teaches the dog that they get rewarded with an even higher value treat when they allow you to touch their bone/treat/toys.

2. The collar issue - Again, counter conditioning. When you reached for his collar and he yelped, that was a sign that he was extremely frightened and thought he was about to experience pain. So in that situation, you take some high value treats, and start by touching his body somewhere he's comfortable with (like his back), while feeding him treats. Slowly, over weeks or months, you work your hand closer to the collar area and give treats for relaxed behavior. In this way, you build a positive association between your hand and reaching for his collar.

3. The thorn issue - This is easily solved. Never do anything that may cause pain to a dog with a bite history without first muzzling the dog. Not doing so is asking to get bitten.

At the end of the day, it sounds like this dog was horribly treated and abused and you rescued him from that situation. You used the tools at your disposal and did the best you could by him, and that's all anyone can ask of a dog owner. Had he been living with someone who has experience with working with fearful dogs, his bite reaction to fear may have been something that could have been rehabilitated. Maybe not. However, I do believe that you did the right thing because his case sounds severe, and not a lot of people are equipped to handle that, nor do they feel comfortable handling that level of biting from a giant breed dog.

I'm not trying to shame or guilt you. Just trying to share some of what I've learned over the last ten years so that should you ever (and I hope you don't) find yourself in this situation again, you may be able to start influencing the behavior in a positive manner before it escalates to the point it did with this dog. Again, I'm sorry for your loss and I hope you have an easier time with your future Danes.

[keithpk1]

I'm very sorry for your loss.

I do want to add a few things. And I don't mean to come off as rude, condescending, or harsh in light of the tragedy you've just endured. But this is an educational forum, so to glaze over this chance to help educate is not something I want to do.

The first time he bit your hand, when you were moving his bone, it *was* your fault. You should never mess with the resources of a dog you've recently gotten, especially a dog from a rescue scenario where you know abuse has occurred. Odds are that he had the "growl trained out of him" by excessive beating, which means that every time he growled to show discomfort, he got beat for it. When you train the growl out of a dog, and then they get frightened, they go straight for a bite because they have no other way to express their fear.

Same with the collar situation - he had probably been grabbed by his collar, submissive downed, or alpha rolled, and hit. So when you reached over his head for his collar, he probably thought that was about to happen to him again.

When he had a thorn in his foot, he was in pain and scared. You should always muzzle a dog, especially a dog with a bite history, before doing anything around them that may cause discomfort.

Dominance is not a personality trait. Your dog wasn't a "dominant dog". The dominance theory has been disproven. Here are a few articles if you (or anyone else reading this) is interested:

http://www.whole-dog-journal.com/iss...s_20416-1.html

https://positively.com/dog-training/...eory-debunked/

Having said all of that, these are all mistakes that anyone who isn't experienced in working with extremely fearful dogs could make. You didn't make them maliciously, you were doing your best with your dog. There is no need to feel guilt, because you didn't know any better. And when we know better, we do better. So here's a bit of knowledge from someone who has dealt with fear aggressive dogs for the last decade:

1. The food/bone issue - The minute a dog displays a tendency to resource guard, it's best to take a step back, never mess with their resources, and start counter conditioning the behavior. Counter conditioning means overriding a dog's negative response in a certain situation with a positive one. So, instead of removing a bone (which is negative), you introduce a higher value treat to the dog WHILE removing the bone, which creates a positive experience. It teaches the dog that they get rewarded with an even higher value treat when they allow you to touch their bone/treat/toys.

2. The collar issue - Again, counter conditioning. When you reached for his collar and he yelped, that was a sign that he was extremely frightened and thought he was about to experience pain. So in that situation, you take some high value treats, and start by touching his body somewhere he's comfortable with (like his back), while feeding him treats. Slowly, over weeks or months, you work your hand closer to the collar area and give treats for relaxed behavior. In this way, you build a positive association between your hand and reaching for his collar.

3. The thorn issue - This is easily solved. Never do anything that may cause pain to a dog with a bite history without first muzzling the dog. Not doing so is asking to get bitten.

At the end of the day, it sounds like this dog was horribly treated and abused and you rescued him from that situation. You used the tools at your disposal and did the best you could by him, and that's all anyone can ask of a dog owner. Had he been living with someone who has experience with working with fearful dogs, his bite reaction to fear may have been something that could have been rehabilitated. Maybe not. However, I do believe that you did the right thing because his case sounds severe, and not a lot of people are equipped to handle that, nor do they feel comfortable handling that level of biting from a giant breed dog.

I'm not trying to shame or guilt you. Just trying to share some of what I've learned over the last ten years so that should you ever (and I hope you don't) find yourself in this situation again, you may be able to start influencing the behavior in a positive manner before it escalates to the point it did with this dog. Again, I'm sorry for your loss and I hope you have an easier time with your future Danes.

I appreciate any and all responses. I put this out there so people who know more than I can help me in the future. I understand completely what you are saying but, I had this dog for over three years. I took his collar off of him every night while he laid in my bed for almost three years without a problem. I removed many thorns from his feet over the three years with out issue. He felt the pain of thorns being removed before. He let me clean out his ears weekly. He let me wipe eye gook from his face daily. I have removed ticks from between his front toes when he got an infestation. These were not one off things that I did to this dog. I was not afraid of this dog until this last bite and snarl. To me, he then became unpredictable.

[Angel7292]

I'm so sorry to hear about the loss of your woofer.

[kmoore24]

You did the right thing. I have a very low tolerance for biting Great Danes.

I agree, I did the same thing myself a few years ago. A giant dog that bites is not safe.

[Hiraeth]

I appreciate any and all responses. I put this out there so people who know more than I can help me in the future. I understand completely what you are saying but, I had this dog for over three years. I took his collar off of him every night while he laid in my bed for almost three years without a problem. I removed many thorns from his feet over the three years with out issue. He felt the pain of thorns being removed before. He let me clean out his ears weekly. He let me wipe eye gook from his face daily. I have removed ticks from between his front toes when he got an infestation. These were not one off things that I did to this dog. I was not afraid of this dog until this last bite and snarl. To me, he then became unpredictable.

I understand your reasoning and why you decide euthanasia was the best choice. And again, I'm not looking to place blame, just to help share what I've learned.

That being said, I think you were unintentionally doing things that scared your dog because of your belief in dominance theory. This is what makes me say that:

He was getting more aggressive showing his dominance over me and the other dogs. I used to be able to sit at the diner table and eat in peace. In the last few weeks he was pushing his nose into my plate and trying to lick the food. Many times I pushed him away and also put my face down at his level. I look back now and realize he could have bitten my face off.

Do you have any idea how threatening it is to get down on a dog's level and stare? That's why many dog fights start with a tense stare down. You are indeed lucky that you didn't get your face bitten - putting your face in the face of a dog who has bitten you twice already is a *really* bad idea. It's just asking to be bitten. Also, the fact that you pushed him away kind of concerns me.

I understand not wanting a dog near your food. Instead of being aggressive and physically forceful towards your dog to get him away from your food, you should have taught him a "place" command, and trained him to stay away from the table while you were eating.

This is from Patricia McConnell's (Ph.D., Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB)), "The Other End of the Leash" - Confrontational Techniques Elicit Aggression:

"The most confrontational, and I would argue, aggressive, behaviors on the part of the owners resulted in the highest levels of aggressive responses from the dogs. 43% of dogs responded with aggression to being hit or kicked, 38% to having an owner grab their mouth and take out an object forcefully, 36% to having a muzzle put on (or attempted?), 29% to a “dominance down,” 26% to a jowl or scruff shake. You get the idea. Of course, these are all dogs who were seen by veterinary behaviorists for aggression-related problems, but it makes the data even more important. Violence begets violence, aggression begets aggression."

"Thus, the study is not so much about “reinforcement” and “punishment,” as about what happens when you threaten your dog, or forcefully and physically respond to misbehavior. Please be clear that I am not saying that if one of us occasionally raises our voice to our dog, or has a moment of humanity and loses our temper, we are going to destroy our dogs forever. Neither am I saying that aversives are always bad: aversive events are part and parcel of life, and we all need to know how to handle them, dogs included. However, as many of us have observed for years, using force and confrontation as a primary method of dog training often backfires and creates some of the very problems it is trying to solve."

I'm not sure what other aversives you used to train your dog. I have to imagine, based on your belief in dominance and the fact that you admitted that you both pushed and stared down your dog, you used other dominance-based techniques as well.

Violence begets violence. Aggression begets aggression.

I'd highly recommend that you do some reading into positive reinforcement training and drop the whole "dominance" theory. I'm not saying that it caused what happened between you and this dog and maybe the dog would have reacted to those situations in the same way even if you weren't using dominance-based training. But I think it added fuel to the fire of an already abused and mistreated animal who felt oppressed and scared of people. Danes are generally soft and impressionable dogs and need to be trained as such, minus stare downs and physical force.

And to reiterate, I do think you made the right choice. I don't think you would have been able to "rehab" this dog, especially considering your fear of him, and keeping him in your home was another aggressive incident waiting to happen.

[keithpk1]

I understand your reasoning and why you decide euthanasia was the best choice. And again, I'm not looking to place blame, just to help share what I've learned.

That being said, I think you were unintentionally doing things that scared your dog because of your belief in dominance theory. This is what makes me say that:



Do you have any idea how threatening it is to get down on a dog's level and stare? That's why many dog fights start with a tense stare down. You are indeed lucky that you didn't get your face bitten - putting your face in the face of a dog who has bitten you twice already is a *really* bad idea. It's just asking to be bitten. Also, the fact that you pushed him away kind of concerns me.

I understand not wanting a dog near your food. Instead of being aggressive and physically forceful towards your dog to get him away from your food, you should have taught him a "place" command, and trained him to stay away from the table while you were eating.

This is from Patricia McConnell's (Ph.D., Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB)), "The Other End of the Leash" - Confrontational Techniques Elicit Aggression:

"The most confrontational, and I would argue, aggressive, behaviors on the part of the owners resulted in the highest levels of aggressive responses from the dogs. 43% of dogs responded with aggression to being hit or kicked, 38% to having an owner grab their mouth and take out an object forcefully, 36% to having a muzzle put on (or attempted?), 29% to a “dominance down,” 26% to a jowl or scruff shake. You get the idea. Of course, these are all dogs who were seen by veterinary behaviorists for aggression-related problems, but it makes the data even more important. Violence begets violence, aggression begets aggression."

"Thus, the study is not so much about “reinforcement” and “punishment,” as about what happens when you threaten your dog, or forcefully and physically respond to misbehavior. Please be clear that I am not saying that if one of us occasionally raises our voice to our dog, or has a moment of humanity and loses our temper, we are going to destroy our dogs forever. Neither am I saying that aversives are always bad: aversive events are part and parcel of life, and we all need to know how to handle them, dogs included. However, as many of us have observed for years, using force and confrontation as a primary method of dog training often backfires and creates some of the very problems it is trying to solve."

I'm not sure what other aversives you used to train your dog. I have to imagine, based on your belief in dominance and the fact that you admitted that you both pushed and stared down your dog, you used other dominance-based techniques as well.

Violence begets violence. Aggression begets aggression.

I'd highly recommend that you do some reading into positive reinforcement training and drop the whole "dominance" theory. I'm not saying that it caused what happened between you and this dog and maybe the dog would have reacted to those situations in the same way even if you weren't using dominance-based training. But I think it added fuel to the fire of an already abused and mistreated animal who felt oppressed and scared of people. Danes are generally soft and impressionable dogs and need to be trained as such, minus stare downs and physical force.

And to reiterate, I do think you made the right choice. I don't think you would have been able to "rehab" this dog, especially considering your fear of him, and keeping him in your home was another aggressive incident waiting to happen.

Thank you very much for your response.

The word "Dominance" never entered my head until I spoke to three different vets that day. I treated him as my equal and my best buddy. I did nothing but love on that big fella. I never once did anything remotely physical with him. Pushing him meant nudging him with my shoulder. He got away with murder aroung here. My fault was not putting him and me thru some type of formal training, and that is on me.

[keithpk1]

I understand your reasoning and why you decide euthanasia was the best choice. And again, I'm not looking to place blame, just to help share what I've learned.

That being said, I think you were unintentionally doing things that scared your dog because of your belief in dominance theory. This is what makes me say that:



Do you have any idea how threatening it is to get down on a dog's level and stare? That's why many dog fights start with a tense stare down. You are indeed lucky that you didn't get your face bitten - putting your face in the face of a dog who has bitten you twice already is a *really* bad idea. It's just asking to be bitten. Also, the fact that you pushed him away kind of concerns me.

I understand not wanting a dog near your food. Instead of being aggressive and physically forceful towards your dog to get him away from your food, you should have taught him a "place" command, and trained him to stay away from the table while you were eating.

This is from Patricia McConnell's (Ph.D., Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist (CAAB)), "The Other End of the Leash" - Confrontational Techniques Elicit Aggression:

"The most confrontational, and I would argue, aggressive, behaviors on the part of the owners resulted in the highest levels of aggressive responses from the dogs. 43% of dogs responded with aggression to being hit or kicked, 38% to having an owner grab their mouth and take out an object forcefully, 36% to having a muzzle put on (or attempted?), 29% to a “dominance down,” 26% to a jowl or scruff shake. You get the idea. Of course, these are all dogs who were seen by veterinary behaviorists for aggression-related problems, but it makes the data even more important. Violence begets violence, aggression begets aggression."

"Thus, the study is not so much about “reinforcement” and “punishment,” as about what happens when you threaten your dog, or forcefully and physically respond to misbehavior. Please be clear that I am not saying that if one of us occasionally raises our voice to our dog, or has a moment of humanity and loses our temper, we are going to destroy our dogs forever. Neither am I saying that aversives are always bad: aversive events are part and parcel of life, and we all need to know how to handle them, dogs included. However, as many of us have observed for years, using force and confrontation as a primary method of dog training often backfires and creates some of the very problems it is trying to solve."

I'm not sure what other aversives you used to train your dog. I have to imagine, based on your belief in dominance and the fact that you admitted that you both pushed and stared down your dog, you used other dominance-based techniques as well.

Violence begets violence. Aggression begets aggression.

I'd highly recommend that you do some reading into positive reinforcement training and drop the whole "dominance" theory. I'm not saying that it caused what happened between you and this dog and maybe the dog would have reacted to those situations in the same way even if you weren't using dominance-based training. But I think it added fuel to the fire of an already abused and mistreated animal who felt oppressed and scared of people. Danes are generally soft and impressionable dogs and need to be trained as such, minus stare downs and physical force.

And to reiterate, I do think you made the right choice. I don't think you would have been able to "rehab" this dog, especially considering your fear of him, and keeping him in your home was another aggressive incident waiting to happen.

Thank you very much for your response.

The word "Dominance" never entered my head until I spoke to three different vets that day. I treated him as my equal and my best buddy. I did nothing but love on that big fella. I never once did anything remotely physical with him. Pushing him meant nudging him with my shoulder. He got away with murder around here. My fault was not putting him and me thru some type of formal training, and that is on me.