Minnesotagirl,
We didn't just give up on the dog, we tried for two years to correct his behavior and yes, we also tried two different trainers. One of the trainers actually advertized as being able to correct aggressive behavior in any dog. She was concerned on his unpredictability, The dog didn't attack every person that came around him, the problem was you never new if he was going to be friendly or not. One time he would be like a gentle giant the next time growling and snapping. Never at us, just people around us. When we talked to the Vet to see if they had other suggestions on correcting this behavior, we were told that the breed of dogs that they see having the most aggression problems, are the pit bull and chesapeake bay retrievers. Our dog was a chessie. I still don't think, in general, that chessies are aggressive dogs although I know they are stuborn. The one trainer also told us we probably had picked the alpha-male from the litter and they are usually the most difficult to train and carry a more stuborn trait. We will be getting another dog, we are good owners and make the pet part of our family. You have know idea how tough it was to make the decision to put him down, but we could never forgive ourselves if he hurt someone. He was just to unpredictable. Our vet, people from animal shelter, our trainer all told us that the right thing to do is to put him down. Like I said, it was the hardest thing I have ever done. It has been two weeks now since we put him down and my wife has not made it through one day with-out shedding a tear.
