Dieter

December 20, 2020: My parents were in town for Christmas and we had invited Santiago, Kathleen and the kids over for what we anticipated would be a fun evening of visiting and games.  

About 5 minutes after they arrived, Oakley and Paxton went walking down the stairs together, Dieter lunged and attached Oakley.  He bit him so badly on the shoulder that Oakley had to have stiches.  We were very lucky that the damage was not worse.  It was just awful, the most horrific experience, especially knowing that our dog did this to our cousin.  Santiago immediately left with Oakley to get the emergency room.  And I ended up driving Kathleen and the rest of the kids to meet them at the hospital.  

When I returned from the hospital the boys were just sobbing.  It was heartbreaking on so many levels, knowing our dog had just injured a person we love, unprovoked, and knowing that this one event had forever changed all of our lives.  We loved Dieter so much!  He was such a sweet dog to us and although he had been aggressive with other dogs trying to enter our home, he had never shown aggression to any one before.  

***

We knew that we didn't feel comfortable keeping Dieter in our home after he had attacked someone.  And just couldn't risk the possibility of him hurting someone else.  Josh and I called every shelter in Portland and the state of Washington.  None of the rescues would take him because now he had a bite history.  The Humane Society told us that if we brought him in, they would have to put him to sleep.  So Josh and I spent the days leading up to Christmas Eve trying everything we could to try to rehome Dieter to an adult only home who would provide a good life for him.  We even went as far as driving 3 hours north and then 3 hours east to try and meet people who wanted to give him a home.  Both time Dieter would bark terribly at them and was aggressive.  The last woman we tried to meet with, he was the most horrible to, he tried to lunge at and attack her.  It was so vicious and disheartening.  By that point it became clear to us that Dieter would never willingly go with anyone else.  We were his family and he was very protective of us.  Sadly, we had to make the heartbreaking decision to put him down on Christmas Eve morning.  We will miss his terribly.  We loved Dieter so much and really thought he would be our forever dog.  We have so many great memories with him.

***

We learned that because of Covid and the fact that people were not getting together much, it was negatively affecting dogs due of the lack of socialization.  Which was leading them to become more territorial than usual.