it is with much sadness that I have to report that after a severe and brutal attack on Kes last sunday evening and after consultation with two vets we had Glen put to sleep, I dont know if it was phsycological his aggression, but we had had various aggressive outbursts throughout last week each one becoming worse than the other, my poor Glen maybe his first year of life until we got him was too much we will never know, but the one thing that has kept us going is the knowledge that he had a wonderful time with us and he was truly loved and is sorley missed. Kes is much better now for a while we were really concerned Kes is a sensitive guy, and the impact of having Glen had a great effect on Kes, he does miss his brother, he stands at the gate looking for him, we were thinking of getting another one , but vet bills have seen to that and for now Kes needs all our love and attention, as I am on here he sleeps upstairs on the double bed he has claimed with his teddy he may be 18 months old but he is a big baby really ,
Thank you all for your support I only wish I had better news to report.On the picture if I have done it right Kes is on the right and Glen is on the left.

I am so very sorry to hear that - you must be feeling terrible. Has anyone said what may have caused these aggressive outbursts? I hope Kes is ok and will adjust to the loss of his brother. Hugs to you all

Hi Trish Law,I'm so sorry to hear your news as this kind of result is almost allways preventable unless theres some underlying medical cause. Remembering your previous posts, I thought it was purely a contest for domminance and I still think that, and another option may have been to re-home him to an experienced person for assesment which I'm sure would have answered your questions. Kes will def. be ok now, no pressure!

Sorry,forgot to ask,why did you go to the vets again? Would be interesting to know if you tried any of the suggestions I put forward.

Trish I am so sorry to hear this. I am sure it was a very difficult decision for you to make and one that you would have thought long and hard about. Hugs to you and your family.

we had tried everything suggested, we had thought about rehoming him but felt that because his attacks had become so unpredictable and he had almost bitten me three times over the weekend, he had starting growling and snapping when standing up, I did not want to be responsible for him hurting someone, the vet suggested he may have had a head injury in the past, but who knows , Kes is very depressed today and has not eaten his breakfast , I do worry about him now bit like an over protective mum he will get there.

Hi Trish,
I am so sorry to hear your news, but it sounds as though you have made the right decision, not taken lightly either. If you have tried all the other options.. Kes will be fine treat him as normal and you will find he will be a happier dog soon. Thinking of you.

Hi Trish, I am sorry to for you and I just agreed with wallace. Many hugs from me.

I just want to say how sorry I am, none of us ever want to have to go through this, but I really do think you have made the correct and most sensible descision. I would have done the same, you already made the point of sayng you didn't want him being aggressive towards anyone else, which is a really sensible way of thinking. Hopefully now your other boy will flourish and can maybe be more of himself. He will miss him for a bit but they soon bounce back, hopfully in the future he may have another playmate again.
So sorry for you all

Sorry to hear about poor Glen.

e-mail address is This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

Kes in the snow

lovely pic Trish - I hope that you are feeling a bit better and that Kes is starting to get used to Glen not being around. I have thought a lot about you since you made the post. I am sure that everything will be ok

Males can be so bolshy around this age but what you are describing does sound a bit more than a "teenage tantrum". I can see that you have the utmost integrity. You could have rehomed him but what if that person then rehomed him without saying about the problems and someone got hurt. You have made a difficult decision but you have not shirked that decision or passed it on to another person. I think you are very brave.

MrsMc wrote:
I think that the chances of anyone getting hurt were remote in the extreme, can anyone remember/find any documented incident when a person was injured by a Deerhound? Your more likely to win the lottery. I would have been more than happy to have taken him on and it takes more than a couple of weeks to sort some problems out. He may well have fitted in ok with our lot,and I don't think most vets are especially good with dog physcology.

I can see exactly where your coming from Alan. I only go on two forums and on the other forum an identical case has come up. 18 month male (not deerhound) showing agression etc. My advice was not to pts and to rehome to someone who has knowledge of this sort of thing. In this case it's too late to offer that advice.

The lady from the other forum was willing to pass on the dog and all of its problems to another person. There is a risk that this dog could have attacked again and Glen's owner was obviously not prepared to take that risk on her behalf or on the behalf of others. I can respect that. It is a sad case.

alan wrote:



You're right Alan, teaching of dog/animal physcology and also nutrition in vet school is very limited. The nutrition lectures are given by Pedigree (chum) employees !! Far better to talk to a specialist in these matters.

I have not posted on this thread before but i have been looking at everyone elses opinions.

As you say Sara, at the end of the day it was Trish Laws Decision, taken on the advice of
two vets. It is too late now for me to give any advice and I am not an expert on animal
physcology at all but I think the decision to have Glen pts was taken before all other
avenues had been explored.

I don't always agree with what Alan says but in this case he and I are only speaking from
the experience we have with keeping quite a few hounds, both male, female, young and old.

Apart from Alan's working collies all our hounds live in the house in one room. There are
6 Deerhounds, 3 Lurchers and a Whippet all living together and we have never had a
dominance issue with them because they know their pecking order within the pack and they
know that Alan and I and then Charlotte are at the top of that pecking order.

I believe Alan and CiCoch are correct in saying this was a dominance issue with these two
male Deerhounds.

In the first instance I would have gone back to my breeder and not my vet for advice.
If that advice failed I would have asked my breeder to take one of the dogs back, and any
reputable breeder would do that.

Failing that, I would have contacted Sue Reynolds and asked her to rehome one of the dogs
for me. If I was concerned about rehoming the dominant dog I would have rehomed the other
one. But what ever I decided to do, in the first instance, I would have SPLIT THEM UP.