Hi Lesley, thanks for the pm otherwise I would have missed this. I've not posted on COL for ages and for much the same reason as you. As you know our Madoc was an uncle of Archie being half brother to Archie's mum. Note the past tense
We had him PTS last October after struggling for 10 months with biting issues. I was too upset to post after that. He mostly bit my husband but also my dad, a friend and people in the kennels. We worked with a good behaviourist, Emily Blackwell of Bristol Uni Vet school, who did the Channel 4 dogs behavioural programme, the name of which I forget.
We'd got that at home we could largely manage him but found that life constricted hugely as we found more and more things we couldn't do because of him and fear he would bite someone. He found lots of things stressful and would react very quickly. Like Archie we never had a warning growl. It was just a very brief freeze then bite. Even Emily commented that he was very subtle in his communications. Odd things could be a trigger. Bizarrely, putting his food bowl down would sometimes provoke him though he wasn't bothered by us being around while he was eating. We couldn't pick him up, hold him by the collar, bath him, put on his equafleece, he sometimes reacted when we were taking off either his lead or collar though was fine when we put them on. The list of triggers just kept growing month on month.
Finally, one day when we were all on the floor putting a desk together, Madoc rolled on his back all smiley and wriggly. We both thought he wanted a tummy tickle. Ian turned and went to reach toward him and Madoc jumped up and gave him a deep bite on the shoulder. Neither of us saw it coming and at that point decided enough was enough. He was just too unpredictable to be safe. No rescue would take a dog that bites. They've got enough lovely friendly dogs they struggle to rehome as it is.
It was a heartbreaking decision. I loved him to bits. He was a lovely, bright intelligent dog that I felt a real connection to but we couldn't go on living as we were and we couldn't risk other people's safety. I think if we'd had children living in the house we'd have reached the same conclusion earlier.
Anyway that's Madoc's story. I suspect it's what you didn't want to hear. I've no advice for you I'm afraid. You've got to do what is right for you and your family, having taken appropriate behavioural advice from the experts. Hugs to you and the family
Sorry this is so long everyone but I thought it was important to be public about it