this might not be much help but 4 years ago my mom and i rescued a siberian husky named misty from a shelter and fell madly in love with her... she was a TERRIBLE behaved dog!!! we couldn't even take her out to go potty alone BOTH of us had to hold her leash because she would LITERALLY drag us through the yard... this is NO exaggeration either!! one day she snipped at a neighbor and we freaked out.. from that point on NO ONE could walk into our house without her going crazy and getting vicious... we assume she was beat at her previous home.. we wanted to take her to training but she was a 4 year old 75 lb dog we had to muzzle... at home she was sweet as can be and we got so attatched we couldn't imagine getting rid of her... my mom ended up taking her to training where they used a shock collar and ALWAYS on minimum.. and now she goes potty without a leash comes when called, does every command immediately and people walk in and out of the house with NO problems and she doesn't even wear the collar anymore... i understand misty was probably more sever of a case but i wouldn't say it was a cruel thing either because if we wouldn't have done that misty may have bit someone or something and could have been taken away from us. i don't know that i would say your dog was at the point yet it sounds like there are other options... but i def. don't think its as cruel as everyones saying either NO i don't think every dog should do shock training but in our case it saved our family and kept misty with us