Those of us who read the article saw this in the next to the last paragraphs:
The homeowner says the dog was shot in the head. He begged the deputy to finish off his cowdog, named Candy, since the dog was suffering.“I was so upset. I went over there to her and she was still alive and I begged and pleaded with him to please shoot her again because I don’t have any firearms. They got stolen. He went and got in his vehicle and backed out of my driveway,” Middleton explained.
Middleton had trained Candy to be a cow dog, and he says his dog was a natural.“And then I had to do the unthinkable, the otherwise unthinkable. I had to kill my dog with my bare hands and put her out of her suffering, praying for this to be over with,” Middleton said.
The claim made above was back of head implying the dog was feeling when the deputy shot. I had not seen that mentioned anywhere. That statement changes it altogether.