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Dealing with the Dominant Dog

by Ed Frawley

This article is being written for dog owners who believe that have a problem with aggression or poor behavior with their family dog.

We get a lot of emails from people who believe they have dominant dogs. The fact is very few dogs are truly dominant. We feel the vast majority of the people who email us don't have dominant dogs but rather they have dogs that have never learned rules. For lack of a better description I call them dogs that have never learned "pack structure rules".

With that said a dog without rules bites his owner just as hard and does just as much damage as a dominant dog who bites his owner. You can see that in the pictures I have included in this article. You may also want to see the many other dog bite photos that people have sent us over the years which have been posted on our web site at http://leerburg.com/dogbites.htm . The difference is that it's easier to rehabilitate a dog without rules than it is to rehabilitate a truly dominant dog.

This article will talk about mistake people make in living with dogs that lead to bad or aggressive behavior. I first wrote the article in the 1990's and have updated it several times since.

I will begin by saying the internet is filled with well meaning people who offer opinions on dog training. Those opinions are all based on that persons experience and that persons training with their dogs. Unfortunately the advice that the vast majority of these people offer on dog aggression is at best inaccurate and at worst dangerous.

For that reason I will mention a little of my background. While I have owned dogs since the 1950's I trained my first German Shepherd in 1962. In 1974 I attended my first Schutzhund seminar, in 1978 my first police service dog training seminar. During the middle 1980's I imported and sold young adult German Shepherds that were selection tested and sold for police service work. From 1990 to 2000 I worked as a K9 handler on our local Sheriff';s department. During all these years it has been my passion to study the art of breeding and training working dogs.

◀ When I ask people about their dog bite scars, I get the same answer: “I made a mistake with that dog.” The fact is getting dog bit always comes down to misreading the signals a dog gives and/or making mistakes in how we handle our dogs.

One of the biggest mistakes dog owners make is failing to recognize signs, signals or warnings that dogs offer before they bite. Pet owners don't understand how strong pack instinct is in their family dog. This lack of understanding is what gets them into trouble.

Dogs by nature are social animals. Their instinct make them want to be part of a social group. This is the same for horses, chickens and many other species. Each social group is a hierarchy of members.

There is a saying in the dog world that there are no equals within a group of dogs. Every social group will have it's own pecking order. Lower ranking members always defer to higher ranking members. If the group doesn't have a clear leader one member will always step forward become the leader even if it's not genetically predisposed to leadership. Whats interesting is that many times a dog that finds itself in at the top of the social group doesn't feel comfortable in that position.

Rank is almost always communicated through subtle behaviors that each members of the pack understands and respects. Over time leaders will always establish their own set of rules that all members of the pack are expected to live by. There are well understood consequences for breaking rules.

Dog owners can and must learn to become leaders even if they are not predisposed to leadership. They need to think about establishing their own set of rules that their dog is expected to live by. These ruled can be no biting the leader, no inappropriate aggression to visitors, no jumping up on people, stay away from small children etc etc.

Owners must also learn to be 100% consistent at enforcing those rules. When a dog believes that every single time it breaks a rule there will be some form of consequence that dog is less likely to break a rule. Once that threshold is reached (where the dog accepts and live within the framework of the leaders rules) that dog becomes an easy dog to live with.

For that to happen dog owners and their dogs must come to an understanding that every single time the dog breaks a rule there will be some form of consequences. This doesn't necessarily mean the dog gets a strong physical correction every time. Some dogs, with soft temperaments, may only need a verbal warning while other dogs need a leash correction for the same infraction. Learning to evaluate temperaments falls under the category of "the Art of Dog Training"

Just as important, owners must be consistent, they can't pick and chose when to apply a consequence. If they do this they end up with a dog that will pick and chose when to obey a rule. Inconsistency always leads to some level of behavioral issues.

The Evolution of Handler Mistakes

The evolution of handler mistakes often begins with a misunderstanding. Local obedience instructors lead pet owners to believe they will end up with a well mannered dog if they sign up for class. Pet owners are told their dogs only need to learn sit, down, come and walk on a leash. These classes often fail to teach owners that dogs must also learn to be polite around strangers, to leave small children alone, to stay off furniture or beds unless invited up, to not jump up on people or take food off the counter, or act stupid when the door bell rings etc etc etc. In other words the owners don't learn that their dog needs rules to live by and they (the owner) needs to learn the concept of constancy, why it's important along with the concept of varying levels of consequences.

Growling is not always a bad thing

Social rank is a big thing to a social pack animal. Leaders eat what they want and get the better sleeping quarters. Lower ranking members would not challenge the leader for food, or act aggressively towards a higher pack member by trying to move the leader out of his bed.

If your dog growls at you when you go near his food bowl or if the dog is laying in your bed and growls when you get into bed or if it growls when you take toys away, that dog is either fearful because of how it was treated in the past or it does not respect your position as a higher social rank.

If a dog that has not been mistreated by family members but growls at the wife or children it sees itself as a higher rank. Growling is the dogs warning or challenge. It's often accompanied my other subtle body postures that most owners miss . Some people think growling is a bad thing, I don't. Growling is a signal that there is a problem of some kind and I need to find the solution.

Look at it like this. Some dogs don't growl, they simply strike (bite) with very little warning. Would you rather have a dog that growls or a dog that strikes? In my opinion people who administer unfair corrections for growling are making a mistake. They are setting themselves up to get dog bit. What they should be doing is thinking about why the dog is growling and then come up with a solution to stop it in the future.

Is the dog is growling over food? Then it should be fed in a crate. Is it growling when you take toys away? Then it should n to have toys. Is it growling when you come to bed? Then it needs to be on leash in the house and it should go in a crate at bedtime. Does it growl at guests? Then put it in a crate when guests come over. A little common sense goes a long way in figuring out a solution. And each of these solutions do not involve a fight with the dog. We say they are just examples of controlling the environment that the dog is allowed to live in.

When Does Dominance or Dog Aggression start?

It is an extremely rare situation for a puppy younger than 10 months of age to show signs of dominant handler aggression. In 35 years of breeding working bloodline German Shepherds I cannot remember seeing one case and I bred some dogs that grew up to become tough police service dogs. The fact is when a puppy is raised correctly the issue of rank is established early and then it's over and the dog never challenges the handlers authority. Unfortunately new puppy owners who lack experience often mistakenly confuse prey drive with dominance. These are two totally unrelated and different things.

When a pup chews on your hands or your pant leg (even if its verbalizing by growling) it's only displaying play/prey drive. Puppies play with their littermates by using their mouth. They bite each other, they jump on each other, they growl at each other. When they then move away from their litter and into a human family they can only assume that this is how to should play with their new human pack members. It becomes the owners job to teach the pup manners and human rules. The best way to control puppies that bite is to redirect the puppy by using food or toys. When a pup is biting hands you simply refocus the pup onto a high value food treat or a high value toy. To often this does not happen and puppy cuteness overshadows leadership.

This often leads to the emails we get from frustrated puppy owners who mistakenly think they have a dominant puppy when in fact all they have is a very nice pup with a lot of drive that has not had its drive managed correctly.

Unfortunately new dog owners don't learn how to redirect their pup or how to control the environment they allow their puppy to be in. By that I mean it should be common sense to not allow mouthy puppies around very small children. It always saddens me when I see this happen. I look at it like that poor puppy was not dealt a fair hand of cards.

15 to 36 months

If a dog is going to show serious dominance or handler aggression problems (and the vast majority of dogs don;t) it doesn't begin to appear until the dog enters maturity. This takes place between 15 and 36 months of age. The most common being around 18 months.

As some dogs mature, their instincts tell them to assume a rank within the pack. Youngsters are willing to be followers, but if they don't receive the proper training or if that training was lacking or if it is allowed to display rank behavior (i.e. guarding toys, lay on the bed or on furniture whenever it wants etc) the drive to assume higher pack position takes over. .

Obedience Training is ONLY one piece of the puzzle

It's a given that obedience training helps every dog, no one would argue that point. But unfortunately even consistent obedience training is not enough to rehabilitating a dominant dog. Truly dominant dog needs more than that.

Teaching a dominant dog that it will get a food reward is not difficult. In fact reward based training is perfect for these kinds of dogs because it's non-confrontational. The consequence for not minding is the dog doesn't get food reward - not a physical correction that could lead to a fight. This method is way better than showing a dominant dog that it will get a leash correction for not minding, especially with a mature tough adult. Anyone who questions how serious this can be should look at the photos of dog bites that people have sent me. I have them posted on my web site (click here to see the photos) A word of warning, these photos are graphic.

So my point here is that our dogs need obedience training but once the dog has become dominant and aggressive it needs more than just obedience.

Poor Obedience Training is Part of the Cause of Dominance Problems

When you think in terms of rank and pack behavior it's easy to understand how ineffective obedience training results in dominance issues with maturing dogs.

The correct way to obedience train a dog involves several stages of training:

In the Learning Phase the dog is taught the meaning of a command in a distraction free environment (I.E. Your kitchen) through motivational methods. This means we guide and help the dog through different exercises by giving them food or a toy rewards when they do what we want. It's our job to determine what motivator works best for our individual dog.

Once the dog has learned the command in the first location we then "generalize" the behavior by teaching that behavior in more and more environments and under more and more distractions.

In the Correction Phase we teach a dog that it will be corrected if it does not follow a command that it has learned in the LEARNING PHSASE. We never correct a dog unless we are 100% sure it knows and understands what we are asking him to do. To get 100% consistency of behavior we must have a correction phase of some sort. While corrections for many dogs may simply mean withholding the reward, for others it's going to mean a physical correction of some kind.

In the end our dogs must learn to mind in every situation.

Many obedience classes do a decent job teaching owners the LEARNING PHASE. Unfortunately many classes leave out the correction pause of training. That's OK with puppy classes because puppies should not receive physical corrections. But adult dogs need to go through a correction phase of training.

Almost all of the large pet warehouse classes skip the correction phase. In doing so these type of classes are one of the leading causes of dominant dog problems.

When Your Dog Won't Mind

When the Alpha wolf issues an order - pack members listen and mind or they don't survive. When dogs choose not to mind their owner they are in effect saying they do not respect that person giving the commands. In other words they don't respect the consequences they have experienced in the past when they ignored a command.

To solve that problem corrections need to be consistent and they need to be at a level that the dog remembers the next time it thinks about not following commands. Dogs are extremely observant. It does not take them long to determine that the trainer must be listened to. It also doesn't take them very long to recognize an inconsistent handler. The fact is a dog that doesn't follow directions doesn't respect that handler giving those directions.

When that happens dogs begin to think they can ignore commands they don't like. With some dogs (thankfully not all) this can lead to a dog that challenges an owner or family member because they don't want to do what is being asked. They have not learned to respect the correction.

This is the exact point where some dogs will start to show their teeth, growl at the owner, nip at the hand that tries to take a toy away etc etc etc.

Had this same dog gone through training for correction and distraction at a younger age the odds are this situation would never have evolved. Dogs that have not gone through correct training end up being dogs that seem to live peacefully with their family up to 12 to 18 months of age and then suddenly change into CUJO.

When dogs reach breeding age their hormones start to flow. All of a sudden rank within the pack becomes a big thing to them. They have learned that they don't have to follow direction from pack members they don't respect because their has never been any serious consequences. When many dogs lack a strong pack leader they will step to the line and try and become a leader. They instinctual know that corrections on lower pack members have to be enforced.

Did You Wait too Long to Obedience Train?

When owners acquire a dominant adult dog or when if they have waited until a dog matures before they start training They often have problems. Some dogs think "Why should I mind this person? They have no right correcting me because I am stronger than they are and I don't have to do what they say".

In other words by waiting to train a dog or by ineffectively training a dog the owner empowers the dog and creates a situation where they have to use more force than they would have had to use at a young age to accomplish the same thing.

Controlling Every Aspect of Your Dog's Life Helps Control Dominance

Once a dog has become dominant the question becomes "How do we fix it?" If the situation is a large aggressive dog and a small handler the solution certainly isn't strong leash or ecollar corrections. It's also not an "ALHA ROLL". (I know of a women who got 100 stitches in the face trying to Alpha Roll a 90 pound German Shepard.

The beginning is to control the dogs environment. Don't put a dog into a situation where some of the following things can happen:

Sleeping in bed with the owner
Pushing people to pet him
Not allowing the husband into the bedroom after being gone on a trip
Growling near food or toys
Not allowing you to take toys away by showing aggression (not just playing keep away)
Always going through doors first
Always going down stairs first
Being extremely dog aggressive
Resisting laying down when told to DOWN
Showing aggression to certain family friends and not others

With a little for thought many of these scenarios don't ever have to happen.

Your Bedroom and Your Bed

Controlling dominance begins at home. The first thing we need to do is to take total control over the dog in terms of where he is allowed to sleep, eat and play. The dominant dog should never be allowed to sleep in the bedroom. The best place to sleep is always reserved for the pack leader (you). Make your dog sleep in a dog crate in a room other than the bedroom. Of course, if your dog lives in a kennel out back this is not going to apply.

When people bring an 8 week old pup home there is nothing wrong with putting the dog crate in the bedroom for a week or so to allow the pup to adjust to his new home. But as soon at the dog is crate trained (does not scream in the crate) the dog crate should be moved around to get him used to sleeping in new places.

I would never allow a dog that I thought could be even a little dominant to sleep in the bedroom until I am 100% sure the dog knows exactly who the pack leader was. I used to say "I NEVER ALLOW DOGS ON THE Bed". We recently rescued a 10 year old fully house trained Shitz-Zu - who sleeps in our bed while our Ring Malinoise sleeps on the floor next to the bed.

Toys are YOUR TOYS - not the dogs toys

As puppies grow up they should not be allowed to become possessive of their toys. Your attitude needs to be ALL TOYS ARE YOUR TOYS and you allow the pup to play with YOUR TOY.

The saying used to be that "new pet owners should not play tug-of-war games with their pup". The thinking was "tug games are an integral part of protection training but they have no place in raising a family pet. Playing tug with a dog creates dominance problems".

Well that thinking was dead wrong. When tug games are done correctly they are very important part of raising a puppy. Tug games help establish a value that the puppy places on the tug toy. We then use that toy as a reward during many aspects of training. Tug toys are used in Agility, in obedience work and ii bite work. The key is to teach the pup that they tug toys are your toys and at the end of the play sessions you put the toys away. We teach new dog owners exactly how to introduce and use tug toys in the DVD I produced with Michael Ellis titled "THE POWER OF PLAYING TUG WITH YOUR DOG"

Adult Dogs and Toys

Years ago when I first wrote this article it contained a number of ways to get a toy away from a dominant dog. That was a mistake. Dominant dogs don;t need any toys. If the dog is truly dominant and the owner thinks he needs to work with tug toys then he needs to find a local professional who really understands the application of force on a dangerous dog.

Dogs should only be allowed on furniture when they are invited up. They must agree to get down when the handler tells them to. If there is any resistance - they should not be on furniture. In this case the small dog on the back of the couch was killed by the other dogs in it's pack.

Dinner Time

A dog with dominance issues is never allowed to be in the kitchen or dining room while the family eats. If the dog is a house dog-, put the dog away during dinner hours. Again its a simple solution to control the dogs environment.
The worst thing that can happen is to feed a dominant dog from the table. Again, the pack leader always eats first and gets the best pieces of food. If your dog is a house dog, put him in the dog crate or another room at mealtime.

Feeding the dog from the table enhances your problems.

Aggressiveness Around the Food Bowl

Being aggressive around the food bowl is a common problem with some dog owners. It also has a very simple solution. Feed the dog in a dog crate and keep the crate in a secluded location.

I look at the food issue differently than many people. A lot of trainers will tell you to practice taking your puppy's food away at a young age. I prefer to look at it in a different light. I don't want my dog to be aggressive around his food bowl. I am not sure that this translates into "me taking his food away."

In fact I think that many people make mistakes by taking their dog's food way too much. Why not look at it from the dog's point of view:

You are starving and your parents give you a plate of mashed potatoes and turkey. As you are eating your father reaches over and takes your food away for NO APPARENT reason. You never said anything wrong or did anything to be punished by losing your food. After awhile your father puts the plate back but then takes it away again. This creates confusion in your mind because you look at it as if you were being punished. If your father does this all the time when you are a kid it will eventually make you mad enough that you will put your foot down and say ENOUGH OF THIS CRAP. STOP IT !!!

I feel a better way is to build trust in my pups is to teach them that I am a good guy and that I am always fair with. I will train them that they must SIT before I put the food bowl in the crate or on the floor. When people only have one dog and there is no dominance issues (and no small children crawling around) they can ask the dog to sit and then put the food bowl down outside of a crate as long as they don't play the game of taking it away. Now with this said, our dogs have 15 minutes to eat. If they leave the bowl and their is food in it we take the food bowl away and he gets nothing else until the next regular feeding.

When and How to Pet and Praise the Dominant Dog

Having a good bond with a dominant dog is critical. These dogs live and die by pack order. The only way to maintain control is to maintain a good relationship. But this must be done on your terms.

A dog that comes to you and tries to force you into petting him when you are reading the paper or working on the computer is displaying a form of a dominant behavior. Do not allow this to happen. Make the dog go lay down. In fact, controlling his behavior through the use of a long down on a throw rug (we use the imitation lambskin bed we sell - the dogs love them) is one of the very best ways of establishing yourself as the leader.

Almost all dogs want to be petted. But there is a difference between a happy, friendly dog that just wants a pet and a dominant dog that wants to force his attention on you when you are busy doing something else. Understanding the difference between these situations may come down to experience. If your dog doesn't’t display any other symptoms of dominance except wanting to be petted, you don't have much of a problem. The solution is to always make a dog do something before you pet him. Give him a SIT command, or give him a DOWN command then pet him.

What Do You Do at Doors and Stairs

Years ago everyone would say "Never allow your dog to go through a door or down a stairs before you". The feeling was this means very little to humans and a lot to a dog with tendencies for dominance. Well in my opinion there was too much emphasis put on this one behavior. I personally don't think it matters much.

The solution for those that do is to ask the dog sit at the door every time you take it outside. Just like you make it sit every time you put the food bowl down to feed it.

I don't like a dog that charges past me when I go down stairs. For one thing it's dangerous, I have two new knees and don't like the idea of being knocked off balance. So if one of my dogs tries to rush past me to go down stairs I use my knee to slam it into the wall. I teach the dog the WAIT command on our walks. I then use this command at doors and steps.

If I have to have the dog wear a prong collar and a leash or a drag line in the house I will do it. A Drag line is a short leash that does not have a handle. The dog can drag it around and it will not get caught on furniture the way a normal leash with a handle does.

Showing Aggression Towards Family Friends

When a dog shows aggression to certain visitors to the house this is often a form of dominance. People with small dogs think this may be cute, while others are pleased that their dog is being protective. Both are wrong. This behavior needs to be controlled. The dog needs to be taught that this behavior is unacceptable.

The best solution is to put the dog in his crate or put him in a different room when guests come over. When you show him that you control his environment all the time you are establishing yourself as the leader. In a pack, the pack leader is the one that determines who fights and when. If we allow our dogs to determine who to attack on their own, we are allowing his dominance to take hold.

People that protection train dogs (in Schutzhund or police work) may be thinking that this is bogus because these dogs go out and work on their own. The fact is that Schutzhund dogs, personal protection dogs and/or police service dogs do not work on their own. Through training the handler establishes the rules of engagement. The dog learns when it is and is not acceptable to bite. The fact is that protection training helps establish pack order as long as everything else in the dog’s life related to dominance is done properly.

We get a lot of emails from people asking how they teach their dog that their children can be their dogs pack leader. The answer is YOU CAN"T. There is no way on earth to teach a dominant adult male dog that a 4 or 5 year old child is the dogs pack leader.

What your goal should be is to teach the dog that your "PACK LEADER RULE" is to not show aggression to children and if need be to stay away from the children. This becomes an obedience issue. With this said the children must learn to stay away from the dog. I find it interesting how often I see people who have dominant dogs and children that I would consider out of control.

Dog Aggression:

Dominant dogs should not be allowed to interact with strange dogs. They should not go to dog parks. If a dog displays dog aggression when its on leash and just sees another dog there are specific protocol to go through for training. These are covered in the article I recently posted titled THE EVOLUTION OF USING REMOTE COLLARS FOR DOG AGGRESSION. This article is on our web site and available as a podcast.

Alpha Rolls ARE VERY DANGEROUS !!

If I had tried to alpha roll one of my older stud dogs without him wearing a muzzle it would have attacked me while I was on the ground. As I already said I know of a small female handler that tried to Alpha Roll an adult male German Shepherd. She ended up with over 100 stitches in her face.

For those that don't understand what an alpha roll is, let me explain because we see trainers like Cesar Milan ALPH ROLL dogs on TV. When a dog shows signs of dominance trainers will tell new handlers to take his dog and force it down on its back on the ground and stare into the dogs eyes until the dog submits, relaxes and looks away. .

The unfortunate thing is we see a very popular dog trainer on TV (Cesar Milan) doing this all the time. The fact is he gets away with it because he has the experience to know what dog he can do it to and he knows how to deal with a dog that turns and tries to attack him. The problem is he ends up showing an "EDITED FOR TV" clip where he got by with it. What we don't see are all the novice dog trainers who end up in the ER because they try and do what he did.

SO I am not a fan of Alpha Rolls. Don't do them. Don't even try to do them. They are very dangerous.”

ONLY PICK A FIGHT YOU CAN WIN

Always remember that if you are going to pick a fight with a dominant dog, you had better pick one you know you can win.

My feeling is that in most cases with extremely strong tough dominant dogs I accomplish as much through subtle body language and voice commands. In other words, rather than create a situation where I have to string a dog up on a leash (and damage the bond with the dog) I will avoid the situation all together.

For years I used to import selection tested police service dogs from Europe (I no longer do this). These were young adult male dogs that were ready to go into training to become police service dogs. Many of these dogs had dominance issues. I was never in a hurry to create a friendly bond with these dogs. Rather I was more interested in teaching them that I controlled every second of their life and that I was fair and respectful in how I treated them.

These dogs were on leash 100% of the time when they came out of their kennel. In the beginning I didn't try to play with the. I wanted to give the impression that I was not interested in being their friend. I was interested in making sure they were well fed, that they had exercise but I didn't try and play. In other words I acted aloof. I waited until the dogs accepted me and I could see that they wanted more than I was offering. Now granted this takes experience to see - but it works.

When the time came for training I focused on engagement work. Engagement means the dog wants to be with you and wants what you have. If they chose not to engage they went right back into their kennel. By using food there was never a fight over toys. Toys always came later. Through time, fair treatment and engagement work comes a bond.

The bottom line is a dog may have to spend a long time (weeks) in a dog crate or dog kennel for this process to work. But with time they will begin to see that you control his life and pack leaders control lower ranking pack members. By controlling the dogs environment, by being willing to put the dog away when it acted inappropriately and taking the time it takes to establish leadership most dogs dominance issues can be controlled. The fact is they never go away. Some people mistakenly think their dominant dog is now fixed and no longer dominant - WONRG !!! These dogs are always domi9nant, through consistent handling they just learn that the handler is their leader.

In December of 2005 I produced our 3 1/2 hour training DVD of the same topic. That DVD was 5 years in the making. The information in this article encompasses about 20% of the information in the DVD.

Allowing a dog to lay in bed greatly increases Dominance in the Dog
(child's face has been intentionally masked)

Review

So as I close this article there are a couple of things that need to be remembered:

Only pick a fight that you can win
Whenever possible use your head and think about a problem’s cause and a solution
In most cases you lose more that you gain in a fight with your dog, even if you win.

If a handler forces a situation to the point where the dog attacks, then that handler has made a mistake not the dog. He has misread the situation and now has a bigger problem. The goal is to see the potential for a fight before it happens and avoid it without losing face with the dog.

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Always remember that once your dog relinquishes pack order to you he will be a much happier dog. It’s like a great burden is lifted off their shoulders. As I work through the various problems on dominance with a dog I always remember that in the end this dog is going to be a much happier dog.

If you have a serious aggression problem with your dog there are three DVDs that you need.

Breaking Up a Dog Fight without Getting Hurt Podcast

Dog fights are violent, loud and dangerous events. I get emails every day on dog fights. As I wrote this description I got 2 emails. In email the family had two dogs. Their female GSD had just killed their dachshund. In the second email this family's dog had just been in a fight with a neighbors dog and done $1,400 damage.

In the mid 1990's I wrote an article on How to Break Up A Dog Fight - that article is still on my web site. This 52 Minute podcast is an update of that article. The information in the podcast has more details on making the decision of even trying to step in to break up a fight, it discusses many methods used to break up fights and it tells how to break up a fight when you are alone. There is an also extensive section on preventing dogs fights.

Additional Articles Related to Dominant Dogs

This pup may look cute now - when the dog is 18 to 24 months old
this could come back to haunt you.

Question About Dangerous Dogs:

HELP!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I am writing this in a desperate attempt to keep my sanity ...I have been arguing with my husband for the last 6 months about his dog. We are expecting our first child in 5 days and still nothing has been done. At first my husband pacified me with "I'll find somewhere for the dog to go" to now "I'm not getting rid of the dog".

If I could simply explains have been together for 5 years, when we first met I owned a male Pit who he eventually became very close with. Two years ago the male Pit died from cancer, to say the least we were devastated to the point of grief counseling and antidepressants. We loved the dog. Four weeks later John comes home with a female Pit. She was cute enough and having her here did alleviate some of our pain; I begged him to take her back and he didn't. I wasn't ready to give my heart to another animal. She is now at 22 months and I believe beginning to show real signs of dominance. The other night I awoke and came out into the living room and she was laying on our comforter on the couch, I immediately pulled the blanket out from under her and scolded her to get off which she did, but when I came out of the bathroom she was in my bed laying next to my husband! I went to grab her collar and she growled at me for the first time. I couldn't believe it and for a split second I didn't trust the dog. Maybe she feels my animosity once we had a neighbor over with his 7 year old, as they were leaving the child walked into her "space" she is frequently on a runner in our yard,,,she pinned him down and started like she was trying to bite him, although she didn't. I thought then my husband would get rid of her. He later rationalized and said she didn't know the child and our child would be different. I am in a state of terror over this .....I am having nightmares of killing the dog out of fear it will bite my not yet born son. My husband refuses to see it any other way. Every time someone brings a child around he tries to let the dog near it. Needless to say anyone who has a child will immediately remove it. The dog is extremely hyperactive, when John plays with her he plays "rough wrestling" the dog sounds ferocious. I never play with the dog. She nips and dodges right for the face. One time I went to pet her as she was sitting there quietly looking cute, I made the mistake of getting too close and she head-butted me right in the FACE! INSTANT FAT BLOODY LIP!

Like I said my due date is in 5 days, he swears the dog will not be here when we arrive from the hospital. If he plans on the dog coming back I have threatened to have it taken away. I've told him about my visions of killing the dog if it comes near the baby. Do you have any suggestions for this no win situation?

Thanks -------Desperate and Pregnant in RI

Answer About Dangerous Dog:

Your husband's problem is bigger than the dog problem. If you don’t solve that first you will never solve the dog problem.

Bottom line is this is a dangerous dog and he does not admit it. You both need to read my article on Dealing with a Dominant Dog.

If you change the way you live with this dog it could be saved but it does not sound like your husband has a clue. He falls into the category of STUPID STUBBORN DOG PEOPLE – the worst kind – owners like him are the reason for 95% of dog bites to kids.

So with all this said you have three choices:

1- Have him read the article and promise to make the changes

2- When you husband is at work – take the dog to a shelter and leave it

3- Leave your husband.

There are no other options.

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Dear Mr. Frawley,

I just spent the better part of my day looking through your website, and I wanted to tell you how much I appreciated the "dumb and dumber" section. I haven't laughed that hard in a very long time! It's so refreshing to see someone being honest even if it's not what people want to hear.

Last year I finally got up the courage to consult a trainer about my dogs. My ex-husband left me with two backyard bred female Pit Bulls who I unfortunately loved very much but could not control and nearly lost a finger splitting them up from fighting (I REALLY would have been on your dumbest section if I went into detail!) As a last resort before putting one of them down, I began working with Roland Fox who is a certified master trainer and runs a program called K-9 Solutions NYC. His training methods run parallel to yours and quite literally changed my life. I now have full control over my two formally unmanageable dogs, and no longer fear what next potential disaster is around the corner. The change in mine and my dogs behavior so drastically improved all of our lives that I have decided to become a full time trainer and now work (as an apprentice) with Roland. One of the tips he gave me to improve my capabilities was to study and learn from your website, particularly to see how ignorant the average dog owner is! I'm sure you get thousands of emails and I don't want to take up any more of your time, but I thoroughly enjoyed reading your web pages, they have been of unmeasurable help to me, and I wanted to thank you.

Very Sincerely,

Rachel

PS...Not that you need me to tell you, but crate training my dogs saved their lives. I am taken aback every time I hear someone say that crating a dog is mean or unnecessary. My dogs not only needed crates, but they love having their own space!

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Dominant/Aggressive Dog Problem Question:

Mr. Frawley:

Your website is very informative, thank you for making all this knowledge available, it truly changed my mental paradigm on dog behavior. I read your articles on aggressiveness and would really like to ask for your advice on a time bomb my father (Edward) is keeping at his house, a 2-yr-old intact Bullmastiff, aka “Bruce”.

Just a quick overview on the dog's temperament: Gets along with his 2 feline companions, occasionally will press his chin against the younger cat's back (which is the cat that gets petted the most) but still lets the cat eat/drink from his bowl and they lick each other’s forehead occasionally. He doesn't display aggressive behavior towards dogs either, when he was younger he would be afraid but now just ignores them (unless the dog is unrestrained and barking, then he will start barking but never actually fight).

With people it's a different story. He loves all the family members but is weary of strangers, will get along with just a select few. I know you're thinking "this dog was never properly socialized," and you're right, he also wasn't taught basic commands such as "sit," "stay," etc.. He's always been treated by my father like his “kid,” my dad would constantly play with him, hug/pet, let him sleep on the couch, sometimes climb into bed. He would also make this huge commotion when getting home (whistle, call the dog's name and give the dog full attention as soon as coming in through that front door).

Now this loving relationship between the two has changed, I think Bruce is trying to challenge my dad's "leadership" in the pack, but I'm not sure since there are other factors involved.

We live in Florida and Hurricane Wilma made a mess in our neighborhood, destroyed the fence on the backyard, the roof, the streets were chaotic. We were stuck in the house with no electricity for a few days. Bruce was probably confused to see his environment change so much, during those day he also couldn't see what was going on since we had shutters blocking the windows (his favorite spot in the house).

As soon as it was safe to roam the streets, my dad took Bruce for a walk but had placed the prong collar on the wrong side (he never really used the prongs for training since he thought It'd be cruel, he got the collar as a gift from my sis and would use the “pain-free” side). Bruce felt the prongs and made a sound like he was hurt, my dad immediately fixed the collar and spoke to bruce softly "I'm sorry, etc.."

After this day he started to sometimes growl at my dad.

One person advised us to show Bruce the prong collar every time my dad was about to take him for a walk and throw it on the floor and say "this hurt Bruce. It's bad.. bad!" and get an alternative plain collar and show as being ok, so that the dog would associate the pain he felt with the object and start trusting on my dad again.

A few days after, just when we thought things were going back to normal, my parents were coming back from work and as my father opened the front door Bruce just snapped. He growled and tried to bite him, during that instant my mother pushed my father back, commanded Bruce to stop and got bitten on the arm. When she started yelling the dog stopped, he realized he wasn't getting his primary target. I came rushing from the bedroom to see what was going on, and my parents were behind the door, I immediately bribed Bruce into one of the bedrooms and left him there in the dark the whole night (btw, he hates sleeping in the dark).

He then was kept in the patio and backyard for almost a week. The veterinarian prescribed him a tranquilizer and an anti-depressant and told us to get him neutered. My mom would show him her arm and say “bad dog, look what you did” and he would sometimes look away and sometimes bark. He's been taking the meds for 11 days (with progress) up until yesterday when my father decided not to give him any and the same episode happened. As soon as they opened the door Bruce growled. This time he couldn’t bite, since he wouldn't get close to the door - there was this piece of crown molding on the floor blocking his way there. He could have easily jumped over it since it was so low, but if the path in front of him is not clear he won't go over objects (he's had this fearful behavior since he was a puppy, so imagine when he saw the hurricane mess). He stops growling and barking when my parents reprimand him loudly but stares defiantly.

Shortly after the incident I gave him his medication, put him outside and am leaving him there for a while (he's an indoor dog, who's constantly left sleeping on the couch when my dad is at work). He hasn't tried to challenge me yet (I never really established a bond with him or praised him constantly, I just don't intrude on his space and he doesn't intrude on mine), he seems ok with my mother but has stared her straight in the eyes after she told him to shut up and stop growling. His main target is really my father. My dad is so heartbroken, his reaction is more like "why are you doing this to me?".

I think he needs to hear that he has to be tough with this dog, he can't act like everything is normal and try to pet the dog, take him off the medication and just wish for things to be normal in a few days. I'm here on a short vacation while my husband is out to sea w/ the Navy, so I won’t be able to help my dad with this situation for much longer (I only have 2wks). I'm sorry this e-mail is so long, but I felt you needed to know the details in order to better comprehend the situation. I'd truly appreciate it if you could take the time to answer, the stress level here is pretty high. My mother found a no-kill shelter which accepts aggressive dogs. No one wants to euthanize Bruce and I'm a firm believer of new beginnings. Thank you very much for reading, your advice is gold.

Alexandra

Answer to Aggressive Dog Problem:

I recommend that you go to my web site and read the article I wrote on my philosophy of dog training. I think you will get some good ideas there http://leerburg.com/philosohy.htm

This dogs is dominant. He became this way because of the way your father and mother raised him. Many people make the same kinds of mistakes. It's too bad.

I have a saying: I have a saying that I tell people – it goes like this” Everyone has an opinion on how to train a dog – just ask you barber, your mailman and your neighbor” The problem is very few people have the experience to back up their opinions. This results in a lot of bad information being passed out So people like yourself need to figure out who has the experience to warrant being listened to.

The information you have been offered falls into this category. In fact its stupid advice. I strongly recommend you and your parents read the article I wrote titled THE THEORY OF CORRECTIONS IN DOG TRAINING.Your father failed your dog in not properly correcting the dog.

In addition you need to read the article I wrote titled Dealing with Dominant Dogs. Allowing dogs like this on furniture and on the bed is insane. It’s a recipe for disaster. But then you are living the disaster right now with this dog.

In my opinion this dog has gone beyond your families skills to handle it.

If you think you want to try - it will need training and a new lifestyle. You may want to read the article I wrote on GROUND WORK BEFORE OBEDIENCE TRAINING.

Regards,
Ed

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Dominant Dog Question:

Dear Ed,

About ten days ago I was attacked by my 3 year old Basset Hound. I had to go the hospital and Simon was placed in Animal Control.

During this past ten days I have tried to find a home for him with a strong trainer. I know that a family situation was out of the question. In ignorance, I thought maybe a rescue group would take him. I could not find a home for him. With children still in my home, we could not bring him back. This has really been a heartbreaking experience for me because I was so close to this dog and I loved him so much.

Simon's behavior had increasingly gotten worse from growling and snapping to as of this instance running and attacking. As I lay on the floor and was bitten over and over again I thought he was going to kill me. The more I fought back with my legs and arms the more he bit. I did not know he was capable of this especially with me who loved and cared for him.

I have had dogs all of my life and I have never come across this aggression situation. After seeing your website, I now realize how ignorant of dogs and their emotional and behavioral needs I am.

I have such a soft heart (especially for that Basset Hound face), that I truly let this dog take over. Disciplining him was hard because he would come at you. What I don't understand is that having always been around dogs raised in our home from puppies why hasn't this happened before. I grew up on a farm and dogs ran wild with no training.

I have been informed by several area rescue groups that there is a definite problem with the breeder we chose. There supposedly have been complaints to the American Kennel Club. I was told I needed to add to these complaints. I now realize there were warnings that I didn't respond to. There were possible training techniques to be used as puppies develop that I knew nothing about. After speaking to my vet many times about this he would just say that there have been cases of Bassets being aggressive and that I might have to give him up.

I would eventually like to have another dog but I want to do all the right things. Should I choose a different breed of dog? I have always loved beagles and bassets and was raised around them. I would appreciate any advice you might give me.

Thank You,
Cheryl

Ed's Comment:

Your experience is not unique. Not properly raising a pup can have dire consequences. You are not alone - so many people ignore pack instinct in their dogs - they don't see RANK issues when they start to develop.

The fact is that serious obedience training at 5 to 6 months (with a correction phase) will often eliminate these kinds of problems. People need to neuter dogs at 6 months, they need to use dog crates and they need to train their dogs. When these three things happen you will seldom have problems like you just had.

It's a terrible thing to be attacked by any dog, much less your own. It's also a sad thing to have to put a dog to sleep - but in this case that's what should happen to this dog. Once a dog like this has attacked an adult member of the family there are very very few people who have the experience to correct the problem. 99.9% if the so called behaviorists out there would not have a clue on how to fix this dog. Vets fall into this category. Medication would not work.

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Dominant Dog Question:

Dear Mr Frawley,

I wanted to shoot you a quick email to let you know the great improvements I'm already making with Hunter (training him myself). I watched your tape, which by the way was fantastic, it was like showing the secret behind a magic trick. It was inspirational and encouraging and it got me really excited and motivated to train Hunter the right way and it made it seem possible (I even made the liver treats).

Also I've been reading the book "The Dog Listener" by Jan Fennell, which I've found to be very interesting. Just by working with him everyday my problems have almost diminished completely already. I can have people (friends & family) come to the door, ring the door and actually have them come in without a fuss. Now hunter barks at the door when the door bell rings or he hear someone coming up to the door, and once I open the door and greet the people he's fine and walks around and smells them with no agitation (actually seemingly social). I always make him sit before I open the door, maybe that helps. Also now on walks no more barking and lunging, I do keep him by my side when we pass people or I will have him sit or down so that he gets used to seeing people pass by and that it's no big deal.

As a side note, every week the housekeepers come by and I always put Hunter outside because he's always barked when they're around, and through the glass when he's outside, they aren't friends or family so I still like to play it safe in fear of being sued. Today I thought I'd put him on a leash and work with him in the house while they were cleaning. Everything was fine he was paying attention, and I saw that he wanted to smell the housekeeper who was standing next to me so I thought why not (mistake! mistake!) the second he smelled her he started barking like crazy at her. He was on a leash so I corrected him and he immediately stopped but I couldn't figure that one out. Any insight?

Well I've just only started training him so I know I've got a long ways to go, but I was so excited with his major improvements and I wanted to share them with you. Also I noticed in your catalog that you have a newly updated basic dog obedience on DVD, but I couldn't find it on your website. Could you direct me to that page because I would be interested in purchasing the basic dog obedience tape on DVD as well.

Thanks.

Regards,
Yvette

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Dominant Dog Question:

I have some of your video tapes and equipment and I just can't tell you enough how much they have helped. You deserve an award for your videos! Out of my first litter of German Shepherds, I have chosen a male to keep and train for my own personal protection dog. My husband & I manage a small motel now and he is a city cop and works at night, so I'm here by myself a lot. I feel very confident that I have chosen the right dog for me because of your videos and articles on testing pups. This puppy "Zeus" and I "clicked" when he was 2 or 3 weeks old, it's one of those hard-to-find bonds between owner and dog, that no amount of money will buy. I am so proud of him. He's 14 weeks old and we have mastered "sit" very well and now we are working on "down" and also working with a leash some. Your videos have taught me a better way to train and I am more patient because I have seen the outcome. I get so frustrated with some of my customers that buy my pups, as I'm sure you do too. I can't seem to get the fact through that a well trained dog doesn't just happen or that it takes more than a month or two to get a wonderfully trained dog and just because a puppy has a good working bloodline doesn't mean that he will automatically be "wonder-dog", that it does take some training. I recommend your articles and videos to my customers and give them your web address because I believe you are wonderful. We've been able to accomplish much more with our dogs since we discovered you. We even have a 1/2 Rott. that has been a pleasure to train. I always said I would never have a Rott. I thought they were "time-bombs." He has proven me wrong. He is about 18 months old and is a little slow maturing, but we're not rushing him. He is just now starting to show some aggression. Thanks to your articles on "Dominance" and "Aggressive" dogs, we better understand all dogs now and I'm not so afraid that this Rott ( Rabi ) will be out-of-control. My husband brought him home from the pound because he had a good bite and because he had a very even temperament. ( not to mention that he's a little soft hearted and could not stand to see him put down ). And I am so glad he did. I have to tell you though, that when strangers or friends are over and they hear us tell Rabi "fooey", that think we've lost our mind. This is Texas, "fooey" isn't in the vocabulary ! But it DOES work. My husband was told that you never are suppose to say your dog's name along with "no" or "fooey" that they associate "no" with their name after awhile and you have trouble getting them to "come". Is that true? It makes sense. The "Dominance" articles really helped with my stud dog. At 2 yrs. he started getting pretty dominant towards my husband mostly. It really didn't take a lot of effort to make him quit, just persistence. He's fine now. Before reading your articles I wouldn't have known what to do with him because I have never had a dog with that much dominance before. Again thank you so much for taking the time to write all those articles and make all those videos.

Sincerely,
Lisa

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Dominant Dog Question:

I copied this letter in this article after it was posted on my web discussion board by Julie Gausten

This is a sad story, but I have learned the hard way:-

When I was a Teenager, my parents got me a Corgi (Pembrokshire). I called him "Ross" and he was a real sweetie as a pup and grew to be a very handsome adult.

He was not neutered, as my father just winced at the idea and the only reason he was not allowed on the beds or furniture, was because my mother hated to see dog hair! (a lucky break?).

Anyway, we were asked to leave ob training classes, as he was so disruptive. To their credit, they did advise us that "we would have problems with this dog." But did not offer any other advice.

The odd growl here & there, progressed to food and toy possessiveness & finally (after about 5 years) a fully fledged "attack" on a family member. (Me! - when I tried to pick him up to give him a bath!). How he missed my face I will never know.

After this, none of the family could ever trust the dog and he was put-down.

We gave this dog no leadership, guidance nor training. He did pretty much what he wanted, no wonder he thought he was head of the house. We just thought he was "The Dog"! and knew no better.

If only I had known then, what I know now about the treatment & training of a dog.

I have always wanted another dog, but was very wary about the prospect. However, having researched dog training, I took the plunge. I now have 2 well mannered dogs, who know their place & receive leadership, guidance& training - as well as play & lots of love!.

Ross died because he lived with people who "killed him with kindness," It saddens me so much when I think about what happened.

If he is waiting for me at the bridge, I hope he will forgive me for failing him.

RIP "Rossie Doggie," I am so sorry.

Julie

Dominant Dog Question:

I have purchased a few videos from you and some products your website is awesome thanks... My question is I have a 5 year old Rott he has a good pedigree with some good working dogs in it that was told to me by a Rott person well the dog has been obedience trained and has some some bite work I got the dog about 2 years ago and he has been a good dog playful and very alert but when I purchased the dog from a K-9 trainer and breeder of Shepherds and Malinois he said Bo has a lot of defense in him and to be careful with him and not let him around children as he is a one handler dog well I did just that and I keep him in a very secure kennel around no one but here recently when I go take him out of his kennel he will growl at me, I tried correcting him but he still does it and when I get him out his tail stops wagging and when I praise him he’s not excited anymore. Bo is very dog aggressive from day one and tries to chase cars... lately I’ve had to muzzle him to put him on a chain to clean his pen out I use a Jafco muzzle I got from you, now I have to make a decision whether to keep him and deal with this problem or put him to sleep,I would like to keep him but am I putting myself in a dangerous situation of getting bit one day or can I deal with this problem, selling him is no option because I know he can hurt someone badly and there are too many irresponsible dog owners out there so what should I do???

Thanks, Confused Allen

Answer:

It seems a little old for a dog to all of a sudden start to become aggressive to the handler. Usually this begins at an earlier age (around 2 or 3.)

I would begin by having the dog checked out by a vet. Maybe there is something medically wrong with him. Maybe he is not feeling good and just wants to be left alone.

If the vet gives him a clean bill of health then you need to deal with his aggression or make the decision to put him down.

I have an article on "Dealing with the Dominant Dog and Dealing with the Overly Aggressive dog" - read these and make sure that you are doing everything properly.

If the dog is used to wearing the muzzle, make him wear it for awhile and then take him out with a prong collar and do some obedience training. Sometimes prong collars can over stimulate a dog. If this happed then use one of my Dominant Dog Collar.

Every instance of unwarranted aggression needs to result in a correction. If the dog comes after you then you have a handler aggressive dog.

When that happens it's time to get some help from someone who really understands rank drive. The problem is not a lot of people know how to deal with this. I have a DVD that goes into this area (Click here).

It involves a dominant dog collar and following the protocol of using it correctly. See the article I wrote on how this is done

This is not done with a fight. The handler must remain very calm or it just brings out the fight in the dog. If that happens then you lose what you are trying to do, because the dog thinks it’s a fight and that's not what this is about.

Its about a dominant dog understanding that you are a higher rank than it is. In the wild the leader of a wolf pack has the power to kill a lower ranking pack member if he chooses. Very handler aggressive dominant dogs (dangerous dogs) must have that kind of respect for their handlers. Not that the handler will kill the dog. They won't and don't want this.

Dogs (all dogs) are pack animals. Dogs understand rank within a pack. Dogs that attack their handlers don't respect the handlers rank.

This portion of my article has been mentioned and taken out of context and written about on other web sites. These sites choose to attack this method of handling dangerous dominant dogs.

The people who own these sites (like Sue Marston in Ventura, CA) have never been exposed to a truly dangerous dominant dog. Ms Marston would either choose to kill the kinds of dogs I am talking about (rather than give them a chance) or they would get severely hurt trying their foolish Peta methods of training.

My comment to Ms, Marston is they need a lot more training on dominant and aggressive dogs and that should start by taking a good arm and leg bite from a tough dog. It is surprising how that will make them see the light of god and find Jesus in a dominant dog collar.

With this said, dominant dog collars like any training tool can be abused. In the wrong hands a Halty can be abused. So I am not sticking up for abusive or untrained dog trainers. There are plenty of those out there.

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Dominant Dog Question:

I have a 2 1/2 year old who has been obedience and protection-trained. I have used all of your training methods for his protection work. He has been very good with kids while still showing a strong nature to protect. He loves to stay in the yard and play ball with the kids to the point that he interferes.

My 10 year-old son called him in the other day to put him in his cage so that he could play basketball in the yard. Needless to say the dog did not want to come in. My son ordered him in his cage. He went in but as he put his hand to the cage to lock him in, the dog growled at his hand. I pulled him out and gave him a fooey with a correction. I told my son to lock him in again with the same results. I gave another correction and had him try it again. This third time he let him close it. Did handle this situation correctly or should I be considering getting another dog. Since this dog has grown he has developed fight drive. He has otherwise been a charm for me and my family. Please help me on this one. I'm really shocked.

Answer:

At 18 months the dog is coming into maturity, he is starting to exhibit some rank drive.

You need to follow the information I have in my article on dominance to a "T."

You did the right thing, I would probably have kicked his butt a little harder.

I don't think I would replace the dog just yet. If necessary get a muzzle and a prong collar and have your son work the dog in obedience in a muzzle. If it were my dog I would get an electric collar, a prong and a muzzle. I would learn how to use the collar with the tapes I have, and then have your son works the dog while you controlled the collar. It would not take long for the dog to realize his position in the family pack - (which is below the child.) Do not do this without a muzzle.

Dominant Dog Question:

HELP! We got Tucker when he was 6 months old, from a family that had two very small children. They felt overwhelmed and could not keep the dog.

He was wonderful and friendly until about the age of 1 year. He suddenly became very aggressive.

Things that occurred about that time:

We rented a room in our house to a women and he was sprayed by the mailman. At it's worse, Tucker would attack (charge at someone's feet and stand there with his teeth showing and snarling in a way that you knew he would attack if the person moved another inch. This started to happen to the women who rented from us on a daily basis.

Eventually he would attack my husband in the same way.

In almost every instance this occurred in the morning. The ritual was something like this.... My husband would get up, get dressed, take Tucker for a walk, on returning back to the house after the walk, Tucker would join me in bed. My husband would come to kiss me goodbye and Tucker would VICIOUSLY (growling, snarling, pacing, charging) keep my husband out of the bedroom.

Then later when I was up getting ready (usually the same way every morning) Tucker would hang out in the bedroom. When it came time to leave the women who rented from us rode to work with me. When it was just about time to leave, Tucker would begin pacing and when she came downstairs to leave, he would run for her feet. She would literally freeze. I would have to get Tucker away form her or he would have bitten her and sometimes did actually grab her foot with his teeth

Some of the ways I would try to stop this:

Scream "no," keep a leash on him in the mornings and pull him away, soothe him out of the aggression by stoking him as he snarled and growled, choke collar with the leash attached.
Sometimes I would literally have to come from a half asleep state to a full dive out of bed to grab him so he would not attack my husband.
There were even times that my husband would have hold of the leash and have his arm outstretched to keep Tucker at a distance. A few times Tucker would even be lifted off the floor and would be choking. My husband had to do this a few times just to keep Tucker from getting him. I have been the only person to be able to touch him in this state.
I can pick him up. He is growling and snarling the entire time he is in my arms while I carry him off to a room or his crate.
We have had private training, one group class, drug therapy, animal behaviorists look at him. We checked for medical explanations (hypothyroid) his blood work is perfect!

The roommate is gone, but now we have my husband's teenage daughter living with us. He will attack her as well. The way we have solved this mostly is adapting the way we live. After my husband walks the dog in the morning. He leaves him outside until he's ready to go. He kisses me goodbye and on his way out lets Tucker back in. WHENEVER I am getting dressed everyone just stays away from the room and when we leave, I let everyone leave first and then I come out.

If anyone comes to visit I lock Tucker in the bedroom. The other day Tucker turned on me. First time in four years! He did not bite me. I grabbed him and pushed him down on his back, held him down by his neck and smacked his face a couple of times (not hard) and said No! I am not afraid of Tucker, everyone else is!!!

I am fairly certain that somehow I have caused this monster by reinforcing this behavior SOMEHOW??? Can this be changed! The problem is still there even though it happens much less than before. But it is because my family has changed the way they live. I can't imagine why my family would tolerate this (except that we love Tucker very much!!!).

MOST of the time, Tucker will sit in ALL of our laps, jump for joy when any of us come home. and at night when we go to bed....My husband is permitted in by Tucker (in fact, Tucker cuddles with him every night) Probably to keep him away from me. I'm sure you can tell that this is a really bad situation. My step daughter ALWAYS ask where Tucker is when she enters a room, you just can't trust him and she's afraid he will be in the "attack mood." Can you HELP?

Answer:

Can I help you? NO!!! I don't think you can help yourself!

You mentioned in your email that you thought that you had created this problem. Well, you are 100% right - you have. You have allowed this dog to take over your house and it is beyond me how people can allow this to happen. But then I am a dog trainer and the solutions are very simple (to me).

If you want to keep this dog, which I am not sure is the correct decision, you need to make some serious changes in the dog’s life. From the sound of it you are not going to be able to do this.

The first step should be to get a top quality electric dog collar and learn how to use it. There are good instruction videos on this (we sell some).
Get a good muzzle for the dog and make him learn to wear it - the Jafco plastic muzzles that we sell are fine for this.
The next step with this dog is to NEVER allow him in your bedroom again. Not for any reason. The bedroom for these kinds of dogs is 100% off limits. He should be corrected for coming in there (make sure to have the muzzle on him when you do this).
Do not ever ALPHA ROLL a mature German Shepherd - or for that matter any large dog. I don't care how strong you are - your face is only inches from this animal and if you pick the wrong dog on the wrong day you will be getting plastic surgery on your face. I know people who have made this mistake. DON'T DO IT - I cringe when I hear people tell me that their dog trainer told them to "put the dog on his back and get on top of him." You are dealing with an amateur when they tell you this.
Do not ever let the dog get into your lap. This is foolish. This is not a situation where this dog is trying to get loving - its a way for him to demonstrate his dominance. People totally misunderstand how strong a dogs pack instinct is. They don't recognize when a dog is jumping up to be friendly and when he is jumping up just to show someone that he can do it any time he wants. These are 2 totally different situations. So the solution is don't ever let him do it at all.
Train the dog that it has one spot in the house that he must go to when he is told to go there. This can be his crate or a certain rug. Start by teaching him to go there for food. Once he understands that when you say "Crate" he must run to it and get into it, then you can correct him when he does not go there when told. By correcting him with an electric collar (the way the videos show) you will have control over the dog without having to fight him. The dog should never be fed before you eat. He should also be fed in the garage or the basement. This is important.
Finally, if the dog does attack your husband in the way that you have said, your husband did the right thing in stringing the dog up. His only mistake was he quit too soon. With dogs like this they should be stung up until they pass out or just before they pass out. During this process there should be no screaming at the dog, the handler should be very calm and not act like he is fighting with the dog. It's OK to say in a calm voice "You will not attack me - you will not do this." The dog must feel that he is about to die and he must understand that he has no control over it. This is the ultimate way of establishing whom is the boss. If done properly it only takes 2 or 3 times and he will never have to do it again. From that point on the dog will realize who is the boss and what can happen if he screws with the boss.
But I can not over emphasize that when this is done the handler must be very calm and very quiet in how he acts.

If you are prepared to do these things this dog may be salvaged. If you do not you are risking your step daughter and any guests that you have, What kind of a home must this be for a step daughter who is afraid of the dog? You have a bad situation that has crept up on you but also caused by poor handling. If you are not prepared to make the right steps to correct this , you should put the dog to sleep.

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Dominant Dog Question:

I will start out with a little bit of history on our dog. He is registered. We brought him home with us when he was 5 weeks old which I have since found out that was not a good idea. He is 19 months old and resides both inside the house and in our fenced yard. We had him professionally obedience trained in which he stayed at the trainers house for 1 month. He is still in the process of training but he now stays with us and we take him to an obedience class with other dogs. The trainer wants to do this for distraction purposes. His name is Bubba. Before he left to go to the trainers, Bubba growled at our 9 year old son twice. Once when our son petted him while he was eating (the dog got a major correction), and once our son petted Bubba while he was sleeping. We were not in the room at that time. He had never growled at our son before this. We sent him to the trainers and told her of the growling. Bubba has been back home 2 weeks. He plays with our son during the day, licking his face, and rubbing up against him, tongue hanging out and tail wagging. They play both in the house and out in the yard. After about a week, we came in the house one evening, our son walked over to Bubba, petted him on his chest, and said “Hi Bubba.” Bubba growled.

He doesn't show his teeth when he growls, but looks our son right in the eye and does a belly growl. Once again he was corrected. (I have a horse crop and I came down hard on his head and sternly said NO at the same time. My son again petted him, this time on the top of the head. Once again, the growl. Once again, a correction. I did not have a leash on Bubba at the time. The times that Bubba has growled at our son has all been in the house and only in the evening, (night). We talked with the trainer. Our son has played, teasingly with Bubba since he was a puppy. Such things as walking up behind him and trying to scare him. Our son has watched his dad playing rough and tumble with Bubba and thinks that this is okay. The trainer told us Bubba respects the dad but not the son. We also have a 7 year old daughter. Bubba has never growled at her. (Bubba will growl at anyone if they try to pet him when he is eating, we have told the children not to bother him at this time.) I am the one that works with Bubba and we have tried to guess what the problem may be. My son is a very affectionate child and I don't know if any jealousy could be involved. The trainer said Bubba is not CRAZY, the growl is a warning and she doesn't think he would ever hurt our son. She thinks there has been something in the past that our son has done that has stayed in Bubba's learning block and he has not forgot it. She thinks with pack order, the dog sees our son as the loner, and will let him in the pack only when he wants to. It was suggested that our son hold Bubba's food bowl, sitting down for 5 consecutive days. If Bubba growls, he is corrected and the food is taken away. After 15 minutes, try again. Bubba does not get to eat unless he takes it from our son. If after five days, he continues to growl, we need to get rid of him. That is the history. Now my question is this; is this something that will pass and we can correct? I love the dog. He is everything that I have ever wanted in a dog, BUT not at the risk of my child getting hurt. If there is any way we can correct this, I would be willing to do it, especially since Bubba seems to love our son most of the time. Any suggestions. I don't want to get rid of our dog, but if there is a chance of our son getting hurt, I can't keep him.

Answer:

The dog is going through maturity and trying to change his rank in the pack. Read my articles on my web site about Dealing With the Dominant Dog. You made a mistake in sending the dog off to a trainer. This accomplishes very little with a dog like this other than to teach the dog that the trainer is dominant over him. It does nothing to change the way he views his family pack.

You need to do some serious obedience training yourself. Get my training tape titled Basic Obedience. Also get a prong collar and learn how to use it. If the dog shows any signs of growling during hard corrections - get one of these cheap Jafco muzzles I sell. The dog can not bite you with a muzzle on.

When you are satisfied with his obedience around you (and you have done the things in the article I wrote on dominance. Then put the muzzle on and have your son do obedience with the dog. You can put a second 20 foot line on and follow behind him. If the dog gets growly, you hit him so hard with a correction that he flips over backwards. This is a level 109 correction and the SOB will learn that you do not growl around the boy. But this always is done with the muzzle for safety purposes and it is very, very important to make sure he has been acclimated to the muzzle for 2 weeks before doing this.

DO NOT DO WHAT THIS TRAINER SAYS WITH YOUR SON HOLDING THE FOOD BOWL. You are only asking for a dog bite. This is foolish advice from someone who needs to learn more about dog behavior.

Do what I said above. Take the dog through the program. Tell the kids to leave the dog alone when he eat. Why force the issue. Just leave him alone. Put the food down for 20 minutes and pick it up, even if he has not eaten. He will eat the next day when the food comes down. It only takes a couple of days for the food to be picked up for him to learn. This is a simple way to eliminate that problem.

Maybe after the dog has gone through the training with the boy and learns not to fool with him you could make a point of having the boy hold the food bowl when there is a treat in it. The dog eats from the bowl and it's put up. Not immediately and not when he is growling while giving eye to eye contact. This is one step away from a bite and to say that he will not bite him when he is doing this is stupid.

Dominant Dog Question:

I have a question concerning my Pit bull. Recently he has been attacking my roommate, and when we try to leave the house through the front door. One thing that stands out is that, if he does not let us take him out in the morning we know to sneak out the back door otherwise he will attack if we try to use the Front door.

He started doing this to his owner my roommate. Three days out of the week he works very early in the morning. He used to be able to take him out in the morning, but recently he has not allowed him to take him out. He does allow me to take him out instead of my roommate . The problem is that if the dog is not in the closed room with my other female Pit bull and me. He will sit in front of my door and wait for my roommate to head towards the door, as soon as he does he run towards the door and tries to bite the door and my roommate. He has only been doing this towards my roommate, but recently he has started to act like that towards me.

He is like Dr. Jeckel and Mr. Hyde. One day he does everything perfect and acts like a wonderful dog, but there are days where he has this look on his face where fear comes to me and my roommate. He is not neutered from reading your literature it won't help if I neuter him. So before I put him down I would like some advice to what I can do to correct the problem.

Thank You,
Carlos

Answer:

This dog has a problem with rank. In other words he is the pack leader in the house.

I have written an article on Dealing with the Dominant Dog on my web site. I do not believe that a dog like this will respond to JUST the work I describe I this article.

The issue of rank can be cleared, but it takes a lot of skill from the handler and is a dangerous thing to try and correct. I would guess by your email that you do not have the skill to do the work if I describe it.

My advice would be to find someplace that needs an area guard dog and give it to these people (after you are sure that they treat the animals in a kind way) or put the dog to sleep before he really attacks you. This behavior is not going to get better, it will only escalate.

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Dominant Dog Question:

I have an American Shepherd (I look forward to the day when I can purchase a REAL shepherd from you!) who is 2 & 1/2 years old.

He is an outside dog. Yesterday he came into the house through the patio door. I calmly took a hold of his collar to take him back outside. He growled at me.

This morning we went for our 2 mile walk. (I can let him walk leashless where we go) He darted off running at the geese. I told him to come. He did not come. Usually he does. While he was peeing on a tree, I walked up to him calmly & took a hold of his prong collar & told him "bad boy." He growled at me.

In both situations I was not at all harsh with him. Why did he growl? He has only done that once before about a year ago. I corrected him with the prong collar right at the time he did it. He hasn't done it since until yesterday.

It scared me a little bit this time. He has been told no many times before & not growled at me - why now?

I haven't been able to spend as much time with him lately as I normally do - is he mad at me? Is it just a temporary behavior thing or do I need to have him put to sleep?

Michelle

Answer:

Your dog is challenging you for rank in the pack he is coming into maturity, and this is rank drive showing its ugly head.

You also need to take this dog through serious obedience training, in addition to doing EVERYTHING I mention in that article.

If you are afraid of the dog then get one of these Jafco muzzles and it should become part of his life. He wears it all of the time. Especially when he has the prong collar on and is in a position where he will growl.

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Dominant Dog Question:

My name is Saskia and together with my husband and 2 children age 4 and 6 we live in belgium with 3 dogs. A rottweiler from 6, a bordeaux dog from 2 and a mastino from 1 year old. About two weeks ago my oldest daughter came in screaming that the dog bit a child from 11 years from next door. It was not serious so we thought that he entered on our garden without notice and tried to grab his sister when she was playing with my children. This had never happened before. Last friday a women came in with a child from 3 at her hand. The dogs all begin barking but I remembered wondering why the mastino his name is vito kept on barking. They where behind a fence. I went out to escort this women and child inside. When I opened the door vito came like a tornado bent his head to pass me from behind and attacked the child. He snapped her hip I let myself fall down on him while the women pulled the child backswords. He still had a hold off the sweatshirt and he shook his head very wild and aggressive from left to right. We finally had to pull him away with 2 persons and lock him up (with keys) because he opens the doors pushing doors or pulling or sliding with weight pumps on it he opens them all. There was no reason at all in attacking this child. It had not spoken screamed or yelled at the dog neither did the women. I let them in so he had to accept there entrance. Today my husband was standing next to him when a man and his 2 children walked inside. Immediately he stared to growl at this 2 children completely ignoring everybody else in the room. His eyes were fixed on them and was again very aggressive My husband lead him out off the room. As I start wandering what could have caused this aggression in my dog towards children? My neighbor the mother from the child that he bit first the one from11 years she came to me and told me that her father in law saw already that this boy sometimes is teasing the dog through the fence. I don't know exactly what he did to make our dog into what he is right now: a very dangerous killing dog towards children. What can be done to make him again tolerant towards other children, and could this also turn against my own children. Up to know he's still very nice but can I trust him now like I did before??

Thanks
Saskia

Answer:

There is NO SOLUTION FOR YOU. The only safe solution is to have this dog put down. I am sure the child next door had something to do with causing the dog to become aggressive, but at this point it has gone too far. The dog should NEVER EVER be allowed near children.

If you decide not to put the dog down, the damage it does in the future rests on your shoulders, because you know the risk this dog is to others.

If you do not have the heart to put the dog down, find a factory that needs a guard dog. There are plenty in your country. I know because I go there. Make sure the factory has a fenced in kennel for the dog to live in (look at it first) and agree on the quality of dog food the dog will get.

This dog is just now coming into the first stages of maturity, this problem is only going to get A LOT WORSE as he matures.

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Dominant Dog Question:

Hello there and thank you for taking the time to read my question. For mothers day a few years ago I received a female German Shepherd who was given to me by my daughter. The prior owners were looking for a home for her as they were starting to raise Jack Russell's and the Shepherd was just too dominant with them, they would NOT get along. At first I thought it was because she (the Shep) was kept outside and was lacking for attention. Well, it is going on 3 years now and her behavior has not changed. I think life would be so much more pleasurable for her if she would only stop trying to "rid the world of all other living creatures, other than herself." I foolishly had her bred last year not thinking that this was a trait that could be passed down. I just thought it was a behavior problem that needed to be addressed. She had a beautiful litter of 9 pups and I have one of them that I call my little "misfit." We love him very much but he is now showing the same dominant behavior as his mother. (by the way, she was spayed yesterday!!) She is only 65 pounds, but he on the other hand is 85 and only 9 months old. He is very hard to control when he (or she for that matter) sees another animal. It doesn't even have to be a dog. They both love their family very much. I have 3 children under the age of 10. The only time they ever show any signs of aggression towards the kids is if they try to lay over them when they are petting them or snuggling. I am the only one who can do that without any growling or moaning on their part. The male, who hates baths, showed his first real sign of aggression yesterday when I was trying to get him in the tub. I grabbed his collar and called him and he growled at me, twice. I am not sure if I handled it correctly or not, but I just kind of ignored him and said sharply NO then proceeded to pull him in the tub. I gave him lots of praise for his good behavior. I know there has to be something I can do to change this behavior. I love them both very much and want them to be happy, as well as myself and my kids !!! Please don't tell me a professional trainer is my only resource as that is not an option for me at this time.

Answer:

You have a male who is becoming dominant at an early age. You need to read my article on this. You also need to obedience train this dog with a prong collar. He needs to understand his position in the family pack, which is at the bottom. Keep the collar on during the day with a short 2 foot line that you can grab and correct him with. If he shows signs of growling or biting get one of the cheap Jafco muzzles we sell.

Tell the kids "NO MORE ROLLING ON TOP OF THESE DOGS." Why even put the kids in a position where they could potentially be bit? No use creating a problem yourself.

As far as the dog's aggression goes this has to be dealt with an electric collar probably a Tri Tronics sportsman model. They will always have to have this on. It's not something that ever goes away for good.

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Dominant Dog Question:

January 27, 1999

Hi Ed, My name is Jill, I live in WA. state and breed German Shepherds. I do obedience training,have been in schutzhund and behavior problem dogs are my specialty. I just got on-line for the first time a few days ago. I wanted to tell you how much I enjoyed your articles, WHY IT'S A BAD IDEA... and DEALING WITH THE DOMINANT DOG. I can't tell you how refreshing it is to see someone tell it like it is! I have been using the pack/alpha theory in my training and consulting for years. Because of the huge popularity of the Rottweiler breed, I have lost count of how many have come to me with behavior/dominance problems. For the last 4 years my behavior consulting has been 75% Rotts. It sickens me to see a breed gain such a bad rep because of the stupidity / negligence of owners. I'm glad that the lady whose Rots killed the boy was convicted, she deserved it! If she was training with these dogs and had some knowledge of SCH. then she cannot claim she didn't know their capabilities as the average pet owner claims. Just yesterday in our local newspaper there was a jogger that was mauled by 2 Rots. He's hurt badly. When the police came on scene one dog attacked the car. They were shot. These dogs had gotten out before, My neighbors bred their Ratty bitch and kept 3 pups. These pups are now over a year old, 2 intact males, 2 intact females all running together. They have a renter on their property that had a 13 year old malamute. He had been there long before she had these pups,and the dogs got along. The pups started trying to play with the old dog when they were quite young but when she would try to scold them the mom would jump in. The old dog stopped coming out from under her owner's trailer except to potty.The old dogs owner, Scott, told me that the Rots would sometimes run circles around his trailer and bark at his dog. The owners of the rots would laugh as they thought this was cute! I told Scott that something had to be done because this "game" would escalate and his dog would be hurt or killed.One day,I heard their dogs really carrying on and saw them running circles around Scott's trailer. I tried to call the rots owner and quickly realized no one was home. By this time rots had Sheba. I just reacted and ran down there, on the way breaking a branch off a tree. I beat those dogs with everything I Had in me and it still took awhile to get them off her. Then they just circled. If it were not for another neighbor coming to my aid I don't know how I would have got her out of there. I do realize it was stupid of me to put myself in that position but I couldn't just sit there, it is not in my nature. Unfortunately Sheba died. The root owners are making up excuses for their dogs,and saying it was Shebas fault because she use to try to bite the pups when they were younger! These dogs have no obedience training and they all still run together. I don't try to push my knowledge on people and the things I have told them is ignored (they are very defensive and I'm labeled as a know-it-all).Something bad is brewing and I cant do a thing about it. Plus what is really scary is Rott owners just had a baby! Ed, these people are just a small example of what I see going on around me, It's unbelievable! Anyway thanks again for such good articles.

Sincerely,
Jill

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Dominant Dog Question:

Hi Ed,

I work with tons of behavioral problem dogs and aggression counts for a good # of them. I agree with the obedience being paramount & the dog learning to mind. I recently finished a couple of dogs with this same problem and have heard from the owners who tell me the dogs are doing great. The key was teaching the owners how to establish basic control over the dog and how to correct for bad behaviors. The "behaviorists" around here are really just dog trainers w/a different name so they can charge more by the hour. I use a lot of motivational training but in this case the dog has to be taught boundaries - and correction is essential. A lot of what I would call "90's type trainers" who only believe in food and praise will never be able to finish a dog like this reliably. Or it may take forever. There has to be a consequence to bad behaviors. The dog needs to learn limits and the owners how to train and handle such a dog. In short, I agree.

Regards,
Nick

Dominant Dog Question:

Hi Ed,

Thank you for all the info you have posted on your site. I have a situation here and unfortunately I only see one conclusion, which is to find our dog a home. I have an 8 year old Dalmatian, Bear, and he has always been known as an alpha dog... even got suspended from doggie day care for fighting with other male dogs. I raised him from a puppy and he knows all his commands and he can even be walked without a leash and sent home on command... Bear is pretty much the perfect dog. About a year ago we adopted a male Great Dane, Blake, he was days from death. We brought him home and got him healthy. Our goal was to get him healthy and find him a home; Blake is still living with us, guess we fell in love with him. Bear would always let Blake know who the boss was and being that Blake is not aggressive at all, after a couple of butt kicking's Blake knows to stay away. None the less they have actually become pretty good friends now, I come home to find them laying together and they always are playing, they have not had a fight in over 6 months but Blake still knows his place in the pecking order. For example, even though I feed them separately when I get their food ready Blake goes in the other room to wait for bear to go outside and eat.

The problem is that all three of us... My wife, daughter 14, and myself have no problems with Bear, Bear is actually quite tolerant, my daughter used to put little hair clips all over him and he would just come to me to take them off. But the bottom line is we are always careful when people come over, we tell them to not get in his face and pet him, we actually mostly keep him up in our room when we have company over. All that ended the other day, when a 5 year old boy came over and while bear was on our bed he went over to see him and Bear took the boys nose off. Thank god after some plastic surgery the boy is doing well but we now are about to adopt a 5-year-old and I am not willing to take the chance of this happening again. I don't think we have any choice but to find Bear a home but I am willing to listen to any suggestions... One idea was to find the Great Dane a home and even though they are doing ok now maybe in bear's mind he is working overtime as Alpha dog. Bear has never attacked anyone out of the blue but has always been alpha dog and aggressive that way. If you get in his face, you will lose it...Its still not expectable and we cant take the chance of a little boy not listening to us and testing the water on his own like most kids do. We have done a pretty good job in training him but my wife and daughter find it cute to cuddle with bear on our bed and kind of have bear tell them what and when he wants something. They laugh and say how I'm alpha but he is second in command and I always tell them that it is not funny and it will catch up with them someday. We love both Bear and Blake but Bear is like a son to us... I had his mom and now have Bear so even though Blake is a great dog I would find him a home before I found one for Bear. One other thing about the great Dane and small children... Blake is the kindest dog you would ever find... anyone can take his bowl away or pretty much do anything to him and he just looks at you, but considering his size, he is 125lbs and really tall, my wife is afraid that when Blake wants to play he can end up accidentally hurting a small child out of pure innocence. Is there anything we can do to control that from happening or should Blake also go to be on the safer side. We love animals more than anything... actually more than most humans so this is a very hard thing to do.

Thank you very much,
Manny

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Dominant Dog Question:

Mr. Frawley,

I have a 3 year old Dalmatian, Lab, Pit bull mix weighing about 65 lbs. Two days ago, while loading up our car for a trip, we were walking in and out of the house with the dog. While the dog was left unattended momentarily, a city worker pulled up at just that moment and walked on the property. In a split second, my dog charged him and bit his ankle severe enough to require stitches. Currently, my dog is in quarantine at Animal Control and we are faced with having to put him to sleep after the 10-day period. We are not required to put him down, but I am afraid that this could happen again--even if we are being super diligent, I don't know if I can guarantee he would never get out again by accident or other unknown circumstance. This was the first time he has broken skin or bit a stranger--but I can't stop feeling in my gut how bad this could have been if it were a child who wandered on the property at that moment.

He has been territorial since a puppy. He has snapped at or lightly bitten guests in my home who came near his feeding area or touched his food. When someone comes near the house, or if he is in the house and the doorbell rings, he barks in a vicious way. When I walk him and someone else is on the road, especially if they have a dog, he pulls to get to them and I hold him back because he has snapped at other dogs and I am afraid he may bite. He is very strong and will not listen to my commands to stop without my holding him back. I now realize that pulling him back probably has made the situation worse. When I have taken him to a friends house and put him in the fenced backyard to keep him away from my friend's two small children and their toy poodle, when he sees them on the screened patio overlooking the back yard, he barks and growls and will even attack the closed door if they were to venture near. This behavior has made me extremely uncomfortable for some time--it seems to be getting worse as he gets older. Around the family, including cats, birds and his best buddy, a small Chihuahua, he is very friendly and sweet. In the past, we have had him kenneled when we go out of town and he has not had a problem. Also, when he has gotten out and run away, he is never aggressive to other people or animals ( a stranger picked him up and took him to the humane society shelter once and I have found him playing with other dogs on another occasion). This situation is breaking my heart because I know that we made a mistake in not getting him professional training. My husband often roughhoused with the dog and sometimes I feel encouraged (unintentionally) his aggressive behavior during their play games. My husband is definitely the leader of the pack--but he is often away on business and my daughter and I are left to care for the dog. I need to know if it is possible to retrain a dog of three years to not be so aggressive and dangerous to others or if putting him to sleep is the only responsible thing we can do. We love the dog and my daughter is crying and can't sleep over this, but we want to do the right thing. Thank you for any advice you can provide.

Sincerely,
Diane

Answer:

If you asked me, I would recommend putting the dog to sleep. This behavior could be corrected but I don’t think you are capable of doing the work that’s required.

The aggressive behavior should have been addressed when this dog was young. Your husband's play did not cause any part of this. Read the article I wrote on DEALING WITH A DOMINANT DOG.

In reality you are correct. We are talking about a dog that was not trained. You are also correct in saying that this could be a lot worse. Had this dog ever gotten a child, you would have a very bad dog bite.

It is never an easy decision to say that one should put a dog to sleep. It must always be the last option and I seldom recommend it.

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Dominant Dog Question:

Hi,

My son has a staffy cross, not sure what the cross is, but she is mainly staffy to look at. He had two dogs, the dog that was attached by the staffy was a border collie named Jess, she was 17 years old. Molly, the staffy, is 5 years old. They were alone in the house together, when Molly attacked and so severely injured Jess that she had to be put down. Molly must have thrown and shook her around. The injuries that Jess received were horrific, to her throat, her lung was punctured and the rib that would have covered her lung was missing. The vet also suspected her pelvis was fractured, and it was at this point that it was requested of the vet that he put Jess to sleep. She did not deserve to die this way nor for that matter, any dog/child etc.

Jess had always been a quiet, gentle dog, never showed any aggression to anyone.

My son asked me to try and find some information on the internet relating to the above attack, and if you can to please give an opinion at to whether, his son, who will be turning two in June is in any danger from Molly. I know that perhaps you can`t give me a direct answer as to whether Molly should be put down or not, but perhaps with letters that you have received there may have been similar experiences. Could Molly attack again now that she has been "blooded" so to speak? It`s just very hard to know what to do, putting Molly to sleep won`t bring Jess back to life, but by the same token if Molly should attack again, how does one forgive one`s self for giving her a second chance?

And that is why I`m emailing you, as my son , and myself included, just don`t know what is the best way to deal with this situation. I hope to hear from you soon.

Regards,
Shirley

Answer:

I feel badly for you and this poor dog. Can you imagine what the last minutes of life were like for this very old dog? To end 17 years of life in this way is a terrible thought.

I will guarantee you that it is not a matter of “IF” this dog will fight– it’s only a matter of time and "WHEN" it will happen again.

Dogs like this need to be totally isolated from other dogs. They can never come into contact with animals. This needs to be accomplished by keeping them in secure dog kennels, secure dog crates and through the use of very solid dog training that results in the dog being 100% under control even in the face of the most severe distraction (i.e another dog that is challenging it).

Read the article I have written titled DEALING WITH THE DOMINANT DOG. You can find this article in the list of training articles on my web site. I believe you will find the answers you need in that article or in the Q&A section of my web site. There are simple solutions to these problems. The question is if you are willing to do the work necessary to make the changes that will fix the problems.

A dog like this needs to be trained with an electric collar. I use a DOGTRA 1700NCP.

If you would like to learn more about the principles of obedience training a dog, read the description for my Basic Dog Obedience video. You will probably find that you have not had a clear understanding of the steps of training a dog must go through before it can be considered fully trained. You can also read why I am not a fan of taking an untrained dog to obedience classes. I think if you read the testimonials on that tape you will see that my customers feel the same way.

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Dominant Dog Question:

I came across this site while searching for dog obedience, It would be great if you could help me. We have a mixed breed, 1 and a half year old, Australian Shepard / Lab / Collie. He is a great dog, easily trained.

Our main issue is that when he is lying down and you go up to him calmly and pet him nicely and gently, he will most of the time growl at you. I describe the sound at growling with your mouth shut. Like a humming. He doesn't show his teeth, only if you take it one step further and try to scold him (To be honest when he first did this and we figured out that it was bad we would scold him by giving him a swat and shoving him outside, and also yelling at him. When we do this he cowers in the corner and his back legs shake nervously.) he may show his teeth..

When this first started (about a month after his first birthday) we were trying to figure out if this was a good sound or bad. As sometimes when we would stop petting him he would get up and come to you and ask for fuse, although while doing this his tail would be between his legs and head down.

There was one time once when he came up to me for fuss and I gave it to him and 20 seconds later he started growling and slowly cowers away. As I was saying "NO BARE" loudly.

Now we firmly tell him "NO" and when we do that he continues to do it, when he stops and we reward him by saying "Good boy" and pet him, he does it again.

There are also times when I will call him and say "Bare Come!" and he won't come he will walk away with his tail between his legs and low head, looking very sad. With my husband he get's a better response. This doesn't happen all the time with myself, there are times when he will come and I will tell him "good boy" and reward him. We have tried to walk him more, on a daily basis. Myself doing it more as I am home all day.

When we walk in the front door he doesn't come up to us like he is happy to see us. Whenever anyone else comes over he is excited and happy. He doesn't display any of the symptoms when he is at my moms with me or for a walk, he actually looks happier whenever we are elsewhere or its playtime.

We have 2 small kids, 5 and 2. They don't pay much attention to him when he is lying down, but time that they do he has growled at them. We want to fix this so hopefully it won't get worse.

I called a behaviorally specialist and he told us to try the Umbilical Cord Theory for a week. meaning that he is attached by leash to my waist and has to go everywhere I go within the house, whether he is sleeping or not. I am then showing him that I am the boss and he can't do anything unless I let him. He said his growling was him telling me that he doesn't want to be touched right now and that it needs to be corrected. If he does growl I am suppose to give a sharp yank on the leash and say no, or growl at him using a deep AAAAAAAAA sound. When he stops right away tell him good boy. Problem his while I am yanking on his leash and doing this he is continuously growling, there is no chance to say good boy, or even if I touch him and give praise it starts all over again. I have to wait till he stops and tell him good boy and not touch him. I think he is winning.

I hope this email makes sense, I am on day 3 or this theory and don't know if it is working. Hopefully you can help me. I look forward to hearing from you.

Do you just post your responses on the web or do you send me an email back as well so I know when to look on the web.

Thanks,
Lorraine

Dominant Dog Question:

We have 5 cocker spaniels, one aged 10 one aged 5, one aged 4 and two aged 9 months. We are having major dog fights. The two puppies are ganging up together with the 4 year old and fighting the 10 year old. Three dogs on one. What can you suggest. I am sure it is for dominance, but how can I prevent this. The vet costs are horrendous with the damage done to the 10 year old. Up until the puppies arrived everything was fairly quiet. It is one of the puppies that is initiating the fighting.

I really need some advice.

Please help,
Brenda (in the UK)

Answer:

Brenda,

You own a dog pack and you don’t understand pack behavior. This is a RANK issue and they will kill this old dog unless you change your ways.

There is not a MAGIC BULLET that someone is going to give you to help these dogs live together. ITS NOT GOING TO HAPPEN !!

Either find homes for some of these dogs or get 5 dog crates and keep the dogs separated, or build 5 dog kennels. That's the ONLY SOLUTION to this problem.

Let me pose a question to you – how would you feel if you lived a long happy life in the same house with your family. When you were 70 years old your family brought a couple of gang members into your home (which you were not allowed to leave) and these gang member kicked the living shit out of you ALL THE TIME – so bad you had to see Doctors. After these medical visits your family brought you back to the house where the gang members waited?

THIS IS EXACTLY what you are doing to this old dog. I cannot imagine what’s going on in his head. But it is very sad.

-------------------------------------

QUESTION on Aggressive Dog:

Hello,

I had a question about your DVD on Dealing with Aggression and Dominance in Dogs. I am looking for a training video for my mom and was wondering if the problems she is having with her dog would be covered in this DVD or if another one would better suit her. She has a Cairn Terrier that is about a year old. It has shown aggression since she got it. It bites, hands, feet. It bites when you try to bring it inside, when you try to pick it up, if you are trying to take something away from it, sometimes just when you reach down to pet it. It also shows a lot of aggression, say if you want to bring it in and it doesn't want to come, and if it sees other people or animals, it will just freak out like it is going to eat them alive. My mother is terrified of her, and I think that this is part of the problem, the dog knows that my mom is scared. Do these characteristics fit in with this specific training video, or is there another one that would best suit this problem, any info would be greatly appreciated. Thanks.

Jessica

Answer:

Well you are correct – this is a pack structure problem and your mother needs to learn to be a leader – she is not at this time.

There are actually 2 DVDs that she needs to study – notice I said study and not watch. It is IMPOSSIBLE to watch my work and consider yourself trained. That’s just not going to happen.

The two DVDs are

Basic Dog Obedience
Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs

Obedience is about 25% of the solution. She will never solve the problem without obedience but in and of itself she needs to address pack structure more (dogs are pack animals and the average person has no idea how strong those genes are in dogs like this.)

In many cases the final step is to control the dog with a remote collar – this is where the maintenance training comes in for the life of the dog. This is covered in my DVD Remote Collar Training For the Pet Owner. I recommend an Innotek ADV300 for that work.

So with this said – the solution to these problems is in these DVD's. The question is --does your mother wish to put in the effort and educate herself? The fact is she has more to learn than the dog.

Good luck

QUESTION:

Dear Ed,

This is incredibly long and I apologize in advance for its length. You had been nice enough to respond to my initial email about a problem with my young Dobe and recommended one of your DVDs which I purchased.

Doberman. Neutered (@ 13 months) now 18months. Is great around dogs here at the house or when I set up situations in public with other owners with dogs on leash.

While I am walking him, if another dog is being walked on leash and comes towards us, is being walked at a distance or if another dog is off leash and approaches him or worst case if a dog lunges, barks or aggresses at him he will engage. His reaction can be controlled by diversion or a "leave it" verbal correction sometimes. Sometimes he can ignore another dog at a distance and sometimes he cannot. But if a dog barks at him or lunges, forget about it. He's in.

I had tried a prong collar on him for pulling and on leash aggression.

Once, he aggressed on leash at a young female Dobe (about 4 months) who was lunging at him in an excited state pulling his owner towards us. He aggressively went after that puppy and I gave him a strong leash correction and he redirected on me biting my arm, I stumbled backward and was on the ground. I am a pretty calm person even though his action certainly attracted the public, but I ended up on the ground with him biting at my very thick coat (glad I was wearing this coat) I kept him away from me via the leash, I was able to pull him to the ground with my foot on the leash as he was still going off as I got up. That stopped him and we continued our walk with this other dog owner and dog with no issue as I did not want to leave this park on a negative note. I had him sitting and walking around this dog and we passed other leashed dogs with no issue. This was about 4 months ago.

He started exhibiting assertive, lunging behavior towards dogs coming towards him around 10 months and I was correcting him for it, but based on your emails, not hard enough. OR, he was associating the pain of the correction with the approaching dog?

His level of frustration to get at another dog does not make sense to me based on how much exposure he has had to just about everything. He has been on and off leash around horses, llamas, many, many other dogs, my cat. No issue until about 10 months of age. He has been walked, hiked with other dogs, been with other dogs on and off leash since he arrived here at 9 weeks of age. He has been to dog shows and handling classes with no issue. He was entered in a dog show and handled by me at 11months without an issue with other dogs although I could see that he was not relaxed in that environment. I could walk him around the show grounds with no issue but I did feel he was not relaxed just by watching his body language. I was quite relaxed, just not sure why he was in that state of arousal. Could it have been all the hormones in play at this show?

After the show around 12 months he was terrible to any and all dogs on leash. And if they are off leash and try to approach him in any way, he will absolutely go ballistic on leash trying to go after them. When walking him or any dog, I keep a loose leash and do not act tense but am watchful of behavior to try to correct or redirect him before he acts. He is a powerful boy, however.

His behavior when frustrated or agitated is a very tense posture. He wants to get away from me and get at the dog. When he sees the other dogs and wants it, he sometimes vocalizes with either a high pitched sound which I read as frustration, which then goes to a low growl and aggressive barking. first at the dog , then me upon being redirected or corrected. I have found over the years being around aggressive Dobes, that some get a look. Like they are in another zone. My dog gets that look.

I do not have the physical power, due to injuries, to correct this dog via a pinch at the level you suggest. But based on his aggressive reaction to a strong collar correction I am not sure that is the best path for me to take. I ended up getting a head halter for him as it will at least keep his mouth closed should he try to redirect his frustration on me and it gives me a bit of control over his head, more so than the pinch. This has worked for me to date. However, it is not my collar of choice but at the moment it is one of protection if needed.

You did not think this was a hard case and recommended an E collar. I bought your E collar DVD and learned from it. Before I purchased a collar, I had tried out a couple E collar systems, one older Tri-tronics from one friend and an Innotek300 from another friend. I ended up buying a Tri-tronics Sport3Basic.

The collar via your DVD training methods have worked very well. No issues. He only needs a low setting for obedience and distraction work, when there are no dogs around.

I dog sit for dogs at my home and he is fine here with all of them.

His obedience is very good, sits and downs, he kennels up, does long downs, heels, recalls. I do some agility work in the back yard. He will also do obedience on a long line with distractions unless there is another dog around. He will recall off leash outdoors as I can go to some areas where I know no other dogs will be. He can be out of site (trails) and will recall in an instant.

Then he gets aroused to frustrated and as I mentioned, in some cases gets quite vocal. I have worked with the E collar per your video and get great results, have used a verbal marker and either verbal praise or treat, and also have started using a spray bottle on some walks. Yes, I know, but it seems to help him come to his senses with absolutely no aggressive response to me or the other dog and we can walk very close to other dogs where we cannot if he is being corrected with either the E collar or a leash correction since those corrections seem to agitate him.

I am waiting to buy your DVD on training aggressive dogs with an E collar as I am a bit confused after reading some of the the email on your site. Then am a bit more confused after reviewing the DVD E collar training suggestions coming with this collar. I do not see my specific issue demonstrated which I am hopeful you will have on your DVD.

One of your emails stated do not use a high level of stimulation if the dog aggresses at another dog or he will think the pain came from that dog. If I read your emails correctly one gives a verbal NO and if the dog doesn't listen, then it gets a nick from the collar. I have read mixed advice as to using this type of collar for aggression.

I do use the E collar when he pulls and in experimenting with levels, he is good much of the time but needs more reminders than he should to get back into place. I alternate between just using a regular collar with his E collar or if I am going to work with him at parks that are very busy, I use the head halter so if he goes ballistic I can at least control his mouth. It has come in handy. Even with a correction from the E collar.

What is odd is that he will sit for attention from me, will sit for food or any toy, will wait to get out of the car until told, has great down stays with distractions unless a dog will walk by or worse bark or aggress at him.

I can take anything out of his mouth. Food, toys, anything without issue. He will also drop items when told.

He loves people, and children thank goodness.

So, either he is not the right dog for me, or with your help I can get him to a level I can control and trust in all situations like my other Dobe. I would appreciate your insight. I am an avid hiker and walker and am used to taking my dogs everywhere, off leash. I hate to think that he will either be a home bound dog or when outside in public wearing a muzzle. It is not the life I want with a dog. If your opinion is he is not right for me, or I am not the right owner for him I can start looking to rehome him.

Meanwhile, I just got off the phone with the company who sold me the collar and although they state they are not trainers, they do not recommend using an E collar for aggression.

Your thoughts?
Diane

ANSWER:

Your right. A very long email.

You have to make up your mind that you want to keep this dog. If you do you need to stop doing a bunch of things you're doing wrong.

This dog does not accept you as a pack leader – the way you live with it you're not.

A head halter is a useless piece of equipment. It’s not a training tool. If you have concerns for being bit then have the dog wear a muzzle (not a cloth one). We sell wire basket muzzles for Dobes.

This dog has no place in a dog park. Read the article I wrote on dog parks. My web site has a large number of FREE eBooks that I have written.

It should also be in a dog crate when you house sit other dogs. If you allow this dog to be around other dogs then you cause your own problem and this is then an owner problem not a dog problem.

When you walk this dog and it even looks at another dog it needs to get a HIGH LEVEL corrections. It gets corrected for looking at a dog not growling at a dog. If the dog gets to the stiff legged posture position you screwed up, because you should have corrected him way before he got to that level.

Read the eBook I wrote on establishing pack structure with adult dogs. Don’t for ONE SINGLE MINUTE make and excuse for this dog taking you to the ground and then continuing to bite you while you were there. THAT IS NOT REDIRECTED AGGRESSION. Redirected aggression is a dog that gets stimulated with a prong collar correction and turns and snaps at the handler. It’s not a dog taking the handler to the ground and continuing to bite. That’s a dominance problem.

Your dog is dominant. Neutering at this late of an age (13 months) was a waste of money – that needs to be done at 6 to 9 months to be effective.

Comment:

I don’t know if this will go through, but finally we have hope for our 8 month-old Labrador, who thinks he’s the boss of the house and has shown some aggressive tendencies (which Labs don’t usually have, we were told). It’s a concern because we have 5 grandchildren in our home, ages 9 to 16. We have immediately put into practice the advice given in the dominant dog article, and in less than a day we can see some results!
Thanks so much.

Question:

Hi Ed,

I have a question about my dog but I'm ashamed to be writing this because everyone is writing of problems with Pit Bulls, Germans, etc. Well, I have a little SOB West Highland Terrier. Yep, 20 lbs of sheer terror in my life.

I'll give you some background quickly, he was the only dog for a year and all was wonderful. Then our son wanted a puppy and we researched the breeds, finding a Golden to be great with kids. We bought a little boy and that is when all heck broke out at our house.

The Westie has taken the term alpha just a little too far. We've taken him to trainers but the problem is, when he is alone, he is an angel. It is when he is at home that he is a little "Napoleon." He is rude and pushy, he abuses the golden and just recently, he has taken it one very scary step further. He tried to bite one of our son's friends and broke the skin. The kids were running around and I could tell the Westie was getting upset, but still ... once he is focused on something or someone, he won't even come back when called.

I understand Terriers are bred to kill rodents, so I understand the chasing squirrels, etc. I could live with that but it is the dominance thing that is really difficult. He does almost everything on the list you put on your website ... he is pushy and rude. We always give in to him because he makes the most GOD AWFUL screams when he is ignored. If we try to put him in his kennel or leave him out of the room, he screams and it goes on for hours. The bark collars don't work on his constant yelping and whining. AND NOW, the sweet Golden is starting to make the same noises so obviously the Westie has taught him how to also get his own way with us.

Can you please help us with a place to even start?? I've considered finding a new home for the Westie at least once a month and then I end up feeling bad. When he is being good, he is really really good. But when he is bad, he is evil!

Thanks so much!

Pamala

Answer:

This is 100% a result of how you have lived with this dog. I will also say that it is very very very common because people simply don’t know how strong pack instincts are in their dogs. Your dog lacks pack drive and respect for you as a leader. That part jumps right out of your emails at me.

This can be changed but only if you are willing to get some education on this and then change the way you live with this dog – actually both dogs.

It starts with these DVDs:

Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Dog
Basic Dog Obedience
Remote Collar Training for the Pet Owner

I don’t know the brand of the bark collar but I can tell you it’s not a Tri Tronic’s. That’s the only brand I use and the only brand I will sell. The rest are crap. Dogs don’t bark through these.

Cindy and I both use a Dogtra 280ncp remote collar when we train our dogs. This collar has a very small receiver (on the dogs neck) in addition to a digital readout on the transmitter. This is critical in fine tuning the low level stimulation we use in the training.

I suggest that you read some of the free ebooks on my web site. Read my philosophy of dog training and The Theory of Correction in Dog Training.

If I had a dog like this is would go through my pack structure program.
It would be trained with markers - (READ THIS !!!) and it would be finished with a remote collar. In the end it would be a different dog.

Kind Regards,
Ed Frawley

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