Dominance Aggression in Dogs

Dominance Aggression

In Dogs

chow mix dog

A dominant Chow-mix - be careful of these dogs

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Hello - I have read many sites regarding aggressive dog behavior and have finally decided to try emailing you. ln reading your site, I feel that you have a good understanding of dogs and a lot of patience with them.

My husband and I bought a chocolate lab from a rescue over a year ago. He is about 4-5 years old but we can't be sure as they found him as a stray. Since we got him, we have tried working with him to teach him basic commands. All commands he does well in the home, but not so well outside without the help of treats. He is generally a loving dog who runs to greet us every day the minute we come home. In rare moments though, he has shown aggressive tendencies though I can't totally determine the cause. My husband feels that our dog is part of the family and treats him almost as a child. I feel that he is part of the family too but he also has a place that is not a human place. I do not allow him on the bed but have tired of arguing with my husband and he is therefore allowed on the couch. He will only get on the couch if we are not in the room, when we are not home during the day and at night once it is bedtime. He does get off when he is commanded to. We were told when we got him that he was food aggressive. We've worked at different ways of feeding him, kernel by kernel from our hand to the dish as well as some other similar techniques and he is fine with the person who is holding the food but will growl at anyone else who tries to approach. After little success, he is fed in a separate room with the door closed. If let back into the room we are in too soon, he is extremely excited and will come charging, sometimes even nipping at the person who opens the door. He once nipped at me when I tried to command him to get off the couch. Most recently, we were staying with my in-laws who the dog is completely fine with and someone came into the home in talking loudly but never came further from the door. For the first time ever, our dog cornered him and growled at him. As I was getting up to command him to stop, I was too late and he bit this person in the leg. The person did nothing to the dog but come into the room and this is the first time that I truly feel that we can no longer control him. He listens to commands now like when he must sit before getting his food or going out, always on a leash, but it is not possible to always control him as he seems to only listen when he wants to.

We have since taken away any treats that take more than a second to chew and taken away his Kong as we had the same food aggression problem. We have no problem with toys and they are left out for him but he does not growl if you take them away.

We do not have any children but some day soon would like to. At this point, I fear that it would not be safe to have this dog around children and even worry for some adults since the one bite. We love this dog and have had him a year and a half. We would like to work with him but are not sure who to turn to. I don't want to see anyone ever hurt from this usually very loving dog. We have taken him to Petsmart with us in the beginning but he drags at the leash constantly and does the same thing at the vets. So taking him to a class is probably not viable. I have worked with him on the leash quite a bit but he still pulls constantly. He is very curious. Please let me know what you think of our situation. Is there help for our dog? Thanks for any information you can give me.

Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs

Is it ok for a 2 1/2 year old dog be dominant over a new puppy as long as they both view their human owners as "the pack leader"? I have a 2 1/2 year old male pitbull bullmastiff mix (we've had him since a puppy) and we just rescued a 5 month old full breed female pitbull. The older dog is not aggressive and very accepting of other dogs but I would characterize him as more "dominant". I don't believe he's dominant over us (my husband and I) I just think he knows he the pack leader among other dogs. Anyway, the new puppy is here and he is not hurting her or anything of that sort. He is sharing his stuff and everything. He just continues to show his dominance towards her. Tries to pin her down and lay on top of her. She loves it. I assume she thinks he is playing with her. Is that ok? Can't they/we live harmoniously w/ one submissive dog and one dominant one? What do you see as our fait based on what I've told you?

Remote Collar Training for the Pet Owner

We've had Zeus since he was 8 weeks old. We live behind our in-laws, and Zeus has spent his time divided between our place and theirs since he was a pup. (He always sleeps here, he usually just spends time during the day down there.) Herein lies some of the problem, I believe. Here, we don’t' allow him to eat people food, there they feed him from the table. Here, he (at least, he USED to) know that he'd better obey us when we tell him down, sit, stay, etc.... there, they let him do whatever he wants. My husband and I believe the root of the problem started with my fil, when Zeus growled at him, bared his teeth at him, and my fil didn't do anything, he said "well, I figured he was mad so I let him be". Yikes.

Appx two weeks ago, Zeus cut his leg and had staples. Towards the end of the week, I was changing his bandage and he freaked on me. He snapped at me and snarled, showing his teeth. I did what I thought was right, (not so sure now ....) I told him "NO!" firmly and stood over him telling him "NO ZEUS!!" however, he didn't back down and continued growling and baring his teeth. I let it go, figuring that it was because his foot was so sore. Yesterday, we were getting ready to go outside, and he was his usually bouncy self, hopping around all excited ...I backed into him and he snapped and growled and bared his teeth. My husband was home this time and ran over, grabbed Zeus by the collar and yelled "NO! BAD DOG ZEUS!!!" and tried to lead him to his bed. Zeus continued to growl and bare his teeth at my husband. My husband stood over him and told him "NO!" yet Zeus continued to growl and bare his teeth. He did finally put his head down, and afterwards, was all "apologetic" if you will, coming over to me with his head hanging and sitting beside me waiting for me to pat him.

This morning was the straw that broke the camels back, so to speak. Zeus decided he could pee on the wall in the hall, and my husband yelled "ZEUS! NO, BAD DOG!" and grabbed him by the collar to toss him out of the house. Zeus bit him on the wrist. My husband threw him on the floor, muckled onto his collar and choked the ever lovin hell outta him. The dog didn't pass out, but mister he was feeling it when he managed to get to his feet. He hung his head and wouldn't look either of us in the eye.

We have an appointment with a guy this weekend who told us he has been dealing with dominant dogs like this for 30 years now, and he told us it was relatively common, and at a common stage in the dogs life. I am hoping we all learn something this weekend, and I am hoping you can tell me there's hope for Zeus. I have a four and a half year old daughter and I don't want to have to worry about her around the dog. He is very protective of her and they are best friends, wherever she goes he goes. However I absolutely will not take any chances that she will be attacked by this dog or me either for that matter. Thanks so much in advance for any help.

Dominant Dog Collar

Hi, My name is francine I have an 8 month old terrier mix; we got her at 9 weeks old. At age 6-7 months she started to growl and snarl. She has food aggression, and will not let my 4 kids pat her at night when she is resting or sleeping. I wanted them to be ale to cuddle up to this dog and experience the joy of having a dog, but I am the only one who can do this. We are in dog training classes and she does very well. Do you see hope for this situation?

Establishing Pack Structure with the Family Pet

Hi- I just found your site and wish I would have found it 1.5 years ago!!! We have a 1.5 year old male Soft Coated Wheaton Terrier, Murphy. He has been with us since he was just under 3 months old and generally pretty good. We just introduced a second dog, a 4 month old female Soft Coated Wheaton Terrier to the house named Ginger. We are introducing them slowly and they are only allowed together when my husband and I are around. The problem I have is that Murphy is 40 pounds, Ginger is 9 pounds and she seems to be getting beat up by Murphy. He is rough with her and also, few times has pinned her on her back and used his mouth to her down at the neck. Is this okay? I am not afraid of letting them play but this seems unusually rough. He is not growling when he has her by the neck either. Should we be breaking them up when we think the play is getting out of hand or how do we know when enough is enough? Or are we being too cautious?
Thank you for your help and your awesome site!

Dealing with the Dominant Dog

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I was recently bitten in the face by a 6 yr old Jack Russell Terrier. It was so severe that I had to receive stitches and am sure that my face will not heal properly. He's my roommate’s dog and is normally quite timid but on several occasions has bitten people before. I'm his third victim in the past five months. The other incidents were not at all severe. I'm not sure whether or not the dog should be put down. Is there any other kind of alternative?

After reading your website we are very interested to know your opinion on how we can handle a situation. We have a 105 lb chocolate lab and he has been very aggressive. He barks constantly at the tiniest things outside our home, including little kids riding bikes down the street. We have tried many things to correct this including grabbing his collar and telling him no, trying a collar that gives a high pitch beep and now a shock collar. None of these work, he continues to bark uncontrollably and we can't get him stop. He also has a bite history. He has bitten two people, one was a passer-by on a bicycle who he reached up and got and another time he broke through a screen window to get to a neighbor mowing the lawn. He also broke a glass bedroom window attempting to get to another neighbor who was outside in his yard. Luckily for us neither resulted in a lawsuit, but the incident with the bike was documented with the city. We have just bought a brand new house and are afraid of a lawsuit from neighbors who may wander into our yard or if our dog happens to escape. When friends come over he continues to jump on them and bite at their arms and legs, despite our efforts to correct it. We feel every time someone comes over we have to keep him kenneled, but he has now successfully broken his kennel trying to get out. He has also turned on me, the female of the relationship, I hit his backend while he was playing with our other dog and he turned to attack me in a vicious manner, luckily my boyfriend was able to make the dog stop this. If you have any helpful information, any suggestions or opinions would be appreciated. We really love the dog but acknowledge his bad behavior and don't want to endanger anyone else. We feel as if we can't do anything else to correct it we may have to put him down so he doesn't hurt anyone.
Thanks.

Prong Collars

About 5 months ago I took a Cairn Terrier from a rescue club in the Seattle area. I was told that Whiley had been abused in the past but they did not know to what extent. He showed some aggression to the male figure in a foster home he was in. He apparently had been abused in his permanent home; he was only there for one year.

I saw his aggression the very first day we had him. We took him into a dog food store and he didn't like the idea of other dogs being there. I just picked him up and took him out. He was always happy and friendly towards anyone who came to visit. Then one day on a walk he lunged at some kid on a bike. Then on a scooter. I subdued him.

I contacted a trainer I knew and began to work some positive training with him. He would be okay for a while and then start up again. He did however show slight aggression towards my husband especially in the evenings. So we thought maybe it was his sight, had that checked and it was okay. He would circle my husband and growl at him but was able to stop it. We worked more positive training. Biscuits, husband took care in the evenings. Then for no reason he ran and lunged at my granddaughter. I caught him before he got to her. He did this twice.

His aggression towards my husband would be sporadic and then it got worse. But often when my husband reprimanded him he would show a submissive position. We thought we would overcome this. We put him in his crate or in a safe place when our granddaughter was here and that seemed to work. He was fine with all of us on a walk. Then a few nights ago my husband came to the desk where I was working to pick something off it and Whiley circled him and then jumped up and bit him. I have tried everything I can think of. My husband has had it with him. I don't think there are answers for this guy and I don't want my family living in fear of a Cairn Terrier. I can get him when he is having these aggression episodes but when I do he growls at me but he has never bitten me. I don't show fear at all. (I should mention that I have had Shepard's in the past (2) and I trained both of them but that was a long time ago and I got them as puppies) I am at my wits end with all this. I love this dog very much and I am sure that there remains only one solution.

My question to you is if you think there is any hope for this dog or is my final decision a correct one? I was also wondering if there is a possibility that this dog might have some brain damage because of the abuse? The only record that was found about the abuse is that some kid maybe a 12-14 year old played airplane with him. Grabbed his legs and swung him around. I cannot imagine anyone doing this to an animal but I guess there are worse things done. By the looks of it there must have been a lot more than that done to him. I have made an appointment for the morning to take Whiley to the vet. I think I will have him put down. What is your opinion? I don't want him to spend his life in a crate when other people are around beside me. That's not fair to him.
I would appreciate your input.

Muzzles

Hello, I have been reading on your website today and found out that it seems I was possibly miss informed. Just to give you some background, We adopted a golden ret/lab mix, peaches, about 2 years ago after animal control picked her and her male friend up in our neighborhood. She is extremely sweet and minds well. She gets really excited when she sees other dogs and wants to play. Recently someone dropped off a little basset hound in our fence. Peaches loved to play with him but then she seemed a little two big and rough (She is 75 Ibs, the basset hound was about 20Ibs). We found the little dog a home but Peaches whined when the little dog was gone. We inquired about adopting a bigger dog for a friend. I knew enough to introduce them in a neutral place but it was for a very short time. The lady told us "oh they will be fine once you get them home".

We brought, Darren, a greyhound/bulldog mix, home. They play in the back yard and stay in the backyard fine. Darren is very submissive to Peaches but he does try to mount her even though they are both fixed. The problem seems to be in the house. They are fine inside playing, sleeping, cleaning each other with my husband. With me, Peaches will not let him close to me unless I keep a close eye on her and reprimand her when she starts to show signs of aggression. Last night when I put them out to eat she would not let him eat, she was non-aggressive but every time he would start to eat out of one bowl she would go to that bowl and he would move. This when on for 45 mins. Everyone keeps telling me "they will be fine, it is normal for a little growling and dominance". I am just not sure what do. Do I let them in one at a time to eat and play? Will that make the situation worse? Do I continue to reprimand her when she start to be aggressive due to jealousy? I am a true animal lover and want to do the right thing for the situation, I love these dogs and would do anything to make it right. It seems that since they see my husband as leader of the pack, they think it is okay to show aggression when they are with me (my husband works nights and I work days) How do we both establish this role without having to keep them a part (it defeats the purpose of having them). We have only had Darren since Saturday 2/5/04 so if this will not get better I will find him another home (even though I already love him, he is great) because I do not think it is fair for him. He seems so sad when she is watching his every move. I want to make good homes for these animals but I just need CORRECT guidance, everything seems so contradictory. Please help!!

How to Fit a

Prong Collar

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I have an 8 month old male neutered shepard. Recently he started showing food aggression. Yesterday he growled at me as I approached his food bowl. I gave him a correction with his pinch collar which only elevated his aggression I continued, not wanting to loose the battle but each correction led him to an outright lunge at me. I managed to keep control of him till he finally submitted but this has left me very shaken. Did I handle this poorly and cause the whole thing and what should I do now.

I have been doing obedience for some time and he has responded well. I have never allowed him on furniture or beds and have always made him sit or wait before I do much of anything for him.
He has never been fed from our table. He is still confined to the kitchen unless on leash or tether to my belt. When were away or cannot supervise him, he's in his crate. I've been diligent in all these things yet this has happened.

In situations where he has not listened and I increase the strength or motivation on the pinch collar correction seems to elicit an aggressive response. I'm afraid to back down and afraid to provoke aggression.

My trainer suggested I hand feed him for awhile. Reminding him that all good things come from me.
How can I handle this better. Now I'm not sure how to correct my dog, I start to question my use of the pinch because I have been chastised so often for its use. I have been told that I'm having this problem because I have chosen the pinch in the first place. How do I regain my confidence in my dog?

A second question is regarding his response to strangers coming in the house. He'll bark to warn us but when we let that person in he continues to bark with his hackles up. If he's in his crate he barks without stop. I try to make him sit and tell him quite hoping that he'll calm down. I'd really like him to stop barking when told, and let me decide who can come in or not.

When I exercise him in the park (on leash of course) he used to be more aggressive to other people walking bye. I have started trying to relax myself when people are coming our way and as they come close I do a sit stay. When he allows them to pass without any concern I praise. This routine has been the one successful thing so far regarding his aggression. He now pays little attention to them when walking at heel. When people approach now that are not on our home turf he's actually friendly with tail wagging.

Right now I'm at the computer and my dog is tethered to my belt, he is lying at my feet on the floor fast asleep. I really want to have a great pet and companion. Thanks in advance, I really respect the work you've put into this site.

How to Select a Muzzle

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I own a 5-year old pure bread English Springer Spaniel named Luke. I have had him since he was a puppy. After about 6 months, he displayed aggressive behavior towards my mothers Cocker Spaniels. If he sat in my lap and another animal approached me, he would growl until they walked away. By the time he was full grown, he began to snap at the other dogs without warning. I tried to break him apart from a grip that he had on another dog and he accidentally bit me in the arm. I went to college for 3 years and bought a house. He was with my parents during the 3 years and did not display this behavior frequently. However, he did have seizures every month or so and was not treated with medication. I moved him into my house and he was the only pet. After a few months, he displayed aggression towards the neighbor’s dog while I had him on a leash. He also had seizures each month, very severe seizures where he lost control of his bowels. He continues to have seizures at this frequency today. After a year or so, I got married and my wife and I got another dog for Luke to play with. Luke displayed aggressive behavior towards the new puppy and the new puppy immediately became submissive. After a few weeks, the two began to play together. It has been approximately 8 months since we got the puppy and they still love to play together. They play with toys and bite each other softly without breaking skin. However, Luke will turn into "Mr. Hyde" and bite the smaller dog Fletcher, breaking skin and drawing blood. There is never a warning and the situations are occurring with greater frequency. He most recently attacked the small cat that my wife owns by pinning her down and biting her neck. Approximately 90% of the time, he is very loving towards me and loves being pet and getting his ears rubbed, but when another animal approaches me he wants to bite them. My wife and I are expecting a baby and are very worried that he will accidentally bite the child just like he accidentally bit me. I have lost my trust for my best friend Luke and know that he cannot be in my house any longer. I do not wish to put him to sleep as my vet has recommended. Are their other options I can consider such as adoption or behavior therapy? Are his seizures possibly connected to his aggressive behavior?
Thanks for your help.

I have shown dogs in obedience, worked at a veterinarian's office as a tech, and owned many wonderful dogs from a 2 lb. Yorkie, to a rottweiler. I presently own a 2 yr. Old chihuahua who lives w/ a loving german short hair pointer. As a puppy, max the chihuahua displayed behavior I didn't approve of: nipped my ankles when I left the house barking his head off, barked and growled at people who entered the house, goes to grab me when I leave the bed, was overprotective of his food, and didn't approve of my corrections. Lately, he doesn't back down. He is obedience trained (basic ... Sit, down, come). I am at my wits end w/ him. He has gotten better ... He lets people in the house, barks at them, but eventually stops. He used to go on and on. Instead of biting our ankles, he bits the other dog's back legs when people leave. The food isn't an issue anymore b/c he eats by himself in his crate and I leave him there for an hour and then let him out in the yard. He has bitten people before, but b/c of his size, he has never broken the skin or left any marks. He is dominant and even corrals the german short hair into the house when they are both outside. If we are in bed and someone comes in my room at night he barks like crazy protecting me. I guess he won't sleep w/ me anymore.

Last night was the last straw and I'm considering giving him up or putting him on some sort of medication. He was in my bed b/c it was bedtime. I told him I'd be right back. He rolled over onto his back. It seemed as though he wanted his belly rubbed. As I went to rub his belly, his eyes turned black and he growled showing his teeth for no good reason. He has done this before, but everytime it occurs it takes me off guard and I jump out of fear. Then I realize it and I yell. The louder I yell, the louder he growls and he shows more teeth. I grabbed my slipper and lightly hit him. The more I did this, the louder he got and would lunge at me. He finally jumped off the bed and hid under it. I kept yelling hitting him w/ my slipper. He hid there for an hour and I went to bed. Then he started crying for me to pick him up to get into bed like nothing happened. I refused and went to bed. This morning he is as cute as ever. I try to remind myself of the good qualities, but I can't live with a dog I sometimes fear. He just seems to suddenly turn on me. What should I do??? Please help.

Basic Dog Obedience

We have a 4 year old Schutzhund III, male, German Shepherd that my husband trained from a puppy. We have had some dominant issues, but they have all been non-aggressive (Le. going through doors first, running up/down the stairs ahead of us) and have been ceased since reading your article on dealing with the dominant dog (thank you!). Our 2 year old daughter has just reached the stage of exhibiting annoying behaviors toward our dog and cat (Le. pulling hair, screaming, poking, etc.). Our dog, Sampson, takes commands from her (Le. sit, out) without hesitation and they play well together, but an incident occurred wherein Sampson treated her like a puppy in that he growled at her, pushed her to the ground, placed his paw on her back and his mouth on her head. You could see where his mouth had been, but there was no damage (Le. no open skin, bleeding, bruising). I understand that this was an expression of dominance over my daughter due to an action that she elicited that he did not like (I think she flanked him). This incident occurred while my husband was at work and Sampson has had little obedience training from me. Do you feel that this behavior could escalate and is there a way to teach him that our daughter's pack order needs to be raised? (We realize that I need to affirm my pack order by doing regular obedience training with him as well.) Have you encountered instances with this before and do you feel that this dog is safe to have around our daughter? Thank you in advance for your response.

Hello: I have an unsettling situation. I am not sure of what happened. These are the facts. My neighbors had pit bull dogs, a pack of them. (the neighbors have since moved away, no more dogs). I had to run once to keep from being attacked by one of them. And I know not to run, but it was my only option. I have a couple of cocker spaniels fenced up in my back yard. In self defense and for the dog's defense I bought a boxer/American bull dog and put the puppy with the two male cocker spaniels one neutered 10+ year old and one three years old. Everything seemed fine until the boxer mix reached the age of nine months and went into heat. She started going into heat about ten days ago, now in the space of that 10 days I have two dead cocker spaniels. I am still searching for the reasons; I do not know what happened for sure. Maybe the cold weather killed the spaniels; they got some kind of disease, someone poisoned them, or the boxer mix inadvertently killed the dogs. There were no marks on either dog. But the boxer mix was constantly playing with them in a very dominating kind of way. Both dogs had no symptoms of illness, the oldest one maybe. Since the boxer/mix is now in the house I am now seeing how powerful her bite is. She can really do some damage; she is chewing heavy plastic and shattering it. She is only chewing, she shows no
aggressive tendencies towards me, anyway, I promise I am definitely the Alpha. I think there is a possibility that she gave both of the male cocker spaniels internal injuries which resulted in the deaths of both of the smaller dogs. I don't have any way of being sure it just seems that this is the case. Have you ever heard of a situation like this? I blame myself. What do you think? Have you heard of this before? I should have realized the potential. I loved all three dogs.

Ground Work to Becoming a Pack Leader

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We have a 1 and a half year old Shih tzu that used to be the cutest thing. He was so sweet a year or so ago, but now he is down right viscious. We never abused him. If he was barking at kids or was barking fericiously, we put him in his cage or smacked his nose. He constantly growls at me if I walk past him, even right after I give him a treat. He bit my nose a year ago and I have a little scar remaining. My mom thought it was my fault he did that since when he was young I slid him gently across the linoleum (which he liked). He barks when we go outside and I say, "let’s go back in". He holds his ground and barks like a demon. About an hour ago, he was on the bed with my mom while she was lying down and he was growling at me like always and she told him to get off. He barked visciously at her and she said, "STOP!" and he did it again! We didn’t know what was going on with him since she babied him and treated him as an angel. We are so close to getting rid of him since he is so aggressive and angry for a little dog. We are sick and tired of him being a grouch and not being nice for a second to me. But in the car or other places outside of home, he is great. Please help me. Thanks!!!!

I have spent quit a while reading your articles on the web site. I wonder if you can give me direct advice for my particular situation. I have 1 Shepard/collie (5yrs) and 2 German Shepard's (5 and 4 yrs). All dogs were rescue dogs. The first two (ages 5) have been together since 6 months old. They have had no problem residing together or with us. The third Shepard was abused by its first owner. This dog was introduce at 1.5 yrs old, so all have lived together for the past few years with no problems. The past year there has been more stand off's with all dogs. No fights but a lot of posturing. I contacted a trainer at a kennel that specializes in German Shepard's. She told me to back the newest! youngest Shepard due to its size and strength over the other two. I now have major problems. I can now see there is no order in their pack. There has also be major fights between the oldest dogs and the youngest. To make matters worse, the youngest is challenging my role as pack leader. She does this by not listening, petting when she wants, charging through doors before me, etc. She has no physical aggression towards me though. What can I do to regain order and peace amongst the ranks? I don't know where to turn. Obviously not to the trainer that gave me the initial advice.

Ed Frawley's Philosophy on Dog Training

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Hello, my mutt and my rott got into a fight over top of my husband (he was lying on the floor). My rott attacked my husbands arm and did a lot of damage, so much so that he had to stay in the hospital for almost a week. My question is is that my rott never has shown any sign of aggression, never. She is 6 and I was wondering if she will attack again on her own. I plan on getting rid of the other dog. I have always trusted my rott around my children but now I have to make the choice of putting both of the dogs down. I can’t imagine what would have happened if it were one of my children who were attacked. Thanks.

I emailed you a few days ago regarding the problems I'm having with making clients understand that to overcome certain problems corrections will be necessary. I use prong collars for this. (I can't find my original email or your reply, so I'll try and sum it up). My problem was that I'm called the hard ass in our area because of simply using prong collars and not going along with the more modern techniques of clicker or treat training. I do use markers of course, which is similar to clickers, but we use our voice instead of a clicker. The big difference is, is that I do not believe in ALL positive reinforcement like most "clicker trainers" or "so-called behaviorists" suggest -ignoring all bad behaviors, bribing the dog even after it has learned commands etc. My business wouldn't make so much money if it wasn't for those idiots out there.

However, by the time these people come to me from petsmart or positive reinforcement trainers only, their dogs are pretty screwed up. They have created a lot of dominance through the misuse of treats and other motivational like toys. For example, the common client I get that owns an aggressive dog is told to ignore the dog if it is growling at them, they are to fold their arms and turn around. If it's growling over toys, they are supposed to distract the dog with a treat to get the toy (this would be fine to at first get the toy, but not as a repeated learning session!). I also commonly hear the advice to take the dog into a separate area and then give it a treat right after it was aggressive. Idiots.

So, my dilemma is that now I'm the one having to basically try to set these people straight. I firmly believe in a correction phase and I will use a prong collar sooner or later for this. So, here are these people, brainwashed and taught previously that corrections are bad and that people like you and me are old fashioned dog trainers and made out to be the Hitler of dog trainers. FYI, we do teach with motivation by using food or balls or whatever works for the dog we're working with. Then we move on to corrections.

Although I completed 8 years of med school and from my title am considered "one of them behaviorist idiots”, that’s not at all the case. I grew up in Germany, my Dad and I went to our Schutzhund Club every weekend to work with our Rotts. When I moved to the States, I was in shock to see so many people brainwashed and so many misbehaving dogs (the kids are pretty awful too).

My question to you is, do you get a lot of people like that? Simply not wanting to do any corrections with their dogs? How do you deal with them? I'm assuming you might not come across too many of them because you are doing Schutzhund and deal with mostly herding and working breeds. I find that people owning Mal's or GSD's or other working or herding breeds have usually more common sense.

It's getting kind of annoying to having to "defend" my training methods. Of course, the clients that take enough time and have the least bit of common sense stick around and are very happy with the results. It seems though that more and more people are turned off even by the idea of maybe having to give their dog a correction, even if it was on a buckle collar. Thank you for your input.

Theory of Corrections in Dog Training

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I have a 5 month old jack russell shortly who occasionally will growl when we try to take a bone/pigs ear away and even growled one time when we went into his food bowl. What can we do to correct it before it happens again and how do we handle at the time it does happen. Currently we just growl back at him and roll him over and regain dominance. We keep him on his back until he calms down and breaks eye contact. We have had this situation a few times and we are beginning to think we aren't handling it right because it has happened again.

Hi, I read some of your articles on Weak Nerves. We adopted an Aussie from the Aussie rescue. He was 3 or 4 years old. He was very calm in the beginning. You could tell he had a lot of training. I could give him commands, leave it, kennel up etc. and he would perform. His aggressive signs started toward other dogs first. After about a month, I couldn't take him on walks because he wanted to go after other dogs and as I needed surgery, I didn't have the strength to hold him back. My husband would no longer take him to Pet Smart because he couldn't control him.

When I came home from surgery, my mother in law was helping me to bed and he went for her face. I stopped him before he broke the skin but his teeth touched her face. We chalked it up to him recognizing she was not a dog fan. Later when my husband put me to bed, he went for my husband. We watched and stopped him before he got to him. We called the Rescue and talked with the lady that brought him to us. We chatted a lot with her as he became like family to us. She told us to crate him when I was helped to bed. We thought he had become possessive of me.

As more time passed, he could not greet my husband in the garage because he took off after another dog and had to be pulled off. Last Sunday, as he and my husband were playing, my husband reached for his toy. The dog went for my husbands face. He tore my husband's face pretty good. After about 20 or 30 minutes we got the bleeding stopped and the dog just stayed away. He knew he had crossed the line. We called our Rescue friend and she told us we had to put him down. After talking with us she called her superior to make sure she was giving us the right advice. We loved this dog. Her supervisor agreed. We put the dog down Monday. We miss him terribly. We feel sure we made the right decision as we could not bear this happening to his mother or a child or anyone. My husband will heal but will have scars. If this happened to someone we could have been sued and lost everything. I guess I am writing to learn more. Could this have been weak nerves? How do you get a dog without this genetic condition? We miss our dog so much even though we only had him 4 months. With my recovery, he stayed by my side. Thanks for your help.

Remote Collar Training for the Pet Owner

My husband and I have a 3 month old male yellow lab who is for the most part a very loving puppy. He seems to be taken to my husband best, following him everywhere. Sometimes when I open his crate he rolls on his back wagging his tail then starts growling a little at first. Then he can get very loud almost to where he snaps at me. I am usually trying to get him to go out one more time before work and he is usually tired or napping when this occurs. He has also growled at me when I took his chewy away before bed in the crate. Is this a sign of aggression?

I am the owner of a 9 month old Pembroke Corgi named "Circuit" who in the last 4 months has become very food aggressive. It is now near the point that I cannot be in the room with him while he is eating and I must wait until he has left the room to pick up the empty bowl. He has not always done this. When he was a puppy he would allow my husband and I to pet him, put our hands in his bowl, and even take the bowl if necessary. We first noticed a change in his behavior before Thanksgiving. My mother had given him a jerky stick and he was in the floor chewing on it. I was walking over to the television and he immediately began to growl. I knew that I wasn’t supposed to back away because he would have known that "growling makes people leave me alone". I did (somehow) manage to get my hands on the dog and alpha roll him. I read that you are not a big fan of this, but "Circuit" will not fight you back. Once he is on his back he will continue to snarl and show teeth but he seems to know that you are in control now.

He is neutered, we don't have any other dogs, and he has completed basic obedience classes. As far as his obedience goes, he does a great job. Bu he is very demanding when he in not in "training mode". He will bring a toy to play with and if he is ignored he will begin to bark. If you continue to ignore him he will pinch your leg as if to say "Hey stupid, throw the damn ball!" If you reach for the ball he will grab it and begin to growl. I feel like I am at my wits end with this dog. I have never had one this stobborn before or one that would hold a grudge (this one will if you win a battle or make him mad). I don't want to get rid of him but I am afraid that he is going to hurt someone. My husband and I do not have any children yet but we would like to start a family soon. As demanding and jealous as he gets when we pet other dogs I am afraid of what might happen. He will play with other dogs and even become submissive around them but if we pet other dogs he freaks out. Could you give me any advice at all? We do love our dog but he is driving us crazy Thank you for you time.

Thanks for providing excellent material on how to break up a dog fight. I have an 8 year old staffy female who just got into a fight with a much bigger weimeraner. In 8 years, this is the worst fight she's been in so I thought I would look online to get more information about how to prevent this from happening ever again. I live in NYC, so we encounter dogs nearly every time we go out and my dog has been socialized to play with other dogs since pup.

Without going into too much detail about the events surrounding the fight, suffice it to say that the weimeraner and my dog did meet once briefly a week ago. As I approached a playground an unleashed weimeraner crouched and then charged past the open gate up to meet us. This got my dog a little freaked out and there was a lot of barking and restraining. Tonight I was throwing the ball for my dog in the same playground. I was surprised to seethe weimeraner's owner open the gate to again let his dog into fenced-in playground. Soon thereafter a fight broke out.

I had previously read about breaker bars and I can tell you that this method has always worked like a charm for me. Even using a thumb as a breaker bar is enough to separate my dog and I've never been bitten. It's because there is a soft spot behind the last molars
{where wisdom tooth would be on a human} and if you press there she releases her grip and can be pulled away. She’s also been trained as a puppy to do this and lets me insert a thumb without complaint so there is little worry of being bitten by my own dog --even in a fight she is stable
enough.

Something I learned in the public NYC dog run is that multiple dogs scuffling is completely different from two dogs fighting. When a scuffle breaks out in the dog run, it usually involves 5-6 dogs and the only thing one can hope for is getting one's own dog out safely and quickly. My technique probably leaves something to be desired as I go straight into the middle kicking and screaming, separate my dog, and pull her out. Everyone tries to do pretty much the same thing and sometimes people will also use water bottles.

There is a crazy theory about why staffy dogs are don't bite people although I know what you’ll say -all dogs bit people. This is true. Here is the theory. Pit bulls have been bred over the years to not bite humans. This is because of the rules of a 'pit-fight'. The rules say that in a fight if one of the dogs dies or if the owners forfeits to save his dog it is shall be the winner's responsibility to separate the dogs. Additionally if either of the dogs bites a person during or after the fight the rule is that the biting dog shall be put down. So 'pit bulls' that bit humans were put down in the days of pit fighting.

Anyway, the reason that I am writing you is because of what you wrote about separating the dogs --by lifting their rear legs off the ground. This finally makes sense to me! I’ve seen other people try and do it (from a distance) but without the turning-in-circles part it always look like a way for the dogs to rip a piece of flesh from the other dog and owners who don't know any better. The turning-in-circles part might help, although I still have concerns about doing this with a persistent dog.
Today when my dog was fighting with the weimeraner the other owner tried to pick up his dog by the hindquarters while it was locked on to my dog. I yelled NO! and said don't pick him up! Then I separated the dogs on my own, but only for a moment. I was yelling at the other guy to grab his dog but was worried that I would be bitten. I had my dog and was pulling her away while his dog was still coming after us. He wasn't quick enough or I couldn’t hold them any longer or I worried about my own scruff too much --so I let go and it continued until we were able to separate them 5 minutes later.

My question is, how would one separate two dogs using the two techniques: a breaker bar for one dog and raised hindquarters for the other dog? I worry that if I did not use my own breaker-bar method then my dog she would continue to hold the other dog no matter what. In pulling them apart I worry that doing this can cause much more serious damage than without this technique.

A little about levers and physics. Prying open a dogs jaws with pressure towards the posterior is much easier than trying in vain to open a dogs jaws from the anterior. That’s why the break-bar method is relatively easy (and also why I don't have any broken thumbs!). Try it with a pair of pliers (or tweezers) but not needle-nose pliers since these can flex thus diminishing the effect. And thank you for your advice about not screaming before the fight erupts!

This can trigger a fight from something that would otherwise be a mere "standoff". I usually start cussing as soon as I hear the growls and see the bristles but I will try and keep my cool. Also it is unbelievably effective to use a high pressure water hose. A water bottle won't do the trick since you'll run out of water and then make problems worse (slippery dogs).

I hope that you find a moment to read this. I read many pages on your website and congratulate you on the excellent and level-headed advice.

Tri-Tronics Bark Limiter

My dog is an akitalblack lab He will be 2 on March 15. 75 pounds. He was a good dog, We got him neutered 5 months ago (thought it would help with his jumping on people) It only made him mean. He growls when other kids come into the house, hair standing up when the blinds are open and schools over. The vet said training or find a family with no kids. He is not aggressive towards adults. I just don't understand why having him fixed, made him mean towards kids. Any advice on training him.

I have a 2 and 1/2 year old lab and st. bernard mix male dog. I have never had him neutered. He has always followed me around and is always very loving towards me. He has always been loving towards everyone, even other dogs. He has never really shown aggression. I got him when he was a 6 week old puppy and have raised him with my boyfriend and his two children, who are now 6 and 5. He has always loved them and never shown any aggression towards them even thought they are only here every other weekend, until this weekend. The children went to hug him and he growled at them. I went to walk towards him to correct him and he growled at me. We thought that it might be a mistake or that he might have soar ears or something so my boyfriend and I both hugged him and he was fine. So with us standing there we had one of the kids hug him and he was fine. So we had them hug him again and he turned and acted more aggressive towards the child while he was being hugged. This scared me because he has never acted like this before. The children can pet him and he is fine. What is going on with him? Is there any way that he can be trained to where I can trust him with the children without me being there? Should I try to find him a home where there are no children? I want to be able to keep him, but I also understand that I have to do what is best for him, even though giving him up would crush me.

I'm hoping you may have some advice for me and my six year old chow chow. I've had her since she was eight weeks old, and she is a great dog. She obeys commands our family gives her, she shows no aggression of any kind towards the family, our cats or any other adults, babies or children that she comes in contact with. Our one problem with her is, her behavior towards other dogs. I tried to socialize her with other dogs from eight weeks on up through obedience classes, outings in the park, camping trips etc ... But this hasn't seemed to work. She has gotten progressively worse. I've tried shamming her, using a choke collar, and using a muzzle.

Recently our neighbor's two boston terriers wondered into our yard, with out warning our chow chow lunged right through our screened in porch to attack them. If I wasn't there to call her back I'm sure she would have killed them.

She started showing this aggressiveness at about three to four years of age with our friends' dogs. She would take the other dog's collar in her mouth and lead them around in the direction she pleased. This behavior quickly progressed to other behaviors. She then started to prevent the other dogs form eating or drinking when she was present. Next she would try to keep the other dogs from coming around our group. (example: if we were all sitting around the camp fire she would keep the other dogs away by standing guard and growling.) We didn't accept these behavior. Changes but we have found it impossible to correct her through shamming with the choke collar or by giving her a firm smack on the nose while saying "no!"

It pains me to have to reprimand her all the time which doesn't seem to work for this anyway, we now find it too risky to bring her on the camping trips she loves so much, or even to let her play out in the electronically fenced in yard with out total adult supervision. I wouldn't be writing this if i didn't think you could help us or provide some explanation to why this is happening, and why she is not responding to our training techniques, We love our dog and we need to correct this behavior before something very unfortunate happens. I'm open to any advice you give me.

Fatal Dog Attacks

I think you are one of the very few people that may be able to give me some useful advice regarding my dog problems. I have been volunteering with a rescue group for about 4 years. I started with one dog, a female/spayed black Labrador. Shortly after we adopted a buddy for her, a male/neutered Labrador/pit bull/bull mastiff mix, Abner. To make a long story short, 4 years later we have a total of 7 dog, yes SEVEN!! We have 6 females/spayed, one male/neutered. They are all house dogs. Generally, we have few problems with the pack. About a 1 1/2 years ago we adopted an English pointer/Labrador ?? mix female, Nina, that was turned over to the rescue group. She is about 3 years old. She has some issues regarding socialization, dominance, and general obedience. I have worked with her and she respects me as her pack leader. She is having issues with my husband, who has spent significantly less time with her in the time we've had her. She growls at him when she is on our bed. I now realize we never should have let her sleep on the bed. It seems that Nina is not respecting my husband as a dominant figure. She is progressing after he began work with her on her leash and prong collar and he began sending her to her crate when she growls. Would you suggest that we have Nina sleep in her crate rather than in our bed or even on the floor in our room? What else can we do to make her understand her behavior cannot be tolerated??

Nina also has some dominance problems with our male dog, Abner. They will fight over toys, treats, and sometimes it seems like nothing!! She is especially unpredictable if she is awoken when she is sleeping. I understand that there is a pack order that they must work out but I cannot tolerate fights. I have been injured (bad cut on hand) from one of their fights. Generally, I can break them up verbally but Nina does to easily back off. Abner knows he shouldn't be fighting but is not willing to give in to Nina. I feel like Nina would be a different dog if I have raised her from a pup and was able to properly socialize her and train her. What advice do you have from me, aside from removing any dogs from our pack? Any help you can give me would be greatly appreciated!!!

I have a purebred English Springer Spaniel. He has been part of our home since he was about 8 weeks old. He just turned one this week and has started to display signs of aggression. Ever since he was able (after the proper vaccinations) we have socialized him, going to dog parks, taking him for walks, playing with children, seeing other adults, sporadic doggy daycare and he took an obedience class for simple commands.

I have envisioned him and his puppies, I had every intention of breeding him. But as I was placing him in his kennel the other day he growled at me and I was shocked I scolded him and shouted that he will not do that again and sort of brushed off the noise. Then my husband and I went to the dog park, which we have been going to since he was a puppy. It was not a fun time, he was growling and nasty to a few different dogs on our lap in the park (the park is a leash free area). I was very surprised and kept shooing him away from the other dogs when he flared up but it got so bad that I really thought he was ready to bite one of them and picked him up and carried him away from the park. My dog didn't like that and was growling as I scooped him away from the scene. Then I still tried to pretend that was just another isolated incident and that he was having a bad day. He used to love the park and had a blast interacting with all the other dogs tiny or huge, male or female, he was willing to play with them all. Then the next day I was feeding him a treat in his bowl and he growled and went to bite me. I was so angry, I yelled at him and told him to go away but he kept going and it was a good 10 minute battle. At one point he actually lunged at me and if it wasn't for my leg to deflect him he would have seriously hurt me. The most shocking part was while he was snarling and growling at me, he would wag his tail on and off.

I am not the idiot owner who swept other incidents under the carpet, these behaviors HAVE NEVER HAPPENED before this week's episodes! I feel I have done something wrong as a parent and am an awful person. My vet wants to neuter him because it could cut down on his aggression. All my plans have ended, all the time and effort I have put into him and the future of his puppies. Now I am faced with neutering a dog that will not be able to breed and could still be hostile towards me. I have recently inquired to rescue agencies to see if I can place him with them.

I love my dog, he is like a child but I feel I can't trust him and from all I keep reading, once an aggressive dog, always a potentially aggressive dog-that is way too much stress on me. My cute little puppy has now got a caution-may bite- sticker and has to be muzzled at the veterinarian. He is not the dog I wanted to have in my life. Is it wrong for me to want a different dog or am I doomed to have another White Fang? Did I teach him this behavior? Did our other dog do it? Help what do I do? I should be fearful of my own dog!

How to Break Up a Dog Fight

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I visit your site frequently and have purchased some of your videos. I have learned a great deal and thank you for providing it.

I was hoping you could suggest something for the problem I am having with my male rottwieler. My rotti is 20 months old. He has been a fantastic dog. I have owned rotties in the past and am aware of their dominant behavior. He knows and performs all of his basic obedience commands for me and is also crate trained. My problem is with his behavior and my wife. In the past couple of months he has challenged my wife in various situations. Once when I was out, my wife was preparing dinner in the kitchen. Lucas (rotti's name) came into the kitchen. As my wife was standing in the corner of the counter top, Lucas pinned her in the corner with his body. He would not move, eventually he did move on. On another occasion, my wife opened the back sliding glass door and told Lucas to go outside (so he could go to the bathroom.) Lucas walked to the opening of the door and stopped. When she told him to go outside he growled lowly and then proceeded. Lucas performs all of his obedience commands for me without problem. He will perform most for my wife with they exception of down. When she gives him the command of down, he just sits there. I thought about having my wife give him the "I just killed you correction" with a prong collar on, but did not want to put her in confrontation she could not win. I have read your article on dominant dogs, but still did not find a solution. I also thought about fasting him for a two days and then have my wife try to work on the down command using food as motivation. Thinking if he does not do it, he will not eat. In my opinion he is clearly trying to establish himself as second in command.

My wife has become uncomfortable around him if I am not there. He is now placed in his crate if I am not there. I don't want to have to give up the dog! Is there something that you can suggest?
Thank you for your time.

My Rott/Pitt mix, Sapada, is 2.5 yrs, unneutered male. No formal training - please don’t yell, I am sick that I thought my love and unknowledgeable training would provide the best home life for my very best friend. We, (first my live in boyfriend & now myself) are experiencing unprovoked attacks. I am the sole owner of the dog. I have 48 hrs ago, after tracing down other owners of puppies from the same litter, discovered all but Sapada and another have been shot for attacking their owners & family including the dogs parents.

I had an appt on Wedn @ 9am for him to be neutered. Unfortunately, @ 6am he again attacked my boyfriend, Paul. Paul awoke in a recliner chair to find Sapada looking at him, as Paul rose, Sapada attacked, knocking him to the ground. Sapada attacked me the previous Sunday. He jumped on the couch next to me and while being cautiously pet (I knew he was "in a mood") Turn and attacked, not just a bite- several. Sapada is now @ the vet's for observation for 10 days. Sapada was definitely showing signs of taking over dominance (which he had already established w/our 6 yr old Weimerheimer, Charlie). But is it possible within 4-5 days, for him to go from loving me to not looking at me when I look at him, growling, watching me from the corner of his eyes w/ears flat down and the evening before the last attack- he was lunging at me then pulling (what appeared to be playfully) at my pant legs, which I quickly put to an end- out of fear? For his last 2-3 days @ home the Weimerheimer w/his fur up, constantly stepped in between Sapada & I? Charlie had also come to our rescue when were attacked. All but the last time, I seen he came from the back room after it quieted down?? Is he the only one who knows Sapada is out of control?

I am told he should be put down. I truly, truly even under the circumstances do not want him put down. The vet has advised me even with the proper training, something has gone wrong that cannot be fixed. How can this happen?? Is there an alternative for Sapada? He is so smart; I know he can learn in the absence of a permissive owner. He is unbelievably beautiful.

I took time to read your website and I found everything very interesting, helpful and truthful. I have an aggressive golden retriever mix that has attacked my pit mix and really tore him up. I have had these two dogs for 6 years, both neutered males, 6 years of age. I have done dog obedience and both are well trained on the leash and off. They know and obey many commands but every couple of years the golden just flips out for no reason and brutally attacks the smaller pit mix. I know now that I have to find him a single-dog family, do you have any suggestions on where to look for a home for him? I have the dogs separated now (the pit mix is in critical condition and I'm keeping him inside and treating his wounds), the dogs will not be permitted to be together again. I plan on making some flyers and checking with all the local rescues and shelters to see if they can take him if I can't find a home. He's a great dog, by himself. He's good with people and loves to play, it would be such a waste to put him to sleep and I love him and want the best for him. Please advise. Thanks for your help.

Introducing Dogs into Homes with Other Dogs

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I read through your website today with great interest. You seem to be one of the few people out there that truly understand the frustration of dealing with an aggressive dog. We have a German Shepherd that is aggressive with other animals, and quite often strangers, especially strangers that come to the door, friends or even the pizza delivery guy. It would seem that the root of the problem lies with how he was raised. We did not establish ourselves as pack leaders from the beginning. Well all of that has stopped, and we are trying to get on the right track. At this point we are unable to contain him when he is outside on walks and we see other people or animals. He was well socialized as a puppy, but now he is just too dangerous to be kept off leash. He rears up barking growling, hackles up etc. We usually have to keep him on a muzzle or on a pinch collar to control him, unfortunately we are not making progress. I am going to order your DVD and also your dominant dog collar. You also mentioned an electronic dog collar, you said make sure its a "good one". Nowadays it seems as though all of the collars "tickle" the dog instead of giving them a good jolt like they used to. Where can one find a good collar that will assist with the training??

My name is Barbara and I have a 16 months old Jack Russell Terrier named Wolfgang. Since we brought Wolfgang home, he has been an adorable and very docile little dog. But since the last couple months, Wolfgang has shown signs of aggression such as growling when being fed, pet when he is resting, or simply laying down. The aggression became more that just growling when he started to bite at my husband and myself.

I have raised Wolfgang since we brought him home since my husband travels a lot. He is extremely attached to me and has a very hard time with dealing with another male figure. I am very confused right now because I have read "The dog's mind" from Bruce Folge and your articles on dominance, but I still do not know If I do things the right way. I strongly believe that this is an issue between my dog and I and that I should start by dealing with it myself instead of hiring a trainer. I have started by removing all his toys, and I only take them out when I decide it is time to play.
Wolfgang is no longer allowed on the furniture and he is walked on tight leach. He knows that something has changed around the house and every time he does not feel comfortable with his new position, he goes to hide on his crate.

Today, he ran away from me and run his way home. He also attacked a female Rottweiler in heat.
How long doe it take approximately for a dog to be "retrained"? And should I let him hide on his crate as often as he wants to? Wolfgang is a dog who listens very well and learns very quickly. He already stays in front on his bowl of food until I say "it's ok". He sits on command, and comes every time he is called. I just do not know how to handle the interactions between him and me and how to react when I want to pet and he growls. Should I remove myself or should I tell him "NO' and pet him anyway? I just started this week to work on him and my heart is broken. I hope I have been clear and that you will be able to help us with our work. The part in one of your article where you say that a "pack attitude" is not just telling the dog to sit, stay .. Meant a lot to me and I am a little bit confused of how much more should I do in order for Wolfgang to understand his new role.

I have a dog problem and was wondering if I could get some advice from you. I have been reading your site for the last two days and I haven't seen my particular problem addressed anywhere. First let me tell you we own an 8 yr old rottie/lab mix. we also have a 3 1/2 year old daughter. My dog sleeps with us in bed, we put his food down on the morning, he eats it all day long, he is usually not agressive. However 3 times in the last 2 years he has been aggressive to my daughter. The first time she was about 1 1/2 , she touched his back paw and he growled at her. Historically he does not like his paws touched and I was not very surprised that he growled at her. Again, about a year later, he sanpped at her, I can't remember exactly why now. Then last night, he was laying on our bed, sleeping. She went into the bedroom, which I assumed was to watch TV. The next thing I know he was barking and growling and she was yelling that he bit her. He did not break the skin, but I heard him sound very menacing. She admits to touching his head, but denies poking/pulling/aggravating him. I need your advice about this, because I do not want to get rid of him. He is a very easygoing dog usually. Do you think he can be saved? I have read your article about the dominant dog, and plan to implement some techniques, in fact I already have. Is this dog a danger to my girl? Thanks in advance for your reply.

My 6 month old GSD is VERY aggressive when it comes to petting him or even being too close to him when he is eating. He is also VERY aggressive when he has a bone that he likes and I need to take it away to put him away. Because of this I don't allow him to have bones anymore. I have looked through your website and I have your puppy and obedience videos and cannot find the answer to my problem. What can I do? Any advice would be much appreciated.

Preventing Dog Bites in Children

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Our dog is 11 months old and is a beagle mix. He's an excellent dog for the most part, but there are cases where he will try to bite us (hard!). It's normally when we try to put him in his kennel in the morning before we go to work or when our dog walker will try to put him in his kennel during the day. He'll hide under the bed and just snap at us. The only time he doesn't bite when we put him in the kennel is when we bring him up on his leash. On occasion he'll do it at the dog park when he isn't ready to go. He'll hide under a picnic table and snap at us. This only started happening after the six months and he seems to be happening more often. On Friday, he bite our dog walker and drew blood. What do we do?

I am sitting here in tears, thinking the answer you will give me is to put my dog to sleep. I have a Jack Russel age approximatly 3 years old. In the last year he has become very aggressive. Last night he bit my foot. I was on the couch and he was lying by my feet. I stretched my leg and he bit the bottom of my foot. He has been aggressive in the last 6 months with growling but never bit me. He shows his teeth. If I go to pick him up to give him a bath he would growls, but then calm down once I had him in my arms. If I try to get him in from the yard he growls but comes in. If I try to get him to come out of a room he growls but goes out. Since he bit my foot I am not in fear he will bite me again. However, I can be sitting on the couch he will jump up and put his head in my lap. I do not know what to do. I hate to have him put to sleep.

Hi. I would really appreciate your opinion on my situation. We have an almost 2yr. old golden lab golden retriever mix. We got him from a friend who no longer wanted him him a little over a year ago. He has always shown fearful and dominance behaviors. This never concerned me b/c he was never aggressive towards anything or anyone. But then in Feb. when I took him to the vet to get his bordatella, he growled and nipped at the vet tech, twice. The next week when we took him to the kennel he was very friendly with the boarder, wagging his tail, licking her, etc. But then viciously turned on her when she tried to take him back to the kennel. This week when he went to the vet for his yearly check-up and shots he tried to attack the vet and they had to muzzle him. My concern is that I have a 5 yr. old and 7yr. old and I'm now concerned for their safety and their friends safety when they are at our house. Also, unfortunately, not long after we got him he nipped at my daughter's face when she was playing with him. I was ALL over him for this and it never happened again. However, after the incident this week, I talked to a vet friend of mine and she said I should not keep the dog and he should be put down b/c he's too unpredictable. What is your opinion? Thank you so much for your reply.

Hello, I’m 15 years old and I recently ran into a problem with my dog. My dog's around seven and a half years old, and he's very well trained. He knows all basic tricks, he's trained to be in a kennel during hours when I’m at school and at night, he's trained not to come upstairs so he doesn't become dominant over our rooms, he's never aggressive around the family, and he's never bitten a stranger (he only barks until they come to pet him, or until we tell him to stop). He's even trained enough to where I don't even have to use my voice to tell him to do something. For example, if we're eating dinner and he comes into the kitchen, we can just point our finger to the family room (where his kennel is located) and he'll leave. And he's not aggressive when we put our hands towards his food, toys, kennel, etc. We also have three cats, and he doesn't chase them or anything. They're usually the ones who yell at him, and they sometimes try to smack him in the face. He either moves away calmly or we tell them to stop. Other than that, they get along fine.

My dog is put into his kennel every night and during the school day (8 AM - 4 PM) while I’m at school and my family is at work. We let him out in the morning and after school at 4:00 PM. On the weekends when we're home, we keep his cage open all day (not at night), but he likes to stay on schedule and stay in his cage for a few hours. Then he usually comes out and sleeps on the floor until the afternoon comes. If we don't put him away at night, he goes into his cage himself until we close it. Overall, he likes going into his kennel and he's very used to it. When we open and close the cage, he never gets territorial. The only time he gets territorial with his kennel is when the cats try to sneak inside. He just barks at them once or twice, and they run away. They almost never go into his kennel for that reason; they know it's his.

It's summer now, and since I’m home, I keep his cage open all day, and I close it at night. Since we're going away this weekend, my mom wanted me to give my dog a bath (he needed one anyway). So at around 11:00 AM, I went over to his cage where he was sleeping, and told him to come out. Usually he would obey me, slowly maybe because he's tired at this time, but he would obey me. But he just looked at me. I knew he probably knew he was going to get a bath, and he doesn't like them much. So I asked him to come out again. After a few minutes of verbal commands, he was still in his cage, refusing to move. I'm pretty sure he didn't want to listen because this was usually the time for him to sleep, and he's always floppy and a little slow when he's tired. So, I got on my knees and told him to come out again. He didn't move, so I put my hand in his cage to pet him, grab his collar, and slowly tug him out. He usually lets us pet him when we put our hand into his cage; he's never territorial over it. But today, when I started to move my hand towards the cage, he snarled and was showing his teeth. I was shocked and mad immediately because he's never done that before. So I told him, "No," and he stopped. Then I put my hand into his cage again to grab him out, and he bit me really hard on my thumb. I just got a small scratch, and it didn't bleed, but I was still in shock. I was so mad that I tried the verbal commands again, louder and louder so he knew that I was in charge. But he didn't move. After around twenty minutes, I got desperate and put a towel around my hand so he couldn't hurt me, and tried to get him out again. He started attacking the towel. I was so fed up with his lack of obedience that I grabbed his leash and went to the door and said, "Walk." He likes going for walks; he always runs to the door with a happy, excited, friendly face. So when he came over, I put him on his leash. Instead of taking him for a walk, I took him out back and gave him his bath. He wasn't happy, I could see, but he wasn't aggressive at all. He was his normal, droopy self. He always puts a sad look on his face when he gets a bath, so I knew he was back to normal. Then after his bath, I dried him off and took him inside. He wasn't territorial or aggressive after that. He let me pet him, he stayed in the family room rubbing his head on the towel I layed out for him, and then finally layed down on the carpet again. The only difference was that I didn't give him a treat after his bath, which he usually gets, because I was still mad at him for his behavior. I didn't give him as much attention after his bath as I usually do either.

I know that tricking him by saying, "Walk," wasn't the best thing to do, but I had no idea what else I could've done. He's never growled at me, bitten me, or not let me pet him when I put my hand into his kennel. He's also never refused to come out of his cage after telling him for ten minutes to do so. I'm pretty sure the reason he got aggressive was because it was during the day when he usually sleeps, and he wasn't used to me ordering him out at that time. I have noticed that he does get a little disobedient with commands when he's tired; I’m sure that's normal. But even if he's tired or not, he should still know to obey, and he shouldn't ever bite me or growl at me. If I just decide not to mess with him when he's tired, then he'll become dominant, and I know that's wrong because it could mess up his good behavior. What should I do to make him less aggressive and more obedient when he's tired? Do you have any training techniques I could do? I'd really appreciate the help; this is the only time I’ve seen this kind of behavior out of him, and I want to make sure I can fix it.
Thanks for taking the time to read my email; I know it was kind of long, sorry about that.

Crates

My daughter has a 6-month old Mackenzie River Husky, who has shown signs of aggression since the age of 2 months. He seems to respond well to training; he will sit, stay, come, heel, roll over, shake-a-paw, down, etc very well and is great off leash. The problem comes when he has something that he considers "his" (such as the family cat, another doggy friend, toys, food, etc). He started out just growling when anyone approached these items (but only occasionally, not always). Now he has progressed to biting, and in some cases has bitten hard enough to draw blood. My daughter and her partner have been "sitting" (holding him down until he calms) when he does the above behavior, and dominate him in every way (bed, food, doors, etc) , but are concerned because his behavior is getting worse. They have an appointment with the vet to have him neutered in a few days, but are concerned that even this won't help. There is a local behavioralist, but she cannot see him for another 3-4 weeks. The veterinarian doesn't seem to have any more suggestions other than medication. I am writing this in the hopes that you have some advice that can help, as they really don't want to have to put him down, if there is another solution, nor do they wish to incur the expense of neutering, if he does have to be put down or another home found that wants an aggressive dog for security reasons. Thank you so much for taking the time to read this.

I live with my sister who has a three year old mix breed (half long haired chihuahua, half poodle). He weighs about 12 pounds and has been fixed. Anyway, he's always been fairly protective and aggressive, but in the last year or so he has become progressively worse. My sister and her boyfriend are the only ones that are spared his biting. He's drawn blood on me half a dozen times and has done the same to others. It used to be that he only bit me when I tried to touch or pet him while he was on or near my sister. More recently, however, he tried biting me when I was rubbing his belly. He usually loves having his belly rubbed and always rolls right over for me to do it. He also tried to bite my sister's boyfriend for the first time recently. Is there anything we can do to get him to stop. I recently saw something on the Animal Channel that said that once a dog bites hard enough to draw blood, it is too late to get them to stop. It then went on to talk about a procedure where a vet shaves off the sharp parts of a dogs teeth so that they only pinch rather than break the skin when they go for a bite; psychologically the dog knows it can do no harm so it stops biting. Anyway, is this a good idea to look into? If so, how much does it usually cost and if not, what other options are there?

I would appreciate any advice and also some insight about what could have triggered my dog's behavior. I guess I should give some background first. I have a 14 month old in tact male Bullmastiff named "Aengus". I got him when he was 8 weeks old from a reputable breeder. One of the things that I was stressed more than anything else was to socialize your puppy as much as you physically could. I was told, and read, that since this is a guarding breed it's important for you to have your dog meet as many different people as possible. That's exactly what I've done. He's come to work with me since I've had him, I've brought him to parks (not dog parks), I would always take him outside at lunch to the deli next door so he could meet anyone and everyone. For awhile I was wondering if I had socialized him too much because he doesn't care who comes to my house or my office. He won't even go to the door without grabbing one of his toys to give to whoever is knocking. He really loves people and all kinds of people even the ones I don't like which was tough for me because I've had to talk to way too many weirdos just trying to socialize him.

2 weeks ago was his yearly exam and I allowed only his rabies vaccine and they took blood to check for Heartworm and Lyme Disease. He was diagnosed with Lyme Disease. He's been on antibiotics (Doxycycline) for 2 weeks and has one week left on them. I don't know if this has anything to do with anything, but I'm trying to give as much background as I can and name anything out of the ordinary.

So yesterday we're on our walk and on our usual route and we were almost back to our street and a lady is getting out of her car and asked me if he was a BullmastiffI said yes and she asked if she could pet him. I said sure. Aengus was really excited to meet the lady, she was petting him and we were talking. Then as we're talking there is this guy that had come out of his restaurant that we had met about 2 months ago. He came running over and was saying, "Hey Aengus, hey buddy hey Aengus", while he was petting him on the head. Aengus was sitting and then gave a deep chested growl. I pulled him back and gave him a correction and told him "NO!" He then growled at ME and I gave him another correction and he jumped up on me. When he jumped up on me it wasn't like an aggressive jump like he was trying to attack me, it seemed more like a play/excited jump if that makes any sense. The people were looking at me and they were saying something but I don't even know what because my head was spinning from what just happened and then the guy came over to him again and said, "It's okay buddy don't you remember me?" Aengus growled again and I corrected him again. I said that I was really sorry and then the guy left. I was about to walk away and then the lady said to me, "Wow he just did not like that guy!" Then she starts to baby talk Aengus again and he gets all excited with tail wagging butt wiggling and she pets him and then he growled at her while he was sitting there. So again I gave him another correction and we left.

I feel so very lucky this is all that happened and I will not be letting strangers pet him anymore. I feel very stupid that I did in the first place. What really freaks me out too other than the growling is that his body language was doing nothing that I picked up on to think that he was going to be aggressive. He was in a sit every time he growled. Then when the people were talking to me when I don't remember what they said he was just sitting there looking at them. Not barking, not showing teeth, no lunging, not even growling then, it was when he was sitting there being pet. Now if it was just to that guy I might be thinking ok he didn't like the guy, not that that's acceptable but still but it didn't make sense to me that he growled at that lady after the guy left? I know it's hard to try to analyze things without being there I just hope I explained this well enough.

I also do have your Basic Obedience tape and DVD and have been working with him since he was 9 months old. I work him everyday and do follow the rules of dealing with a dominant dog. No furniture, bedroom, walking through doors first etc .. This was recommended to me after I had e-mailed you because Aengus had growled at me when he was 8 and a half months and I was taking a marrow bone from him. Thanks so much in advance for any help you can give me and for reading such a long post!

Your Puppy
8 Weeks to 8 Months

I'm hoping you can help me out here if possible, as I'm getting quite desperate to be honest. We have a 13 month old male Dobermann. To give you some idea of our family situation there is the dog, me, and my parents in the household. We've had both a male and a female Dobermann before as family pets, although this latest one is mainly my responsibility (I'm mid 20s so didn't have much to do with our first Dobermann's training, but was involved with the second).

The dog is from excellent stock and there are many Champions in showing, agility and Schutzhund in his pedigree, as well as dogs who are just basic family pets. I started short sessions of obedience training with him after only a couple of days of collecting him and he started going to classes as soon as he was old enough, at around 12 or 13 weeks. He is excellent with other dogs, and has never growled once even though he was unfortunately attacked at 10 months. He's actually very much on the timid side until he's got to know other dogs and seems to prefer small dogs and puppies, who he is very gentle with. He is fine with strangers (again a bit timid) and has never showed any aggression towards them.

At 8 months he passed his Kennel Club Bronze award (I'm in the UK so am not sure if you have that over there) and we are now close to taking the Silver. As well as going to training class every week I still do training at home with him every day (I work from home, so time is not a problem). We have also recently started attending ring craft classes, and he is on the waiting list to do agility.
Within the last month I have begun including an early evening walk, on top of a morning and afternoon walk. The morning and afternoon walks are an hour each, through woodland (road walk to get there, then off lead) and the afternoon walk is twice around an open field, again for an hour, where I will throw and he will retrieve a toy on a rope.

He is not aggressive around food at all. He takes himself to his bed when I sit at the table to eat. He has always sat for his meals and eats them with gusto, so no free feeding problem. You can put your hand in his food bowl and it just makes him excited and he'll wag his tail and lick your hand. He always obeys a given command before being allowed a treat, and sits or at least waits at doorways. You can sit in his bed with him, move the bedding around, and his ears go flat and he'll lick your face. Sometimes he likes to play keep away with toys but he has never growled when a toy has been taken from him.

He loves toys and will constantly carry them around and bring them to you and drop them at your feet if you don't put your hand out to take them. Often when we return after having been out (he goes in a crate with no fuss) he'll roll over onto his back for his tummy to be rubbed, although he has never done this with other people or dogs. Sounds like the perfect dog so far! But herein lies the problem. I cannot stop this dog biting. As a puppy we tried all the usual yelping, ignoring, scruffing, removing from the room, distracting with toys etc, but he would charge straight back at you again and again. Recently I tried a mustard spray remote control collar. He didn't care one bit.

The most successful of those was the use of toys, but eventually he would tire of them and would dodge them to try to bite your arms instead. He has improved, although I think that the behaviour is only being masked. I don't know where I have gone wrong. I have tried to do everything to keep this dog stimulated mentally and physically. I started including the evening walk because the biting in the living room all evening was becoming intolerable. My arms from the elbow down are a mass of bruises and broken skin from the biting. I am confused as to whether this is an aggressive dog or just a dog with a high prey drive. In every other respect he is not what I would consider aggressive.

The biting is generally combined with a lot of lunging and growling. He bites all three of us at home. My mum and myself are only 5'3 so I could understand if it was suggested that II maybe he is trying to take advantage, but he also bites my dad who stands at 6'2. If you are standing at the time he will go up onto his hind legs. If you are walking, the biting will often start with him lunging backwards and forwards all around you biting the lower parts of your legs. I have noticed that outside of the house the biting is often triggered by several things. If I stop to talk to people the jumping up and biting will begin. Initially I thought this must obviously be for attention because he was jealous in some way. I was wrong. I began stopping at random points through the woods making sure there were no people or dogs around.

Within 30 seconds the biting starts. It is also triggered even if we just walk past people alone or with dogs, without any contact at all. When



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