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I try and answer every question I receive on dog training. I may often come across as a little on the blunt side, (some may call it brash). That is because I consider myself an advocate for dogs and not dog handlers. I am an advocate for common sense dog training and not the latest fad that appears on the horizon. Good dog training is not rocket science. It's common sense.
PRONG COLLAR WARNING: When you use your Prong Collar, we strongly
suggest you use a Leerburg
Dominant Dog Collar as a safety backup.
Have you written an article on aggression? ANSWER: I have written an article on corrections - You may want to read it The Theory Of Corrections in Dog Training This subject is very complicated. It isn’t that easy to understand because there are many things that come into play. Dogs will become dominant because of genetic and/or environmental issues. For example:
To understand dominance, one needs to study pack behavior. To anticipate dominance one needs to recognize pack behavior. No matter what, when it all boils down to the bottom of the pot, our 4 legged friends are pack animals. They inherited pack instincts and live by pack rules. If you go to the article section of my web site, you will find over 200 training articles. There are 2 articles, titled Dealing With the Dominant Dog and Dealing With the Overly Aggressive Dog. You can also find articles on The Drives of Protection Training. To fully understand what is going on with a dominant dog, there are a lot of things you need to know. Reading these articles is a good start.
Mr Frawley, I constantly visit your web site. I find the articles informative and very blunt. I have a 15-month male rottweiler. He has begun obedience and is excelling in it to the point where I am going to put an obedience title on him. I have not entered bite work with him but he has been worked on some tracking. My question is this: I walk my dog in the neighborhood and the other neighborhood (strays) dogs run up to him and stay about 10-15 feet away. They bark and growl at him, but they never come any closer. My rottweiler in turn stands his ground and just stares at them. As he does this they seem to retreat. Why doesn't he bark at them? Should he need to bark at them? Thank you, ANSWER: You are very lucky, you have a nice dog. Take it from someone who knows. You have a real jewel in a non-dog aggressive animal. Do not reward any sign of aggression. Carry a can of pepper gas and use it on EVERY dog that comes up to you (make sure the wind is blowing in the right direction). I am very serious about this. Pepper gas will teach every stray dog in the neighborhood that you are the biggest bad ass that walks through the valley of death and they all will leave you alone. Trust me on this - it is far better for you to fight these fights for your dog with pepper gas than to try and control a very powerful Rott who decides he hates everything on 4 legs. The first time that one of these dogs attacks your dog things will change forever. Your dog will go from standing there to trying to attack every dog he sees. That then becomes a problem with no end in sight.
I have a situation with a neighbor and a rottweiler. They got the dog when it was about 8 weeks old, and from the very beginning, it has shown aggression towards first other dogs, and then people. At apx. 2 months old, this puppy would growl and show it's teeth and lunge at other dogs, even dogs that were quite large. This happened EVERY time the dog came in contact with another dog or person. The owner didn't seem to see a problem with this. Next, the puppy started doing the same thing with people. With the dog on a leash, even walking by it, the dog would show it's teeth, growl and lunge towards the person. These people sometimes let the dog out without a leash, and the dog has several times went to attack other dogs, until the owner was able to grab the dog. I am afraid that the dog will attack a child and will seriously injure or kill the child. The dog is now about 8 months old, and also is abused by the owner. The police have been called to their house several times because neighbors have heard/seen the man beating the dog. The dog has been like this from the very beginning and it just seems to be getting worse. The owners are very defensive, and think there is nothing wrong with their dog. They have small children. I realize the chance of their children getting mauled is very high, or worse yet someone else's child. Is there anything I can do? The police say because this dog has not actually bit someone, they cannot do anything. We live in an apartment, and there is no yard or anything to keep the dog in. Just a few days ago, the dog got loose and chased a small boy. The owner is obviously afraid of the dog, because of his actions when he tried to stop the dog from chasing the boy. The dog was caught before any damage was done to the child that I am aware of. I realize this dog is going to maul someone, its just a matter of time. What can I do in the meantime? ANSWER: Training could probably fix this problem, as could a fenced yard and the owner becoming a responsible pet owner. Obviously none of that is going to happen with a person like this. So the only solution is to convince him to get rid of the dog or in the worst case scenario, see to it that he is prosecuted if the dog attacks a child. For this to happen it is important to establish a history with the police on this dog. You must organize with other neighbors about this concern. When you see it off leash you must call the police. When they come you must detail what the problem is and ask for their incident number. This is important. They must pull an incident number on the call. If they will not give it to you, call and ask to talk to the supervisor. If he will not cooperate, then call the Chief or the District Attorney. The reason an incident number is important is because in most police departments the officers then have to write a report. This establishes a history of problems with the dog. Then when you see the dog act aggressively to people (even on leash) you call the police. Sooner or later either the owner will find a new home for the dog or when an accident happens you will have established a paper trail to prosecute the owner. You may want to print out the articles from my web site on the Sabina Davidson case and give them to the owner. If you don't want to get in a fight with him, just mail them to him.
Ed, your web site is GREAT! I have read many of your articles and enjoy them very much. I own a dog that was 8 months old when I got him. He is 18 months old now. I spend a lot of time with him trying to teach him basic obedience. He is very dominant, aggressive and was not socialized at a young age. He follows me around like I'm his mother. We go for lots of walks, play in the yard, go for drives in the van, and do many other things together. When I'm in my wood shop, he's right at the door protecting me from anyone who is foolish enough to enter my yard. I am concerned about his aggressiveness toward other people and other dogs. What can I do to help him. Please let me know what I can do to help him. By the way, he is a Rottweiler. ANSWER: Dogs can act aggressive towards people for a couple of reasons: 1. If they were not socialized as a young dog, this results in a temperament problem, which effect their nerves. A dog with weak nerves is a dog that is quick to show aggression to strangers. The dog's display of aggression is often just an act to cover up weakness in the dog. They learn that by acting aggressive people that make them nervous leave them alone. So while the inexperienced owner thinks he has a tiger by the tail, in reality the dog is weak. Usually dogs that act like this will get their hair up on their back and show a lot of teeth. They tend to growl a lot and will carry their tail in a tucked fashion (hard to tell on a rot). The bark on these dogs is more of a hectic neurotic bark. 2. Some dogs that do not have the above problems are aggressive because they are very territorial to their property and handler. These dogs will carry their tail high and when they bark at people they don't get their hair up so much. The bark on these dogs is a deeper more confident bark. The solution to this issue always begins at home. It starts with establishing the owner as a stronger pack leader. This is done through formal obedience training. The work that goes into obedience training forces the dog to look at the owner as a stronger pack leader. No matter what, we need to realize that the domesticated dog is a pack animal with instincts. They do not think logically the way people do, they just react to their environment according to the instincts that their genetic background have provided them with. So if you put yourself in a position of controlling the dog through obedience exercises it is going to look at you as a better and stronger pack leader. The pack leader is the one who decides when and where to fight. If you are a novice, you need to take a look at my tape titled Basic Dog Obedience. What often happens to people who have dogs like this is that they put their dogs away when visitors come over to the house. They do not allow the dog to have contact with people who come into the home. This is a mistake, it simply raises the dog’s suspicion level. What works better is to be 100% sure that the dog is obedience trained, then when strangers come over, the dog is allowed to greet the people (after you let the people in the house). If this means putting the dog in a down position back away from the door then do that first. Once the people are in, the dog is allowed to come up and smell and greet the company. This does not mean the people need to pet the dog (if they are afraid). But during the training of this, have your friends bring along a hot dog or a treat that the dog likes. This teaches the dog that the people that come are friends. Once in the house the dog is then told to go to his spot. If the dog growls or shows any sign of aggression towards the people, the handler corrects the dog with a level 10 correction. This does not mean you simply say PHOOIE - it means you go after the dog so hard he thinks his life is about to end. He has to understand that when the pack leader says its OK to come into the house, that means he has no business trying to interfere with the pack leaders wishes. A dog should always have a spot in the house that he is made to believe is his spot. This is where he goes when you want to train the “down stays.” This can be in his crate or simply on a particular rug in the kitchen or hall. When a dog is put there he is never allowed to get up on his own. The only way he gets off the spot is when the handler gives the “release command - OK.” Once a visitor comes, the dog is then put on his spot and told to stay there. This procedure will often soften a dog that was overly aggressive. As far as dog aggression goes, that's a real pain in the butt. Once a dog becomes dog aggressive it is hard to break. Once again the solution begins with obedience training. If you tell the dog "NO," that means “NO.” If the dog breaks the command and will not listen, then its time for a harder corrections and possibly a prong collar. Some dogs need to have electric collar training (but this is a topic for a completely different article. If the dog is at all handler aggressive or if the handler is concerned about being able to control a big dog, then the dog should be wearing a muzzle (even one of the plastic style muzzles that I sell). Nothing could be worse than a big Rot grabbing a small poodle when you are out walking. With a lot of dogs I do no think that you will ever take the dog aggression out of them. All you can hope to do it control them when they are in a position to become aggressive.
Mr. Frawley, I emailed you last week about my 4-year-old bitch out of one of your Orfey litters. I want your opinion on the following matter: My wife and I walk in our neighborhood several times a week. We usually have Nicki, our Leerburg shepherd with us. We have on more than one instance had a dog loose in the neighborhood, some people I guess just do not have the knowledge to realize what can happen if a dog gets loose. I have always had the fear of what would happen if we met a 50+ pound dog loose with him feeling we are in his territory. Well Sunday night on our normal route it happened. At one corner house there is a Rot, probably about 100 - 110 pounds in size, behind about a 3 foot chain link fence. He always runs the fence and really makes a lot of noise growling, huffing and barking. Needless to say this is not a dog I would walk up and open the gate and say lets see if he really means what he is saying to us. Well on his usual run up and down the fence the gate came open, I think his shoulder hit it and it just opened. He came out of the backyard like a bullet, I don't think my Golden Retriever runs after a ball as hard as he came out of that fence. My first reaction was to let Nicki meet him with the full 6 foot of leash I had, but realizing that in a dogfight even the winner will probably need several stitches I kept her within about 2 feet in front of me. When the Rot was charging Nicki was ready, and even tried to head him off, but could not get very far with me holding her leash tight. When the Rot got within about 6 feet he slowed and then slowly walked up, he seemed to not be sure he wanted to get very close to us; Nicki had not made a sound yet. I figured he was charging because of our dog but he does not act any different even if we walk without one of our dogs, so it's really hard to say why he charged. Nicki was not intimidated at all, she was at the end of all the leash I had given and never said a word, however, the hair was up on her back and she never took one step backward except for where I pulled her back if she got close enough to get bit. I told my wife to get the people in the house and we circled so we were between the Rot and his own house so if he decided he did not like her approaching his house I could let Nicki occupy him a little. He did run in on Nicki once and they got together once, Nicki jumped and grabbed him by the neck from the side and although I don't think she actually bit him he did back off and would then not get within about 3 - 4 feet of us. At this point a kid ran around the corner and grabbed the dog. As soon as he started pulling him back the dog began acting like he was the toughest thing on the planet again. The kid’s father came out and about the only thing he said was how did he get out, not I'm sorry or anything. I feel we were lucky to get out without a pretty good dog fight and my wife and I are going to start walking a different route through the area to avoid that house. My wife asked me why I did not kick the dog when he got close enough because I am a 3rd degree Black Belt and can really put a lot of force in my kicks. I told her that I did not kick at him because I did not want to miss, slip and end up on the ground, if I knew anything it was that. I checked Nicki to see if she had any cuts or marks, I found none and did not feel that I needed to take her to the vet so we just came home. My question is this: What is your advice in a situation like this? I did not want to let him and Nicki just fight because I knew he had probably 50+ pounds on her, and even if she won I would have had to most likely get her some stitches. However, I would have totally turned her loose before I let that dog get very close to my wife or me. I have seen Nicki get after my 90 pound Golden and have no doubt that the Rot, even at 100+ pounds would have had his hands full with her and she never once tried to hide behind me. It was me that was pulling her back so that they did not fight, except for the one time he got a little closer than I wanted him with his attitude, and he did not seem to want to get that close again. I am really glad that we had Nicki that night and did not have to deal with that dog without her as protection. She never did even bark the whole time, she only growled when she jumped and grabbed him by the neck. When he backed off she only did that deep in the chest growl. I was a little surprised because when they were pulling the Rot back he was making all kinds of verbal threats, and Nicki was just watching him not making a sound. My feeling were that this dog was not near as mean up close as he was at a distance, because the way he charged out of the yard I thought we had a REAL PROBLEM. My wife says thanks for breeding such a tough dog that was not intimidated at all. We’re both glad we had her with us. Doug Martin ANSWER: Lets begin by stating the obvious - you were very, very lucky. Until someone has seen or been involved in a full blown attack they will never fully understand how scary this is or how dangerous it is for someone who does not know how to deal with the situation. The first thing that needs to happen is you need to call the police and insist that a police incident be written and put on file. The reason is that this needs to be documented so if it continues to happen the police can take action. One only needs to read about the case in which I testified against the owner of 3 Rots that killed a young boy. If the police refuse, then contact the District Attorney’s office. The fact is, contact was made no matter how minor. You did the right thing in freezing and facing the dog - never turn and run, this only triggers the attacker’s prey drive to attack. Keeping your dog close to you was also the right thing to do. It would have been a mistake to let your female go or even let it out to the end of the leash - that would probably have started a dog fight. I would have probably screamed “NO” at the dog and told it to go home in as deep and rough of a voice as possible. I would suggest carrying a can of pepper gas with you during your walks. If you have to use it, try and get the spray right into the nose and eyes of the dog, even if it means that you are going to have to spray your dog along with the attacker. When you spray, empty the can on the dog - don't just give it a little puff. The best solution is doing what you are going to do, walk on a different street in the future. I have an older dog who has the “attack first before I'm attacked” attitude toward other dogs. If I were to take her to a behaviorist, what kinds of things should I expect the behaviorists to do? I don't want to pay good money for a “quack” but feel that my dog would benefit from behavior training. Thank you in advance for your input, ANSWER: Normally this behavior is because another dog has attacked the dog in the past. It's a very difficult thing to stop once it's had a chance to get established as an effective behavior for the dog. The first thing that needs to be done is the dog needs a lot of basic obedience (similar to what I show in my training video, Basic Dog Obedience.) The emphasis really needs to be put on the distraction training. Another dog is a very big distraction for this dog and it must learn that under any circumstance, it must mind. If this means putting a prong collar on the dog and giving it a level 10 correction then that’s what has to be done. Obedience training does not eliminate the urge for your dog to attack other dogs, it only forces the dog to mind and control itself when told to. If it were my dog I would be using a Tri Tronic electric collar on the dog after the basic obedience. I would condition the dog to low level stimulation the way the training videos we sell show. This is going to be the most effective way to control this behavior. I would never take the dog for a walk without the collar on; it simply becomes a part of the dog’s life. This is really not a big deal. When I take my patrol dog out to work he always gets his collar on. He knows this and is happy to get it because he knows he is going somewhere. If I were you I would not waist my money on “dog behaviorists” or whatever they want to call themselves. In 99% of the dogs that have this problem no amount of socializing or playing games with friendly dogs is going to eliminate this behavior. You would be better advised to spend your money on a collar and obedience training. Do not buy a collar other than Tri Tronics. They are the best and this is a tool that you will need to last the life of your dog.
Hello, I just read your article regarding dominant dogs. I have a question, and I hope you might be able to provide some advice. I adopted a female German Shepherd from a rescue group. The rescue group was at capacity and this particular woman was going through a bitter divorce at the time and wanted to place her dog. I adopted the dog (female GSD about 2 1/2 years old) directly from the owner. I was only told that she has a “mischievous streak.” When I got the dog, things started out okay. However, that mischievous streak turned out to be aggressive behavior towards any guest I try to bring into my house; towards other dogs while walking her; aggression towards other dogs at the local dog run; and towards children at the dog run. At the dog run, she sometimes charges toward other dogs and nips at them before sniffing them, and then walking off. She also has a habit (that I am very concerned about) of nipping at smaller kids as she was herding sheep. There have been no injuries yet as she has only nipped thicker jackets of kids, but winter has now passed. As far as guests go, she will generally bark and assume an aggressive position towards guests even if I am escorting them by hand into my apartment. She then moves around, and will approach the guest, often from the side or back, and then aggressively nip them. I have not seen her attempt an aggressive, bone-clenching, bite on anyone, but I don't want to see that. In addition, she does bark at dogs walking in front of the place, or if she sees people outdoors through a window. What is confusing, is that if I take her to a groomer or to the kennel (if I am out of town), she is very behaved. The groomers wish all dogs behaved as she does when they are being bathed. She is generally behaved at the vet, although she will squirm (which probably is understandable when your ears are being poked and cleaned). The kennel has seen her for up to two weeks at a time (usually only 2-3 days at a time, about once a month), and they have not had any problems with her. I have tried to contact the original owner, but have been unable to. I can tell you that by the time she was 2 years old, she already had at least 2 litters of pups, according to my vet. There are some signs of abuse. This leads me to believe that she was abused and/or neglected. I did track down the breeder, and he seems to be a higher class puppy mill at best. I have been told to either give her up or put her to sleep. However, I just love this petite little shepherd too much to put her to sleep, and I am uncomfortable with just placing her in another home. Could you provide with some advice, or is putting her to sleep the best option? If she doesn't necessarily get huggie-kissie with family members or guests, that's fine. I just don't want to worry about her attacking or scaring family members or guests. Any advice is greatly appreciated. J. ANSWER: The description you have given me is a classic FEAR BITER. The reason for this behavior is that the dog has weak nerves. Normal things seem to cause it to be concerned. It has learned that showing aggression will cause the people that make it nervous to leave it alone. Many times people will adopt dogs like this and think, “This poor dog was abused by the previous owner.” Most of the time this is not true at all. The reason the dog ended up in the pound was because it displayed the kind of temperament you are describing. The dog was born with the problem. Bad genetics produce bad nerves. The fact is that a dog like this should be put down. In my opinion this is a dangerous dog. It's usually only a matter of time before it bites a child or a friend. This is not an easy thing to do, but the fact is there is little that you can do to change the behavior. If you do not want to do this, your only option is to obedience train the dog. By this I do not mean normal obedience where it really isn't important if the dog only minds some of the time. This dog needs a lot of training so that it minds in every circumstance and under every distraction. You can learn how to do this from my tape titled Basic Dog Obedience. The 2 commands to stress with the dog are the “recall” and the “down.” You want to be able to recall your dog under every circumstance. You will also want to be able to drop the dog into a down no matter what is going on. This is going to require some compulsion on your part in later training. When it finds itself in a situation that it fears it's going to want to revert back to its old ways. You are going to have to teach it that it has more to fear from you than from the demons in it’s mind. I guess the way I look at it is that this dog still needs to go through a learning phase, a correction phase and a distraction phase of training, just like every dog we work with. But you need to add another level - I will call it “a do it or die phase.” My point here is that you don't go out and beat up the dog from day one of training. This would be wrong. You need to bring the dog along the way we show in the tape. Once the dog has gone through normal distraction training it must then be exposed to the things it shows aggression to. At this point the corrections are severe for not minding. My personal feeling is that most of these dogs have such weak nerves that they cannot handle this training. Their nerves are so weak they will fold under the pressure and turn the aggression towards the handler. It worked for them before so they will try it again here.
I am a 40 year old woman who has always had dogs - all kinds of dog. I particularly like dominant dogs in that I want protection (I live alone). My experience has been with Dobermans (females - love that breed). Recently I rescued/adopted an almost 2 year old Giant Schnauzer who was apparently left to his own resources for 20 months. He did not have proper human bonding, was belligerent and arrogant when first here but has come around somewhat. I have worked him daily with obedience; I practice “we live an obedient life.” He is a VERY dominant dog. I walk him every morning for about 90 minutes, it is an excellent exercise period and we practice obedience. This morning as we were coming off a steep mountainside we hike up Aries (the dog) became very aggressive towards a hiker. I had him on a very short lead, as I rein him in when I see someone (mostly because I'm worried about dog aggression, which he has been regularly demonstrating.. he was fine for his first month with me, friendly with other dogs, then suddenly he turned to berserk boy). Anyway, he just lost it with this man. I had him on a flat lead and choked all the way down and told him no, no, no. The usual. What bothers me is that this dog will display aggression out of the blue. He's fine for days or a week and then BOOM he flips out. Before flipping out with the hiker, as we were coming off the top of the mountain he grabbed his lead and tried to pull me down. Now, I'm a pretty athletic woman but this dog is one strong SOB. I shortened up the lead tried to get him under control and kept walking. This on again off again behavior makes me leery. I had him on "choke"; no lead available for the rest of our walk home (a good :30 minutes) and immediately put him in his crate. I have realized in our short tenure that this is not a dog to take on - he just gets more committed to his dominance. He'll definitely take the challenge. I think he's got a good temperament and he's very smart, but he's definitely got aggression issues with dogs and now people - and out of the blue (this is what bothers me the most the Schizo behavior). The breeder is going to be prejudiced in this matter but I like my face and want to keep it. Please write me or give me your phone number so I can call and talk with you. I need expert advice early in the game, I've only had him two months. We've been to one group obedience class and it was good socialization but he needs a lot of private work and attention. I think he can come around but I have moments where he worries me. He flips out. He loses his focus. Because he had NO training from his previous owners he gets lost in the moment and fails to respond properly to commands. I want a dog I can enjoy not one that I'm worrying is going to attack the dog, the person or God forbid me. Please give me some thoughts or let me speak with you. Best regards and thanks for your time, ANSWER: Lisa, I assume you have read my articles, Dealing With the Dominant Dog and Dealing With the Overly Aggressive Dog, and that you are doing these things. To begin with, this dog needs serious obedience training. This must include “prong collar work.” I call a prong collar “power steering for dogs.” If you are concerned for your safety then you must invest in a good muzzle and take the time to put it on him and let him adjust to it before obedience training with it on. It must become second nature for him to have it on or he will expect a fight every time it goes on and we do not want that. This can take a couple of weeks and means every walk is in a muzzle - there is nothing wrong with this - it’s done all the time in Europe. I would recommend the Police style muzzle we sell, not cheap but very secure and safe. If it were my dog, I would take it through my Basic Dog Obedience video, in muzzle if necessary. I would not take him to obedience classes until I was through with the training, and then with a muzzle. Why risk a dogfight before you have control? You are putting the cart before the horse by introducing him to all of the distractions of other dogs before he is trained to mind you. You need to read the Q&A sections on my web site. I would then get one of the Tri Tronic Electric collars and work “LOW LEVEL” stimulation training on the dog. I use these methods on my police dogs - which are about 100 times tougher than anything you have in a Schnauzer. Make sure to get the right model - there are a lot of them but you need the ones that offer multi-level stimulation from the transmitter. Do not do the collar work before you do the normal obedience. If you follow what I say you can probably work this dog; it will take a lot of work and attention to detail.
I have a one and a half year old male GSD. He was a rescue dog and hadn't been socialized at all when I got him (almost a year ago). He is very smart and learns everything I teach him right away. I've been wanting to start him on some protection training, my problem is that he is very dog aggressive and tends to be either intimidated or overly defensive around tall men, although he has been slowly improving in both areas. I don't want to encourage any uncalled for aggression. Would protection training at this point just mess him up or would it make him more confident and less intimidated around men? Would using only women agitators make a difference? ANSWER: My feeling is that it would be a mistake to try and protection train this dog. The odds of getting a dog coming from a dog pound with the genetics that allow him to do protection training is about 1 in 100,000. Your dog is already showing signs of bad nerves (shying away). This means he is stressed from just the sight of a tall man. To add the stress of a man (or woman) putting pressure on him in bite work would send him over the edge and make him neurotic. In my opinion the only dogs that should be protection trained are dogs with good temperament to start with. These dogs have good nerves and can handle the stress of bite work. You would be better advised to work on calming your dog down around tall men. Do this by trying to keep a small bag of treats with you when you are out for walks (hot dogs work well). When the dog shows signs of avoidance or aggression toward tall men, ask them if they would mind tossing your dog a treat. Make tall men “hot dog machines” to your dog. This will often change the dog’s attitude towards them. If you try and solve your problem with protection training you will end up with a dog that is so sharp (aggressive) that he is a danger for people to be around. Dogs that are like this can only be used as security dogs behind a fence where they never come in contact with people. I don't think that is what your goal is. You would be better off to concentrate on obedience training. I recommend my Basic Dog Obedience video. Hello. I was wondering if you may be able to help with a few questions. My husband and I have had a German Shepherd for the past two years. His name is Sargent. We picked him out when he was six months old. He has gone to puppy training and adult training and passed very well. My husband was the one who took him, so he is much better behaved for him then myself. He is very good and listens most of the time, except when it comes to children. When he sees them running and riding the bikes, he likes to chase them. Is there anything or anyway he will grow out of doing it? The second thing is that he is very, very protective of my husband and me sometimes almost too much!!! Could that be worth worrying about? Do you have any suggestions or any information you can send me? Thank you for your time, ANSWER: Realizing that you and your husband are probably very, very attached to this dog, I offer my opinions as a word of warning. You sound like you have the beginning of a real problem here. Unless you recognize it for what it is and deal with it, you may have an accident waiting to happen. The dog chases the children on bikes because they stimulate his prey drive. He sees them going and he goes. The problem is going to come when he combines the protective aspect with the prey drive problem. It could easily result in a dog bite. If you have questions about the drives a dog uses in bite work, I suggest that you refer to my article called The Drives of Protection Training. Correcting the dog for chasing kids on bikes goes right along with normal obedience training. The fact is that this dog needs to learn to come under distraction. This means that he needs to come every time you call him and even when he sees a kid on a bike. If he will not respond then his “come” training is lacking. You have not done your job properly and you need to back up your obedience training and he should be on a long line and preferably with a prong collar. If you have questions on obedience training you should refer to my tape titled Basic Dog Obedience. The dog also needs to learn that chasing kids on bikes is the worst thing that can happen to him. This can either be done with very strong leash corrections (probably with a prong collar) or with a long line and an electric collar. If an electric collar is used it is critical (in my opinion) that the dog be attached to a long line in the initial stages of training. A situation could develop where the dog would think that the stimulation (shocking) from the collar actually came from the child and this could trigger aggression. So you have to have him under control so that if this happens he cannot get to the child. The bottom line is that most dogs will respond to strong leash corrections, or long line corrections if they are strong enough. Remember that one good correction is worth 1000 nagging mid-level corrections on a deal like this. If the dog does not respond to obedience training and corrections you need to consider putting the dog down. No dog is worth taking a chance on a child being hurt.
I would like to know how to stop aggression. Also I would like to know if my two males, one 6 months and one 18 months old, will fight for dominance. Both are neutered. In first letter I gave you the background of their attack on the goat. I would very much like to buy your video. Thank you, Dean ANSWER: While obedience training is going to help control the dogs, it's not going to stop this aggression that is basically a pack behavior. The dogs have developed a “pack behavior” because you allow them to run together. This is not a good idea. The fact is that you could try and stop it through the use of obedience and an electric collar - but it still comes down to allowing the dogs to run loose together. Put up some kennels, the dogs should not be in the same run together, they should only be allowed to run together under your direct supervision and only if you can control them with voice commands when off leash. If they will not listen - they are not trained - it’s that simple. This problem is more of an issue of you the handler not understanding dog behavior and training than it is a problem of aggression. The dogs are simply doing what their instincts direct them to do under the conditions in which they live. I have a three year old German Shepard, Rudy, with whom I have spent hundreds of hours training. I would classify him as obedient (hand signals, basic commands, etc.). I have never given him any form of defense training. In fact, I gave him training to not bite when playing or otherwise. There is one problem I have never been able to successfully address. While he is friendly and outgoing with adults, he barks at children and little people. I am afraid he would bite someone. I, therefore, keep him on a tight lease whenever in public. My sister-in-law is pregnant so the problem is now too close to home. Comments and suggestions on books or videos is appreciated. Thanks, David ANSWER: This does not sound like a dominant dog issue. If he is fine with you and not with kids it's more of a temperament problem. You have done what you should in the obedience area. This dog should be under control at all times. According to your email he is. What I would do is make this dog think his life is over every time he barks at a child. You should come down on him with a level 10 correction, (where corrections range from 1 to 10). I would set up situations where the dog is crated and kids become hot dog machines. Let them feed him through the crate. If he is snappy at taking food, have them put the hot dogs on a tooth pick and stick it through the crate. This behavior is usually related to a problem with the dog’s nerves. My guess would be that it’s a genetic thing and not an environmental thing. I would also consider getting a Jafco muzzle (we sell them and they are cheap). Get the dog used to wearing it, to the point where it’s second nature to have it on. Then he can be loose when kids are around and you can test his reaction. The worst that could happen is that the child would get scratched by nails if the dog jumps on him. This will allow you to determine if the dog is salvageable. The bottom line is that a dog that is not safe with kids should either be put to sleep or be put in an environment where it never sees a child. You can review my article on dealing with the overly aggressive dog - you can find it on my web site in the list of articles.
I just adopted a female rottweiler, approximately 1 year from the pound the day before getting put to sleep. She is loving, gentle and responds to some commands. I arranged for my boyfriend to bring my male rott, 2 years to the park to meet her. Both dogs were on leashes with pinch collars. They were equally aggressive, with my male dog more out of control than I had anticipated. He has gone through 2 obedience courses. He has been the only Housedog for the past 3 months. He was raised from 10weeks with a female alpha rott, who regretfully was killed by a car in sept 98. Anyway, the dogs were taken to my home and separated after a few hours of a shaky introduction. The female does wiggle her tail while getting closer, but turns aggressive when he does. It is still the first night of meeting as I write to you. I need some help figuring tactics to introduce them. They currently are in separate areas of the house. I am willing to muzzle them both, but am fearful of allowing them to be off leash in the same proximity of each other. ANSWER: This is not a difficult situation.
If you do these things it will work out. If you cut corners you will have problems.
I have recently acquired a Dachshund. He was one year old when I got him, he is now 14 months. The people who had him before me kept him alone in the back yard. They could no longer keep him because of a barking problem. I felt that a barking problem would not be to hard to break I was wrong. He still has that problem to a degree. The bigger problem is he has become EXTREMELY aggressive the longer we have him the worse it gets. He is fine with our family, but when other people come over they are in danger of being bit. There have been a few people who come over who Rufus seems to take an instant liking to. He is a very loving dog with our family. After reading your articles I can see we have been doing a lot of the wrong things. Like letting him sleeps in my bed, eats at our table, and has a toy box of his own loaded with toys. My questions is this now that I have created the Dachshund from hell in only 3 months can I reverse the situation by dethroning him using the suggestion in your articles, Dealing with the Overly Aggressive Dog. I just don't know what to do. ANSWER: Yes, you can change this dog. It will take a little work, but if he is to ever have a chance at being a normal dog you must make the effort or put him to sleep. My advice would be to try helping him first. You need to do everything in the articles Dealing With the Overly Aggressive Dog and Dealing With the Dominant Dog. I would also try a Tri Tronic No Bark Limiter. Then start the dog on a serious obedience program. Read what I have to say about Basic Dog Obedience. This is a key issue. The dog needs to learn to mind, and this can only be accomplished through a sound foundation of proper training. During this training I would create a spot for him in the house (on a specific rug, for example.) He should learn to do a long down on this rug, with the long term goal being to have him go to the rug and stay there for 1/2 hour or more. Then when visitors come the dog is allowed to greet them and is then sent to the rug. This eliminates the threat of a bite (if he does not mind he is corrected, use a prong collar if necessary). The key point here is the dog must have an opportunity to see who comes and greet them BEFORE being sent to the rug. If you do not do this you will only raise the frustration level and make things worse rather than better.
My three and a half year old German Shepherd spayed bitch has a problem with charging other dogs. She is fairly well trained and comes to call immediately if I call her as soon as I see another dog. But if I am not quick enough she completely focuses on the dog and charges, if the other dog does nothing she will do nothing when she gets there. If the other dog starts to run or is an excitable bouncy type of dog she has to stop it and will chase it and grab it to pull it down and then she does no more unless the other dog does not take too kindly to this and starts a fight but she will only fight back as a last resort. She is not aggressive and is an excellent pet and friendly with everyone but she cannot handle excitable bouncy dogs and has to stop them and understandably most owners think that she is going to attack their dog. I now keep her on leash at all times as her behavior is not acceptable and I do not know how to correct it. Do you have any suggestions? I am wary about using an electric collar because we have an electric fence in our garden and Heidi is terrified of it and will not go outside when she is wearing the collar and she is also scared of anything that bleeps and resembles the warning bleep of the electric fence. Many thanks, ANSWER: The solution is not that difficult. You are already doing what needs to be done, keep the dog on leash. If it were my dog I would never let it off leash unless it has an electric collar on. Not many GSD's are going to be able run around and be friendly with a lot of other dogs. It's not in their nature.
Really respect your views on dogs so I am trusting you with an important question. A friend has a 1-year-old female Neapolitan Mastiff that is somewhat dominant in character and can be quite intimidating to strange people and other dogs. She's moving for the first time since she got the dog, to a house where the present tenants in the basement have a 12-year-old female Shepherd mix. The Shepherd is apparently quite sweet natured and has been bitten a few times by aggressive dogs so probably is wary. Owners of both dogs are worried about whether they will get along. Question is: how exactly should they be properly introduced to avoid any initial problems and get them started on the right foot. Eventually, they would like to leave them together in the yard while owners at work. ANSWER: This is a difficult task.
I been reading your articles on aggressive dogs and I was hoping you can give me some advice on my situation. We own have a pure bred American Pit Bull Terrier, bambi (who just turned 2 years old this week). We purchased her from a breeder and both parents were on site (and were very nice and loving). She is UKC and ADBA registered. The breeder has since moved w/o leaving a forwarding address. She has always been aggressive when the doorbell rings and has trouble calming down. She is very stand offish around strangers. When people come over she sometimes growls at them even after they have been there awhile. She is very dog aggressive, as well. She went to the basic obedience class and had to stay by herself (away from the other dogs) due to her aggression. Recently she bit a friend of mine (who she has known for about 1 year) on the hand. This occurred as he was entering the house and I released her to sniff him. The skin was slightly broken. After this occurred we had a trainer come over. This trainer feels she is a very shy dog and cannot be trusted around people. The first bite was a 'warning bite' and the next one will be more serious. She recommend we either keep her away from all people/dogs or put her to sleep. We have a 12 year old daughter and her friends come to the door all the time. Bambi barks/growls at them like they were gangsters or something. We keep her in the crate when the door bell rings. My fear is that one day she will get by my daughter and attack her friends. She also has growled and gone after children in the park (but the leash restrained her). She can only be walked on a pinch collar. If we walk her when other people are around, she growls at them (even if the are across the street). However, she is a perfect lovebird with the 3 of us (and always has been) She is not dominant in the home and my daughter can do just about anything to her. They sleep together and have never growled at one of us. We are reluctant to put her to sleep due to our love for her but I am getting more concerned everyday about her attacking someone. The local pit bull rescue group says she is not a dog they would recommend for re-homing. Mike ANSWER: This is a no-brainer for me as an outsider. Either put the dog to sleep or build an outside kennel that is 100% safe and keep the dog there when you are not home. This dog has weak nerves, similar to a fear biter. It sounds like you got good advise. I would not risk children's’ safety over a dog. Put the dog down or find it a home where it can be a guard dog behind a fence. Maybe you want to contact some local security companies and offer them the dog. I have question I hope you can answer for me. Our college-aged son adopted from a shelter a 2-year-old Kelpie and Australian Shepherd mix (I think). Anyway it is very evident the previous owners abused this dog. It hides from the newspaper when it is rolled up and it will run away from any balls etc. The problem is the dog is now living with us because our son is in an apartment in a large city with a new job that requires him to be gone 10 hours or so. The dog is well behaved except for the fact that he is very jealous of our dog. He does not like us to even acknowledge our dog. Finally, the question id how can we change his behavior without causing any trauma to him since he has had previous bad experiences? Thank you for any help. ANSWER: You can solve this problem with training. Read what I have written about the proper steps of Basic Dog Obedience. Do not think you are going to solve this problem without going through a correction phase - this is simply not going to happen. Corrections are never given with a rolled up newspaper so you will not be causing a similar problem. You need to work with a prong collar and sound dog training principles. The dog should wear the prong collar in the house with an 18 inch street leash to drag around (this allows you a handle for a correction). You can see these items on my web site. The dog needs to learn that it is 100% inappropriate to show any kind of aggression towards your other dog. The dog needs to respect your commands more than it wants to fight with your other dog. Dogs are pack animals and always find comfort in settling their pecking order in the pack. In this case you are settling it for the dogs.
I'm an avid reader of your web site and would appreciate your input on this question. I have a 10-month-old male GSD (neutered at age 6 months). 48 hours ago while I was away at my sons' hockey tournament, my wife heard him barking very aggressively on our front porch. My wife was expecting a playmate for my other son to be dropped off and went to the door the check out the barking. My sons' 12-year-old friend was decked out in full ski apparel including ski hat and goggles scared to come up on our porch due to the dogs barking. My wife went out (the dog is on a rope) and held the rope while the boy entered our home. He then immediately shifted his attention on the boys father who left the parked car and came to the bottom of the porch steps. This man is very terrified of dogs, as he has been bit 3-4 times before as a child. My dog greatly intensified his barking as the man approached and spoke very briefly with my wife who was restraining the dog. As the man turned to return to his car, our dog broke away from my wife and bit him in the rear end. He then backed up to the bottom of the stairs and stared and growled until the man left. This is from a dog I can take into Pet Food Ware house 3 times a week to practice heeling with all the distractions without one bit of a problem. My wife feels we have a vicious dog on our hands and I feel the combination of the strange appearance of the son in the ski outfit and the restraining of the dog without my wife attempting to calm him down lead to this very unfortunate situation. Your opinion/advise would be greatly appreciated. Dave Curtis ANSWER: I seriously doubt that you have a vicious dog on your hands. What you do have sounds like a nice dog that is not properly trained. If it had better obedience training your wife would have been able to control the dog. The dog did what you would have expected the dog to do had the person at the front door been a burglar. In fact, had it been a burglar you would have been doing “high fives” with your friends and neighbors and your wife would have been giving the dog additional treats. But the fact is your dog is not properly obedience trained. The situation that happened triggered the dog’s territorial drive. He was trying to protect his family pack. From an obedience standpoint, this individual that was at the house was a “distraction.” The man was more of a “distraction” than your dog was trained to deal with. If you would like to learn something 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 the full picture on 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. So as much as you do not like to hear about it, this case falls under the category of ”handler mistakes and errors” and not a bad dog. If the necessary training is beyond your means, you owe this dog a debt of gratitude for what he thought he was doing to protect your family. Find him a home where he will get the proper training. I have two dogs and both seem to show signs of aggression to people who are afraid of them. I do my best to question people to whether or not they are afraid before they approach. For some reason they always tell me no yet I can see it in their eyes. I know if I can see it my dogs can see it. It is at this point they begin to growl as the person approaches. I correct it at the time but is there anything I can do long term. Is this a sign of weak nerves or dominance? Can it be permanently removed from the dog and how? It is something that bothers me because whether adult or children it doesn't matter. They are fine, actually friendly with all other people, it is just those who are afraid. Thank you in advance, ANSWER: This only has something to do with genetics (bad breeding) nothing else. Your dogs are not tough they are sharp. They are not strong dogs in temperament they are weak dogs and what you see is a lesser degree of dogs that are fear biters. You can not change what the dogs are, (because it is a genetic issue) all you can hope to do is control it through serious obedience training. If you would like to learn something 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 the full picture on 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. You also have not read all of the Q&A sections on my web site because I address this in more than one way.
I came to your web site hoping to find some answers concerning my aggressive German shepherd. I was very upset to see your answer for almost all of the concerned people are to putting their dog to sleep. This is a member of the family. We've had our dog for almost 5 years now, and a lot of the behavior some of these people described relates to our dog (Baldwin). His behavior upsets me, and concerns me whenever anybody new visits our home. But I don't think putting a dog down is the answer. Especially giving advice like that without even meeting the dog. I'm sure you love animals very much, and you mean to do well. But telling families to kill their dogs just like that is horrible. I feel sorry for the people who came to you for simple advice, and came away with the thought in their head that there pet is some kind of monster. I hope for their sake, as well as the dog's sake, that they found another way of dealing with their pets problem. ANSWER: I suggest that you go to the table of contents and read the article on Preventing Dog Bites in Children. When you see the photos in that article you will see why some people should not own dogs. Not all dogs need to be put to sleep, many can be trained. But many behavioral problem dogs have owners who are incapable of training a dog, much less a dog with a serious behavioral problem. I will always choose to error on the side of a child and not on the side of a dog. People are similar to dogs. Some people have hard-temperaments and some people have soft-temperaments. Soft people should not own hard aggressive dogs or dogs with serious nerve problems (If you are confused about what I mean about HARD and SOFT dogs refer to my article about this in the list of training articles.) Soft people do not have the temperament to give hard enough corrections to modify negative behavior in a hard dog. These people should either find new homes for their dogs or put them to sleep. I suggest that you readjust your point of view and get a little experience about what you are talking about. I don't have patience for foolishness. You have a problem with your dog that has lingered for 5 years. You have still not corrected your problem. This does not say much about your ability to train dogs; your interest in solving the problems of your dog; or about you being a responsible dog owner. So don't lecture me on theory of dog training!
We have a four-year-old lab that in general is a very likable dog. She has developed an aggressive behavior that is quite odd. On her background, she came from a very reputable breeder of field Retrievers and has had solid obedience training. She is quite active and strong. She is friendly to strangers and children in our yard. About twelve months ago, I noticed one day after the gardeners had been to our house, she was acting odd. I inspected her and immediately noticed that she had an injured tail. I took her to our vet who confirmed that she had probably had something Heavy fall or drop on her tail while we were not there. I then noticed that whenever the gardeners came, she stayed well away and suddenly would bark or growl at them if I went near them. I asked them if something had fallen on her or if perhaps one of the younger fellows had been frightened and struck her in the tail. The gardener, who speaks mainly Spanish, was very evasive and I think fearful of telling the truth. Clara now barks or growls at men that are Hispanic with dark pants on. She always ran leashless with me on the bike path and behaved beautifully with dogs and people alike. Now I have her on a leash so she won't frighten this particular type of person. I truly believe she is a good dog that is developing an aggressive behavior. Elizabeth ANSWER: I think you are wrong about your dog and the aggression. Not everyone likes dogs like you and I. In fact, there are a lot of people out there who, for one reason or another, do not like dogs. From what you describe, this dog was hit very hard, probably with a shovel, by one of your gardeners. Things do not accidentally drop on dogs' tails. Dogs are not fools, they have very good memories and your dog is not doing anything any other dog would not do if hit hard enough to injure it that bad. My advice is to get a new gardener or at the very least have a very serious talk with the headman. Don't worry about your dog, just put her away when these guys are there. In reality it's your job to protect your dog. I have a 15-month-old male (not neutered yet) English Springer spaniel. This dog has been a sweet lovable member of our family since he was 8 weeks old. He gets a lot of exercise, love and kisses and attention and discipline. The last 3 days or so, we notice his intense need to get at the many squirrels in our yard, so much so that he has dug under the yard and escaped chasing the Squirrels down the street. He has done this several times in the last days or so. He doesn't seem interested in birds, kids, cars, anything except the Squirrels. He barks incessantly at them in such frustration. He has never dug under the fence before this week. Now he won't stop. We yell at him to “stop barking,” it doesn't help. Yesterday after a particularly annoying day of him escaping (we're repairing the fence, but not fast enough) and barking and us yelling at him, he laid down on the bed and began chewing on a new bone I bought him. He seemed quite content to chew. My teenage daughter and her friend went over to pet him on his head and he growled a long, deep growl. When my husband saw this (the dog LOVES and respects my husband) he went over to yell at him "no" for growling. The dog growled at him the same way and then went to attack my husband , he did not bite him but tried to. This is a behavior we have never ever seen in this dog. He is friendly to all, we can handle his food, his mouth, his paws, anything. This time he was afraid we were going to take the bone away. A combination of the intense squirrel chasing and this deep scary growling all in the last week, has left us all very worried. Any ideas from you as to what is going on with him? Thank you, ANSWER: This is a perfect example of dog owners who don't understand dog behavior and not having the experience to solve the problem. There are several things going on at one time:
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