We are noticing some worrisome behavior with our 4-yr-old Great Dane. How do we correct this and what might we have done wrong to bring on this behavior?

Dear Ed,

We got a 4 year old Great Dane/Boxer cross a year ago from a lady who rescued him from the SPCA. She and her 7 year old son had him for about two weeks. She claims the Dane attacked her dog, but we feel it wasn't an attack but probably just some barking, etc. As a result, she felt she had to give up the Dane.

We took the Dane from her last year. The first two weeks we had him, he was around two small children in our home, without incident. Since then we have noticed some worrisome behaviors...the first incident occurred shortly after we got him, at a baseball diamond where Dante (the Dane) was on a leash with Trevor (my husband). A small child of about 3 or 4 was petting Dante. Seemingly without provocation, Dante "attacked" the kid (he growled and barked aggressively toward the kid but did not bite him).

Since then, we have been very wary of having him around kids. We tried recently to introduce Dante to small children again. At first he watched the girl very carefully, not taking his eyes off her, but seemed ok with her. Then after about 20 minutes, he did the same thing as he did to the kid at the baseball diamond.

When walking him, I find him to be overly aggressive to anyone walking near us and he acts the same to other dogs, whether he only hears them barking or actually sees them.

The only dog we have been successful in having Dante interact with is a small gorky dog. Dante and this dog seem to get along well. They have been around each other each time in our home. We tried to introduce Dante to a larger dog (lab cross) on our front lawn with his leash on, and it didn't go well....

Dante was apparently put in the SPCA more than once prior to us taking him from the lady I mentioned earlier. It is suspected he has been abused, possibly by children, and was possibly tied up out of doors quite often. However, this information is only based on guesses from our vet and the previous owner we took him from.

We are hoping you can provide us with some insight into his behavior and how to correct it. I don't know if we did anything to bring this behavior out in him, as he seemed ok with children for the first two weeks we had him as I mentioned.

Looking for your advice,
Kimberley