My girlfriend's mother has a dog that attacks people (including the owners) on a daily basis. Is there anything that can be done?

Question

Ed:

First off I'd like to say that I am writing this on behalf of the dog's owner because she does not care enough to handle this matter herself. I will first describe the situation: The household consists of a human (sorry I felt I had to make the distinction) mother and a daughter (the daughter is an adult) and a 3 yr old Australian Cattle Dog male and a 2 yr old Border Collie female. I am the boyfriend of the daughter. Anyhow, on to the question. The male Cattle Dog is out of control. Just from researching your site I would say he is beyond dominant. The dog has bitten and attacked several people in the family including me and the owners. There are several problems that I have noticed. The dog is quiet when the mother is not around and does not make much commotion. However, he still challenges me if I as much as make eye contact with him. But when the mother, (or it seems as if there is more than one person around him) he is out of control. He barks constantly at nothing and cannot be quieted. But by far, the main problem is his aggression. On almost a daily basis, he will for what seems to be no apparent reason put his tail down give you a look, and bark and ferociously lunge back and forth at you. Also, you cannot move too fast in the house or he runs after you aggressively. It is impossible to put collars on him or muzzle him without being attacked (this goes for the owner too). Is there anything that can be done?!! When the dog attacks the owner simply just leads the dog away and 10 minutes later starts feeding him table scraps! I don't live there so I can't do much and honestly both of the girls that live in the house are afraid to correct the dog. Is this dog too far gone for training? They took him to a trainer that , when the dog tried to attack him he hung the cattle dog from a choker collar and the dog, although not being able to breath, continued to try to attack. He said at that point to get rid of the dog. The owner will not listen to anyone on this matter, and I am afraid that the dog will hurt someone (he has escaped in the neighborhood several times). One last question, (I know this is getting long, I apologize). When the dog attacks me, on one occasion I hit him very hard and he whimpered and stayed away from me for several days. This is going to sound very ignorant and I apologize, but since the dog seems to attack me often, if I were to issue firm physical punishments (the women of the house are afraid to touch him when he is in attack mode and even often let him back them into corners) every time he attempted attack on me .....would the attacks eventually stop since I have showed him dominance by not letting him get away with this every time? Please help in someway. Thanks so much,

Phil

Accepted Answer

Some people are so drop dead stupid that they are not worth dealing with. These people seem to fall into this category. You need to step back and look at who you are involved with. If you want some good advice I would recommend that you find another girlfriend – have you ever heard the saying “like mother like daughter.”

As far as this dog goes – I call it “DEAD DOG WALKING” because its only a matter of time before it seriously hurts someone. The sad thing is that the problems are with these stupid women. They have created a monster in how they live with the dog and how they have allowed the dog to act.

I am not going to waste a minute of my time in analyzing how many mistakes have been made and what is needed to correct the problem. If they are too lazy to recognize the problem and try and fix it then I have no interest in helping.

I can say I wish I had the dog here. I am doing a training video on how to deal with dominant dogs. He would be a movie star and in the end he would be a dog that can live a normal controlled life.