My Yugoslavian Shepherd is very territorial and has bitten before. Does this qualify him as a

Question

Hello!

I just happened to stumble across your website and I have to say it's pretty great. I just need an opinion regarding my three year old Sharplaninac (Yugoslavian shepherd). They are rare in the States. As a breed they are large, intelligent, stubborn and protective. We got him as a puppy and he immediately was very lively and loud, and stubborn stubborn stubborn. I wasn't there when he was growing up since I was away at college, and lets just say my parents don't have time for dogs and think dogs will raise and train themselves. There are about 10 people in this world he knows and loves and they are the only ones allowed to enter our property. Otherwise he gets very territorial and dangerous looking and barks his head off to stop people from coming in. But last year we had a boy visiting us who Joe has never seen. Joe was behind a fence in "his part of the yard" when the cocky 13 year old walked up to him without saying a word. Joe immediately jumped up on the fence and bit him on the arm without drawing blood. It was a shock because he is such a baby with the family and neighbors. Even our vet said he was just guarding his territory from strangers and that it only happened because his owners weren't in eye sight. When I walk him he's completely dominant pulling me left and right, but never aggressive towards dozens of stray dogs we met and who bark at us or act nervous. He wants to play with them. He never ever displays aggression towards people on our walks, and people have
been known to walk up to us trying to pet him. He lets them and I freak out out of fear he might do it again. I know he's dominant and we missed out on a lot of his required training, but does he really qualify as a dangerous dog?

Thank you and continue the good work!

Romina

Accepted Answer

This dog may be stubborn but that's no excuse for not being trained -dogs that pull you down the street are not trained - which it is not. Therefore this is an owner problem far more than a dog problem.

There is a behavioral problem that has developed as a result of mistakes you have made in how you live with your dog. Don't feel bad, many people make the exact same mistakes.

One of the first steps in solving EVERY behavioral problems is to first admit the problem. You have done that. The second step is to run the dog through a sound obedience training program (one that uses a distraction, correction and maintenance phase) - get a prong collar or one of my dominant dog collars and my 4 hour DVD on Basic Dog Obedience (read about these products on my web site.)

BTW - dog training is not breed specific - it does not matter if you are training a toy poodle or a Yugoslavian Shepherd - dog training is temperament and drive specific. I have trained police service dogs for almost 30 years- the worst dog bite I ever had was from my parents' toy Poodle. So don't use the breed as an excuse for the behavior.

I also recommend that you go to my web site and read the article I wrote on my philosophy of dog training. I think you will get some good ideas there.

You also need my DVD entitled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs.