We have a few problems involving aggression with our Rott that are only becoming worse. What do you suggest?

Question

I am hoping to get your opinion on a serious dominance problem we are having with our 2 year old male rottie, Fantom.  Fantom is of German working lineage (both parents have advance Schutzhund titles) and is what I would call a hard dog (when distracted, he ignores all but the most significant corrections).  He was neutered at 1 year.  My wife and I have tried to be diligent in our training since he was a puppy, using both positive reinforcement and corrections (most recently using a dominant dog collar) when necessary. He understands basic obedience commands well and will generally follow my instructions, but not when distracted, particularly by another dog.  He is a family pet and has been very good with me, my wife, our two girls and our bull mastiff (who was a year old when we got Fantom as a puppy).  He does, however, regularly attempt to chase (and perhaps attack) our two cats, which we have managed to keep away from him.

Until last week, his biggest issue was dog aggression on walks.  While he has never actually attacked another dog, he regularly displays dominant behavior towards them, pulling on the leash, growling, etc. When he gets in this mode, he is very hard to snap out of it, sometimes letting me choke him so long that he throws up before he will break his focus on the other dog.  One time when we encountered another large dog on a walk, I corrected him so hard that the metal ring on his dominant dog collar broke (I think it must have been defective to begin with - it was not one of yours) and he ran up to the other dog but thankfully did not attack before I was able to get a hold of him.  At one point we hired a trainer, who used a prong collar, but this just infuriated Fantom to the point that he bit the trainer.  (After that we switched to a dominant dog collar).

Last week the problem escalated.  A friend was visiting from out of town, who Fantom had met before but had not seen in many months.  He was in our back yard with my wife, and playing fetch with Fantom.  When they stopped, Fantom sat on the patio next to my wife who was petting him.  Our friend was also petting Fantom and leaned in closely to, as he put it, admire Fantom's large head.  Fantom licked his face and then suddenly, with no warning, bit him in the face, resulting in 47 stitches.  I can only assume that Fantom interpreted my friend 'admiring his large head' as a challenge.  Regardless, we cannot take the risk that this situation could repeat itself.  Our vet has strongly advised us to put Fantom down, and I understand that may be the safest option.  I am reluctant to do so, however, as he is otherwise such a great dog and my kids absolutely love him. I also realize that all of this probably stems from the fact that Fantom does not respect me and my wife as his pack leaders. 

I asked Fantom's breeder, who has extensive experience training rotties for both work and sport, whether he though training could correct these problems and his opinion was that it could not, at least not with any degree of certainty.  Basically, he agreed with our vet.

I guess I was just hoping to get another opinion before we reach a final decision and would appreciate your thoughts on the situation.  

Thank you for your time,
Doug

Accepted Answer

We are of the belief that these issues with dogs are usually caused by the way the owner has raised and handled the dog. Certain dogs are more dominant and aggressive, but if the owners were attentive to the signals dogs sent out so many of these bite cases would never happen. Believe me, your dog gave plenty of warning, the problem is that most people don’t know how to read a dog’s body language. I guess I look at it like this, if I was a dog and my pack leader (owner) didn’t keep strangers out of my face I would feel that it was my job to tell that person they need to back off. How would you react if you were sitting there in your home and a stranger came up and put their face inches from your face. Depending on the kind of person you were, would depend on how you reacted. You may look away and hope the person goes away or you may haul off and punch that person if a stern look and a tensing of your body didn’t work to get him out of your space.

Now, with all that said I am not making excuses for your dog because he should not have bitten like this. You created this problem with how you have handled this dog in the past. It’s not uncommon, unfortunately. Most vets and many breeders don’t truly understand how important pack structure and leadership is to all dogs, but a strong and assertive dog like a male Rott is a full time management project.

The problems you are seeing are the result of the way you live with your dog. When dogs act like this they lack leadership from their owners. In other words their owners don’t understand how important pack drive is in how they raise their dogs.

Owners of dogs like yours underestimate the genetic power of "PACK DRIVE" Pack structure is not something new and it is not optional, and if you don’t provide the structure and leadership a dog NEEDS then he or she will behave as canines have for thousands of years and will structure your family and household their own way. Your dog is not behaving badly out of spite or stubbornness; your dog is simply being a dog, a dog that needs some guidance and rules.

If you want to fix a problem like this you can but it takes some work.

Here is a 3 ½ hour DVD that I would recommend titled Dealing with Dominant and Aggressive Dogs.

If you go to the link on this DVD you can read about what it covers. You will also see a detailed outline of what’s in the video.

I also recommend our video on Pack Structure and the Family Pet and the free article that gives you an outline of how to set yourself up for success with a new dog or how to rework an existing relationship with a dog.

These materials are the first step in solving these problems, if you decide to try to work through it. Usually vets and breeders will mention euthanasia because honestly they don’t want to have any lawsuits coming back on them if the dog does bite again and you followed their advice. We see this over and over again.

This won’t be easy, no matter what you decide.