I have a 5 month old male GSD that is aggressively biting me and spinning to get away when I hold on to his collar. I have tried many different corrections but it just seems to make the situation worst. What would you suggest?

I would approach this from a different angle than from corrections. If you are correcting him, of course he’s going to want to get away and it’s just going to amplify this issue.

First of all, I’d have a leash attached to him ALL the time. This way you don’t need to grab his collar while you work on some relationship building and desensitizing for reaching for his collar.

If you have not used marker training in the past, I’d recommend learning more about it. I would read our article on training dogs with Markers.

I’d recommend The Power of Training Dogs with Markers DVD.

Once he understands markers, I’d use this to teach him that you reaching for (and eventually grabbing) his collar is a wonderful thing. Here is a video clip of how it’s done.

With a dog that already is getting mad about this, you may start by simply reaching in the dog’s general direction and gradually moving closer. If you do it correctly, he should have a change of heart about having his collar grabbed. I play this game with my dogs throughout their lives. I hope this helps.

Cindy Rhodes