My dog started attacking other dogs. Fortunately no one ever pressed charges because they were relatives. I need to stop this before it happens again. Please help.

Thank you so much for all the time you have put into getting this information together! It has been a relief for me to read it and know that there are many other dogs & owners out there dealing with this issue.

Here's my story and question. I have a 2 year old American Staffordshire, Gus. Gus grew up in a house with 2 other dogs and 3 cats until he was six months old. Then I got married and moved out of that house into the mountains which is very secluded. There was no animals for Gus to be around just lots of land for him to roam on. One day we ventured down the road to my aunts property where she has a barn full of horses and some barn cats. Gus never had a problem with any animals before this time. He was sitting there minding his own business when the cat came up to him (and two from behind) and all at once attacked him. Gus didn't know what to do as this was a huge shock to him. I chased the cats away immediately and Gus wasn't really hurt, just shook up. About a month later he was sitting by the fence where we keep the horses and a new horse we had just put on the property wasn't dog savvy and came up to the fence and kicked Gus in the head. Again Gus was fine (those dogs are rocks) but shook up.

A few months later one of the horses broke out of her fence and came all the way down to our yard where I was out pulling weeds and Gus was lying beside me. She came right up to us and I was petting her and out of nowhere Gus lunged at her and bite her....she took off running and he was right on her heels. By the time I caught up and was able to tackle him he had torn her up pretty good. A month later we went to our family's house and he attacked their puppy and killed her. A few weeks later he got a second small dog... mangled it pretty good but didn't kill it.

My husband and I were devastated, we didn't know what was happening and we started panicking thinking we had to put our dog down. My aunt (who owned both of the attacked dogs) is a dog lover and encouraged us to seek help from a behaviorist before going to that extreme.

So we did and this expensive behaviorist told me all the stuff that I just read on your page about, dog rankings, how he saw us as his protectors and we had let him down in that department. I understood now where my dog came from and how it was all my fault for his behavior now. We went through the domination exercise and saw a huge change in our dogs behavior. We had scheduled for a second session with this lady to come out and work with us on the horse problem now that we had the rankings established. Unfortunately the day before she came out through complete stupidity on my part, our dog was let out and another horse had broken out of the fence and was in our yard. Gus attacked that horse too.

Our landlord said no more (which I totally understand) either we have to move or find the dog a new home. I'm not willing to give my dog to another person because I believe someone else should not have to deal with the problem that I created. So we're moving and now I'm scared that being in town around so many other animals... (cats and dogs) that there will be another attack. He is only aggressive to cats and toy size dogs. He has never in any way shown aggression to a person or child. In fact he lets my 2yr old nephew ride on his back. Except for this one problem he is a trophy dog, perfect obedience, perfect manners, perfect temperament.... By far the smartest and most magnificent animal I have ever met.

I'm just so scared if he gets out of his yard one day and attacks some cats or another dog... I really can't deal with that fear anymore. Up to this point I have been lucky and all the attacks were on families pets who were not wanting to press charges or do anything drastic. I may not be so lucky next time & quite frankly I don't want there to be a next time. What can I do?!? Would a socialization class help? Can anything be done about this problem?

I'm tired of worrying, and tired of stressing. I admit that this problem is all my fault and I'm willing to do whatever is in my power to fix it. I just don't know what to do...Please help me!

~Corrie