In the past years my 3 year old GSD-Rot mix has attacked my wife 4 times. Last night it attacked me for no reason. What should I do?

Question

I just spent about 2 hours reading your site, helpful but I still need some input if you have time. I have a 3 yr old German Shepherd of which has Rott mix. In the last year or so she has become VERY aggressive. In this last year there have been approximately 4-5 full fledged attacks. Four of them being towards my wife, and a few minors towards myself. The dog weighs about 80lbs and is female, spayed.

She has not been obedience trained. She is, however, fairly obedient of me. You CANNOT go near her when she is eating or has one of her toys or she WILL attack. She also will snatch up ANYTHING you drop on the floor and chew it and will attack if you try and get it away. Just two weeks ago she attacked and injured my 11 yr old Great Pyrenees for NO reason. I can control her in most instances but when she attacked the Great it required a scrap of 2x4 to get her off of him....her intent was to kill I assume judging by her body language and stances. My guess is she is senses the Great is old and she is next in line for top dog.

I am requesting your opinions and options of what to do with this animal. My wife is scared to death of her for good reason. I have told her (wife) DO NOT let the animal know you are afraid of her or she will act on your vulnerability, I may be wrong. I am 26 and have owned 6 dogs and have NEVER had one like this. I have been told she has a chemical imbalance and may be bred to close with the Rott.

Is it too late in the maturity of the this animal to correct or sideline this behavior? I ask this because to night (3-6-01) she turned on me for NO freaking reason at. She was sitting in our dining room ...I walked around the table and asked her "What are you doing"? She then proceeded to "slink" around the other side of the table ....paused upon reaching me... then attacked. And I mean ATTACKED. She lunged up on her hind legs and snapped at my neck, I pushed her down and she came back for more this time getting my right arm fully in her mouth of which has VERY large sharp teeth. Once the confrontation was over...she went over and laid down like nothing happened. I was a little shaken to say the least. Once I regained my composure I scolded her and pointed towards the basement and said "GET downstairs." She followed orders and did so quick like, tail between legs.

So, at this point my only thought, however a tough decision, is to put her down before she really hurts someone. I always ask myself, what would Angela (my wife) do in this situation? If you can help me in any way, or point me in the right direction it would be greatly appreciated. I have located a behavioral specialist in my area of which I am going to contact in the morning 3-7-01 to see what they can tell me. PLEASE get back to me at your earliest convenience.

The other problem with the dog is she licks concrete. Yep...licks concrete. She will do this for HOURS on end just going in circles licking the basement floor, back porch, anything concrete. Any idea what THIS may be?

Thanks,
Bill

Accepted Answer

Put this dog to sleep before it really hurts your wife. Are there things you can do? Yes, there are things that MAY work but they also MAY NOT work, and if they don’t you still have a very dangerous dog living in your house. What if this dog accidentally comes in contact with a child? You will now be liable because you know how dangerous this animal is and you did not take appropriate actions to deal with or contain the dog. I testified against a lady who is spending 11 years in prison for murder. She had dogs like this that killed an 11 year old boy.

If this dog does not have some kind of a brain tumor, the problem may have been corrected with proper obedience training at a young age. But I seriously doubt either you or your wife have the skill to deal with it now. I also doubt that, even with training, it will ever be safe to be around other people (or your wife). So do yourself, your wife and your old dog a favor – take this dog to the vet and have it put down. Then if you get another animal, become a responsible pet owner. At this point you do not fit into that category because you have allowed this situation to happen and you have not trained this dog. It’s a walking time bomb. So if you get another dog, train it. Get a dog crate and keep it in the crate and do not allow it to try and dominate the older dog.

To get off on the right foot, if you get a pup I would recommend the video I have produced titled Your Puppy 8 Weeks to 8 Months. I give this video to all of my puppy customers and never get questions on how to raise a pup. Read the description of the tape on my web site. It has 2 hours of solid information and does not cost a lot of money.