Aggression Q&As

Mr. Frawley, I just read your suggestions on how to break up a dog fight and found it very informative. My problem is that I would like to know what to do when a big dog (German Shepherd) attacks a small dog (Yorkie Terrier)? My husband was out with our son and our Yorkie, Hoss, when a large German Shepherd jumped over a 7ft wall and attacked our dog. The German Shepherd had just clamped its mouth down on our dogs back and was getting ready to "shake" him, when my husband pr...

Hi my name is Ricco. I'm sending this e-mail to you because I have a problem. I had 5 dogs, but now I have 4 because of an incident. My dog, Midnight, was about 8 years old. I noticed today when I went to feed them that she was in the corner of the yard. When I opened the shed, she ran in. I tried to get her out and that's when 2 of my dogs attacked her, killing her. Why do you think they would do something like that? Please send me your info.

My husband found your website today and we have a few Question on Dog Fights about the products and techniques you have listed. First of all I want to give you some background on our situation: We have 2 recently neutered male doxies; The oldest dog (Oscar - 2 ? years old) is the one who displays aggressive behavior; We took an obedience class with Oscar when he was about 6 months old at Pet Smart. While in the classes, he would behave like an angel, but he would not ...

Hello Mr. Frawley, In the past I have asked you several Questions on Dog Fights regarding the training of my now 14 month old DDR, female, German shepherd dog. As it turns out, every one of your answers has proven to be correct. Thanks. I have one more for you: Quite often I take my shepherd to a German shepherd breeder/trainer of working dogs. I take her there now primarily for the opportunity to expose her to other dogs, people, horses, and chickens in a controlled situati...

Hi, My son has a staffy cross, not sure what the cross is, but she is mainly staffy to look at. He had two dogs, the dog that was attached by the staffy was a border collie named Jess, she was 17 years old. Molly, the staffy, is 5 years old. They were alone in the house together, when Molly attacked and so severely injured Jess that she had to be put down. Molly must have thrown and shook her around. The injuries that Jess received were horrific, to her throat, her lung was punctur...

Sir, I found your website informative and hope you could provide some guidance for us. (Since you don't know the dogs it would be hard to give a definitive answer.) Yesterday when my wife got home my female dog (April) tried to hump my male dog (Snoopy) and he let her know he didn't like it. Well next thing my wife knows April grabs Snoopy by the neck and was tossing him around like a rag doll. They finally stopped but not before doing $350 worth of damage to each other. She is 4 h...

Ed, I recently became a member of the discussion forum and started visiting your site several days ago looking for as much information as possible on dog on dog aggression. I have ordered your Basic Obedience Video and a prong collar in the hopes that these two might help my situation. If you don't mind, here is a little background: I have a 2 year old Chow-Shephard Mix. I own my home and recently had a roommate move in with a male Chocolate Lab 1 1/2 years old that is not n...

Dear Ed, I am writing to you as one trainer to another. I need some advise on a aggression issue. I will apologize ahead of time for the length of the post but I would like to give you as much info as possible. I began OB training with two male siblings (Rott, pit, shar mix). Both are about 90 lbs and growing. They were 7 months old when the owners contacted me and dominance issues had already started between the two of them. They both had recent surgery to to a hellaious fi...

Dear Ed: I have 6 male dogs, all neutered. One GSD/Sharpei mix, two pit rott mixes, a Leonberger mix, a yellow lab mix, and a cocker-doxie mix. For the last 2 1/2 years we have been experiencing dog fights. They are always when I am with them, not my husband, and they are usually about toys or food. How do you recommend that a single person break up a multiple dog fight where they are "packing up?" I have used pepper spray with some success and am now going to get smelling salts, b...

Dear Mr. Frawley, My parents have a four year old Labrador bitch that is aggressive towards other dogs, including my own 18-month old lab bitch. The reason I have concluded is fear or insecurity of other dogs, although I do not know where it stems from. I am told by many that I should not punish her for her aggressive behavior since it is based on fear. The rationale behind this I suppose would be that it is an uncontrollable behavior not a chosen one hence the correction will only...

Hi. I have 7 Great Danes living in my home. I did rescue for a while and have in the last year quit as it is to hard emotionally and financially on me and my dogs and family. Anyhow, I do have dog fights occasionally and I know that is probably normal since I have so many dogs. All my dogs are altered. I have two females that are both deaf. One of them is mine and the other is a rescue that will be adopted when the time comes. I have to be on watch at all times with all of them as in a moment...

Hello, My 1 1/2 year old GSD bitch went through and accidentally opened gate and attacked and killed my daughters baby goat, I was present during the attack and know that her training is not what is should be. I could not call her off the goat, but did eventually get to the goat to pick it up and put in the barn out of her reach. We have since worked on her training, recall etc.. But I would still not trust her with any livestock. My Question is is this just normal behavior for an ...

Hi, I have read your article on how to break up dog fights and the Q/A and comment section and it all looks good. I just have one Question. I just adopted a Siberian husky (77 pounds) and he is three years old. He does not seem like an aggressive dog. I also have a 10 year old Shepard/Lab mix (61 pounds). He has a hip problem and is a little slow, but still aggressive. He has never really liked other dogs. We took them to the dog park before we let the husky loose in ...

Hi Ed, I read your page on dog fighting and it was pretty helpful, thanks. I still don't feel like I completely understand what to do if attacked by a dog, so if you could consider my specific situation I would greatly appreciate it, as I am somewhat at a loss. Two nights ago I was walking down the main street of my small town with my very docile, friendly, sweet, yellow lab. He's a classic lab, wouldn't hurt a fly. We paused outside of a bar to look at the calendar of event...

Please help. You have a great web site and I would really appreciate your advise on my problem. I am 6 months pregnant and my black Lab (male dog of 1.5 Years old has been aggressive to other male dogs that come near me). He very nearly tore a German Shepherd's ear off the other day - we had to call the Ambulance as my husband was also badly bitten. Our dog (Sampson) is very calm and quiet all the time, but seems to have got very protective over me since the pr...

Dear Ed, Thank you for your very informative web site. I started looking for information due to a situation here yesterday. I need some advice. I live alone in rural Oregon. I am 58, female. I am caring for a small nine-year-old Boston Bull Terrier for a friend of mine who is currently unable to take care of him. Next door to me are some people who rent a mobile home, and they have two red dogs chained in the back yard. Last summer, shortly after they moved in, I got very fa...

I have a major problem with one of my dogs and I am hoping that you can help me or point me in the right direction. I have two dogs Miranda(chow/shepherd mix) and Abby (lab/retriever). I recently got a new puppy Axel(German Shepherd). Miranda does not like Axel and it has taken some time for her to adjust to him, which is understandable. What I did not expect was for Miranda to attack Abby. Miranda and Abby have been together for two years and are buddies. Miranda is definitely the dominant d...

I just read your article about breaking up a dog fight. I loved it and thought the information was wonderful. I wish I had read it 6 mo. ago. We had 2 sister females, had 2 terrible, terrible fights and finally had to put them both down for being too aggressive. The fight wouldn't have lasted nor been as traumatic to the family had we had your information. Aside from this, I'm hoping that although this has nothing to do with your web page, praying that maybe you can help. I cant find any info...

I have a lovely female Dobie, heavy german Schutzhund breeding, who became very defensive at age 6 months. Before this she was socialized heavily and worked in puppy agility. It seemed that at 6 months her protective nature kicked in and she barked at everything and nothing so I started re-socializing her. The trips to children's homes, malls, and obedience and agility classes where she was touched, hugged, kissed and fed at every possible moment truly paid off because she is an extremely...

Hello I have just found your web-site and am very thankful. My day began with a fight between two of our three dogs and foolishly and incorrectly I tried to separate them (not knowing anything about it until ten minutes ago) and I now have two nasty punctures in my hand for my stupidity. I am very upset and would be so grateful for your help as we are planning to put one of our dogs to sleep tomorrow and maybe you would feel it is not necessary. The dog we are most concerned...