Aggression Q&As

Hi Thank you for offering advise. I have looked through your articles and information but still feel the need to email you. We have just gotten a 5 month old female miniature Dachshund. We have had her 2 weeks. She has been very sweet and easy going. She has been friendly with strangers. We have a 4 and a 7 year old. children. She has suddenly started snapping. First she snapped at my son who is 7 years old. He approached her from behind while she was chewing on her c...

Hello! First off, I was reading about the prong collar and if I decide to try this I just know that if I were to go to PetSmart who probably sells it they will tell me how cruel it is. They always do that which makes me wonder why they sell the stuff if they want to make their customers feel bad about buying it. Ok, I adopted a dog about a year ago. He was then 1.5 years old. Now he's 2. He typically is a real sweetie, and he is neutered. A few months ago in my house the lit...

Hello: My wife & I are having twins. Our German Shepherd is now 2 years old and for the most part well behaved. We have been told many different ways of presenting our Lola to the babies for the first time. Also my goal is to have Lola baby sit as much as possible in the future. Lola is rarely on a leash in the front or back yard. Already knowing her boundaries, I would like to teach her to keep the kids in their own front yard & out of the street. Of course this is in the future &...

I have a year old German Shepherd, and seems to be aggressive towards little kids. I have had him since he was 7 months old. There are no children in the house, just 3 adults. He has not been professionally trained, just basic trained.. like "No," "sit," "shake" etc....He has never showed any aggression towards adults, just kids. He will bark and try to bite kids. I hate locking him in a room while little kids are around. I think it might be the voices of the kids, that he doesn't like. He is...

Hello, I have 2 young basset hound/golden retriever mix dogs, which are brother and sister from the same litter (They will be 2 March 20, 2002), and they have begun fighting with each other. This has been going on for about a week. One is male (BG); one is female (Penny). They have a large lot in which to run. I bought each one a chew toy (a green one and a blue one of identical shape & size) and it seems that the fighting started after that. The male is shorter, looking like a basset houn...

Hello, I have visited your web site, and found some very interesting book/videos/equipment, but I am not sure what knowledge/equipment I need to make my dog behave. Can you recommend some training equipment for me? Here is my story. My problem is this- I have a Male Springer Spaniel who is NOT neutered, I am unable to muzzle him or clean his ears, or pick him up. He will bite if this is attempted. I want to get the dog neutered, but I am unable to get the muzzle on him in fear of b...

I have a 5 year old male German Shepard that bit my neighbor last week severely enough to need 17 stitches and will need some plastic surgery. The dog has never been a problem before and always has been very friendly with our family friends. We were visiting at home with my wife and another couple at our lake house when the next door neighbor came over as he usually does when we are at the lake. We welcome him to come over any time and enjoy his company. He and my dog have never go...

I have a 1 year old Old English Sheepdog. We originally wanted to get one because of how they are supposed to be good with children and other pets. All was well until he was 10 weeks old and was attacked by a Boxer adult in the town. He was dog shy for quite a while after this. At 5 months we took him to "Super dog" recall training classes, as with all other training (sit, tricks) he would listen, but not come or stay when called. This class took 6 weeks, once a week, and we continued the ...

About two years ago I rescued a large mix-breed dog from a veterinarian. The dog had been abused and tossed out the back of a pick up truck and left to die, until it was brought in to the veterinarian's for care. Since the rescue, my dog has demonstrated mild aggressive behaviors and has displayed few dominance problems. He has occasionally nipped at certain people, but never broke skin . He had responded well to correction. He shows similar behaviors when playing with other dogs, and aga...

Hello, My name is Lisa. I have a 3 1/2 year old Shepard male named Bud. I found him when he was a few months old and so I'm not sure about his temperaments in blood lines. We recently had some sheep on the property and he got loose and killed two. He has killed cats before but we thought he was playing too hard. Today he went after a calf, but luckily I was there to stop it. I punished him but it doesn't seem to do anything. I don't want to put him down. Is there any thing to do to...

I am looking for a wire muzzle for my female German Shepherd. She is a rescue dog and has turned out to be a biter. I want a muzzle that I can give food rewards through easily and allows her to pant. The wire muzzles in the pet stores either don?t allow her to pant or have wires too close together to put rewards through. She is 4 1/4 in on her nose and 10 1/2 in circ. (about 1" below eyes). She is about 65#. The German wire muzzles look ok but I can't see the front. Can you help me?

We have an 18-month-old girl lab mix named "Lily" that we rescued six months ago. She was a loud barker right from the start, but seemed to make herself at home with us. Neither my wife or I had much experience as dog owners, so we naively hoped that a loving & comfortable home life would be enough to calm her down. She is very smart and did in fact learn to mind us and show us a lot of affection after a while, but she was still difficult to manage on walks and showed territorial aggressi...

Hello, While researching the effects that neutering may have on my 6 month old ACD, I came upon your page. In your response to a question regarding a Shit-zu that bit a 1.5 year old girl on the lip, you said, "...if the dog even growls at the baby it needs to have its but corrected so hard that it thinks it is going to die." I fully understand that a dog must know it is absolutely the lowest member of the pack. But your response seems to suggest hitting the dog. Why would yo...

Dear Mr. Frawley, I have an older (humane society dog, do not know his exact age) cross-breed, he is at least eight years old. He is part Husky and possibly GSD. I also have a two year old GS female. I go for walks often, I try to go early in the morning so I do not run across other loose dogs. Mine are ALWAYS on a lead. My dogs have been attacked several times by other dogs running loose. My male (he is neutered) is an Alpha male (or least I thing he is), he was dog aggressive unt...

Dear Mr. Frawley, I adopted my dog about 2 years ago from a no kill shelter when he was about 8 months old. They told me he was found laying in the street with a bad wound leg from a knife or fence. He is a chow, yellow lab and Shepard or rottie mix. He is neutered. I took him to obedience training from the very beginning but he would get aggressive towards the other dogs in class and the teacher suggested I put him to sleep or go to private classes. I have gone to private c...

Hi, I have a 5 yr old neutered rottie with a strong prey drive and or dominant behavior. I had him trained when he was 2 since he was showing aggressive behavior towards people. Now he is very obedient, I can stop him from a full charge attack (on people or other animals) BUT when left alone he kills. To date he has killed about 10 cats and dogs, numerous snakes, rats, birds and he even tried to take down my horse when I first got her. I have three kids 6,5,3 and he is absolutely g...

Our two-year-old German Short Haired Pointer has begun to get aggressive. We brought him home from the breeder at 8 weeks. He has been a wonderful gentle loving dog to me my wife and 10 and 13-year-old sons. At 6 months we put him on an electric invisible fence, which has worked perfectly. He has been a wonderful family pet. If we had any problems it was his ?over-friendliness? - jumping on and licking all guests. A few months ago we noticed he was barking at joggers running by the...

I have a two-year-old German Shepherd that is of 100% German descent. I bought him when he was 11 months old and he was obedience trained and had all the basics down. I planned on taking him to advance obedience training but he was very dog aggressive and attacked my friends dog in the park when we were trying to acclimate them and attacked another dog at the groomers while we were waiting for our turn. Both of the attacks resulted in only minor injuries but in both I was not able to get ...

I REALLY need some advice. Our babysitter and neighbor whom we dearly love is the owner of a Rott by the name of "Baby." The dog is actually her husband's pet & has been fairly well behaved around me and my children so far, they have lived beside us for approximately 1.5 years. However, the dog has shown some aggressive territorial behavior to my husband. For instance when he was putting mail in our box which border's their yard, he has growled, or has come up in the drive when Lambert wa...

I have a 3 year old Shit-zu and a 1 1/2 year old little girl. The dog bit her upper lip yesterday when she hugged him. My wife now wants to get rid of the dog and I don't. I will if I have to but I don't want this to happen. Will neutering the dog correct his aggression? What does neutering the dog do, slow him down? Please help! Ron