Aggression Q&As

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

I have a 4 year old dog (Buster) who has always showed aggression over food, mainly anyone besides myself and my husband who enters the kitchen when I am in there. I have no problem taking away his food or holding his bowl when he is eating. Last week my friend came over to visit and her girls stayed overnight. I was in the kitchen when one of the girls who is eleven came in, I immediately knew by the look on his face he was going to growl so I said NO!!!! He then jumped at her and...

Hello, I have a little Westie mix, 1 1/2 years old, 20 lbs, neutered male. He is of course territorial. He is up to date on his shots, has a microchip, and we have an underground electric fence around our property. We live in town. He's a good little dog, but barks when anyone comes to the door or near the yard. He's hadn't bitten anyone until today. He was in our front yard barking this evening and I could tell he was barking at someone or something in particular - usually its just ...

I just finished watching your Aggressive dog video with my family (significant other and 11 y/o boy girl twins. We bought a GSD at 6 weeks old. He is beautiful He was the Pack Leader and I liked the way he maneuvered the pack. But shortly after we brought him home he became a dominant aggressive and handler aggressive dog. He is very strong willed. When I discipline him and give him a correction he will pounce, snarl, spit and bark at me with fangs showing. He is very frightening at times...

We have a 3 1/2 month old rat terrier mix. While it seems we have broken her of her "mouthing" biting she is aggressively biting more frequently. When she has been aggressive with me (growling, etc) I have taken her by the scruff and told her "No" or "Settle down" in a very stern voice. We have 4 kids ages 4-11 and she has bitten each of them several times and in an aggressive way at least once. Sometimes they have "deserved it" because they were bothering her at inappropriate times but j...

We have a 6 month old black lab that weighs 75 pounds. He has a habit of snapping. He has always been somewhat nervous for a lab but he seems to have adjusted well to us. We do have 7 and 9 year old sons. The dog seems to be playing but it is very difficult for me to tell. The hair on the back of his neck does not stand up as far as I can see. How can I break him of this habit? And/or, how can I determine if I need to get rid of him for another dog? When should he grow out of this habit? Than...

Hi, I have 3 three Great Danes. We have the mom, and two of her puppies, which are now two years of age. The mom is still nice to both of them. The two puppies are both boys and have always been such great friends until recently. Our one dog just had bloat and survived the surgery but was really vulnerable when he came home. As soon as he walked into the door at our house the other dog which is the leader attacked him. Every single time that he sees him he attacks him. We put a muzzle on t...

Our male 10 months old GSD was standing up on our couch barking loud and hard out the window at a white plastic bag which was floating around in the wind. I tried to stop him and pull him down from the couch put he turned on me as if fighting with another dog and just touched me a few times with his teeth but did not bite hard but it was a bit of frenzied attack, he would not come down on command. So I tried to pull him down, and this was a bit of a shock to me because, I thought I had establ...

If you have time I would appreciate your opinion on the following. This was about 15 years ago. Our son, Derek, was nine. We had a GSD I had trained in basic AKC obedience. I would have trusted her with the boy anywhere, anytime. When people came to the house she would stand between them and the rest of the house for about 30 seconds. When she walked away it was OK for the people to come into the house. If anyone tried to walk past her before she moved away the dog would act very u...

I just finished reading your articles on dog aggression. It sounds like my dog Meeka. She is a 2 year old Keeshond. We have great concern for her, (at least I do). My husband feels that she will change in time. We purchased her from a pet store back in Dec 1997. The first day was wonderful, she even slept in her crate peacefully that evening. But from there on she has never been the same. She started to show these signs as she got older. It is like she is terrified of other people....

We have a Welsh Springer Spaniel who is three years old We are the dog?s third owners. Cooper is basically a sweet loving dog, but definitely has some very defined aggressive characteristics. 1) He will growl and show his teeth if I ask him to get off something or move. If I continue, he will lunge at me until I walk away. 2) He will growl and show his teeth if he is sitting on a chair and my husband comes and tells him to move (same behavior as above). ...