Aggression Q&As

Hi Ed, I have a 22 month old intact GSD (German blood line) that I am training for schutzhund. I have most of your DVD's and read all your articles. Thank you for the incredible amount of info both in your web site and your DVD's. I had an episode of unprovoked aggression and I would like your opinion on what happened. Let me start by stating that my dog is very well socialized and has never shown aggression towards strangers both at home and outside. He has a very balanced ...

Hi, I was reading your article on-line about aggressive dog behavior and was hoping you could give me some advice regarding my dog. She is a 3-year-old Chinese Shar Pei Mix, who is most likely inbred. As a puppy she growled at strangers and has never really liked being pet. She was definitely a hand licker and still doesn't like her paws being touched. I took her to obedience training and socialized her at the local dog park where she gets along great with other dogs, but never...

Hi, I hope you can answer this question for me. A little background about the situation.... I have a 4 and half year old pit/boxer/shepard neutared male (his name is Spencer). In the last month I left my abusive husband and have moved in with my parents (he never hurt Spencer). My parents have two chihuahuas. My dog and the chichis have met before and have gotten along fine, my dog and the chichis have never been left alone together. Also, my dog has been around cats and I ha...

Ed, I have a 2 1/2 yr. old male rott. that has been neutered, and I adopted him from a humane society. He had toy aggression, food aggression, and just overall dominance. He had bitten me several times (a couple over toys, and a couple because I touched a sore spot on him that hurt him). I then bought your dom. dog collar, which worked like a charm, and some of your training vids. I believe that that is why he is still alive today. Anyway, he has done very well in the past 6 m...

I am in the beginning phases of using remote collar. I purchased your dvd months ago and have been studying it and I am in the conditional phase with my 3 year old bitch. I have an issue and I am not sure how to deal with it. I have gotten my GSD to accept our cats as part of her pack to the point where they coexist with no issues, other then my GSD's food bowl. So fine, not willing of taking the chance of one of the cats getting bit I feed her in her cage. The problem is wh...

First let me say thank you for putting together such an amazing web site. I also purchased your video on dog aggression and have learned a tremendous amount. I have two Dobermans, male and female littermates, now 8 months old. They have had few nasty fights, but through tips from your video and training and working with them separately, we have made amazing progress. I am still stuck on one issue... Ruger, the male, is the sweetest boy. However, he awakens from a dead sleep snarlin...

My husband and I have a 3 year old pitbull-sheppard mix. He is our baby. We adopted him about a year & a half ago. When we first got him, he was not all that aggressive, but now he is getting worse and over protective of me. We have researched both breeds and they say that protective/aggressive behavior is normal for these breeds. He is fine with dogs that are smaller than him, but not with dogs his size: he attacked my brothers dog in my fathers house. He also has snipped at friend...

I just read your article. I found it comforting since I am in the process of coming to terms of having to put my dog down. Jack is aggressive and has bitten people. Fortunately none of the bites broke the skin ............until this last one. And while everyone was always very understanding (honestly) I know I no longer can control him and now live in an area where there are children. However, I can not locate anyone who will put him down - his vet says because he isn't sick he won't do i...

Hello! I just happened to stumble across your website and I have to say it's pretty great. I just need an opinion regarding my three year old Sharplaninac (Yugoslavian shepherd). They are rare in the States. As a breed they are large, intelligent, stubborn and protective. We got him as a puppy and he immediately was very lively and loud, and stubborn stubborn stubborn. I wasn't there when he was growing up since I was away at college, and lets just say my parents don't have tim...

Dear Mr. Frawley, After reading most of your articles and email answers, I did not find anything on point that would help with my dog's behavior. I have a 15 month old spayed Black Lab named Lexi. My husband specifically picked her out of the litter because she was a very confident dog. We knew she was going to be a dominant dog and immediately crate trained her and joined the local dog obedience club. She was the star pupil in every puppy class and is the most well behaved dog whe...

My best friend owns a six year old spayed female mixed breed beagle. This dog has always been very friendly until two weeks ago. She has snapped at the faces of four people recently and the last attack resulted in her four year old grandson being bitten on the face. This behavior was not provoked, each incident happened when someone was only petting the dog, my first advice to my friend is to have her checked by the vet to see if their is an underlying medical problem which has caused this su...

Hi, I'm from Bogot?, Colombia. I have a 6 month old Rhodesian Ridgeback. We hired a dog trainer for him 2 months ago, it was working great. But 5 weeks ago as the trainer was walking back to our house with my dog and another puppy, a Rottweiler which was off leash jumped towards him. The trainer released the leashes, my dog was scared and ran like crazy... At the end, he was hit by a car... He was seriously injured: his right leg was broken in three pieces (he required surgery), hi...

Ed: First off I'd like to say that I am writing this on behalf of the dog's owner because she does not care enough to handle this matter herself. I will first describe the situation: The household consists of a human (sorry I felt I had to make the distinction) mother and a daughter (the daughter is an adult) and a 3 yr old Australian Cattle Dog male and a 2 yr old Border Collie female. I am the boyfriend of the daughter. Anyhow, on to the question. The male Cattle Dog is out of co...

Hi there, I read through a lot of your Q&A articles, but did not find anything that fit to my situation. I have a 3 yr old black lab that I found at a Lab Rescue organization. He is a wonderful dog and is very smart. He has trained well and is very obedient. When we first got him, he had separation anxiety. We have been working with him on this for about 7 months. He was on a 3 month course of Clomocalm which has seemed to really help along with the training that goes with it. We c...

Hello Mr. Frawley, Thank you for all the advice you provided a few months back. We did get the dog back from the pound after the biting incident and got a crate, a prong collar, your training video and one of the books on your web site. We have been training him, but my husband feels the prong collar is cruel and makes the training sessions with it difficult because he says 'I use excessive force on the poor bastard," I think not. He behaves a lot better after a training session wi...

Hi, I just wanted to let you know I read almost all of your site. I was trying like mad to find out what to do after our dog nipped our neighbor. Our dog was a 2 1/2 year old cattle dog. She was a humane society dog and took to us right away. We extensively researched the breed before adopting and were prepared for all possible problems. I'm a decent runner and jogged the dog about 12-15 miles a week. We have a fenced yard and did a stint of organized training. She has never been g...

My eight year old female springer has just seriously bitten a neighborhood 12 year boy on the hand after darting past my teenage son who was putting his bike away in the garage. The incident was unprovoked. The dog seems much more territorial lately growling and showing teeth when the mail carrier arrives and had growled at my daughter a few weeks ago, when she pulled on her paw while the dog was sitting on her place. My daughter is 8. My vet has suggested we put the dog down citing the e...

Hello Mr. Frawley, I am a college student that got a chihuahua puppy about 7 months ago for a companion. I live in a 1 bedroom condo in San Francisco. He's almost 9 months old now and lately he's been showing a lot of aggression towards me (growling and showing some teeth) when I pick him up or hold him. I've been at a loss of what to do and I heard to alpha roll him and so I have been but it's only seems to make things worse. He's very stubborn and persistent and I don't want to make him ...

I've enjoyed your web site immensely. It's an education. If I ever think about getting another dog, I'm going to read every book you recommend and then wait a year to make sure it's not temporary insanity. Perhaps you have a moment to answer a question. We have a 4 1/2 yr old male Lab/chow from the pound. We let a lot of people handle him when he was a puppy. Nonetheless, he is an ill-bred, fearful dog. He bites people and we think it's time to put him down. We've called two vets a...

I have a two year old mix -German shepard - terrier (we think) he was rescued from a garage at the age of about 3 months. We was somewhat malnourished, but was very friendly. My problem with this dog is aggression. He has attacked three times. First was by a friend who took his treasured stick from him. The friend was told not to take anything from this dog. Second was another friend who took a piece of pizza from the dog. He also was told not to. I have been working with a training school th...