Aggression Q&As

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...

I am desperate for some advice and found your web site very interesting and I am hoping you can give some guidance.... We got our dog at 8 weeks of age from a reputable local breeder. He is now 15 months old. He was socialized very well - loves kids and people in general. We were first time dog owners so at the vet's suggestions attended obedience school at 6 months (6 weeks). He was friendly with all participants in the class - both dogs and owners. The instructor of these classes...

My husband and I just had to have our 3 yr old English Springer Spaniel put to sleep. This was one of the hardest things that we have ever had to do, but for the safely of our grandchildren and other family members it was necessary. Our dog was purchased at 8 weeks old and was a loved member of our family. As a young puppy he displayed a fear of the dark that we could not comprehend. I have never had a dog that was afraid of the dark. He also would aggressively attack the vacuum cl...

I am a novice dog trainer (3yrs.) and have a client that has a dog who is very territorial and overprotective of her. Obviously, like in many other cases, the owner cannot give the dog the correction it needs to extinguish the behavior. I suggested an electric collar and she got one. My concern is this: I know that if the dog is at the height of its frenzy and gets a big correction, it will probably redirect at her. The dog cannot be muzzled at all times and I don't want them to get hurt but ...

I know you probably don't hear a lot about these dogs, but here goes: I purchased him from a private breeder (mother very sweet, siblings all looked fine-clean home, etc - husband and wife stays home with dogs. We brought him home and everything was fine. He would play bite was the only major thing I noticed in like the first month. About a month after we got him, some relatives came to stay for 6 weeks temporarily with us. They have 2 children, ages 2 and a half and 6. Both of the childre...

I am a Police Dog Handler and have recently picked up a new, black haired German Shepherd. He (Sam) came from a handler that recently left the dog section and is already trained in all aspects of Police work. He is a very hard and dominant dog. I have had him for 6 weeks and in this time I have been bitten by him on 2 occasions. The first was putting on the tracking harness, which got caught in his mouth. The bite put me off work for 10 days. The second time wa...

I am the owner of an 11-year old female Springer spaniel who we have had since she was 6 weeks. Approximately 2 years ago we bought another Springer male. Although the older Spaniel has always nipped, she has now become more aggressive. My daughter who is 24 was just hospitalized for an infected bite and I myself was out of work last year for a week from a bite from the older Spaniel. There have been several other bites in the last few years. We have been to a doggy psychiatrist and have ...

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 being b...

Brutus, our 2 ? year old male mixed breed dog (he weighs about 30 lbs and looks somewhat like a coonhound) is quickly becoming a problem with his growling and snapping. He is neutered. If he is in bed or resting and someone comes up to pet him he may growl or snap. He has growled at me while I was sleeping with him for moving and or petting him. He is growling at my husband frequently for petting him while he is resting. Last night my husband walked into the bedroom where Brutus was sleep...

Below I have put my thoughts in email after reading your section on dominant dogs. I would appreciate your thoughts and ideas. I broke my comments into sections. My dominant dog: 1. Bedroom: My dog slept in the bedroom for first 6 months She is now 18 months and has been sleeping kenneled for the last 12 months downstairs away from master bedroom. She is not allowed to be in our bedroom. 2. Toys: She will 'drop' a toy if I command her to. She used to fight for it. This seems...