Aggression Q&As

A friend of mine has a 2 year old cocker. He is a smart dog, but you can?t trust him. He growls and barks when someone comes to the office, has bitten the owner quite a few times and she has always been so good to him. He was never hit, so there hasn?t always been a lack of discipline. The dog hates other dogs and can't be trusted with kids - takes 4 sedatives and also wears a muzzle in order to be groomed by a groomer. Is there good training to shape this dog up with? He is a lovable dog mos...

We have a Lab dog around 18 months old. We had a problem with her being aggressive around her food dish so we contacted a trainer. He told us to put a pinch collar on the dog and correct her hard. The situation got worse. We then contacted another trainer who told us that we must take an obedience course (one on one) and teach the dog what we expect from it. He also stated that the first trainer should not be training dogs because the dog must know what no means first before we give a hard co...

I really hope you can answer my question, as I am very concerned about a potentially injurious situation involving my brother and wife's newborn baby and an alpha female German Shepherd (age 6). I've read through your site but didn't find anything that COMBINES dog aggression with people aggression. Does a dog aggressive dog imply a people aggressive dog? Do they distinguish between the two? Could there be a problem if a new baby is seen as a threat? What would make this happen? Please he...

A situation happened to me and my family a couple of weeks ago that has me puzzled about law enforcement. It started with my wife my, two children, and myself walking our 2 GSDs. We live in a small town and about 1 block from our house our neighbors 2 labs rushed us. They were both snarling with their hair raised up on their backs. We were on a public sidewalk and I grabbed my kids and put them behind myself and my big male GSD. My male did not growl or snarl and the hair never did raise ...

I have just perused your web site for the article on dog aggression and have a few questions that I wonder if you could answer. Some of the previously answered questions were close to mine, but they just did not seem to fit the situation exactly. I have a one year old female Germ. Shepherd. She appears perfectly calm around my girlfriend and myself. However, she raises her hair and growls at almost any dog she sees no matter the size. Other dogs cause her to tear into a frenzy. Also, she ...

I have 7 dogs. Two chows both females & 5 Keeshonden 1 is a female. The youngest Keeshond, 1.5 yrs. old, is going after the 2.5 yr. old male all the time. He goes after him if he picks up a toy, a treat or just for the heck of it. He does it going down the stairs & in & out the doors also. Last week he sat on the edge of the bed & stared at me with scary eyes. I wasn't quite sure how to handle this. I did the wrong thing I'm told to stare him down. He jumped off the bed & came to m...

I have read your web site carefully but I am still at a loss. My 3 yr. old male basset has been with us since he was 11-12 weeks old. His mother died giving birth and he and his litter mates were bottle fed. He was neutered at about 5 months. He is a wonderful, affectionate dog most of the time, but under certain circumstances he will attack. Usually the attack occurs when he is with me, is relaxing, and someone comes into the room. This could be any member of our family... he will growl, cha...

I have a 5 year old chow/sharpei-mix male dog. My wife and I enrolled him in a obedience school when he was 2 years because he bit someone in the hand. Since then he has bitten three people in the arm or the hand. These people have always been over at the house. He is now serving his third quarantine. We have decided to put him down, even though it is very hard. The trainer told us that maybe we can medicate the dog to eliminate the aggression. Have you heard of this med. and what do you think?

Hi my name is Lisa and I live in Brooklyn. I have an intense situation that I would like your feedback on. I currently living in a household with a dog that I am fearful of. Let me give you some history. About 9 years ago my then boyfriend (Joe) purchased a male/American pit bull terrier (Gus). For 11 months before he matured I would walk Gus, feed him to help Joe out and even bring Gus up to my house where he socialized with other people. One day my grandmother approached Gus as h...

I have a German Shorthaired Pointer that is extremely well behaved. He is very submissive with the family. As a pup and even now he submits to family members readily. He was never dominant. I have never known him to fight viciously. I am defiantly a dominant owner and am a strict disciplinarian. I make him wait to eat, walk through doors, etc. He is extremely well behaved and obedient. At home, he barks when strangers and dogs go by. He growls at the door. He does not like when too many s...

I have a neighbor that has an attack trained GS. The dog only responds to German commands. Two years ago the dog attacked a neighbor?s dog and almost killed it. Since then the owners have put up a fence. When this dog is out in the yard it growls and barks at all people and other dogs. My dog will run over to the fence wanting to play and the GS will urinate on him. I have planted bushes on that side of the fence to keep children in my yard from approaching the fence. The neighbor has bad dog...

Hello. I am having a problem with a neighbor's dog. We moved to this new home 5 months ago and have no pets. Our children are 10, 3, almost 2, and 7 months. Our yard has a chain-link fence around it. Our neighbors, who are the only people we have met so far, have five dogs. One is a shep mix. For approximately six weeks the dog was allowed to roam the neighborhood. One of its owners was out of town for that period of time. The dog roamed with another neighbor?s dog... The dog, whose owner...

We have a 5 yr old Rat terrier and we recently adopted a 5 yr old German Shepherd male which we immediately neutered. The dogs get along ok and they are very good with my 2yr old son. The GS has been obedience trained although I bought your video so I would know how to properly handle him. When people come to the door or drive down the driveway they bark and they get VERY aggressive. I try to correct them but I'm not sure if that's what I should be doing or maybe I should get the visitors to ...

I have a 5 acre farm and I wanted to adopt a dog to patrol it and keep the deer off. A good friend of mine who runs K-9 in central NJ let me know that he had a dog who was from Germany that belonged to a woman who paid $4000 for the dog, and when it was 2 years old it mauled her husband. When we went to pick the dog up we met the lady at a rest area. My friend said a neutral site would be best. He was muzzled and extremely aggressive. After 3 days of talking and walking the dog he seemed nerv...

I have a question I was unable to find already answered in the FAQs. I work at a skilled nursing facility with approximately 50 residents. The facility has a beautiful (slightly overweight) golden retriever that is very calm, gentle and even tempered. She loves to be the object of your attention and returns affection appropriately and never becomes over excited. In a word, this dog is perfect. The dog was lying in the sun rays on my office floor snoozing, when one particular reside...

I have a question regarding a neighbor's dog. We have three hounds (one blue tick and two bassets) who are wonderful animals. Yes, I am biased. My concern is with one of my neighbor's Huskies. Yesterday she bit my oldest dog. This is the forth dog she has bit to my knowledge. She also bit my husband when he foolishly tried to break up a dog fight. The attacks seem unprovoked. When I approach the husky she lays her ears back, crouches low to the ground and growls. Needless to say I ...

I just spent about 2 hours reading your site, helpful but I still need some input if you have time. I have a 3 yr old German Shepherd of which has Rott mix. In the last year or so she has become VERY aggressive. In this last year there have been approximately 4-5 full fledged attacks. Four of them being towards my wife, and a few minors towards myself. The dog weighs about 80lbs and is female, spayed. She has not been obedience trained. She is, however, fairly obedient of me. You C...

Hi, my name is Alexandre and I?m from Brazil. I have a 3 year old Bull Terrier called Brutus. Brutus is a very nice dog. He is smart, friendly, funny, loves to play with his toys, BUT... (this terrible word!!!) it has been doing some strange things. It?s kind of stubborn, and when I do something that it doesn?t agree with, it becomes aggressive. So, I have to be hard with it. For three times I had to hang his neck until it stopped growling and trying to bite me, but this aggressive...

Hello from Michigan. I am hoping you can answer a question for me. I have researched a lot of German shepherd information and recently purchased a female. I did not find your site until afterwards though, and I am hoping I am not sorry. I am so amazed and impressed with the information you make available. I will be ordering a video shortly. My question is, my female Sire: Addi von der Gundorfer Hohe and Bitch: Gini vom Merlin, is a very intelligent dog. But we do have a slight problem...Sa...

I've read all the articles of yours that I can find and I was wondering if you could help me. We have an 11-year-old golden Labrador whom we inherited from some friends who could no longer look after him. He has been in Labrador rescue where an elderly couple took him on but due to his size, had to give him up again. He was also looked after by a man who used to beat him. As a pup he was attacked by two Stafford shire bull terriers and it took two men to get the dogs off of him. By...