Aggression Q&As

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...

My name is Amanda. I have a very serious problem. I have a 9-year-old lab mix named Harley and a 1 1/2 year old Rott/lab named Jake and two children. I brought Jake home when he was 8 weeks in May of 99. We felt Harley needed a new companion after our Husky passed away the previous November. They had been together for almost 8 years. Well, Harley took Jake in right away with no incidents ever, until Harley stole a dog bone out of Jake's dish, when he was standing right there watchi...

I have been reading your web site and everything else that I can find on aggressive dogs. Sassy just turned 2 and is a golden from very good show lines and also according to the breeder from good temperament lines. She has had some food aggression problems in the past that I have worked on with her since we had her. I thought we had it pretty much fixed. I took her to training at 10 weeks old because of this and we have enjoyed it and been in training ever since. She has passed her therap...

My husband and I have a 5 yr. old Rhodesian Ridgeback that we got at 6 weeks of age. He has been a wonderful pet and friend to us but we are now faced with a difficult decision. For 5 yrs. it has only been the three of us. Both my husband and I have loved and treated Maxwell (the dog) as our child, a person more so than a dog. The only training that Maxwell has received was puppy training, but he has always been very well behaved for my husband and myself, though he definitely has ...

I have a 15-month-old male (not neutered yet) English Springer spaniel. This dog has been a sweet lovable member of our family since he was 8 weeks old. He gets a lot of exercise, love and kisses and attention and discipline. The last 3 days or so, we notice his intense need to get at the many squirrels in our yard, so much so that he has dug under the yard and escaped chasing the Squirrels down the street. He has done this several times in the last days or so. He doesn't seem interested ...

We have a four-year-old lab that in general is a very likable dog. She has developed an aggressive behavior that is quite odd. On her background, she came from a very reputable breeder of field Retrievers and has had solid obedience training. She is quite active and strong. She is friendly to strangers and children in our yard. About twelve months ago, I noticed one day after the gardeners had been to our house, she was acting odd. I inspected her and immediately noticed that she h...

I came to your web site hoping to find some answers concerning my aggressive German shepherd. I was very upset to see your answer for almost all of the concerned people are to putting their dog to sleep. This is a member of the family. We've had our dog for almost 5 years now, and a lot of the behavior some of these people described relates to our dog (Baldwin). His behavior upsets me, and concerns me whenever anybody new visits our home. But I don't think putting a dog down is the answer...

I have two dogs and both seem to show signs of aggression to people who are afraid of them. I do my best to question people to whether or not they are afraid before they approach. For some reason they always tell me no yet I can see it in their eyes. I know if I can see it my dogs can see it. It is at this point they begin to growl as the person approaches. I correct it at the time but is there anything I can do long term. Is this a sign of weak nerves or dominance? Can it be permanently ...

I'm an avid reader of your web site and would appreciate your input on this question. I have a 10-month-old male GSD (neutered at age 6 months). 48 hours ago while I was away at my sons' hockey tournament, my wife heard him barking very aggressively on our front porch. My wife was expecting a playmate for my other son to be dropped off and went to the door the check out the barking. My sons' 12-year-old friend was decked out in full ski apparel including ski hat and goggles scared to come...

I have question I hope you can answer for me. Our college-aged son adopted from a shelter a 2-year-old Kelpie and Australian Shepherd mix (I think). Anyway it is very evident the previous owners abused this dog. It hides from the newspaper when it is rolled up and it will run away from any balls etc. The problem is the dog is now living with us because our son is in an apartment in a large city with a new job that requires him to be gone 10 hours or so. The dog is well behaved except for ...