Aggression Q&As

Hello Cindy, I'm not planning on this happening again, but recently I walked past my dog who was lying on the floor. As I walked past him, he popped his head up and my knee clipped his snout. This was accidental, not intentional. It hurt him and he yelped. I felt very bad and went to 'apologize' (pet/reassure) and he growled at me! I told him in a low firm voice, 'no.' Then I left him alone to give him time to forgive me or forget about it. He doesn't growl at me; this is not a pattern. ...

I'm dog sitting for a friend and they have 5 dogs. I added my 1 year old to the pack since I'm watching them and the house. Yesterday the Alpha female who is a pug and my dog which is a large mixed breed female got into a bad fight over toys. They have NEVER had a problem before. As I went to break them up and get the pug out of my dog's mouth I got bit by the Alpha male who is a boxer. I know that he was just trying to protect the female so not holding a grudge. I'm not sure what to do at th...

I have a four year old Mastiff and a one year old Great Dane. I got both as puppies. The problem that I have now is that the Great Dane will attack my Mastiff if he comes to close to his food, toy, treat. The Great Dane even attacked the Mastiff when he tried to come over to me. There was no advance warning like growling. I always let the Great Dane know that his behavior was bad, and also let the Mastiff know that he was ok and doing nothing wrong. Most times when these attacks happen, withi...

I am in trouble after adopting my 2nd wire fox terrier a year ago. The newly adopted fox terrier, was in very poor condition from her previous owners and was without any training and chance to socialise with other dogs. She is nervous when seeing other dogs and she has bitten other dogs a couple of time already when on street. I could only stop her by giving her a mask when we go out. But she keeps fighting with my other wire fox terrier at home, biting her head during fights. I am so w...

Hello Cindy, How have you guys been? Hope all is well. A while back my GSD began urinating in an area in my home. I cleaned it with vinegar and soap and blocked him from that area. He then learned to open doors, deadbolts and doors that open in. He is too smart. He became an outside dog during the day and comes in to sleep. Now even if we leave him for a short time he on occasions will urinate. What can I do? This is my only issue, thanks to your videos he is great in every other as...

The other day I was taking our 1 and half year old Basset Hound on a walk when the neighbor child (12 years old) ran up and started to hug him, I notice she was starting to try and kiss his forehead so I hurried up and told her not to kiss him and tried to seperate them but our basset snaped at her. She has a stratch on her face and a cut lip (didn't require stitches). We are not sure if he actually bite her on the lip or just manged to cut the lip with his claws. Our nieghbors (her parents) ...

We bought a cocker spaniel around 12 weeks old. He will be five months next week. He is so smart and very easily house trained and learns new tricks/commands daily. He is very friendly when he meets new people and dogs. However, at home sometimes he is quite scary to me. Mason, our new dog, has some behaviors that make me nervous. If you go close to him when he is eating, he growls and if you get too close will show his teeth. If he is laying on the floor and you go to close to his toy, he wi...

Dear Ed and Cindy, I am asking for your recomendation of training video's. My 18 month old male akita has been "growling" at strangers and vet. At my request we did a thyroid ck and he is low thyroid. His temperment is now better w strangers. I feel it time to ramp up training as he should be feeling better. I got a muzzle for at the vet office from you, so they can be safe. I want to make sure no training mistakes are at the vet office. I use a prong collar on walks. I require him to hea...

The info on your site is very helpful. I have been with my boyfriend and we have been together for 2 years. He has a 4 year old German shepherd that is 100 pounds. In the past year, the dog has bitten 2 different people. Ever since he bit those people, he has become more aggressive towards me. He hasn't bit me (yet) but he growls and shows his teeth at me everyday. My boyfriend does not discipline him at all and he constantly yells at him all night long to lay down because he paces around the...

3 years ago my husband and I rescued a terrier mix from a southern rescue. Having had such good luck with our first rescue, we figured we couldn't go wrong. We were told Charlie was 6 months old, house and crate trained. The day we got Charlie he was covered in scratches, bites and feces. He was also clearly younger than 6 months old. His teeth had just started to poke through. Either way we brought him home and started to work with him. It was a nightmare. He was anxious and dog aggressi...

Hello Ed, I need a muzzle for my dog Diesel, and may have to find other alternatives anyway. Diesel has been our family dog since he was 7 weeks old, but he has recently shown aggression on more than one occasion towards my eldest daughter (15). He is only 1.5 years old, and is very protective with my five children, including my eldest. But, he will not tolerate ANY form of discipline towards my children when administered by my daughter. First, let me explain what the discipline entails: s...

Hi, I have had both my females, a french bulldog and an Amstaff living together since they were pups for the last year. Neither have been spayed. Recently my FB had a litter and I had seperated her down the side. The Amstaff had been barking and jumping at the gate for days. I kept the FB seperate until she gave me signs she was ready to leave, which was today, so I let her out. The Amstaff kept sniffing her, and standing rigid to her with her tail erect. After running out for an errand, I...

We rescued a 2+ yearod abused lab/chow mix. He was not neutered or trained. After 3 years, he is both, and we've tried to make up for the lack of socialization. However, he still -- very rarely -- bites. He's fine and then something scares him and there he goes. I know we can't make up for his first two years of abuse. And I know the conventional wisdom is to put him to sleep. I wonder, though -- what if we removed some/all of his teeth? I imagine it's expensive, but I don't see why it's not ...

I have a male bull terrier I have been showing since he was 4 months old and conformation classes since he was 12 weeks. We go to conformation classes every Tuesday. We recently had been to a show as a 9 month old pup. He was being judge by a man that should have never been in the ring with a puppy. The judge was very rough with him and he got spooked by the male judge and is now fear aggressive towards all men (he will let youth males touch him with out problems). He growls barks and would s...

Hi, I need a little advice, I have a 12 year old border collie, who is quite disobedient. He will not go on his lead, so this means he can't have a walk. If we try to put him on his lead he gets aggressive and will try to bite us, this is making us afraid of him and he knows it. This is causing us a great problem as we both work all day and so when we want to sleep at night the dog gets bored and barks and want to go out to the toilet. When he is out at night he barks and won't come in. He...

Hi Ed, First I want to thank you for all the information you've made available here on this website. I've been through so many of your articles, videos, and even the discussion forum and have learned a lot. I recently adopted a 2 year old GSD a few weeks ago. I've been putting her though your pack structure program, and thing seem to be going pretty well. She knows that she has to wait to go up/down the stairs, in/out the door/crate until I tell her she can go, she's very responsive ...

Hello, I have recently rescued a 7 year old Staffordshire Bull terrior/Jack Russell, her name is Penny. She is well behaved and has understood from the off that I am master. I was told she was dog aggressive and I am confident enough and usually able to distract her we she sees other dogs whilst out on the leash. However, yesterday as I walked round a blind corner another domesticated dog came with it's owner, Penny instantly lunged and bit the dog around the snout before I could react, th...

My son and daughter train 3 year old border collies for 4-h they are starting their 3rd year. The dogs are from the same litter. My son has the female Ruby and my daughter has the male Zeke. Last year Ruby got bite by another dog and she has been dog aggressive ever since. Once she starts this behavior then Zeke also becomes aggressive. The volunteers at dog practice feel exposing them to the other dogs during a meet and greet exercise will help where my children need to correct their dogs be...

Dear Cindy, I have been reading your Q&As about fearful dogs but still need help! My dog suddenly became extremely fearful. I don't know if its a "fearful stage" but he is definitely going through something. (6 mo. old) He has become SO fearful that even walks to go potty are a hassle. He tries to back out of his collar or run away when he sees cars driving by, hears voices, hears a radio, sees a person far away, loud noises. I am trying to just ignore it and trying to reinforce confidence...

I happened across your website today while doing a search on aggressive dog behavior. I have a Blue Heeler, and have raised him since he was 6 weeks old. He is now approaching 9 years. When he was a puppy, I was able to teach him to sit, shake, etc, and he listens fairly well when we are outside playing if it's just him and I. There has always been one other dog in our home, but within the last three years, my son moved his dog in (due to apartment living), and my daughter moved home with...