My wife and I recently bought a Rott/GSD mix. "Mojo" was 13 weeks when we bought him and is now 4 months and 1 week. I have both the DVD's "Puppies 8 weeks to 8 months" and "basic dog obedience". I have a growing concern with Mojo in that he will growl and snap at our son when our son walks past his crate by himself. If my wife, our daughter or myself are by our son Zach, Mojo does not snap at Zach. The lady we bought him from had a younger son as well and she had the dog for 5 weeks. My wife and I wondered if the dog was tormented by the other child as a young puppy thus the reaction Mojo gives our son. Mojo does not do this with our 9 year old daughter, my wife or myself. He has gone through a lot of training thus far and is very adept at walking on a lead, sit, down, and in your house. We have him on lead in house and in his crate when we cannot devote the attention to him. We are doing everything in the videos but I do not want a loose cannon. Our female shepherd was bought at 8 weeks and the male shepherd we just put to sleep was bought at 10 weeks. Never once did we ever have a problem with either dogs with our children, which by the way, were a lot younger. I am wondering if there was a problem in the 5 weeks that Mojo wasn't owned by us. The lady said the landlord would not let her keep him because of the size he will reach and we took it as that...it could have been a lie but I cannot speculate at this point. I need to correct this now.

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I need to correct this now.

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YES. That is so true. Whatever happened at 5 weeks on up to the 13 weeks will likely never be known to you. Ultimately, that doesn't matter.

If you have your dog on lead in the house or crated, are you following through with correction when the growling occurs? Is there by any chance food near by when this occurs?

COMPLETELY UNACCEPTABLE situation and the dog needs to understand that, this is your job as his leader. You let him get away with it, he's gonna likely do worse later.

Also, at 4 months, your dog may be testing his rank over Zach. Again, completely unacceptable and it is your job to help him understand this through, IMO, correction and rewards when he is well mannered around your son.

I am not a professional trainer, simply posting my response based on what I've read on this board.

What's going on in the crate while your son walks by? Does Mojo have food? Toys? Is your son staring at him while he walks by (which he might, especially since the dog is behaving this way toward him)? Does he do this any other time, or just while he's in the crate?

My GSD is absolutely vicious while in his crate. He will go off on anyone besides me who gets too close to his crate, especially if that person is staring at him. However, he does NOT do this to children. It has never been of great concern to me because it's just his one little quirk; he is totally fine as soon as he's released from the crate. BUT-this behavior is NOT acceptable when the target is your son. I wish I had an answer for you that was more helpful, but in my case, it seems to stem from territorial aggression, and not a fear-related thing, which may or may not be easier to correct.

How is he toward your son otherwise? Is it possible that he accepts all the "bigger" people and like Michele suggested, is just testing rank over your smaller son? While no one likes to be too harsh on a puppy, I'd say you need to nip this NOW, no pun intended. I wouldn't hesitate to correct strongly for this. Why not put him on a prong or dominant dog collar w/the leash outside the crate so you can correct him the instant he fires up on your son? There can't be any mistakes about what the correction was for, b/c the dog, too, is a baby. You don't want him to associate the child with the correction, however, so maybe that's a horrible idea. I dunno. If he's good otherwise, maybe increase the amount of supervised petting/time together w/your son and reward Mojo generously? Maybe then he'd see him as a really, really good thing instead of an adversary, person to fear, etc. You'll never know why he's like that, but IMO, he's young enough to learn differently if this was a learned behavior/response. I would certainly use as much positive reinforcement as possible, at least until it becomes obvious that it's not helping and more drastic measures are needed.

I am finding it exceedingly difficult to come up with a correction while he is in his crate because I will not attach a leash to him while he is in there...if he gets hung up or something, it could be fatal, so the only thing I can do is yell "NO" at him...short of hauling him out of his cage and planting him on the ground to submit. Maybe a shock collar to correct? I dunno. Mojo did have a couple chew toys that we supervised him with while in the crate. He has lost some of his teeth thus far but those canines are swelled up like a peach right now and he is teething badly with them...we allow him to have a chew toy to help ease the pain. As far as Zach looking at the dog, this is not the case...simply walking by is all it takes regardless of eye contact. He did snap at Zach once while I was at work and my wife was petting him off lead in our house. He didn't actually bite Zach but grazed the skin on his hand. Probably due to how fast he pulled away at the snap. We have now officially agreed on a new rule. Regardless of the ability to supervise off lead or not...the dog will be on a lead in the house at all times with his prong collar on. He will not be allowed to have any chew toy in his crate at any time and his food will be strictly watched when the kids are around...meaning if he hasn't finished yet, the kids will not be allowed to go by his crate. I was also going to hold off till around 6-8 months for a nueter but this will happen in the next couple weeks instead. Mojo was even praised by the vets as being by far the most confident and stable puppy they have seen in a long long time. That leads me to believe that he has the abiltity to learn his place...if so, he will be welcome. If not, I will not compromise the saftey of our children.

 Quote: jeff_marshall

I am finding it exceedingly difficult to come up with a correction while he is in his crate because I will not attach a leash to him while he is in there...if he gets hung up or something, it could be fatal, so the only thing I can do is yell "NO" at him...short of hauling him out of his cage and planting him on the ground to submit. Maybe a shock collar to correct?

How does your dog react to a spray bottle? My dog happens to hate it. When he used to chew on his comforter in his crate, I'd give him a couple of squirts right in the face along with a firm "NO". It would stop him right in his tracks. Eventually, if he started to chew, all I would have to do is pick up the squirt bottle and he would immediately sit up and stop. It only took a couple of times for him to get the picture. Now there is no more chewing. But this was for a much more benign offense and it was not for inappropriate pack behavior.

Well the spray bottle seems like it would be a good idea. I will have to give that a try. I have a feeling that the dog will need some more 1 on 1 time with me to fully establish my leadership over him as a pack leader and if this means no interaction with the kids in the short haul, so be it given the long haul will be more beneficial to a good relationship with our kids. I did have a growl from Mojo today while I was petting him and allowed Zach to come up to pet Mojo as well. There was a very perceptable low drone type of growl from Mojo after about 30 seconds of Zach petting him even while my hands were on Mojo as well while he was on a leash and prong collar on our living room floor. As soon as the growl came, I gave him immediately without hesitance one helluva pop on that prong collar...I was actually waiting for it becasue I figured it would happen and it did...and he yelped very loudly...I know this did not feel good to Mojo in the least...it was a very good sized pop...maybe a level 7 correction on Ed's view of correction level. I did, however read all of the correction discussion that Ed wrote and I gave Mojo...who is very prey and food driven...a piece of liver which he loves about 10 seconds after the correction and he readily gobbled it up without even thinking about it. This tells me that the correction was strong enough...and believe me, I am not a weak person, I actually thought it may have been too hard at first...but not detrimental to the dogs well being. After the treat, I went out and took him for a long walk which he thoroughly enjoys to do. Even at 4 months he walks right by my side at all times unless there is another person or a car or a dog...whatever...then he needs some good handling and popping and then down...he will learn but that is a different chapter. Point is, I think I got the point across very clearly, but didn't slow his drive or weaken him...just displayed that Zach is my son and his attitude is absolutely not acceptable. It is now a challenge to me...and you have to understand what makes me tick, I refuse to be beaten at anything I have my head set on...to turn this dog into a good one with our kids. Any advice to this post is welcome in all aspects as well...it is only going to make me a better handler and owner...believe me! Thank you!

Jeff, it sounds like you handled the situation very well!

The only thing I'd add is that there is a difference in giving corrections for obedience mistakes and for inappropriate back behaviour. After an obedience correction, the dog obeys your command and you praise it (food, toys etc.)

However, Ed is clear (on the dominant dog dvd) that you do not praise after giving a correction for inappropriate pack behaviour. In other words, if your pup growls at your son, or acts aggressively towards other people/animals, you give it a correction and you don't follow with praise or rewards. That will only confuse the dog. (This is a direct quote from Ed, by the way - you might consider the dominant dog DVD, it has excellent advice on it).

Good luck with your puppy, sounds like you're doing just about everything right. Hopefully he'll learn to respect and accept your son in no time. Not allowing the pup to enter your son's bedroom or to play with your son's toys will also get into his head that your son ranks higher than he does

Yuko is 100% correct - you don't ever praise after an aggression issue like this. The dog need to learn that unwarranted aggression results in a firm meaningfull correction.

I would put a No-Bark collar on a dog like this when it was in thew crate - it works - get the Tri Tronic no bark collar and set it to low - it's self correcting and it sounds like this dog needs it. If its doing these kinds of things now you need to stay on top of it.

Here is the link http://leerburg.com/815.htm

Jeff, just to be clear, I was not advocating ever leaving the dog with a leash in the crate; I meant it as more of a possible "set-up" so you could immediately correct. It would seem that by the time you got him out of the crate, the timing would be too far off to be of any help. You need to be careful that he doesn't associate corrections with your son, so the timing has to be PERFECT. Unfortunately...I do not have the magic answer to this. It sounds like you're on track, anyhow. Perhaps in time he'll respond. It's possible that he was tormented by the last young child; if this is the case, consistent positive experiences where your son is concerned may help, combined with hard corrections at the instant he fires up. Good luck! I think your attitude and determination will pay off!

 Quote: Jenni Williams

Jeff, just to be clear, I was not advocating ever leaving the dog with a leash in the crate;

Oh I never took it as such Jenni...not a problem. I am very determined to get this done...I am not one to give up...ever!