I have a three year old un-neutered male GSD and a 14 year old fixed female GSD. Duke has never growled at anyone before, but when I had them out playing last night (I always supervise the nightly outings) he ran into Missy and knocked her over. I cuffed him to correct the behaviour and he growled at me! I IMMEDIATELY rolled him and put my hand to his throat, he continued to growl at me! Again, he has NEVER growled at anyone before. I continued the correction with me standing over him while he was on his back with my hands on his throat. As he continued to growl I picked him up off the ground and slammed him back down until he stopped growling, all the while staring directly into his eyes.

I have to admit to breaking one rule, instead of using just my hand to smack him, I took off my shoe and used that instead. I just can't get enough power from my hands to even get his attention.

(I can just guess what the neighbors thought, a 130 lb blond woman wrestling a 100lb GSD ) I then put him on his side and made him put his head flat on the ground. He stayed there until I was good and ready to put him into a heel to the house. He was totally ignored all night and this AM, when I let them out he was the last one outside and the last one down the stairs. I let him do his business and immediately rolled him to see his reaction. His tail went right between his legs and he wouldn't look me in the eyes.

Question: Did I miss any steps, or can anyone suggest anything else I could have tried or should have done?

THANKS,
Stephanie Marshall
http://www.rv-8.info

I would have to say that you are flirting with disaster in letting a young male "play" with an old female.
He is probably figuring out that she is a weak link in the pack and will start picking on her more and more.
If your not planning on breeding the dog, I would consider having him altered.
I am also confused by your statement that you cannot get enough strength to get his attention but you "picked him up off the ground and slammed him back down". I am not sure that physical strength should be required here rather than stronger leadership.
IMHO, I would say that you broke all the rules by "smacking" your dog.
I would never want my dogs to put their tails between their legs and avoid eye contact with me.
Also, you rolled your dog for no reason other than to "see his reaction", I don't agree with this at all. If the dog is doing nothing wrong then there is NO reason to correct him.
Here are a couple videos I would recommend for you:
http://www.leerburg.com/302.htm
http://www.leerburg.com/301.htm

This is just my opinion and you may get different opinions as people read this.

Good Heavens!!! If one of my guys ever growls at me and I can’t correct him with his collar, then I guess I’ll have to find him a new home, because I can’t possibly go through all that and get it right! I'm not being flip - I'm being serious.

First let me say welcome to the forum. You've come to a good place if you're willing to hear from a lot of knowledgeable people, and I hope that you are.

Yet I have to say that I'm pretty shocked with your form of correction on your dog, and don't agree with it at all. The cuffing, the rolling, the hands on the throat, the picking him up and slamming him down, using your hand to smack him, and using a shoe to hit him. ???

Please read this article that Ed Frawley wrote on this website: http://www.leerburg.com/corrections.htm - scroll down to where it says Inappropriate Corrections. There are a lot of good articles on the site and a lot of good threads here on the forum - do a forum search on "alpha roll" to get some good opinions on this form of correction.

I would like to know what the dog did wrong?

I'm not a trainer so you can take what I say and ignore it but it sounds like you were more than unfair. Your post says the two dogs were playing with each other and he "ran into Missy". So what. Why is he getting corrected for that?? You "slammed him" back down to the ground? I would have growled at you too.

I would think that if this is the first time he became too rough for your 14 year old GSD, then a more fair correction would be in order. If this is not the first time he has been too rough, then you are at fault in my opinion. Why are you allowing them the interaction if this is what happens?

I believe one of the first rules of pack leadership is that the pack leader is fair.

My thoughts exactly Judy....violent corrections are just that, violent. The dogs were playing....well, you said it perfectly.

I agree, hitting or smacking a dog with your hand or an object is not the way to go.
My worry now would be that you may have over corrected the dog. If my dog avoided eye contact with me, I would think he had been over corrected. That shouldn't be the goal.
I know that your dog growling at you is completely un-acceptable...but the force of corection should meet the requirements of the dog.
Sounds like you might've gone a bit too hard and you may have effected your bond with him.
Trust is earned, not forced.
And you shouldn't roll the dog for no reason...thats just an unfair correction that he didn't deserve.
You can't test pack leadership or wether he's learned his "lesson" by doing that.
I know that growling at the owner requires a harder correcting than one you would give for mis-behaving. But it should still only be as hard as the dog can handle and shouldn't involve slamming him on the ground.
One of the articles on here talks about what to do if your dog tries to bite you, and it doesn't say anything about laying your hands on the dog but explains how to get a grip on the situation using the dogs leash and collar and stringing the dog up. But remaing CALM through the whole thing, and not laying your hands on the dog.

The fact that you hit your dog in the first place I think is less than correct.

The fact that you used your shoe is just plain beating your dog in my eyes.

Sure it's hard to get the attention some times, but in the Pack word, the pack header would never smack another dog to put it in line,(no hands) or beat it with a shoe.

Correctly showing your dog it's place is correct, but this sounded over the top.
Beating your dog will cause more problems then good.