Hello,

Doing some prodding to see if our aggressive dog needs some training.

I did speak to another dog trainer and I'm looking for more opinions.

We have a shepard mix that brought home a little over two years ago. I don't know anything about the parents of the dog.

It's a male, he's spayed and has all his shots.

He has shown signs of aggression but more so just recently.

About two weeks ago my daughter was trying to pet him. We had just finished dinner and the dog was in the house by the table. She tried to reach out and pet him as she normally does and he got aggressive with her. He went on attack, got her on the ground and was about to go for neck but I interveened by grabbing his collar and wrestling him to the ground. In the process he bit me prestty bad, broke skin in several places.

Since then the dog has made two more aggressive attempts towards my daughter, both times she was doing nothing other then trying to pet the dog. In both instances he lunged towards her, and in one of these instances cornered her. Both times I again interveened then the dog stopped. I did feel he wanted to attack me though the second time.

My daughter has never been aggressive with the dog or teased it. Until recently they've been good friends and the dog was always excited to see her. She's now scared of the dog and we fear leaving her alone with the dog.

The dog has nipped at me and my wife a few times when eating so we make sure he eats outside and after we eat. Only dog food, as always.

We do live in a remote area and the dog doesn't see a lot of people. I've worked with the dog by taking him for walks and try getting him near people and he's pretty good with people for the most part but goes off when he see's cars.

I realize this may not be enough information to go off of but I thought I'd start checking around to see what my best avenue would be to resolve this issue.

Thanks in advance.

How old is your daughter?
You must never leave that dog alone with your daughter, under any circumstances. You can imagine what might have happened if you were not there to intervene.
Others more qualified than me to give advice will chime in soon with opinions/advice but for now here are some links you can start reading:

http://www.leerburg.com/pdf/packstructure.pdf (Pack Structure for Adult Dogs)

http://leerburg.com/pdf/dealingwithdominantdog.pdf (Dominant Dogs)

How old is your child?

Separate them completely. Do NOT leave her alone with the dog, or even allow proximity, while you address this. This is absolute... no ifs, ands, or buts.

You need to address this immediately.


What is your dog-training experience?

http://www.leerburg.com/dominantdogs.htm

http://www.leerburg.com/301.htm

http://www.leerburg.com/308.htm

Start with some free Podcasts:

http://leerburg.com/dogtrainingpodcasts.htm

and some reading.

My Daughter is 14 years old and I am currently reading dealing with dominant dogs right now.

Thanks

He went on attack, got her on the ground and was about to go for neck
You'll get good direction and advice here but for me personally, He'd be gone. It's not like he nipped her. Went for the neck???

My duaghter is 14.

Not nipping, more like showing teeth and wanting to bite. We feed the dog outside away from us and after we eat. It knows this.

I have limited dog training experience.

Yes, the neck and head. Got her the ground and went on attack. When I grabbed his collar he bit be pretty bad.

 Quote: steve strom

You'll get good direction and advice here but for me personally, He'd be gone. It's not like he nipped her. Went for the neck???

Yeah, that gives me considerable pause even knowing how much can change with proper structure and training.

Good luck to you Mike. I have three kids and we live with certain rules with the kids and dogs. Just going off what you say, my first thought would be to get rid of him. I don't think I would demand my family live with this dog and put all the work in that's needed.