The Incident:
Recently, in the middle of the night, my wife got up to go to the bathroom. On her way back, she bent over and pet our dog who was laying on his bed. The dog went into attack mode. I woke up and yelled (not saying any thing, just made a loud sound) so as to get his attention off my wife and on to me. This worked and when he came at me I grabbed him by his collar and put him in his crate. The only other sign of possible handler aggression developing was that he occasionally gets sick and will growl if approached during or shortly after vomiting. I always put him in his kennel when he growled. All problems happen at night (including getting sick). The following day, the dog showed no signs of aggression towards me, however, growled at my wife when she called him. Any thoughts would be appreciated.

Some more background:
This has been our dog since it was a pup. He is fully house trained. He is aggressive towards other dog and all people who acknowledge his existence with the exception of my wife and my self. I've been working with him to solve this behavior. He currently ignores the dogs ot both sides of our backyard despite their constant barking at fence.(small distraction) He is not fixed. He has frequent dreams (sleep talking). He has moderately frequent vomiting (1-2 a month) which never occurred until after giving him some Hydrogen Peroxide to vomit up a tampon.(this occured 7-8 months ago at the advice of two seperate vets)

Other thoughts:
He could be showing some signs of pain aggression. possibly stomach cancer? He has not been to the vet in a while and does have issues with his ears. (mites possibly)(infection possibly)

More info:

What does "attack mode" mean, exactly.

Why no thorough vet exam?

Even an ear infection (stomach cancer aside) can be agonizing. How long has that been going on? What does it look like inside?

"Working with him" on aggression how?

How old is he?

Age: About 2 years

Ears: There is black gunk in there and he scratches at them on occasion. I have cleaned it out several time but it comes back. I don't recall how long, but my guess is 2 months

Vet: aggressive dog, recently moved, looking for new vet in area. (this is a new priority)

Attack mode: Jumps up aggressively while barking and snarling. He has not bitten anyone yet, but i don't plan on waiting till he does either.

Aggression work: I have taken out for walks and exercise, slowly working up distraction level but have only gotten to the point of him next to a fence with another dog on the other side. Till now, he showed no aggression towards me or my wife so i had no behavior to correct there.

Connie is probably right about to suggest this, but I think he needs to have a thorough exam by a vet to rule out any possible physical reason for his aggression. He could be in pain, and all the behavioural training in the world won't help that (plus, it really sucks for the dog). Get him examined even if it means he has to be sedated for the exam.

 Quote: angela burrell

Connie is probably right about to suggest this, but I think he needs to have a thorough exam by a vet to rule out any possible physical reason for his aggression. He could be in pain, and all the behavioural training in the world won't help that (plus, it really sucks for the dog). Get him examined even if it means he has to be sedated for the exam.

Huge ditto.

I'd have him sleep in his crate meanwhile, with the problems when he is awakened, etc., and I'd address the possible physical stuff asap.

"Black gunk" in the ears might be yeast, and might also be a miserable bacterial infection, or both.

P.S. The vomiting: actual vomitus, or frothy bile?

Vomit: the last time i saw it, it is a dark color. I don't recall if it was frothy, but definitely not clear.

For future reference, what are the general cause of either and which one would be of more concern?

If it was clear bile-type AND was only happening on an empty stomach, in an otherwise healthy dog, there would be a possibility that it was related to the empty stomach and could be avoided by changing meal timing.

Not the case here.

I bet when Alyssa sees this trhead,and she has many good tips how to help your dog. I want to say something, but I think I m going to wait... I do have a couple of questions though.

1. What are your assumptions that this dog is developing to be a handler aggressive?

2. Are you sure that this dog was not spooked when your wife went to pet him?

3. Can you care to elaborate more on the dog who is growling at your wife when she called him?

It's likely the ear infection that's making him vomit and that made him "correct" your wife. She might have rubbed the sore ear by accident. My old dog has chronic ear infections due to a benign tumor in his ear canal and when his ear is bad he doesn't even want to be touched on the neck. Zymox w/1% hydrocortisone is working better than any prescription I've gotten from the vet over the years. Give that a shot, it's about $10 plus shipping for a bottle from Amazon.

If it turns out to be his ears, will he change his demeanor towards my wife right away or will he have to be trained back into acceptance?

Why did he growl at my wife the next day (morning) when she called him?

Side note, dog is around 80-90LB