Hi everyone, i'm a nebie here so I hope that I'm posting this in the right place. I need some advice on my dog's sudden behaviour.

I have two Dobermans a 6 y/o female and a 2 y/o male. I take them for walks regularily with my husband. Recently however I started going just with my dogs and boy did my dog's behaviour change.

Usually he would not pay much attention to people but now when its just me and him when someone is approaching us he puts his ears up, tail up in the air and he starts growling at them. No hackles up and no teeth just a deep growl.

Then there was one time when my husband wasn't home and a friend of ours came over to drop off some things. My dog knows this guy very well. We were walking accross the kitchen and i tripped and yelled "ouch". My dog ran up to him and bit him so hard he left puncture marks.

And just last night I was playing with my friend's dog who he also knows very well. I was clapping my hands and she started barking at me (that's how I always play with her) and he attacked her.

He is only like that when my husband is not around. I can't even talk to people I meet on our walks because if someone get too close he lunges at them. He gets agitated when people have something in their hand e.i. baseball bat.

Please if anyone has any idea why he's suddenly being like that and what I should do to correct it please let me know. I will really appreciate it.

Thanks <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

Hi Danielle,
Do you participate in the dogs' training? Their regular care and grooming? With the male, how is his obedience with you? Does he respect your commands? I would say that *probably*, he doesn't see you as a strong leader, like he does your husband. I think you should spend more time working with this dog in obedience and asserting basic leadership. If my dog growls or hackles at a nonthreatening stranger, I tell him "No" and give him a leash correction if needed, if on leash; if off leash, a "No" followed by an alternate command, such as a sit or a come.

Now, my dog is not protection trained, he is a house companion and tracking dog. I don't know how different the advice might be if your dog is protection trained. I'm sure you'll get lots of feedback.

sounds like your dog sees your husband as the alpha and when he is not around he assumes the role to an extreme.

seems a bit jumpy to attack b/c you said "ouch" though.
i'm surprise you never have seen any of this coming :rolleyes:
unless your husband is around you both everytime someone comes over or your out in public??

seems to be a nervy dog, how was the socialization been the past 2 years?

Welcome Danielle,

I feel that your dogs are taking on the role of Alpha when your husband is not present, which means they have no faith that you can handle threats, which means your lower in the ranks then they are. Not Good. I'm going to tell you, you are playing with a loded gun here and you need to get this under control now before someone get's really hurt. Two bites already! This is not good!

I would also say your dogs have weak nerves and see everything as a threat, even playing... even worse, this mixed with the other problem makes for a bad situation to be in.

My suggestions are as follows.

1: Never allow these dogs off-leash in public, period.
2: You need to start placing yourself higher in the pack status, by training Obd with these dogs without your hubby, so they learn and trust you can handle any situation and put them at ease when out goofing off, you can start to be the one feeding them and taking away food while eating, doing long downs couple times a day. You must gain control over these dogs. The protective nature is nice but needs to be channeled to real threats, not everything. Know what I mean?

I personally would be looking for some professional help in your area, there is no way we can fully assess your dogs via this BB, and give you complete advise on how to handle this, you need to do this right away.

I would read some of Ed's articals on fear biters and the dominate dog, these will help you establish some knowledge and game plan for how to start correcting this problem.

I also find it odd that is has taken 2 years to see this temperment issue...I don't mean to offend you or belittle you, so don't take it that way, but you really should have done some research into dog behaviour/temperment testing and training before you got a breed of this type and power....you guys dropped the ball so to speak, and that scares me.

But the fact that your asking for help is a good sign and I bieleve if you really work at it, you can turn this around and life will be good...so keep the questions coming!

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> We want to help!

Hi, thanks everyone for your input. I would just like to clarify a few things. I should have probably included them in my original post. Sorry. I am the one who does everything around the dog grooming, training etc. My husband has nothing to do with that. And my dog is obedient and he does listen to me. I never let him off leash though. He's always been good around everybody dogs/people its just recently that he developed this behaviour. And he still is, but he just gets possesive.

He's been socialized from the time we got him at 12 weeks. The thing is he suffered a real bad almost fatal injury and has been confined to our yard unfortunately for about 4 months. And when I started taking him for walks again that's when he started to act like that.

He is not an aggressive dog so to speak. Yes he barks frantically when someone is at the door but once they are inside he's really good. He's a really social dog he likes people. Its just on the walks he acts like that. I do correct him with the collar, but he doesn't really seem to care. And the thing is he doesn't lunge at people or snarl at them, he just stares them down and growls softly.

Thanks again I will try the things suggested to me and I'll keep you posted on the progress.

Well thank kinda paints a diffrent picture don't it? Can you detail the injury and the cause?

You are not correctiong hard enough if he does not seem to care. I suggest a prong collar and a level 12 correction on a scale of 1 to 10 as Ed puts it. He must learn that the correction he will recieve for growling out weighs the need to protect.

I will also re-add that even tho you do the training, which is good, he still feels the need to take action in your presents because he feels you cannot do the job...you might even want to show him you can by staging some "Scare aways" with your friends, go for a walk and have a friend he does not know so well walk towards you. BEFORE he reacts you can shout and "scare" the person away, have the friend run away and hide never to return. A few of thoes and he might change his mind on how able you are to protect the pack. If he reacts after you do, "Hammer him" on the prong and do not allow him to do anything, your the boss and you need no help from a lower ranking mutt like him... understand? hahahah <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />

Thanks again for the suggestion. I'll try "staging" a situation and see what happens.

We live up in Northwestern Ontario out in the country. We have 5 acres plus a river running through our property. Well I take my dogs for a run a lot of times down to the river. He's got so much energy its unbelievable. Well he was running through the bush (chasing a bird probably). He ran down a hill and I guess there was a branch sticking out or something because it went into his chest 9 inches deep. Almost came out by his shoulder blades.

Of course it had to happed on a sunday night. He had a punctured and collapsed lung. Punctured trachea, and he basically missed his heart by 3 inches. He did sever a major artery though. Poor guy. But he's fine now. He just needed a little time to heal.

My dog was confined to the house for two months following a surgery, and the first couple of times we went for a walk following his confinement, he did growl and hackle at strangers on the street. I did what I recommended to you in my original post. I only correct hard enough to stop the behavior. For my dog, it's a verbal correction and a very mild leash correction. It will take a stronger correction for yours, obviously. Also, you need to work on getting his attention on you. When you correct him and he doesn't seem to care, he's blowing you off. He should actually LOOK at you. You might want to try some focusing exercises with him, like where you say his name and reward him when he looks at you.

No offense to Lonny, but I'm concerned that staging a scare away could go awry too easily. I don't think you need to go to those lengths. Just correct the behavior and continue to socialize the dog. It's my theory that anytime a dog is deprived of social contact for a length of time, like following surgery or illness, you really need to go back and do some remedial socialization.

None taken.... between all of us, we might get it licked... I only offer these ideas just as that, ideas. he may not even be sharp.... could be just bored from being in the house for 4 months.

Lonney wrote: "I will also re-add that even though you do the training, which is good, he still feels the need to take action in your presence because he feels you cannot do the job...you might even want to show him you can by staging some "Scare aways" with your friends, go for a walk and have a friend he does not know so well walk towards you. BEFORE he reacts you can shout and "scare" the person away, have the friend run away and hide never to return."

What is that going to accomplish? Bro, I
don't think that is a very good idea. It is going to present another situation where the dog is gonna freak out. If anything it will reinforce the guarding/defensive behaviors for the next time.

Danielle, who knows why your dog is doing this, we certainly don't. You can't get an accurate picture of behavior over the web til Ed gets live streaming video. Come on Ed, just imagine the possibilities. Who cares what it costs? lol

So having said that I will now try to do so anyway, in the usual board fashion. lol

Fido is now two years old? That is a very reasonable time for his guard/defense instincts to be developed/developing. The issue of being penned up for awhile AND being injured is going to intensify those instincts. JMO

Just because you do the obedience and training with your dog does not always mean that he sees you as #1. My wifes JRT is a perfect example, she does all the work, grooming, training but guess who's #1? I think it has to do with the fact that I let that little devil get away with NOTHING. I have also been accused of having a dominate personality. (who could imagine?) Just a piece of info, I'm thinking that when hubby is gone your dog needs to be Mr. Protector? This MAY, or may not, have anything to do with dominance.

Sounds like you have a very nice natural protector. All you need to do now is train his obedience to 100%. Absolute control. . . Use a prong, get an e-collar or whatever, but do it fast.

Part of obedience is not allowing unwanted aggression. Be careful, have fun. . .

Find a pro-trainer in your area that is NOT a goofball. I think that dogs with strong guarding instincts benifit from protection training (if they can handle it mentally). First, as an outlet for those "drives" and second, as a set of "rules" that dictate conduct in threat situations. Have a good Schutzhund or Protection person look at, and evaluate, your dog. It will give a more accurate picture of what you are working with and if protection training is an option. From the sound of it your dog is a little sharp and defensive. Watch out for people that will want to use that fear as the means for "Guard Dog Training". That will -F- up your dog worse.

If there isn't anybody around that can help, you need to be very careful of what you do with your dog. More socialization at two years old is only gonna go so far. Obedience, obedience, obedience. . .

Just my opinions.