I recently had a dog returned after a bite. Details are very sketchy, but apparently he did get out and bite someone that was working at a neighbors home.

While the bite does seem indisputable, I'm not seeing the behavior. I'm seeing a good dog with high thresholds. I've taken him out a lot and am continuing to expose him to as much as possible to see if anything triggers any thing close to that behavior.

Nada.

I suspect he will be here for a couple of months or for as long as takes for me to be 100 percent sure and then IF I place him it will to be a carefully selected home with full disclosure.

I will also be putting some solid ob on him while he's here, he basically has house or pet manners and that's about it.

He will be evaluated by a friend that works with aggressive dogs, I want to make sure that I'm seeing what I think I'm seeing and not what I want to see or expect to see based on his bloodlines. Sometimes it's hard to step back from your own breeding's.

Any ideas on how to further test him? Besides just exposing him to as many experiences and stimulus as possible?

In my experience from AC, temperment testing is far from 100%. My suggestion would be to try and recreate the scenario to see what might have provoked it and then hopefully fix it. I would also suggest doing testing during different times of the of the day, morning, afternoon, evening as to a dog things that are non threatening in the afternoon may be very threatening in the dark, etc. Good luck, I hope things work out for him.

No real suggestions for your situation but, IME, in ANY situation where you only get sketchy details you've got people who don't want to admit to the part they played in the problem.

It's hard to recreate this situation as apparently both of their
German Shepherds got out and spent a few hours wandering the neighborhood while the owners were at work.

It's puzzling, so far I'm seeing a very social dog with rock solid nerves and I tend to think something funky happened. BUT
I now have a dog with a known bite history. Changes things dramatically. I have to go with the bite history.

Since it was a worker with the landscaping company we've tested him around mowers, tractors, trimmers, all of that and he just looks at it as if to say "Boy that's an obnoxious noise" and goes on with whatever he is doing.

MHO, and it's purely speculation:

You aren't going to be able to replicate the situation because the dogs were running on their own. 2 dogs will feed off each other, and make decisions that they wouldn't normally make if they were by themselves or with their handler.

2 dogs trained to solid off leash obedience will always slip when they first start working together. This was probably exacerbated by the fact that the dogs spent so much time together in the home, without supervision or formal training. They may have been "doggie," if you're familiar with the term. If the dog has minimal training, it shows that the owners didn't spend much time focusing on the dog, and it was just hanging around the house. This could indicate a lack of structure on the part of the owners, so the dogs worked it out on their own.

As for testing, I would suggest trying people of different ethnic backgrounds, smokers, men trying to shoo the dog away... You may never see the aggression because the other dog isn't there, and you are. He could have been protecting the other dog, may have been struck or kicked, something thrown at him... hard to tell.

All JMHO. I hope it works out Betty!

Hey Sweetie!
I was hoping you would chime in.

Your thoughts are pretty much mine. And you hit on a very important point. The other dog is a sweetie but is extremely skittish, I've boarded her. I did wonder also if that could of
played into it. Out of the two she is the one someone would try and approach if they were trying to do a good deed by looking for tags and it would of terrified her.

He's safe now, that's the important thing and has a home here for as long as he needs it.

Totally agree with you there, and sometimes dogs pick up on things about people we can't. I always pay attention to my dogs reactions to certain people.

Thank you for taking care of him.

Thank you Jodi, but no thanks necessary. I brought him into the world and that's an obligation I took on the day I bred his parents.

I understand I will never really know what happened but it's very frustrating and I wish I did.

To follow up on David's suggestions. I think you need to see how the dog handles pressure from someone it doesn't know. Yelling, teasing threatening. Be prepared to make a correction so the dog understands what's expected.