Hi! I have a question for you guys. A friend of mine came to me, asking my advise about a dog of hers. She has a 3 year old male intact Akita that is suddenly showing some aggression problems around her 7 year old child.
Here is what happened: we live in Maryland and have recently gotten a ton of snow. Normally, her dogs stay outside in a kennel, but because of the snow, they have been staying inside in the basement in crates. This Akita had a toy in his crate when the kid went down to the basement and the dog absolutely went ballistic! Lunging and snarling, the whole thing. I am well aware that he was acting out of possesion-aggression. What I'm not sure about, is exactly how to treat this problem! The family is afraid to let him near their kid, and I agree with them!!! This said..I'm not sure how he would react around the kid if there wasn't a toy in the picture, but again I don't want to risk it to find out because this dog has been acting "strange" lately.
They don't want to neuter him, as he is a show dog.
By the way, this dog has always had an iffy temperment. He has dominance issues with the whole family. He has never had any training whatsoever and has spent most of his life in a kennel!
Many people she has talked to has told her to put the dog down. What do you guys think?

What would I do? Get rid of it - or put it down.

Akitas are flaky dogs at the best of times. Do something now before someone gets hurt. Either get rid, or throw it back outside in it's kennel!

Sorry to be of no help at all.. but I have ZERO tolerence for kid aggression of any kind.

By the way, this dog has always had an iffy temperment. He has dominance issues with the whole family.
This is a train wreak waiting to happen. These people have let dominance issues continue and this is the price they are going to pay. I agree, put the dog in kennel always or put it down. I don't suggest finding dog a new home since that is just moving the problem and not solving it. As for breeding this animal with a poor temperment, shame on them.

YOU, SHOULD PUT DOWN THE STUPID OWNER FOR HAVING THAT BREED,nOT TRAINING IT AND LOCKING IT IN A CRATE!
Just my openion

Ron

Thank you for your opinions. Putting the dog down does seem to be the best option, sadly. By the way, they aren't going to breed him (thank god!), they just can't neuter him for showing purposes.
They were thinking about giving him to a couple who had shown interest in him before. This couple has no kids. However, I am with you Kim, in the opinion that that would not solve the problem. It is only a matter of time before this dog could come into contact with some other kid somewhere.
Very sad story <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/frown.gif" alt="" /> This couple has had THE WORST luck with Akitas lately.
One good thing: they are willing to put the dog down.

Strange to me,
They aren't willing to neuter him, but they are willing to put him down.
Not that I think neutering will solve the problem, just don't understand the logic.

Alot of show poeple are like this -I hate to generalise but its true. I'm into showing and have met MANY people who treat dogs like a things, like a stamp collection. All they are interested in is showing and will kill a dog before they neuter him (not that it would help in this case). They fail to realise the simple truth: You just can't own a big dog with out training him. Not on this planet.
I wouldn't put the dog down -since it hasn't had any training whatsoever, not based on this one incident. I would train the sh** out of him though and give him to someone without kids. He definetely needs to learn to ignore children when he has a toy, even if he won't ever actually live with a child, simply because children and toys are everywhere on our planet! It is obvious that he has not been socialised around kids though (this is very hard to achieve at his age), so he can never be completely trusted -he should never live with children. He needs an experienced and dominant owner who won't take any bull. If training doesn't take and/or and a proper owner isn't found, THEN the dog should be put down.
I wish you could convince these people to collect stuffed animals instead. But they don't get any ribbons -do they? Maybe they'd do better with a breed like the Newfoundland. Then again, you can't imagine what stupid people can do to ruin even the sweetest of dogs...

I think the problem is with the dog owner's, pardon me while I raise these issues.

1. How can you own a dominate breed dog without training it and expect have to a good pet?

2. How can you show a dog without some kind of training? This dog would probably show aggression toward the judge if he tried to touch him or came near him, which is required to check comformation and temperment.

3.If he lets the judge and other dog people touch him and handle him, it may be just your family is not trying or cannot control this dog. It could have been the toy but that still an dominate issue, that should have been handled when the dog was young.

You should be able to physically or verbally take a steak out of his mouth, without aggression.

Solution if you want to keep the dog get some professional help. After his/her evaluation of both you and the dog, then decided what to do. The dog may be too dominated for you. You may not be dog people, gold fish are pretty meek and you don't have to train them. A Cat maybe you can show a Cat.

Next issue buy Lab if you just want a dog that you can show and not train. They kinda come train with training in there genes. But even this breed, it can be dominate. Get some training before you buy another dog, especially another Akita, Dobermann, GSD, Rottie ... <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

 Quote:

Originally posted by Don B. Ackerson:
Next issue buy Lab if you just want a dog that you can show and not train. They kinda come train with training in there genes.

WRONG!!!!! The last thing we need is for more irresponsible people to go out and buy Labs!!!!! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> Labrador Retrievers require a great deal of care and training, and like ANY dog, can have dominance issues or fear issues if not properly trained and socialized. Dominance is probably less likely than with some breeds, but due to overbreeding and poor breeding practices in general, aggression is, sadly, becoming less rare with this breed.

Lisa is on the money. Don, you are way out in left field on the Lab comment you made.

I don't think we should be putting this dog down before giving solid obedience training(which this dog has never had)a chance.