Tammy
I think you ment to say "dominated by people". I honestly dont mean to be a smart ass, But Good luck!
How old is she?
The voice thing is probably becouse of the previous owner.And that would be why she wont take commands from a man. My guess is all she got was attention and no correction so she is so soft that you raise your voice and she cringes.
I work for a breader that has a lot of dogs like this. There problem is they had no socialization. For the owner its OK becouse she never go's anywere and neither do the dogs. But then when she retires them and tries to find a home for them They dont know how to function. I just give as much T L C as possible and try to socialize them as slow as possible. But its slow and usually doesn't accomplish much.
If you find something that works I'd appreciate hearing about it.

Luck to you
Ron

I think you are probably correct. Although I do need to clarify one thing. She is a very dominant dog when it comes to us. She worked very hard to dominate me and my children. It has only been lately that she has finally gotten the hint that she is low in pack order. She was growling and tried to bite at times.

My husband thinks that she just hates being told what to do. I am not sure. We have played with the idea of selling her, but who would want such a tempermental dog?

Don't get me wrong, she has some wonderful qualities. She is very protective, is not overly demanding, allows me to clip her nails and groom her daily without a fuss and sits at my feet no matter where I am in the house.

BUT... when it is time to obey a command...I just pray that she is in an obeying mood. I have come to the point of keeping her prong collar on her as her correction tool. I doubt that this is working.

We are praying that our new pup will become the dog she is having a hard time being. We probably will keep her. She will be our outside dog and our pup will be our house pet. I will continue to socialize our female (2 1/2 years old). She goes out like I said in my original post everyday. She absolutly hates it. I will keep you posted on her condition and am open to any further comments on this topic.

It sounds like Ron was right on the money. She sounds like she has not been socialized. I have had two dogs like this that were raised in kennels without a lot of socialization. It takes a long time to change it. If it ever changes at all. It also sounds like a fear problem and suspicion of people and their motives. The aggression is most likely a superficial defence mechenism she developed because of her fear. I don't think it would be a good idea to keep her as an outside pet. Find someone who can spend 24 hours a day with her and make her their life. That will be her best chance at overcoming these problems.

I have to agree with Eric on this. This dog would not do well as an outside dog. If you can't or don't want to spend the time training and socializing her, then find someone who does and WILL. This dog needs a lot of things, but living outside away from her family is definitely NOT one of them.

I wonder if the growling and other "dominate" behavior isn't really fear behavior and your heavy handed training and "maintaining pack order" has made it worse?

Just another thought, often I see dogs with fear issues and their owners mistake them for dominance. Just because a dog growls at you or appears to be pushing limits doesn't mean the dog is dominate. All dogs will push the limits with new owners to some extent.

Really it doesn't make much difference for my fix.

Take off the prong, crate train the dog, use that time in the crate to build a little boredom and frustration, find out what it is that motivates your dog (food, ball, tug, praise) and work on positive training in your backyard for about 4 months. (crate training, withheld meals, and withheld toys always works to build drive where you don't have it)

To bond make all the time you spend together quality time, don't allow the dog free run of the house (use the time in a crate or kennel as a training tool, BUT don't leave the dog in a crate, kennel, or outside all day!! Spend the time with the dog), hand feed the dog as much as possible for about 6 weeks (during training is best), leave the corrections and heavy handed pack ordering for later AFTER you have build trust and a relationship.

Work on basic obedience to fix dominance problems. The sooner the dog learns that he gets what he wants by doing what you want him to do the sooner you and your family will become #1 to him.

Bonding with a new dog who has some good strong character or some lesser character (fear issues) takes a LONG TIME.

Example, when I got my first real powerful, very dominate monster working shepherd, we worked for well over 8 months before I felt he even liked me. I had to earn his trust and respect before I demanded it in training.

WOW! If I knew how to spell Fenominal I would say that those answers were just that!!!!

I really think you all have it right on target. I see where fear was mistaken for dominance now. Yesterday she was terribly afraid of me for no aparent reason, today I am the love of her life.

She loves praise more than anything, and I will do just that. She hates the kennel but love it under the babies crib (which I will not allow her near, but she is very sneaky.)

My home is absolutly the opposite of where she grew-up. Loud noises, 5 boys and firm discipline. All the things she hates. I will give her one year to try to aclimate her to our home. Doing all that Van Camp suggested (THANKS VAN!!!). If things do not progress, (which I think all will be fine) then I will find her a home with a single person who can baby her.

I agree Let her get used to her NEW family its just as if you were moving to a whole new town by yourself and didnt know anybody get the feeling?Anyway we had a mastiff 170 lb female that we had gotten as a 6month old puppy ( shes 170 now not then ) who did the same thing she lives with my mother in law now and now whenever I go there I cant get away from her she actually forces herself on me, so they do come around. We also had a rottweiler rescue about 7 years ago. Long story short we found a " Breeder " that had this " problem " 5 year old male that she couldnt even get in to feed she had to feed through a chute into his bucket. We got the dog brought him home, went to give him a shot, he took my whole hand in his mouth and held down. i put the dog in the cage and wondered what to do with him. A friend of mine came over who is spanish speaking the dog heard him and got extremely excited wagging his stub and being friendly. I was amazed. when I did a search of the previous owner I find he was a spanish speaking gentleman who taught the dog everything in spanish. Basically what I am trying to say is it was a case of "CULTURE SHOCK "

Purely Positive Training: Companion to Competition, by Sheila Booth is a great book. I would suggest that everyone interested in dog training read that one.