Thank you all who have offered advice so far. I will now answer some of the questions you have asked.



Max is 5 years old.

***A: so the dog has had 4 1/2 years of how knows what kind of training. I would have started traing as if he knew nothing & worked my way from there.

Max is the first dog I have ever had that does not even bark when someone comes to the front door. This is ironic considering the situation we are talking about.

***B. Barking doesn't mean anything. You can teach a dog to bark at things & on command if you want that. Barking has nothing to do with aggression.

I was aware of the incident with the previous owner but suspect that they could not afford him due to his allergies. It took 2 months of vet care to clean clean him up due to constant scratching and ear problems before I was allowed to take him home.

***C: Who knows exactly what their REAL reason for giving up the dog was.

I spend about 10 minutes a day going through the basic commands; sit, down, stay, but in the house and in the fenced yard.

***D: 10 min 1x a day would be my idea of not even minimal training time. I work with just maintanience training more than 10 min a day. ( I am not including exercise in this time...that an addition 1-2 hours a day plus another 2-3 hours of free time in my fenced back yard with me supervising.)


I suspect that he was jumping & nipping rather then direct aggression.

***E: I believe that if his 'attack' was REAL aggression he would have bitten harder & most likely would not have stopped at 2 bites.

I needed to get a leash to bring him back from the other dog's property and by the time I got it he was returning to my property. It was then that the incident happened.

***F: You should have just gone after the dog & grabbed him by the collar...I assume that he had on a collar.

I have sifted through the advice all of you have provided and at this point come to the following conclusions.

First I would like to keep his beautiful animal but don't want to have an imaginary or real menace in the neighborhood.

1. Personally, I don't believe that my training the dog is the answer to this problem. It seems to me that trying to train a dog in such a high distraction level situation such as another dog or person passing by my property requires a highly specialized trainer with the help of several people to create the desired situation.

***G: I DO believe that training IS the biggest part of the answer. That & proper containment. My dogs will stay in a down with with chasing running geese off the field, chipmonks or squirles running past them,kids running past them screaming kicking & throwing balls etc.(BTW .....I don't have any kids in my house). They will down in motion on command. This is ALL TRAINING. I did not need a special trianer to teach my dogs. It just takes, time, commitment & GRADUAL subjection to increaing distractions over time. The dog doesn't learn this without your spending the time to teach him.

And even then it would require constant retraining with no guarantee of success if someone like me were not in the front yard to say "NO".

***H: Dog must no be allowed in the FRONT yard without being on a leash. This dog MUST be under control at ALL times.

2. All the training in the world is not going to help if I don't happen to be there when someone else leaves a door open which realistically could happen.

***I: It is YOUR RESPONSIBILITY TO not let doors be open or gates to be open etc. If you can't watch the dog 100% of the time when he is loose in the house, he should be crated or closed in a room. There is NO excuse for this dog to accidentely get out a door to the outside in error. It's no different then if he were a puppy with no training as far as the confinement issue is concerned.



2.The only realistic solution seems to be to have some sort of barrier in the front yard as I do in the back. I cannot put up any sort of fence in the front yard.

It comes down to having is a very reliable electric fence or remote collar for the front yard. It may not be the perfect answer but I suspect that a electric fence plus training on using the fence as a deterrent might be the best answer.

***J: There are no guarantes with electric fences or even collars. (collar training needs to be done correctly. You just don't put it on the dog & stem them when they don't comply. It takes some time to train) I have my back & side yard fenced with a 6' stodkade fence & a 10 x 20 welded kennel in the middle of the yard if I need to put the dogs in there(I don't leave the property with my dogs outside). The gates on my fence are key PADLOCKED on the inside to prevent anyone from opening a gate by accident.

I would like to hear from anyone that has used an electric fence for a large dog, their opinions and what brand they found was the best.

***K: It sounds to me,JMO, that you don't have the commitment or desire and the time needed to really train this dog. It is not a quick fix to reliability train a dog. Maybe you should consider re-homing this dog with someone that is willing to put in the time needed to train.

Also, please keep sending your observations and advice.

Thanks.

So far I have not heard from anyone who uses an electric fence for GS.

So far I have not heard from anyone who uses an electric fence for GS.

Bill