Mike, I believe your dog sees your daughter as weak now, after his attack on her and her reaction, which is not a good thing. Unless your daughter can overcome her fear of him, things may not change drastically. He is "putting her in her place" now. I don't understand why he is having the same reaction with you, unless you're also showing fear in some way.

Vet check and professional aggressive dog handler definitely in order. Hopefully you can find a trainer who actually has a lot of aggressive dog experience. Ask questions of anyone you call for help.

I believe any decision you make should be after you get the dog checked and evaluated. But that's my opinion. Meanwhile, I would not leave the dog loose in the house with the family. Either in a crate or outside.

Sandy thanks.

Dog is outside and I'm not showing fear. But I've been more protective of my daughter as of late in keeping him away from her. Maybe he's sensing that and doean't like it.

I'm working on getting him into a vet. A local dog behaviorist has reccommended one to me.

Thanks again.

In the mean time, you should buy and use a dog crate and start doing your groundwork.

Read the articles on this page.

http://www.leerburg.com/dominantdogs.htm

Angela,

Thanks, I've read that page already and the ebooks first referenced, plus spoke with a local dog behaviorist.

Mike when you work with a trainer, it is important that your daughter goes with you and puts in the effort to handle the dog to rebuild rank over him. There are safe ways to do this using 2 lines and a muzzle with 2 handlers + your daughter. If the dog gets stupid then your daughter can step out of the picture and the dog can be kept in the middle of the other 2 handlers by using the 2 lines where the dog can't reach anyone.

My female is very aggressive when I play with her. Anyone watching us would say my dog is trying to kill me. But, shes all of 37lbs, has no pack rank issues and I know how to handle her so I don't get hurt. If I "act scared", she instantly launches herself at my arm. In her case she's just playing, but dogs are very reactive to the body language a person shows when they are being submissive. With dogs who aren't playing, this can become a pack rank issue very quickly, and shifts in pack rank "stick" until the dog is put back in their place.

I caught the post from your daughter before it was deleted, and the key part, to me anyway, was the scared reaction she gave to the dog THREE TIMES. Now the dog has learnt that his behavior achieves results and he needs to learn to knock it off.

I truly believe that this can be corrected, but trust takes time, whether it be dogs or people. You and your family need to be willing to work on it with someone that can offer you correct guidance. In the dogs mind he is winning and he is top dog. Now he's going to stay like that until he is put back in his place. You can take the dog to training all you like, but without your daughter there to work the dog herself it won't do any good.

I think that once the dog figures out his place in the pack, something that maybe he has never truly understood 100%, that the trust between human and dog will rebuild as you see the results of his new behavior.

Just make sure the behaviorist you talk to knows what he's talking about, too many of them are full of fluff.

Good luck!

 Quote: Mike J Schoonbrood

Just make sure the behaviorist you talk to knows what he's talking about, too many of them are full of fluff. Good luck!

Perhaps printing out this thread (or at least what Mike has just written) can be of benefit to make sure the trainer is on board?

I completely agree that the daughter be a solid and interactive part of the training.

(Mike, you simply expounded on what I questioned and said in my last post here...how ironic, as I've learned a lot of my good solid questions and answers from you anyway... )

You have the right people helping you with the dog issues so nothing to even attempt to add there; this is way out of my league - I have owned several dogs over the years, but never had any real rank issues.

But I do have grown daughters and young grandaughters. Just remember your relatioship with her is more precious than with any animal, so be sure to really understand where and who she is right now in this picture.

One the one hand, rising over and mastering this will make her stronger and really boost her self confidence (good things for a girl in today's world); on the other hand she needs to know you value her much more than any dog and that she will not be forced into a situation where she is living in fear.