The reasons myself and a few others have been so hot tempered with you is the fact you keep coming to the message board reporting you have done the same mistake over and over. Puting your childern in danger.

Next you act offended that we tell you the dog you got aint Lassie.

But geting a adult dog thats not trained well and leting him with your kids takes time and alot of reading.
My GSD is 6 months old now and in six month I have read every article Ed has wrote or at least I could find.
How many have you read?

You keep asking for a time period how long do you keep him tethered. Well lets see if you got a puppy how long before he could really hurt you kids 8 months how long before I would leave him loose in the house with out me right over him maybe 2years. You can start at those time periods.

Ed
Says he would never allow a new pup loose untethered in his house till after two years of age, and thats two years of Ed training a dog and I dont know if I will ever be as good as he is at training a dog.

Normally you dont have to wait that long with a adult dog mainly because they no longer have puppy habits.
But with a dog with problems like you said I would start with the understanding it is going to last two years and shorten it from there.

Also get a trainer to evaluate the dog I will just be honest I dont trust your evaluation of the dog. You have been through to many dogs without understand what to look for so I dont trust your skills to know if a dog has agression or not.

I dont mean to offend just look at this from our point of view you ask us for help.

All so if you descide that you cant keep this dog too.
Next time I would look for a Collie or Golden they are more forgiveing now not to say that labs not for giving I have just found more agression in labs than in Goldens.

 Quote: Stephanie St Julian

I have something to say bounette.
Mike can give you great advice a lot of people can they are being the way they are for the safety of your child a person they dont even know the the safety of your dog a animal they dont even know.
So I dont know why you think it is ok to talk to people like you are but it bothers me a lot.
All anyone is worried about was your child and dogs safety.
I have got many harsh words but read and think I think your the child in this situation not mike. They are being harsh because they want you to understand that this situtation is not good.
IMO Send the dog back Start over you dont seem to like to listen so start over and you need to stop being rude to people who are worried about your family when they really dont have to be

If this post is not ok please delete but it really bothers me when people get such great help and get stupid about what poeple are saying

well first i got rude with people getting rude with me.

IF I THOUGHT IT WAS A JOKE I WOULD NOT BE ON HERE ASKING QUESTIONS AND ADVICE.
if t was a joke you would be reading about me on the news not getting my questions on a forum

i am asking for advice and I AM utilizing it!!!

what ticks me off is that people come with these oh so self righteous attitudes. that's a pain when i have to weed out the sarcasm from the sound advice. so maybe take a good look through the whole post and you tell me when and where i got nasty with anyone without being some what attacked first.

i am right in thinking this board is here for people to share advice and problems they may be having correct. i would rather be nice to all and have adult conversations. i already said numerous times i come here because I KNOW MOST OF TH POPLE HERE HAVE TONS MORE KNOWLEDGE AND EXPERIENCE THAN I DO. so when i ask questions and i'm really trying to work through a probem and get real answers to be shot at with criticisms and sarcasm is just annoying, and i only lowers what i think of the people dishing it out. i only want the advice to make my situation and experience a positive one.
i am sorry if anyone else thinks i am being nasty. i all too many tmes see people come to this board over the years for advice and get get talked to like they are stupid. how childish.

 Quote: Michael Haddon

 Quote:

i was worried about but did feel urgency with was his bad dog aggression, and him being aggressive with other people that came into the house, or even on walks. i felt nn urgency with thse things because i would put him in crate or in another room when company came over and he acted inappropriately.

Its to late for me to say what needs to be said here. I dont intend on jumping on your case anymore.

With this dogs problems you are going to have a long wait. You should never have allowed him around your kids.
Why would you have taken a dog that was people agressive and dog agressive if you didnt want an agressive dog.
You dont have the knollege to deal with a dog like this one.
I will discuss this more after I get some sleep.
I just didnt want everyone to miss that you were telling us he is also

DOG AGRESSIVE AND POEPLE AGRESSIVE

You are going to need outside help a trainer.

i got him from a woman who had him in an outside kennel with two other dogs, so i did not think he was dog aggressive. and she told me he was not aggressive. i dont' know whether the change in atmosphere has triggered thi aggression.(change from living in an outside kennel to house environment)
and i did no think he was people aggressive either. he showed no aggression at all when we met him. none. the woman is telling me she is shocked to learn of these things becaue he showed non of this before. this is what she says. she also says that the reason he did not work out for bomb det. after having him for abou a month is becsue he would not focus. he has the drive but would not focus as needed. some one on here could tell me if that sounds right.

We all get talked to like we're stupid at times. Of course it bothers but try to put it aside and move on. Being defensive helps nothing, except to start flame wars. Not everything that we want to say should be said. There's enough stress in life without doing that.

So let's get back to Doser. I noticed you said the previous owners said he wasn't dog aggressive but given the fact that he probably never had a chance to see other dogs, much less interact with them, they wouldn't have known. As far as cats, I have to say that I've never had a dog whose prey drive wasn't escalated by seeing a cat. It seems to be a natural reaction on the part of many dogs. It's something that needs to be trained out of the dog, if you know what I mean.

It sounds as if Dozer is going to be a bit of work for you and it all depends on how much you're willing to take on. As Randy said, dogs are a LOT of work, whether you get a young puppy, older puppy, or an adult.

Edited to add: just read your last post. A dog getting along with dogs in his own pack doesn't mean he's not going to aggress on unfamiliar dogs.

i do understand that i need to get some one more experienced to eval. the dog. called a few places and not getting any answers. only calling places recommended by others who i trust their opinion. i will keep yu who are concerned and interested updated.

Bounette,

I usually don't involve myself in these heated discussions. I come here for advice and guidance in dog training. I am humble enough to admit I have very limited knowledge in dog training. I was raised all of my life with dogs but that in no way makes me an expert. It wasn't until I found this place via my cousin that my family and I understood the vast mistakes we made in the past with our dogs. We were determined when we got our puppy to not make the same mistakes and it was the people on this forum who were patient enough to answer my many questions. I'm sure questions that have been asked before and questions that seem simple but to me I didn't know the answers. They answered them with the graciousness and frankness I truly appreciated.

When it comes to dog training and people's interactions with dogs they know thier stuff and they care. I can't speak to you about who they are as people but I know that they are good people when it comes to dogs and their handlers.

Does everyone on this forum know what they're talking about? No, of course not but everyone who posted on your thread does.

I'm posting this because I really think your defensiveness is unnecessary. Every one on this thread wants you to live in harmony with your new dog. I'm not here to debate you but I ask you to take a step back, breath and reread the posts. It was because of your quickness to defend that you jumped down Mike's throat. Mike is one of those people who care about helping people train their dogs. I for one appreciate his frankness and simplicity in answering my questions. Some people like to make dog training difficult and confusing. Mike likes to give you succinct and easy solutions. Read some of his posts. But I'm not here to defend Mike. I'm sure he can do that all by himself. I'm here because I don't want you to leave this forum. I think you can benefit from it. So stop looking outside but look in and give yourself time to reflect. Good luck.

 Quote: Bounette White

i do understand that i need to get some one more experienced to eval. the dog. called a few places and not getting any answers. only calling places recommended by others who i trust their opinion. i will keep yu who are concerned and interested updated.

Bounette, to get what you want for your family I really think you should do this before you get the dog.

The learning curve with aggressive dogs is a bloody scary path. That I don’t want anyone else to relive.

Let start with stupid and me when I was 8 my mom got me a half Springer pup cutest little pup ever seen runt of the litter.

When he was about 6 months old I was feeding him and dropped the flea poison bottle next to his food bowl. My pup had food aggression I had a real fear he was going to bite into the flea poison. So what does a kid do reach for the bottle to protect his dog. What did I get for my love the pup ripping into my bicep. Over all it was stupid and avoidable and my father had repeatedly told me not to mess with his food.

Next on my bloody path I was across the street play with my friend in his fence with a Chihuahua. The Chi didn’t like the fact my dog set outside the pen while we played. I reached down to redirect the dog to calm him down. I got a lip full of redirected aggression from a Chi with attitude. Again stupid all around.

I can’t count the close calls I have had from breaking up dog fights anything else you can think of.

Just call it quick hands. lol

PS
I wanted to let you know I never was able to get my pup to allow you to play with his food. He had food aggression till the day he died 13 years later, and I tried things that I wouldn’t even like to admit to but I was a kid. Every thing from nice methods of getting his favorite food and a ton of it and sitting on the steps hand feeding him. To whacking him in the head with a stick every time he growled at me. That is the reason the advice was just feed him away from everyone else. A lot of times you can’t stop food aggression.

It is indeed a scary path, and one that the O.P. has to get help with.

She has confirmed that she knows now to keep the dog away from the child (from all children) and other animals, and under leash control, and that she is going to get professional help/eval.

Seems that for now, these are the big points.