I have a 14 month unneutered male GSD. Most of his obedience training has been through motivation/play. I have used Mr Flinks videos and the book Purely Positive Training as my framework. He allows us to take his toys and food away without a problem. We do take him to obedience training. He has not shown aggression in any way toward anyone he has been in contact with and he knows the protocol at home. (waiting then going out of door after we do, waiting until we use stairs then we release him to use them) He heels, sits, and downs on command, although sometimes he does respond a little slow when not in drive. The first growling situation came a week ago when he had a very bad ear infection. I took him to the vet and when she went to put her scope in his ear he growled at her. I was surprised, so I told them to put a muzzle on him to finish the exam. He continued to growl throughout most of the exam and then he settled down. We took the muzzle off of him and he hid behind me until we left the office. When I got home I went to put the medicine in his ear, he ran into the corner by the front door and growled. I called the person I purchased him from, who also trains dogs and she said to beat the crap out of him if he does it again. I took him outside with the prong collar on and he allowed me to fix his ear. I took him back in the house and tried to fix his ear again he growled, coward in the same corner and showed his teeth. I gave him to two very hard corrections and he allowed me to fix his ear after that without a problem. The second time he growled was at my husband. My husband was driving a tractor and he told our dog to down, he downed, but when he drove the tractor by the dog he got up from the down. My husband parked the tractor and returned to Our dog - Koal- and downed him again then walked away with me. As we were just getting out Koals sight, Koal got up without being released. My husbaand returned and downed him again, same thing happened, he tried this about 4 times. Then when my husband went to down him again he growled at my husband. My husband physically corrected him in return. Koal never bit but growled while this correction was going on. My husband moved him to another site and downed him where Koal could see us when we walked away we turned told him to sit,which he did and then after about a minute, released him. Everything went back to normal as soon as the situation was over. Koal loves to play and we have a lot success getting him to do what we want through redirection and play as his reward. I do not want to ruin him by making mistakes with this problem. I would like to try to earn Schutzhund titles with him someday,hence why he is not yet neutered, but our family's safety is more important.

Hi there Mary....Excuse me for saying so in my very un- expert position ,but "beat the crap out of him" just floors me!
I don't think there is ever a situation that warrants "beating the crap" out of ANY animal.
And this from a breeder/trainer? My goodness!

Mary,
I don't know of a single dog that absolutely loves having stuff put in their ears. Since there's always an exception, maybe I just haven't met that particular dog yet. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" /> I have a Lab that had chronic ear infections for a while until we found a food that worked better for him. He reacted very similarly to yours, only without the growling. He seemed to have some sort of sixth sense that there was an ear wash bottle in his near future, and would head for the hills and cram himself into some tiny inaccessible place the moment his esp kicked in. What really helped me was a little bit of preplanning and enlisting the help of an extra pair of hands. First I'd chop up plenty of little bits of meat or cheese or something yummy and just have this container of it in the fridge, ready to go. Then, when the dog was nice and relaxed, my husband and I would team up to do the ears. Husband holds dog around neck (like they do at the vet), but also feeds dog bite after bite after bite after bite of the yummy food while I do the ears. Dog doesn't even seem to notice his ears are being done, he's so in heaven with the food. We do his nails this way too, as he's a big grump when I come at him with the nail clippers, growling and stomping off like some ticked off teenager.

As for the other situation, it sounds like Koal was pushed beyond what his training has prepared him for so far and that he became confused/frustrated. A dog that knows how to hold a downstay in one set of circumstances may not know how to do so under another set of circumstances. Unless your husband has worked with Koal extensively around running farm machinery, I would almost expect Koal to break when the tractor goes by. Unless you have specifically worked on out of sight downs in the location where you were, I would almost expect Koal to break when it looks like you're leaving.

I would suggest that whenever Koal is in a set of circumstances in which he has not had proofing, you back up on your expectations of him and start with no-brainer level work that he can be easily successful at. Work up the difficulty scale in small increments in each new environment.

When Koal becomes frustrated, he communicates this by growling. That doesn't mean he's going to bite, but it is indicitive that you're not on the same page, and perhaps you need to back up and do something easier for him so that he can succeed, before working up to the more difficult stuff.

Give your dog some time to recover form the ear infection. Our Rott has re-ocurring ear infections and usually enjoys getting his ears cleaned out and medicated. Once however he showed signs similar to your dog's when the infection caused a good deal of pain.

Thank You all for reading my lengthy question and for your replies. My husband any I have discussed this topic extensively since it has happened and have read several articles on this site and we have come to the same conclusion as all of you. Koal's ears hurt and he was letting us know and we were mistaken to push the down stay issue the way we did. The tractor did scare him and we put him in an unfair situation with unfair expectations. I'm am relieved to know we did not get into the rough physical correction with him, I plan to remember this experience and apply it to future situations.

Thanks for the reply. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> You are right. I overreacted to the growling because he is such a powerful dog and maturing right now. Also, the growling totally took me by suprise. I did not want to lose control of him and have him turn out to be a dangerous dog around my family and friends. We have a 17 year old mixed breed and Koal lets him have first priority over the food, water and rawhide chews. When anyone plays "fetch the ball" with him he has no problem dropping the ball when asked to. He has no problem outing the tug. Koal does occasionally stand over the older dog while the older dog is standing up, but we tell him NO and he stops.