Some of our regular contributors to our Free DOG FORUM — including our discussion forum moderator D. Ames — provided some fantastic advice which I am going to include, below. You should pay special attention to the difference in thought processes used by the more experienced dog owners on our forum. (Good work, guys!)

The initial poster— who goes by the name “1059”— posted the following:

“Spent the last 2 weeks NILF-ing and working with the suggestions from last week's e-zine.”

[ Editor’s note: NILF stands for ‘Nothing In Life Is Free’ ]

“Things looked better for about a week, but this weekend it all went to, well, you know where. I was cornered on my steps when I touched her head, we were run off our couch when she snuck (spelling!?) on for a nap. I don't think she was touched more than a dozen times in 2 days that she didn't snarl. In other words??? She way worse!!!! Is this to be expected, cause I’ve got to say, she won these rounds. I'm now honestly afraid of her.”

“We're not expert trainers, every other dog either of us has had has NEVER acted anything like this. I'm just completely torn apart. The vet gave her a clean bill of health.”

“I'm now really looking at re-homing her vs. putting her down. I don't have the experience to correct this kind of problem. I know most behavior issues are the owners' fault, and I'll take the blame for jumping on the door and counter surfing, but I just can't see where we erred to this degree. She snapped at me when she was 6 WEEKS old (so I've been at this for a while) when being bathed.”

[ D. Ames-- our board moderator-- replies: ]

“I have not read all of your posts, but I have a sense [as you have admitted,] that you are afraid of this dog. Unfortunately, your dog probably has this pegged as well. If you are seriously interested in trying to alter this dog's behavior, there are a couple of things that you can do.”

“Firstly, on the health issues,... you stated that the vet. gave her a clean bill of health. Did your vet. do blood work? If so, did you vet. specifically do a thyroid check? Thyroid issues are important to rule out when you are dealing with aggression. If, in fact thyroid issues are present, thyroid medication will help.”

These include a Schutzhund/sport dog trainer, a police dog trainer, and/or a personal protection dog trainer. These folks must know how to turn aggression off as well as how to turn it on. They will be your best resource for evaluation, [i.e., what is behind your dog's aggression.]

They will also be able to counsel you appropriately as to whether your dog can or should be rehabilitated. Furthermore, they will be able to properly teach you how to effectively and safely handle and train your dog. “

“Sometimes, no matter how good our intentions are, a specific dog may not be a good match for us. If this is your sense, then be honest with yourself. In the mean time, stop putting yourself in the position of being able to get hurt. As things are going now [per your description,] you are setting yourself up to get hurt, and your dog is learning that it can bully you and get away with it. Stop giving your dog freedom--where it can get to the couch! Furniture is 'off limits!' Actually, any freedom [off leash] should be off limits! I.e.: either keep her crated, on a leash [with a pinch collar] in a kennel--that is IT --no freedom [to run amuck.] If you are really afraid of your dog, then muzzle it.”

“Invest in a good muzzle that will keep you from getting bitten [Bridgeport Leather 800-678-7353 is a good resource for these, but a qualified dog trainer will be able to assist you with this as well.] Aggression has a nasty tendency to escalate [as you are finding out.] Doing nothing will actually lead to further problems. You need to be very proactive if you are committed to fixing this.”

[ A forum member who uses the handle “Perfect Paws” also replied to the original poster. She states: ]

“PLEASE, PLEASE don't even think about trying to re-home her. If she has a history of aggression you cannot in good conscience give her to someone else. Even if you tell them about her aggression you could still be held responsible if she bites someone. “

“Also don't try to give her to a rescue group. I live in MI. and work with a rescue group and we are over run with stray, abandoned, unwanted and otherwise dumped on us dogs. And these are the nice ones, without aggression problems. We have no place for a bitter and I am sure other rescues don't either.”

“You have done a good thing by committing to work with her, but results don't always happen within a week or two.”

“If she has spent most of her life getting away with everything and being the dominant one in the pack you cannot expect her to be submissive overnight. In fact in situations like this a dog may become more aggressive if it's pack status is challenged (you doing the NILIF, setting boundaries, etc.).”

“She may need time to adjust and accept the fact that she can no longer be the leader.”

“Now, if you choose to continue to work with her, are you sure your being consistent? If not then you are sending her mixed signals.”

“Did she have her leash and training collar on when she "cornered" you? If not then she should have. She should ALWAYS be wearing a leash and training collar whenever she's with you, outside of the crate/confined area.”

“How was she allowed to sneak up on the couch? “

“And why were you chased off?”

“Just the fact that these things have happened tells me that she was not on leash and training collar (correct me if I am wrong), because if she was you could have corrected/prevented it.”

“In the end it comes down to one question: Are you going to be committed to training her CONSISTENTLY!”

“And if not are you willing to live with the aggression?”

“If the answer to this is NO then the best thing you can do is to put her down humanly and not pass on your problems to someone else.”

“Don't get me wrong, there are situations where the owner can do everything right but still not get results.”

“Some dogs just cannot be changed no matter what you do.”

[Editor’s note: I disagree. Many times this is just a relationship issue between the current owner and the dog, and it MAY NOT be passed along to the next owner. In most cases, it’s an issue of an owner with a soft temperament living with a dog who’s got a hard temperament.

When I owned South Bay K-9 Academy for 7 years, I would routinely see Grannies who would relinquish their dominant-aggressive German Shepherd or Rottweiler to a new owner that happened to be a truck driver or a construction worker or a cop. I would continue working with the new owner and would often find that the aggressive behavior the prior owner had experienced vanished INCREDIBLY QUICKLY when the dog was put with a new handler who didn’t take any guff and wasn’t afraid of the dog.]

[ A forum member named “Cherie” added: ]

“Please read and consider what Perfect Paws has written.”

“Also, when trying to change an unwanted behavior it very often happens that the behavior will get worse or occur more often just before a change for the better. Just be sure you are being consistent in what you ask of the dog. This means everyone in the family must be consistent, not always an easy task. Keep a training collar and lead on at all times so you can correct without having to put yourself in a position of being bit. And get yourself some professional training help.

Also, if she reacts to someone reaching over her to pet or touch her head (or back), I wouldn't do that for now. Does she do the same if you reach from under to pet her chest or side?”

Dear Adam:

I am writing about our dog Rudy, a three year old goldie mix that we

adopted five months ago from a shelter. We have received different opinions on his mix. Some have said goldie/shepherd, some have said goldie/chow. The latter is the opinion of the [local dog training academy], where he is presently enrolled in their one-month board and train program. We enrolled him because one month ago he attacked a jogger. The jogger was running by my husband, who had Rudy in a sit on a slack leash. The jogger changed direction quickly, running straight toward Derek and Rudy. Rudy lunged at the jogger, jumped up on him, barking and growling aggressively.

He tore the man's jacket by nipping at it, but he did not bite the jogger.

[You weren’t paying attention to your dog. If you were, you’d have already been running the other direction to execute the “attention getter” drill as outlined in the book. – Editor ]

The only other time he had displayed such aggressive behavior was toward a UPS driver coming up the driveway, but he was well under control that time.

He has a very strong prey drive and dominant personality. He had been doing very well these past three weeks at the Academy. They were not able to elicit any aggressive behavior from him, and his obedience training was going well.

But last Thursday, he bit a trainer.

He apparently was being put back into his kennel and ran off down a long hallway. He was not leashed. When he got to the dead end, he first went submissive, rolling over on his back. The trainer then reached to grab his collar and Rudy gave her hand a good bite. She then reached for the collar with her other hand, and he did the same to that hand. He did not give her any warning growl or snap. He did not move forward toward her, just reacted to her reach toward him. After the second bite she backed off, and another trainer was able to coax Rudy to go back with her uneventfully.

I have read your book and believe that the trainer bite was an example of fear aggression? (I don't know what to think about the jogger, though.) The Academy seems to be saying that they can't train that reaction out of him; that we will just need to be vigilant and mindful of his triggers. That goes without saying, and I now believe that being cornered is one of his triggers. (Our vet had also mentioned that when they cornered him to get him on a table, that he had snapped out at them.)

But your book and tapes led me to believe that you can train such behavior out of a dog. Or am I misunderstanding? Are you merely just getting the dog to react to you instead of following his instinctual reaction? Certainly that's a good thing, but what if he's with someone else when he's triggered?

We need some perspective on this situation. I love him and want to give him every chance to learn correct behaviors. But on the other hand, we live in a dense children and jogger packed neighborhood. We can't keep him if there is reasonable risk of this kind of thing happening again.

- Mary Ellen

Dear Mary Ellen:

Thank you for the e-mail.

You've got a couple of things to consider:

1. The dog needs to be firmly corrected lunging. Going after the biker is a prey-based aggression. Correct him for this, as described in the book.

2. Going after the trainer and the veterinarian is the result of the dog being insecure and not trusting the handler. Usually in these types of cases, he will not bite if he is secure that you will not hurt him. Or if he knows that he will only be fairly corrected for behavior that he understands.

With aggressive behavior, we can never say 100% "All" or "Never" that your dog will or will not show a specific behavior.

Regardless, your dog needs to be corrected for such behavior, and then shown that if he is calm, he gets praise and nothing bad happens to him. This can sometimes be achieved by placing the dog in such positions while he is wearing a muzzle. He cannot bite you, and ultimately learns that everything ends up “A-Okay.”

It is a process of de-conditioning. Not so for the prey-aggression, which can be fixed with a couple of well-timed and motivational corrections.