Dog getting aggressive

[Allison]

I have a Belgian Shepard dog (male neutered, almost 2) who is a lovely dog and wonderful companion. The problem is that he is extremely protective of me and I am afraid of what he might do one day.

I guess you'll need to know that I do most of the training with the dog, walk and feed him. My husband does not really do these things with the dog, he just plays with and pets him once in a while. We got him at 8 weeks of age from a breeder but did not see his parents (were told they were not there). He gets a walk of over an hour each day and plenty of play sessions. He eats, drinks and sleeps normally (we feed him Hills Science Diet for adults). At night he sleeps on the floor in our bedroom.

The first signs were that Pasha (our dog) started growling at my husband whenever he would want to get into bed. My husband responds to this by shouting "no" to him and then getting into bed. This happens on a regular basis and has for some time now.

He is also protective of me on walks. He always tenses up and sometimes does a low growl when we pass any men (not women) so I tend to pull his leash tighter to be sure. A couple of weeks ago we were walking on a narrow path and a man was coming towards us. Maybe he sensed that I was nervous or that there was something wrong with the man, but this time he lunged at him. I reacted by pulling back on his leash and walking past holding him on a tight leash. He also seems to be very nervous around children (especially if they are running or playing roughly) which worries me. He pulls toward them so I hold his leash tightly to walk past.

The reason that I am asking for advise now is that the other day when I was sitting on the sofa my husband walked over to hand me something. Maybe Pasha thought that he was going to hit me, but he didn't just growl this time, he bit my husband strongly enough to draw blood but not to need medical attention.

He seems to be getting more and more aggressive and I don't know what to do. I couldn’t stand the thought of him hurting a child one day! Any advise?

Thank you so much!

[adunphy]

Aggression is a difficult problem, it usually starts early and escalates to this and the common owner doesn't see much of it. A trainer could come in and teach you how to prevent aggression and hopefully diminish it. There are steps you can take.

1. Look for a trainer who is a CPDT - www.ccpdt.org
2. If you can't find one, find one who is a positive or clicker trainer

There are two books that might be helpful, Click to Calm or MINE by Jean Donaldson, both are listed on this page

http://www.dogtrainersearch.com/books/books.html

Good luck and find someone sooner rather than later! If you need a referral just post your area.

Amy Dunphy CPDT

[Allison]

Thank you very much, Amy!