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our german shepherd attacked my sister!


delh1

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let me start from the beginning. about 2 years ago we got this huge male german shepherd. while we had him he bit my sister's foot and she had to go the ER. after that my mom gave the dog to my father, who doesn't live with us. my dad's dog started fighting with the GSD and my dad brought the dog out to his property and left the dog there. he occasionally went out there to fed and water him but nothing else. now you might sympathize with the dog and i do too to an extent. the GSD was aggressive when we had him before so being out there didn't cause this. anyway my mom told our trainer about the dog and she suggested to bring him up when we went for Tucker's training. so we ended up with him again and today he bit my sister's hand, she didn't have to go to the ER and it wasn't much of an attack but i can't stand it. my mom doesn't relize how dangerous he is. what about if my 4 year nephew comes over. i'm scared of this dog but have no say in his future and the one who does won't do anything. what do i do? i'm going to call our trainer tomarrow and seew what she thinks should be done. she breeds GSDs, our GSD didn't come from her, and has been a dog trainer for 17 years, so she knows dogs.

sorry if too wordy , just to mad to shorten

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demote him. he seems to think he is above you in the pack. A lot of people disagree with this, but I have demoted a lot of dogs over the years with this issue.

DO NOT let him sleep on the furniture. ANY furniture, which means no sleeping with anyone in bed.

DO NOT LET HIM EAT BEFORE YOU, even of it means eating crackers while he watches.

DO NOT let him enter doorways first. make him sit, and go before him.

PRACTIVE NILIF. Do not feed him until he has done something to earn it, even if its only a simple sit. EVERYTHING HAS TO BE EARNED.

including going outside. make him realise that YOU are running the show, not HIM..

I have used these means to break a number of dominant dogs. it is painless, and works.

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I'd love to give you some advice but I don't realy know all that much about what happend. I think we need some facts before we can understand the "why" behind the bite.

How long have you had since you've taken him from your dad? How long have you had him in training? How old is he? What were the circumstances of the bite? Do you think it's agressive bitting, fear or lack of socalization?

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Sorry more questions?

Where did you get him from?
How old was he when you got him?
Has he had any obedience training?
Did he ever have any socialisation?
Do you think he suffered from irregular feeding by your father?
Would you say he's been well treated?
What do you think should happen now with this dog?
What was your sister doing when he bit her?

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Can you describe what the dog did exactly, just prior to the bite. In paticular, where was he looking, was he still, what was your sister doing just prior to the bite (and this is in no way because I think she is to blame but if you have a dominant gaurding breed he may have felt she did something that need "redressing" such as petting him without him having invited her.) Dogs usually integrate well in human society but we must remember that, left to their own devices, their rules of social engagement, body language etc is quite different from ours. With a gaurding breed, and what may be a dog thinking its his role to be alpha male, you have some work ahead of you. Courtneks NILIF suggestions are good and I would be interested to see the answers to Annes questions.

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Cairn6 I totally agree with you. This poor dog has had a very hard life.

I would euthanase a dog before I would subject it to mistreatment. An occasionaly feed and water is just that....mistreatment.

I guess the father was lucky someone didn't call animal control and have him charged with cruelty...

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we got him the first time when he was 1 and now he's 4 so i guess it was 3 years not 2. my sister tried to get him to do a simple "sit." he had his training collar on and my sister gave it a small tug to get his attention and thats when he turned around and bit her. he had obedience traing before we got him and it's only been a couple of days since we got him back. it was aggressive biting. everytime you try to get him to do something he snarls, he doesn't always bite but verytime he does growl. it not lack of socialization because he was like this before. our trainer knows the breeder we got him from. he didn't come from bad breeding and the breeder strives for good social skills, so it's not that. it's not fear because he was ready for the bite, it wasn't defensive or instinctive. i don't want him here. i've been attacked by a great pyrenees (not degrading the breed just stating a fact) and i'm not to fond of large dogs and this GSD is A LOT bigger than normal size for a GSD. My dad made sure he had plenty of food out there, i would blame this on the treatment he got from my dad except that the dog was like this before my dad got him. i don't know what to do. i don't want him here, i'm scared for myself, my family, and my other pets.

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my sister's 15. i think he should be uthanized but it's up to my mom. we didn't know what my dad was going to do. he's been really good to his previous dogs, we didn't know he was going to do that. but like i said the dog's done this before my dad had him.

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What kind of other pets do you have? My girls used to fight and that was a dangerous situation. It took a long time to establish a some what normal household. We did and still do alot of NILIF training. My son also got caught in the middle of the fights but is 10 yrs old, I sure hope your little nephew is only 4 is safe :-?

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I'm familiar with GSDs, while my boy is completely different from your dog here's what I'm thinking.

You and your family inadvertently messed this dog up. What is his pedigree? There's two possibilities here you either have a poorly bred fear biter or a hard working dog who is handler aggressive i.e. doesn't take kindly to corrections. You say he isn't a fear biter so he's probably in the second category. If he in the second category you and your family have absolutley no business with a dog like this. I'm not saying this in any offensive way but the needs of this sort of dog are very very different than your regular house dog.

Regular obedience training is okay but not good enough especially since since the age of 1 he's been all over the place. If he is a working line dog (is his head big and broad? what is his colouring like? standard black and tan or more european looking? is he hyper and needing constant activity?) you and your family have really messed him up.

GSDs are not independent dogs and you've isolated him first of all, it also seems he's had a few owners in his life and none of them have established themselves as alpha/master. You also don't seem to have worked him rather you keep him chained up in the back yard, you've also let him fight with other dogs and possibly get dominated further worsening the situation.

Sounds like you may have a big, hard nerved, working line shepherd you have absolutely no business with a dog such as this. I suggest checking around and seeing if any working dog people in your area and if they see potential maybe they would be willing to adopt him possibly even check with the police. I know that some police dogs do share characterstics similiar to your dog the difference being that their handlers have them controlled every second of the day.

Go to [url]www.leerburg.com[/url] and register at the members forum. The people there are a bit whacky sometimes but they might have ideas. Training him at this stage will be really difficult and most likely require a prong or electric collar as well as lots of positive training. Yes it sounds inhumane but its better than having one of your kids chewed up.

I do know that if you want to train a dog like this someone has to step up and be alpha at this point. You're going to need and electric or prong collar to do it as well as lots of positive training. I know people around here will think I'm sadistic but with working GSDs prong collars for corrections are a preferred method. They do not hurt the dog in and long term way and its much better to have him under control than getting bitten.

Growling/snarling at handlers when they correct is a common thing in handler aggressive working dogs, especially the pups. Its seems this behaviour was not nipped in the bud when he was a pup hence it has grown out of control. I think that about sums it up, this dog has grown out of control because its owners did not seem to know how to correct/handle him.

If he is not a fear biter and is a working line dog i strongly suggest not euthanizing him. Instead try find someone who understands these kind of dogs and is willing to adopt him. Lastly check out [url]www.leerburg.com[/url] register on those forums and get advice, they specialize in working line dogs especially GSDs and will be able to help.

Sorry for being long winded and blunt, I mean no offense but as with all people who have their "favorite breed" it pains me to see a dog turn out wrong when it is so clearly his family's fault :( . As a disclaimer I am taking your word for it that he is not a fear biter. Like I said if he is a poorly bred (BYB) dog then the situation is very different.

Can you post a pic of him? Do you have any details on his breeder? Is he neutered?

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Euthanasia should be the last, last, last resort. I say this because my 2 Rottie girls fought and the only thing that broke them up was our male. I thought there was no hope for them. My son caught in the middle of the fights and was hurt. I tried everything, I was almost going to have the one that bit my son euthanised but I was determined to work with them. I knew my girls are good girls they just needed redirection. We started training all over again (NILIF is the best!!!!) and continue with training. Edgar has many great points!!

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My first response is have him put to sleep asap. It sounds like it's too late ... if you wait around for the right training or to find someone qualified to take this dog on then you may have a long wait and the dog could hurt someone or worse by then.

And this is going to sound really harsh but the parents in this case are guilty of child endangerment to have him around. IMO.

C'mon you guys, do we care more about the lives of dogs or children?! (OK maybe some of you shouldn't answer that :wink: )

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I have to agree with Edgar and the rest. By the first post I took these bitings as an "incident" that could be corrected with a lot of work, but if the dog is plainly hostile to any kind of correction or training he needs a handler much stronger and firmer than you guys, no offense. Also, the OP has plainly stated she doesnt want the dog around, which is not going to make for a good retraining situation. I also think this dog should be turned over to someone who specializes in high drive working line dogs,
and who knows the whole story behind him. Either way, I dont think you should keep him, especially with that attitude, and around a 4 year old.

I am sorry, GSD's CAN be good dogs when handled correctly. But now you need to take measures that everyone can be comfortable with.

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