Aggressiveness

[Lonewolf]

Hello everyone. This is my first post here. I have two Rotties that live in the house with me. One is a male that I have raised from a 7 week old pup. He is now 1 year old. The other is a female, about 2 1/2 yrs old, that I rescued from the animal shelter. She has been spayed, but the male has not been neutered. The two play well together, but lately, the male has become aggressive toward me. He comes to me for attention, and I can be petting him one minute, and the next minute, he will growl and snap at me. This has happened 3 times in the last week. He even growled at a personal friend of mine that he has known all his life. He walks around with a look on his face like he's depressed, doesn't feel good, or just in a really bad mood. Any ideas as to why he would suddenly start acting this way?

[Orville Story]

He is testing his dominance. This is a natural part of his growth to try to become the pack leader. If he is doing this to you instead of the other rottie then both rotties see you as second in the pack under the other dog. Unless the other dog is total passive and is weak in nature. You need to establish that you are number one in your pack. Your dog should be now know basic obedience sit, down, stay and heel. Use the down to establish that you are number one. Give the down command, then the stay for five minutes work on this a couple times a week. If he is going to test you it will be here, and now your ready to correct his behavior. I would suggest that you go to a pro handler if this is too difficult. Go to a pro anyway.

Orville

[German Vanegas]

I concur with Orville. Don't let the situation to continue like that, as it will get worse rather than any better. Your male Rott is challenging you to dominate the "pack". Heavy handed discipline (like hitting the dog) to correct such behavior will probably make matters even worse. At this stage of such aggressive behavior, I would suggest you to get assistance from a REAL pro trainer, not just anyone claiming to "know how", because you are dealing with a very serious behavioral attitude problem. Good Luck!

[Lonewolf]

Thanks Orville and German for your replies and suggestions. I have applied the down command and so far it seems to be working. I guess I needed to re-establish the pecking order around here. I've been putting off obedience classes until now, but I now have him enrolled in one. Thanks again for your help.

[Jen]

German and Orville are right, you may want to see a professional handler, but beware. I had similar problem with my dog. I took him to 2 different handlers. One corrected by method of choke collar. Which is correct under certain conditions, but he was not reading my dog's body language. The other handler tried things such as stringing up my dog and hitting him. I did not approve of this. Also this trainer was not reading my dog's body language. My dog became very leary of meeting people and fear aggressive. I have been working with him and he is improving greatly. Although, once in a while he will start to shake in fear of certain people. So make sure you fully agree with the trainer's methods, if you feel uneasy, then something is probably wrong...get a new trainer. Also make sure the trainer has worked with Rotts in the past.

[Orville Story]

There are many methods of maintianing dominance of a rottie, but at the same time the method should allow the dog to feel secure. If a trainer is doing something that you feel will cause the dog to become insecure then stop it. Rottie have their on make up and what works in general with other dogs may not work with a rottie.

[DrDawn]

I agree with the other 2 people who have posted suggestions to help with this problem.
I know from experience that letting the problem continue only makes things worse. Work with the dog and never give up. And make sure you get a good pro that can help.