This is a recent question from a reader of my website:

Question:  I have a three year old German Shepherd that I have raised & trained since he was seven weeks old.  He has been a great dog.  Suddenly, he has bitten me twice in the last two weeks for giving him the command ‘Drop It’.  The first time it was a piece of roadkill.  The second time was over a dryer sheet.  He has not drawn blood but marked me on the forearm & hand.  I have spent hundreds of hours working with my dog, not just training, but walking swimming & other fun stuff.  I am afraid for my grand kids and I don’t understand him suddenly turning on me.  I don’t want to put him down as I love him very much but won’t have a biting dog. Please help!

Answer:  I sympathize with your situation as you obviously love your dog very much and feel trapped by what to do.  Allow me to give you my insight.

I highly doubt that this behavior is ’sudden’.  The manifestation of his behavior happened suddenly but I would bet that there have been subtle signs for some time that perhaps you didn’t recognize.

I would need numerous details to be able to give you an in depth response but there is one thing I can be sure of without further information.  Your dog suffers from a lack of respect for you.  A dog that has respect for his owner would never do the behavior you described.  So the solution for you comes down to gaining proper respect and dominance from your dog.

Again, I don’t have all the details but I run across situations like yours quite often.  The situation is that the dog, for the most part, is an obedient dog.  The dog also has a big problem with dominance.  The reason being is that the owner has taken the wrong approach to training.  In most situations like this I find that the owner has done training based heavily in treats or ‘purely positive’ methods.  The end result is a dog that is quite obedient out of pure conditioning and rewards.  He is obedient because it suits him and because his owner doesn’t actually challenge him.  The moment, though, when the dog feels challenged enough (in this case when he didn’t want to give up a tasty piece of roadkill) he will then exert his dominance.

Treat training or strictly reward based training will NEVER earn the respect of a dog.  When people do this they are essentially ‘paying’ the dog to be obedient.  This works great in a human system but does not work well in a canine system.  Dogs in a pack aren’t obedient to the alpha because he pays them.  They are obedient because of respect.

Now, obviously I have made a big assumption here.  I don’t know how you have gone about training your dog.  Once thing I do know, however, is that it has not earned the respect of the dog.  Training does not need to be harsh.  Training should have a balanced mix of corrections and praise, though.  Praise for good behavior and corrections for inappropriate behavior.  Training in this style will help earn the respect of your dog.  Respect equals no aggression.

Good luck.