Phish,

I certainly understand your dilemma, and after what's happened in my household over the past month I think I can offer you a little insight.

About a year ago we adopted a beautiful, brillant 5-year-old German Shepherd from a man who felt he had to give him up because the dog nipped his 3-year-old daughter. Well, the dog behaved perfectly for us ... until just after Thanksgiving . In a period of 10 days, this friendly, even-tempered dog bit my wife three times, seemingly unprovoked. Fortunately none of the bites required stitches, even though we did make two trips to the emergency room.

My initial thoughts we along the same line as yours -- I had to get rid of the dog. But my wife, who's the daughter of a zoologist and has been around animals -- at times herds of them -- her entire life, was determined that we were going to do everything within our power to keep from putting that dog down. When possibilities of placing him elsewhere disappeared, our vet referred us to an animal behavioralist working with the college of veternary science at Washington State University.

After reviewing our case study and observing the dog first-hand, the doctor stated without hesitation that it was a dominance issue (she said that pure-bred dogs, like ours, are particularly susceptible to this type of behavior). Our dog had apparently bonded with me (not surprising, since I had spent more time with him) and was simply exerting pack-mentality dominance over my wife, putting her in her place, if you will. The doctor said this can be a real problem with dogs and young children, particularly toddlers in the early stages of walking.

She didn't pull any punches -- up front she told us that the safest, easiest thing to do would be to put the dog to sleep. However, she thought with proper training, and precautions, we could not only avoid destroying the dog, but could develop it into a loyal, submissive and obedient pet.

So that's where we are now. The carefree life our dog once knew has become a strict regimen of adherence to commands, leash-walking and kennel time. So far he has responded beautifully, and the doctor is pleased with our progress, though still cautiously optimistic. We're hopeful, but we'll just have to proceed and see what happens.

Being that we have no children, my situation is much more simple than yours. But if you maintain any hope of keeping this dog in your family I would ask your vet to put you in contact with an animal behavioralist somewhere in your locale. It is not an easy route, and it's certainly not cheap
... but in our case it was the only alternative shy of putting the dog down.

I hope this helps. I you have any questions feel free to send me an email.

Best wishes

JEB
SRBC East