My mother in law has a beautiful shepherd. There personality clashes, he tries to bite her. And has an she was bleeding. She spent 800.00 to have him retrained for his obedience.

He was great for only two days and he started to bite her again... every day this has been happening. We told her to call the local K-9 unit and see if they could take him for free. He would be an excellent canidate for this sort of unit...

My question is , My mother in law will tell them about his aggresiveness, would she be liable if he turns on whoever takes him.

Should she just put him to sleep?

That is a sad situation. If the $800 trainer wasn't able to fix the problem, likely I can't either. Part of the problem may be a lack of leadership by your mother in law. Perhaps she needed a dog owner trainer rather than a dog trainer. My usual advice is obedience training, but it must include the owner changing their relationship with the dog. The key to most behavior problems is approaching things using the dog's natural instincts. Dogs see all the people and dogs in the household as a pack with each having their own rank in the pack and a top dog. Life is much easier if the 2 legged pack members outrank the 4 legged ones. You can learn to play the role of top dog by reading some books or going to a good obedience class. A good obedience class or book is about you being top dog, not about rewarding standard commands with a treat. Start at http://www.dogsbestfriend.com/ For more on being top dog, see http://www.dogbreedinfo.com./topdogrules.htm After 2 years I would be afraid that her attempting to dominate him would only result in additional bites.

He is neutered? If not, it may be the one chance of saving him. ALL dogs with any sort of dominant behavior problems should be spay/neutered. Not only may it help solve the problem, it is irresponsible to use a dog with any sort of a health or temperament problem as breeding stock. A biting dog is no end of problems. I suspect he has had 2 years of doing as he pleased. I doubt he will give it up easily. If she bought him from a breeder, let the breeder know she is unhappy with his aggression. It is absolutely wrong to breed aggressive dogs. She may have to destroy him. Let everyone else know where she got the dog and the problems she is having. Breeders that breed aggressive dogs, should be run out of business. Our society has no place for them.

Not even the police and security people can tolerate real aggression in a dog. If the dog bites without good cause, there will be a great public outcry and a nasty lawsuit. His best chance might be a rescue. These are dogs that lost their home, but were taken into a foster home to be retrained as necessary and placed in the right home for them. You may find a rescue near you starting at
http://www.akc.org/breeds/rescue.cfm It is possible in the hands of an experienced person, they can correct the problem.

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Originally Posted by jevan

My mother in law has a beautiful shepherd. There personality clashes, he tries to bite her. and has an she was bleeding. She spent 800.00 to have him retrained for his obediance.

He was great for only two days and he started to bite her again.... every day this has been happening. We told her to call the local K-9 unit and see if they could take him for free. He would be an excellent canidate for this sort of unit....

My question is , My mother in law will tell them about his aggresiveness, would she be liable if he turns on whoever takes him.

Should she just put him to sleep?

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Police dogs are only accepted as puppies and are usually imported from Germany or Belgum. They begin training as early as 12 weeks old in german. It is highly unlikely that they will take your dog. I agree with labman. Dogs, ESPECIALLY shepherds must be trained by the owner at a young age. If your mother in law didn't establish a working relationship with the dog early on, it is difficult (not impossible) to do later. She needs to be the one to train the dog. Paying someone to have the dog respond to them, does no good, the dog will then only respond and respect the trainer not the owner. Seek a professional behavioralist for advice, they be able to help. If she does send the dog to a rescue, it is her legal responcibility to advise them that the dog has bitten. If she did not disclose this, they can hold her responsible if it bites someone else.
I hope things work out! Good luck!
Heather

Yes, this is a very sad situation, and honestly it happens more often than we care to think about with many breeds. I'm sure labman has seen labs who ended up running the house, and I have certainly seen terriers and setters that way - and they are very very very hard to break of it...

And most of the problem did start with a combination of poor breeding when temperament is not sufficiently considered in choosing matches, and with owners who make the wrong breed choice or are not well suited to dog ownership.

I am assistant for a local trainer and I can't believe how much of obedience classes is orienting the owners to the way dogs learn and think - and rehabbing bad habits.

As a very wise friend of mine says: Dogs have teeth, and in the right circumstances, any dog can and will bite.

I would recommend an immediate surrender to a breed rescue - they are best suited to tackling the problems typical of the breed. On the other hand, with a bite history, they may not be wiling to take him. In that case, I would advocate for euthanasia since this is a behavior pattern that is very very likely to recoccur.

You can find breed rescues on Petfinders.

-Beth