MAJOR Aggression toward dogs and strangers - HAS BITTEN
I adopted a 2 year old St. Bernard female approximately a month ago. At home, she is an ideal pet. WHen I got her, she was not very obedience trained; however, is an incredibly trainable dog. In the month I have had her, she has learned or relearned "sit, lay down, wait, no, stay, come, go to bed (her crate), and treat". She is incredibly lovable, obedient and all is great for nearly everything.
THe problem:
She will not allow a stranger near the property or in the house. In order for her to accept strangers, she must meet them OFF the property on her leash. SHe seems to love all strangers as long as she is on her leash and off the property. A week or so ago, we had a few people over. She met everyone outside and happily allowed them into our home. Later, someone bumped the sofa and she immediately jumped up growling and snarling and made an attempt to bite. After calming down, the neighbors 3 year old stared her in the eye (a no-no) and the dog bit him in the ear (not breaking the skin). If she is in her crate when a stranger is here, they get one of two reactions.
1 = she growls, snarls, attcks the cage (or attacks the front door if they are simply walking by our house) and seems to want to eat them alive. She seems so viscious that people are afraid of the house.
2 = she lays quietly and appears very submissive and scared. We never know which reaction she is going to have.
2nd Problem:
Sophie HATES other dogs. She growls and goes into full-blown attack mode when she sees one. Her hair stands up and she tries with all her might to pull me so that she may get to them. The odd thing, is that once I remove her away from the area another dog is, she wimpers. When we first got her, we would make little barking noises or wimpering noises and she would see us making the noise, but would growl and walk to the door looking for the dog. Now, after having her a month, it no longer upsets her when we bark or wimper. WHen there are dogs on t.v. she seems a little upset she doesn't know where they are and runs up to the TV to see them. So we don't know if she likes or hates other dogs, but she certainly isn't behaving in an OK manner that we could take her to the local dog parks. What do we do?