5 month old shepard aggression

[jaker104]

Hey, my name is Peter. My daughter and her boy friend purchased a german shepard puppy in Nov. He was about six weeks old then. Now just over five months old and 42 pounds, he started showing serious food aggression. I purchased the training manual(s), and started working with him a little, my daughter lives out of town, so they have continued working with him. Its been about 1 week now with hand feeding. This morning I got a call with my daughter in tears, while hand feeding and talking to him, she said he just snapped, growled and bit her. Note- when I first started demonstrating who the Alpha was to him, he went to his crate, removed one of his stuffed animals at a time and would mount it. He continues to do this when my daughter takes lead role.

[LetsPlay]

Hi Peter,

I'm sorry to hear that your daughter got bitten and growled at. That is definitely not acceptable.
Sounds like her dog is a bit of a handful. At that age a lot of dogs test the boundaries and want to see if perhaps they are the leader of the pack. Your daughter will need to meet these confrontations head on. Now is the time where you can still modify his behavior much easier then later on.
It sounds as though he clearly thinks that he is the alpha dog and therefore has a right to eat when and how he feels like. It sounds as though your daughter has done the right thing by starting to hand feed him, even if she got bitten. She will need to use stronger measurements now. She will need to ignore him for at least 48 hours. Completely ignore him: No eye contact, no touching, no food, no talking...nothing. Dogs are pack animals and this is the hardest punishment for them. He won't starve, dogs can last quite a while without food. Just make sure your daughter has a bowl of fresh water that he can access at any time.
His behavior might get worse before it gets better, but ignoring him now is important. He will need to get the clear message that she is the alpha and that there is nothing good coming his way if he doesn't behave.
There is a section in the book about ignoring dogs, please have a look at that.
Once the 48 hours( or longer) are over he will need to wither sit or lie down or do something for her before he gets attention.
If he does behave well she needs to praise him a lot.

Please let us know how she gets on.
John

[jaker104]

John, Thank you for the reply, just got back from vacation and am leaning toward what you suggested and will keep posted.