My German Shepherd bit. Is it safe to keep him, will he bite again?

Hi there and thank you for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach. I am sorry to hear that this has happened. This behavior is certainly concerning as you don't want Boston to cause serious harm to your wife or anyone else for that matter. I would recommend taking Boston to a behaviorist for training and other recommendations. There are trainers that will take Boston for several weeks for the training or trainers that will come to your house for in home training. At 4 months of age, this is easier to correct than when he is 4 years old. Now is the time to take action as it is much easier to train a puppy. I hope this helps and for now, please take the necessary precautions and keep Boston away from anyone until he is appropriately trained.

Hello, German Shepherds are commonly aggressive and may require intense training and socialization to be good companion animals. It sounds like he has become quite a dangerous animal, especially to your mother. Please take his aggression seriously and do not allow small children or animals to be around him, as he has a history of severely hurting people. He also needs to maintain his rabies vaccinations to ensure he is not able to spread a fatal disease with his bites. I would recommend seeing a veterinary behaviorist, a good dog trainer, as well as pursuing neutering him. This will be the best way to try to make him a safe animal to live with. I hope this is helpful. Thanks for using Petco Pet Education Center, formerly Petcoach.

This is very dangerous. I don't have enough information, like your brother's age, to give you a good answer. If your brother is under 10 years old, he may not be mature enough to be around a dog unsupervised. Also, if he is teasing or playing very rough with Shad, he may have taught him this behavior, Or, Shad may be fear aggressive due to poor socialization and is actually afraid of your brother. All of these things are very common. First, you need to neuter your dog so his testosterone is not encouraging this behavior. Secondly, if you can find a veterinary behaviorist in your area, this is the best option. If not, explore this website for help with fear aggressive dogs: www.dogstardaily.com. Good luck.

That is a difficult situation for you to be in at the moment. Regardless if they made a sudden move towards you, it's not ok for your dog to bite other people unless you are truly in danger. They likely want you to put him to sleep because he is aggressive. I would say based on your description of the situation that he is an aggressive dog, and I would recommend getting him into see a professional behavior expert as soon as possible. Aggression is something that needs to be controlled, and because it is a dangerous behavior in dogs, it's best left to the professionals. I would speak to your vet first thing tomorrow about a referral to a professional behavioral expert.

I agree with the decision to take him back to the SPCA. There are two things you can do with a situation like this. 1. Hire a trainer. Have them work with you, your kids and Bear to try to fix the situation. Sometimes this works and sometimes it does not. My concern with this is now your daughter will be cautious around him. She may never develop the relationship you would want with him because of this episode. 2. Take him back to the SPCA. There is nothing wrong with this. Know that not all dogs are good for all families. They have plenty of dogs and there are plenty of other rescues in your area that have amazing dogs. I do not like the fact that Bear growled or that he is nippy. As a Shepherd/Lab mix they get to be big and he will be a lot stronger later in life. I also do not want your daughter to now have a fear of dogs. This Rescue is called Poor Paws. I have a lot of experience with them and they do an amazing job. http://www.poorpawsrescue.com I hope your daughter feels better soon and thank you for using PetCoach.

GSD are already very high strung and skittish dogs so you really need to get a handle on this before it gets worse. Most often GSDs will resort to fear biting if they are uncomfortable around people. You need to get a trainer to work with you at your house, in her environment. Behavior issues are not a quick fix - they take a lot of time, training and dedication. There is nothing magical I can tell you over the internet to fix this. With a GSD you need professional intervention with a trainer in your home so they can see how she interacts with people, what her triggers are, etc. Here is a trainer in your area. I am not endorsing her as I do not know her in any way. I suggest you contact her and see if she can help you. If not, maybe she can refer you to someone who can. https://www.karenpryoracademy.com/Debi_Buchholz Hope this helps. Best wishes.

Hello, sorry to hear about Marshal. If your puppy has not been bit by another stray dog or wildlife then it should not be infected with rabies and thus you are likely not infected with rabies. Your puppy is still too your to receive his rabies vaccine, but you should always practice safety measures and not allow him to be around other dogs whom you don't know their vaccine history. Ultimately, you should wash your bite wound thoroughly and seek medical attention for your bite wound. Puppies can have a biting behavior although it should not be tolerated or encouraged. This means you should avoid this behavior, stop giving him attention if he shows this behavior, redirect this behavior to a toy and above all never punish him as this can make the behavior worse. Hope this helps and best of luck!!