My Dog has to go....

[thesloppy]

[Glengoyne]

Originally Posted by miked

This is horrible advice, the internets strike again!

Do you have a dog? This works, but perhaps it is something that you start young. LS should call in a dog-trainer for professional advice. My point is that the situation doesn't seem irreversible from what he has communicated. The bottom line of my advice is that he has to make the decision, and he should consider all of the options.

[molson]

Originally Posted by johnnyshaka

Grew up with dogs including a Siberian Husky for about 5 years. My wife is allergic to dogs and cats so my dog days are done. Oh well.

Our husky wasn't the best behaved dog on the block but she never got aggressive with us. She did nip at the odd passerby during walks, though. If you weren't firm with the leash I'd hate to think what she would've done to any number of kids (kids were always drawn to her because her eyes were two different colours). It wouldn't happen very often but it would've only taken one incident to make sure it wouldn't ever happen again...if you catch my drift.

Point being, the dog might be placed with a couple sans children but that doesn't mean the dog won't ever be exposed to kids.

I've had similar experience with my siberian huskies. It wasn't "aggression" like you'd expect from a pitbull/rotweiler, it was posturing relating to pecking order in the pack. Huskies can have a bit of an attitude, especially when comes to toys and food, though it stops well short of being a dangerous situation.

My huskies loved to growl - I eventually transformed that instinct into a kind of play, where I could easily trigger the growl with certain gestures, whether or not there was toys/food around. I'm not saying that's good dog training, in fact, it's probably the absolute worst thing anyone should do, but I never felt in danger, and it was a great party trick.

Of course, we didn't have kids around. The dogs were sweet and loved kids, but I wouldn't leave a small child alone with a husky, because I'd be worried about them inadvertenly activating their strong predator instinct by taking the dog's food, roughousing, etc. There's definitely better breeds for a family with young children.

[miked]

Originally Posted by Glengoyne

Do you have a dog? This works, but perhaps it is something that you start young. LS should call in a dog-trainer for professional advice. My point is that the situation doesn't seem irreversible from what he has communicated. The bottom line of my advice is that he has to make the decision, and he should consider all of the options.

I have a dog, I also helped train dogs at the humane society back when I had time to volunteer. I agree that the situation is reversible with a trainer, but the last thing you want to do is battle aggression with more aggression. It's quite obvious that the dog finds himself an equal to the alpha male, or a buddy, or whatever. That despite the love he gets from the wife, he obviously doesn't view her as somebody he has to listen to or respect.

The trainer obviously needs to work with the family and the dog, to let the dog know that he has to respect the family as a whole.