Why dogs turn on their owners 

I had a lovely dog who developed essentially canine dementia. She had never even nipped before but suddenly after she hit 14 she would have episodes of extreme aggression with no discernible triggers. I had to completely separate her from our other dogs and she couldn’t visit with guests because she was just too unpredictable. It was devastating to have a dog go from being the best friend you could ask for, to you being afraid to get your face within bite range in case she loses it. The worst part was that you could tell during her more coherent moments that she missed our old cuddly interactions but we just couldn’t risk it. It was horrible.

When you are truly in sync with your dog you will feel his energy just like he feels yours. You just know.

I’ve had dogs all my life. One was a Pit/Akita rescue that was a real handful. He was great with me and the rest of my household but I never trusted him around strangers, especially adolescent males. And when the trainer mentioned in the vid the change in an animals eyes before they attack, he is spot on. I’d always watch my dog’s eyes when we were around other people and I’d see when he “went somewhere else”, and it would happen fast and I’d immediately remove him from the situation. First rescue. Last rescue. I put more work into that dog than any other I’ve had (under the direction of the behavioralist the rescue referred me too, and although he was great with his immediate family he was too traumatized by his early life to ever properly adjust to dealing with strangers (and to him that was almost everyone other than his household). Regardless of his challenges he was a good friend and I miss him.

Pain, injury and fear can cause anger in people as well. Thank you for the informational video.

3 wks ago my parson russell snapped & groweled at an acquaintance reaching over his head to pet him. This was highly unusual. That night I checked him for injuries & found a severe ear infection. He is healed now & is back to his normal temperment.

I fostered a dog that was returned because of biting. The dog also had seizures. Despite my decade of experience and a very structured and safe environment, she turned on me twice. I definitely said I could see it was a “turn” and something was seriously wrong with her. The rescue would not hear what I was saying and wanted me to still adopt her out to regular families. It created so much tension that I ended up parting ways with them. I just felt it was so incredibly irresponsible. It was so sad and disturbing.

I had a standard poodle from pup, who grew up with my oldest daughter. In the whole 10 years of his life, the only 1 time he growled at her was when he had an ear infection and she was bothering him. She understood he was feeling bad and still remembers it to this day as it was so shocking for him to growl at all. He was the bestest boy. Toddlers could roll over him and fall asleep on him. ❤❤

My first dog was an English Springer Spaniel. She showed “Springer Rage” 3 times during her life. I was horrified when I found out from the breeder that my dog’s mother showed similar behaviour, but was still used for breeding, because she was a good show dog! I was only able to control these situations because I’d spent the first two years of her life training her to a very high standard. She was always so unhappy afterwards, knowing something was wrong, but not knowing why. On another occasion, we had a friend with a lovely Golden Retriever who was also well trained, then after a few years she suddenly started showing aggression. In the end they had to put her down, but they asked the vet to do an autopsy which revealed a brain tumour, which of course explained the aggression. As you mentioned Joel in your video.

I’m a lifelong dog owner. German shepherds are my breed. Love their intelligence and loyalty. They were/are all very well loved. Active parts of the family. Only once did I have a close call of being bit. Was midday and Nikki just layed down on the couch. I was getting ready to take him for a walk- which he absolutely lived for. Well apparently in that short time he was on the couch he must’ve drifted off into sleep. Probably dreaming about a fine girl dog. Lol. Not knowing he was asleep, i surprised grabbed him (a common play technique I’ve used a hundred times before to initiate play). He jumped up like never before and like this guy said- you can see it in the eyes. Never before seen those eyes and never since. It took maybe 5 seconds for those eyes to slowly dissolve into his normal self. Then after the eyes were gone , knowing my dog I could see he was just pissed, but he was present again. I profusely apologized and we never had a problem ever again. He was in his prime and 120 lbs. wouldn’t have been pretty. But it wasn’t him with those eyes- was sheer instinct. Taught me a very powerful lesson that day

resource guarding is a huge issue.. During my rehab from cancer I was weak.. I was on the bottom hierarchy in my home. I had my Rottweiler snap at me several times. I invited him into my space for pets. He moved in real close to where I wasnt comfortable. I got up and he snapped. He has also redirected while someone else was walking him. Not a bad bite but it did break the skin..Some dogs need very strong leadership.

I believe my dog has PTSD. He goes through unbelievable, almost uncontrollable behavior. Thank YOU for your video.

My dog had a bacterial infection on her face and it also got to her brain. It took almost four years to heal after her treatments. It was so bad at times that I didn’t even know her and she hardly recognized our family or us. She’s my girl again and is nine years old and getting older.

I love that picture of young Joel with the cougar- the smile on your face shows your expression of doing what you were born to do.

Dogs have unbelievable awareness and control of their bite

I love his show and thisjust summarizes and lays out all of the basic methods he uses on the show. What i love about this guide ru-vid.comUgkxKkYeOoCV_w2vPX0CSyVWkhew2c4FYk0d is that you don' need to read the whole book cover to cover ... You can skip to the chapter (lesson) you want to read about. The book is arranged almost as a problem-solving guide ... Here is the problem and here is what you need to know/do to correct it. This man knows his stuff ... But more importantly knows how to teach people how they can work with their pups themselves!

I LOVE that Beckman has the perspective of a father of young children too. Because there's a broader sense of protection and understanding. Really appreciate that and I can't stress how considerate that is.

I am so glad you actually talked about mental illness in dogs. It exists and I have worked with and have done rescue with dogs since 1988. I myself have rescued a few dogs with mental illness. Only one resulted in aggressive behavior, but I have seen it over the years in other dogs I have worked with or been around. This topic needs more focus. Spaniel rage is a real thing, I actually had read a book written by a Dr. who treated dogs with different mental issues (using medications) and he discusses Springer or Spaniel Rage. His theory is that is was more of a type of seizure like occurrence in the brain that caused the outbursts. Because he had mentioned that after the episodes the dogs would blank or zone out mentally for a while, like some do after a seizure. I'm glad to see you mention this. I hope you touch on this topic in future videos.

My neighbor was walking with a large 8 month old Cane Corso, who just got back from a 2 week training session without the owner. I noticed he had on an electronic collar. He was fearful and lunging at me on the leash. The neighbor owner thought it was great and smiled proudly at his dog. I am 70 yrs. old and worked with thousands of dogs and animals over my lifetime as an animal trainer. I told him my opinion on the e-collar and his dog's behavior. I just saw them again as I was coming back from getting my mail. This dog was ballistic now! Lunging, growling, fighting the leash, frothing at the mouth, etc. I will have to bring my taser with me and maybe my knife in case this dog breaks the leash and attacks me or someone else. I've seen this scenario many times before. When the owner thinks this behavior is funny and shocks the dog to correct it, etc. the prognosis is not good at all. 😢🐾🐾🐕🎭

We had an incident here in Western Australia few months ago where the owner was attacked by one of her Rottweiler and she suffered extensive limb and face injuries and nearly lost her life. There was speculation that her 2 rottweilers were fighting and one of them turned on her when she tried to break up the fight. The police had to shoot the dog to stop it from killing her and the other was impounded by the city but had to put down later as it was then classed as a dangerous dog and she was not in a position to meet the council's requirements. Very sad incident for all involved including dogs, owner and her family.

A vet once told me senior dogs could suffer from dementia and act in strange unpredictable ways...he didn't mention violence but if a dog becomes fearful ut could happen

We had a dog once that broke his back and had to be put down. Even when he was in immense pain, he would never hurt any of us (though obviously we were gentle with him). No judgement on any other dog, but he will be missed, some dogs just don't seem to have it in them to hurt people.

Our border collie mix (who is almost 4) has been with us since he was 5 months old. He was born outside, so he came with some fears, but has always loved us and bonded with us and our other animals immediately. Two years ago, while my daughter was trimming his paw fur - which was a normal routine thing - he suddenly snapped at her face out of nowhere. Since this was completely out of character for him, we took him to the vet the next morning. They said he had the worst ear infection they'd ever seen, and we had no idea at all since he showed no signs prior to the snap. She must have put just a bit of pressure on his head and caused him to react in pain. We treated the infection and he's never had an incident like that since, but we are also very aware of his ears now. You're right about the pain and definitely taking them to the vet right away.

I can honestly say that I personally have never met a stable Cocker Spaniel. I love how cute they are, though lol

I’m surprised you didn’t mention poor training. Poor training is also a factor in dog’s attacking people. But your information was interesting I love learning new things about dogs.

I was given a rescue dog many years ago, he was a Blue Heeler we named Max. We had the dog for six weeks and the dog and my 6yr old daughter bonded nicely. Then my husbands 6yr old son came to stay with us , I watched our son and dog play in the yard for 20 mins -as I watched I suddenly saw something change in the dogs face/eyes, it scared me. The child did nothing to set the dog off and he didn’t see the dog ‘turn’. I ran outside and put myself between the dog and our son, the dog tried to go round me and grabbed our son by the back of his neck. I kicked the dog, grabbed our son and shoved him toward the house and told him to run, he was confused but luckily did as he was told. I ran behind him and locked the dog in the yard. My husband took the dog to the vet as soon as he got home. But the dog’s FACE/EYES definitely changed. I believe there was something very wrong with that dog. We currently have our 4th rescue dog and two of my uncle’s are vets, so I understand about hurt and abused dogs but this was very different.

TW. Joel, thank you for validating my experience. It made me feel more at peace with day I met a GSD that still haunts my dreams. I am a veterinary technician with almost 20 years on the job. I was caught off guard by very reactive dog upon returning him to his owners. He wasn't paying any attention (overtly) to me until the leash was handed back and then he showed his true feelings. He came open mouth straight for my face- defensively I shoved my arm as far in his mouth as I could. I had punctures of all his molars but wasn't able to get those canines in. His shocked owners were able to pull him away and my team was able to pull me into the building before he could try anything else. I was so baffled as I had been with the head of our behavior department before this all happened with him. She and I agreed it was better to abort trying to muzzle him for vaccines when he could come in with sedation for medical management. I have never been attacked in all my years and I was so thrown for awhile. Your video gave me perspective as the year before he was being treated for an injury, that in conjunction with new owners I think cracked his psyche. He is mentally ill now and very much a loose cannon. As far as cocker rage- also look into setter rage... I think it has something to do with gene color- because even now redder Goldens are exhibiting this issue. It truly comes down to breeding crap into the lines but.

THANK YOU for talking about the mental illness issue in a dog being a reason for the more rare "snap" attacks and also bad breeding being a cause for this. I feel these two things are what lead people to genuinely see pits as "turning". We have a ton around here that are backyard bred and prob used for fighting. Also, had a question about whether poor/too severe training tactics or disorganized/inconsistent training on certain temperaments of dogs can lead to turning on the owner?

My Doberman was adopted at 8 months from a guy who kept him in an appartement by himself 12 hours a day. He was completely unsocialized and had dog aggression and redirected aggression but he never actually bit me, he would just grab onto my forearm and give me bruises . I finally found a trainer that helped me with that. When he was about to attack, his eyes would go completely black, it was scary as hell. Super smart and protective of me though.

Of all my dogs, only the first one I ever had, turned on me and bit me. I rescued him off the highway, when a car pulled over and threw him out in the road, and he walked right in front of my car at night in Brooklyn. I took him home with me, and we became extremely close, and he loved the family, and the cats, and everybody for five years. Our relationship was very strong and our communication was very good. He was never alone, and nothing ever tormented him. He was treated royally, and was basically a very good dog, a fiery red Pomeranian. Then one day my uncle was just walking by in the house, when he suddenly lunged, attacked, and bit him. He was very close with my uncle, who would take him for his daily walks two times a day. They had an excellent relationship, and nothing ever happened between them. About a week later I was walking him, when he suddenly turned around and bit into my knee. I don’t know why he became a different dog after five great happy years, other than perhaps he had become sick. I don’t know how old he was when I got him, but he was in terrible condition, and looked like he had been neglected and abused for a very long time. Perhaps as he aged, flashbacks from his early life abuse started to occur. RIP Cherry.

I personally think Joel's lose leash walking method is the key to solving many dog behavior problems. My dog used to be so excited and wanted to jump on everyone, and now she is so well-behaved around people. When I walk her, people can't believe she is only 7 months old and I trained her all by myself.

I tried to rescue a Shiba Inu a few months ago. I couldn't keep the dog because after getting 4 bites in a month and needing stitches, the 4th time too much fear set in with me. This dog was fantastic if he had a military routine. Like clock work 4 walks a day with play, the walks alone never totaled under 10 kn of excersize. After walks, we would do some basic commands with one new one in practice to help him learn. After that, he would get a puzzle toy with treats to keep him mentally stimulated. His biggest issues that we were working on were fear of noises like traffic and the train that would pass by our house. If the house was quiet, the smallest noise would set him into excited barking and pacing. If it was raining, he was obsessed with chasing the streams of water in the cracks on the sidewalk. So my initial thoughts were, at the very least, this dog had anxiety of some kind so I found some relaxing spa music thar sometimes helps me to just relax and played it for him the one day. This was like an instant switch in him. Instead of reaching the smallest creak in the hallway, he could sleep through construction outside my building with the windows open. We did our best to keep him on his strict schedule but it was so bad that even 30 min late on a walk would have him obsessively licking and sniffing the floor and if you tried to get his attention in any way he would instantly attack and draw blood every time. In the end, all this was too much to handle, and I had to give him back, but it bothers me every day that I don't know what was actually wrong and thar I couldn't help him. Now instead I'm obsessively watching dog training videos and wondering if I would be able to master the skills to help other dogs be better. ( I think guilt for the one I couldn't help) Sorry for the sad rant. This is probably not a good place to post this.

We adopted a dog 10 years ago with undisclosed mental issues. He was the sweetest lovebug little guy in the world until he wasn't. There were no triggers, it was like his brain would turn off an he would try and kill what ever was closest. Like Beckman said you could see it in his eyes, reminded me of an old friends crazy cat right before she would attack to kill. The other dog was taking the brunt of the bites because she was throwing herself between him and his target. They normally shared a dog bed and would eat from the same bowl if we didn't keep a close eye on them no issues. After a few rounds of stitches for the other dog and and meds for him we had a wakeup call when he nearly got ahold of my old cat. The other dog saved the cats life but her leg was torn open bad and their relationship broken. She didn't want him near the family any more he was a threat, to get beagle/lab mix to that point. None of the rescues near us could handle him, the rescue we got him from said he was our problem, meds weren't working, making him sick and unhappy, we had to make a hard call to put him down. Even now it break my heart. We don't know if he was born that way or from a head injury. He had poor vision in one eye, broken teeth and an old break on his eye socket all treated once we got him. Did his get that when someone fought off an attack or did the injury cause the mental illness who knows. This has made be very wary of rescues there are only two in my area I would adopt from. An abused dog I can handle, this was a horror that still haunts the family to this day. Thanks for this video it helped explain some of what was going on with him

Man, I've been watching so many of your videos. A neighbors pit, who got out their yard, almost attacked me while I was jogging to catch up with my bike riding family. There are so many dogs in this general area and probably one out of fifty people treat and train their dogs properly. It's so frustrating! all these dogs stay in their yards and get totally "mental". Anyways, thank you so much for your videos.

As a kid I was training a dalmatian. He was a puppy and as he grew the dog would start acting oddly......really stressed but no triggers. One day he attacked and bite me with the whole body shake. it took my grandfather and my collie to get him off me.......nasty bite. The dog got put down and it turned out that he had a genetic defect where his brain was too big for his skull and that caused extreme headache pain. Recently I have a neighbor with a female cattle dog that was abused by her ex boyfriend. The dog is great with me and my cattle dog...a little socialization needed but nothing so bad. However when the dog is with her owner......it sometimes it is reactive and overprotective of the owner who suffers from anxiety, OCD behavior and bi polar disorder.......Since she is my neighbor.....I noticed the dog is reactive when the owner is off her meds. The dog trusts me and even came to our door at 2am because her owner took the wrong meds and was out of it. You could see it in the dogs eyes........I don't know what to do please help my owner!! When the police/emts came the dog wanted to protect her and if I wasn't there.....it would be hard to control that dog. I know the dogs helps her a lot but when she goes off the rails the dog also goes off the rails and I told her both she and her dog need behavior training.......she has to stay on her meds if she wants to keep that dog safely. I feel sorry for the dog.....its smart and empathic and wants to help the owner.....maybe therapy dog training would help.....I don't know

Spaniel Rage is, sadly, very real. I've only just seen this podcast. We bought our beautiful English springer Spaniel as a puppy, Pip. He was our fourth Springer, so we thought we knew their general character, bouncy, fun-loving, and usually eager to please. The first two years went by as normal. Then we started to notice a slight change in his personality. He would start to be grumpy. We took him to our vets and he could find nothing wrong, nothing giving him pain or discomfort. Months went by, and his grumpiness grew. He started to go for one of the cats, totally out of the blue one day, and stopped when he heard us shout at him. He looked puzzled as if he'd done nothing wrong. the cat had done nothing to apparently upset him other than just be in the same room as him. Life carried on with these occasional out of the blue attacks on the cats. None of our other spaniels ever attacked our indoor cats, ever! And growls from under the table where he lay in his bed. Now at night when a torchlight catches a dog's eyes they appear greeny blue - not Pip's eyes - they shone red! Then one evening, Pip was half on my lap and half on the arm of my chair(as per). My fave tv programme was about start, so I said to Pip come on down you go and pushed him off onto the floor. Something we had done many times before. Well he turned round and grabbed my hand, biting it hard and started to shake his head. The pain was immense, he would not let go, just kept biting harder, with me at this stage screaming for him to stop. He held my hand like this for a good half minute, or maybe more, and then suddenly let go of me, and stood staring at me blankly as though he hadn't a clue that he had turned on me. Oh yes, there was plenty of blood!! Very very sadly we felt we could no longer trust Pip, and so the next day my husband took him to our vets. I believe Spaniel Rage has been caused by over-breeding of these pedigree dogs. Pip's brain had been "wired all wrong", as a friend of ours said. Those canines do damage, and those other teeth! I have the scars to prove it. We now have a Spreagle, who is adorable, is mentally as thick as two short planks and twice as dense, but we love her to bits. She behaves with our cats, although she will chase off any outside intruder felines! (A Spreagle is a cross between a Springer Spaniel and a Beagle hound, for those of you unfamiliar with the word)

Some dogs get jealousy. If you show one dog more attention than another one, dogs will growl and even attack their owners and children nearby.

On the matter of mental health - I have noticed that my dog’s behaviour is different depending on diet. When I first got him I fed him on a high quality grain free kibble (as he has a hard time with grains and he was emaciated when he came to me, with a very upset gut). I noticed he was very excitable with a tendency to ‘lose it’ a bit. Quite scary as he is a large bull lurcher. I decided to transition him on to a raw diet mainly because I was hearing some bad things about some of the grain-free kibbles. Over the months he became noticeably calmer and I just put this down to him getting older (he was 2 when I got him and he’s 5 now). But recently I have started to give him a little bit of kibble again (I keep some for emergencies but have to use it up slowly and buying new so that it’s not too old) and I’m noticing some of those old behaviours starting to dial up again. Not anywhere near as bad because it’s only a small part of his diet. I know human diets can have profound effects on human mental health. It makes me wonder how much mental health in dogs is down to inappropriate diets in dogs that are a bit more sensitive gut-wise.

Probably one of the biggest scenarios you didn't mention would be a dog with PTSD. That could be from dogs that were bred for fighting, abused in some other way or some other reason and this could go under that category of mental illness. Also dog with rabies which would go under physical pain I guess but still common enough it's worth mentioning.

Your good Beckman Watching this i recalled problems my dogs long past suffered from ! Today I'm a lot wiser than i was at a young age But its still nice to learn more as i stroll down the path of life with my companions "The dog " We should not fail them ❤

Thank you so much for your insight on this it honestly gave me closure on an attack I witnessed at a young age

Thank you for talking about mental health in dogs. My partner had a harlequin Dane who around her 2nd birthday just started getting a bit too strung out with the cat, barking all around & under the house wherever the cat was. One day I woke up to the Dane attacking my staffy, there were many wounds to my staffy’s face, chest & legs 😔 she survived and fully recovered but we had to get the Dane put down, it was too dangerous to have her around our 4 small kids & we didn’t feel right rehoming the Dane when we knew that she had lost her mind and done so much damage. Was a terrible experience which we still find hard to move past 2 years later.

Hello ,, First time I came to your page,, Your are 100% on what happen to me with my dog ,, 120lb american bull dog , turned on me , he tried to take me out. I never treaded him bad.. You are the first person to talk about this. It hurt me to my heart that my dog did this to me.. He had mental problems , but no one believed me. Thank you for the video and explaining it.

Yes you can definitely see it in their face/eyes when they are about to attack. But I feel like so many ppl are so unaware of things like that that they would never notice or bother paying attention.

my dad and i run a small vet clinic in germany, over the years we had 3 cases were we had to put a dog down coz he "flipped" from one day to another, what we found in 2 out of the 3 cases was a growth in the brain a "glioblastoma" in its relative early phase which would press on the "amygdala". we never foundout what was wrong with nuber 3 tho

I've recently got a puppy. I watch your videos 3-4 times a week. I've learned invaluable information, and am having good success. I've never been bitten by any of my dogs. I did have an experience where a dog beared his teeth at me. I knew nothing about dog training at the time. He was a full grown husky. Got him at 2 years old Had him for about two weeks. I was yelling at him for something he had done, and he bared his teeth. I said one or two more things to him then backed away When I thought about the situation, I realized I had backed this dog into a corner, and we were both unfamiliar with each other. I made sure I never did that to him again. The dog turned into a good, obedient dog who stayed with me till old age.

This is great to hear, my dog “attacked” a puppy the other day, he didn’t bite, no damage at all and he still listened to commands once the excitement was over. He was definitely just trying to play, he didn’t bare teeth at all just ran up barking and tackled.

Yep, my husband suffered a terrible 're-directive' bite to the arm, just below the elbow. He was chomped, breaking up a serious fence fight between 2 large male dogs. One of our 100lb American Bulldogs sunk his canines into my husband's arm. As soon as the dog realized, he immediately let go. It was as quick as the snap of a finger. Sadly, the damage had already been done. The dog literally knew he had done something bad, he couldn't take back. My husband still bears the scars and that was over 15yrs. ago. His arm has a permanent sunken space from muscle damage, tooth scars and he swears the bone in his arm was either cracked or chipped (it was never x-rayed). Nothing like that ever happened again for the rest of the dog's life and my husband never held a grudge or had any lasting trust issues working with that dog or any other. As a matter of fact, that particular dog turned out to be one of our very best. I definitely agree there are some dogs out there with mental issues, although I believe it to be much more prevalent in the feline world. : )

I have had dogs when my children were young I always taught them never inter fear when they are eating ,sleeping,and when they needed their own space

Rage syndrome appears in some breeds,its rare but fairly well documented. It's actually not a mental illness,it's neurological, more of a seizure disorder akin to epilepsy. Cockers and dobermans are the breeds that I'm most aware of being at risk of it. We had to pts a dobie mix that had it. Kind of like when tigers go green,the dogs eyes would change,go blank a bit and glaze and then it would stiffen and snarl.

My dog had extreme anxiety, social anxiety towards people and other dogs. He might have even had some ptsd. He was 15 pounds and was never aggressive but he definitely had a mental illness. Lots of training helped but he was essentially broken 😢. He was my best friend and I am glad he was mine because I truly believe he would have been turned over to a rescue or abused because he was such a mess. Rip Max

This video will make me pay attention to my German shepherds more. They’re very sweet and energetic dogs so I never think of situations like this

A team of dog culture critics will scrutinize this video live between one and two hours from now. I'll be sure to share the link.

This may be one of the most useful videos on youtube. It is an extremely important question and most pet owners don't understand the why, the how, or what to do about it. We've had 7 cats and 2 dogs during the past 60 years and learned more about our pets during the last 15 years than all of the previous years. I wish we had known more in the beginning. It's the same with raising children: it's "on the job training" and it would be better for society if people were trained before they had pets or produced children . . .

Great video! I lost an older male Vizsla this spring, to cancer. Six months before he died, his behavior changed, markedly. We took him in to the vet and they found no issues with blood work. I didn't think about doing an ultrasound at that time. Turns out that he had a massive tumor that had been growing into his lungs, heart, liver, etc. The pain must have been horrible. He would get aggressive if you tried to pet him on the belly or when laying down. Never showed aggression ever before. We suspect there may have been tumor in the brain. So sad. If your dogs behavior rapidly changes get to the vet, get blood work done, and have them do an ultrasound of the chest and stomach area.

Thank you Joel for this video. My friend had a dog whose eyes would go somewhere else and growl at him. It got worse and worse, always with the glazed eyes, and eventually she was euthanized after a bad bite. He tried to seek help for his dog but could not find help. Background info is she was an American Bulldog mix who spent ages 4m to 8m at the shelter. The shelter uses individual small rooms for each dog where they can not hear, don't have a window and no toys. Thanks again for the work you do. It has helped my dog and me a ton

Exhaustion/Extinction can cause frustration aggression. Your first point of redirection is a great example! but only a subset of this entire category IMHO. Great video.

Great video. I've had three dogs with cancer, and in pain - but they always turned to me for comfort when the vet arrived to 'put them to sleep'. Having said this, I have been bitten as a result of your first reason. i.e. two dogs fighting, and holding them apart left them nose to nose.... I understood this, and was eventually forced to leave them to fight it out, as I was bleeding badly and one of my dogs was shaking her head to cause more injury, and force me to let go...... She was one of the dogs that eventually came down with cancer, but walked into my arms when the vet arrived.

All you said was very good and well thought through. Yet I think another reason is fear due to past abuse.

I have a mentally ill GSD. Went through a very traumatic puppy hood. He is such a lovely being, but I had to learn a lot of hard lessons to get to the point to give him the care he needs. Dogs are like your children. You need to listen to them, and not have expectations based on breed. This is my third GSD. Each has been a different being in more ways than less. Good luck, my friends!

I'm really glad this wasn't a "no bad dogs, only bad owners video". I've never been attacked by any dog thankfully, but my staffy (in the profile pic) was very dominant as a young dog and sometimes the only thing I could do to get her to stop chewing on my forehead (literally) or trying to sneak up to my food was wrestle her or growl at her (yelling didn't work well). Eventually though I learned and she learned that positive reinforcement is better than any other kind. She's 6 now, and she's a great dog. She's snuggled up to my knee as I write this. PS The point of this is to say that if I had allowed her to be the boss and then suddenly challenged an established hierarchy, I'm not sure whether she would turn or not, but she's capable of using more force than I want to deal with lol

I had a Cocker with rage syndrome. He was literally Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde. There was no noticeable trigger. I had to put him to sleep. So sad. But he bit multiple people. Who knows I was young and took my vets advice. I loved that dog though. He was great with me except for food resource guarding. He would growl and pee over his food when you came near him. Scary.

You can 100% see the switch in the eyes..found your channel today by far one of the best dog trainers there is..honest, and you know your stuff

We once had a dog like that. He could be on his back for a belly rub, or just lying on the floor and in a flash he would turn on you. It took us 3 years to work out that he had neurological damage caused by soresto flea and tick collars. He was always better in the winter when not wearing one, but still unpredictable. He did some fairly nasty bites over the years. I wrote to Bayer who make these things and eventually they compensated us - a paltry amount Beware - if your dog changes suddenly it's worth looking into. With subsequent dogs I use essential oils for fleas and ticks and have found this very effective.

Some medical treatments have been known to cause this switch to happen as well. I have seen the switch you are referring to more than I care to remember. I was brought up with a dog that not only bit but attacked members of the family. We lived on a ditch that was full of poisonous snakes and he was poisoned four different times and went through radiation treatments 4 different times. This left him with brain damage especially as he got older. He got to where he sometimes didn't seem to recognize us, you could tell by the look in his eye. (the switch) The only people he didn't bite were my little brother and myself (we were the youngest and spent the most time playing with him.) but it wasn't for lack of trying. I know this was a mental deficit because of the one time he tried to attack me. I was in the backyard around the side of the house cleaning out his doghouse for him. I heard him start growling and saw him running in tight circles in the backyard area and I moved back around the corner but he came charging around the corner towards me and lept into the air towards my face. I had a board with nails in it in my hands and swung it with all my might striking him in the side of the head. He yelped loudly and fell to the ground and ran off. I calmed myself and went to find him to see if he was ok. (I was only 12 yrs old and he had torn my older brother and neighbor kid up pretty good already, I just reacted.) I found him and spoke softly to him for a bit and he let me clean him up. It didn't do any internal damage, just a cut on his head and thankfully I missed his eye. He never tried to bite me again after that and never even growled at me. I was eventually elected his caretaker when he was having a bad day especially if he had gotten out of the backyard and was terrorizing the neighborhood because I was the only one that could deal with him. As an adult, I'll never understand why my father didn't do something after he turned on the family so many times. My older brother was torn up by him pretty bad 3 different times and it traumatized him. His dinner often wound up in a pile in the backyard because he would snarl and guard it as a resource before the bowl was even put down. He was never allowed inside and eventually I was the only one that would spend time with him and even that was only an hour or two a day. I would watch him fight the rats to keep them from eating his left over food from my window at night and felt so sorry for him but I was just a kid. Since then, I have been a multiple dog owner for most of my life, worked as a vet tech for about 7 years, and then later in life became a counselor.

I encountered an unstable adult male Rottweiler at a friend's house around 30 years ago, which had come from an abusive home according to my friend. The dog bit my friend (required medical attention and antibiotics), friend's brother (required antibiotics), and I personally witnessed the dog "flip" from playing with a ball to toy aggression when the ball went behind a person's leg and the chair or sofa the person was sitting in. It was a tense few minutes where we all sat stock-still, the dog growled in a close stance with face inches from the leg, and the owner attempted to verbally recall the dog. Eventually diffused, thankfully. The second incident I encountered with this dog was when I was in the house to get something from the living room while almost everyone else was outside in a hot tub. The dog started stalking me and had me backing into a corner when I was able to call the owner to come intervene. I refused to go visit friend after that, knowing it was unlikely the dog would be crated, muzzled, or otherwise restrained for human safely. Months later, I learned the dog had been euthanized after (and only after) it attacked a person and she required extensive stitches to face, etc. It was a sad, preventable incident. Thinking about your reasons, I am wondering if a fourth reason for dogs to turn on owners is a history of abuse/trauma or abusive use of e-collars resulting in an accelerated rate of excitement/reactivity so a dog can go from being "okay" to "not okay" too fast for us to redirect or catch in time to prevent an incident.

Fantastic video, thanks Joel. Yes, Cocker owners often seem to experience crazy aggression... What comes to mind is during my time training dogs in the local Rottweiler club, intact males would seriously attack their owners in battles of dominance, for lack of a better term: Either objecting to leash-correction during heel-work, or to the "drop" command during bite-work. okay, the latter could be redirection due to frustration. But 1 case had a young adult intact Rottie hump their new owner. When he tried to push the dog down, he got bitten so badly his entire arm and shoulder ended up in a cast. Also, male intact Malinois would sometimes object to corrections and bite the owner's leg, or attack a new owner when they walk into the dog's kennel.

Awesome video man! This being only the 2nd video of your's I've watched...This video just totally answered my comment to your video "Training a rescue from the streets" (AVA) to a T...I'm glad I have the time right now because my crazy female malinois thinks she's runnin the show, well I got news for her...Beckman's Dog Training Videos are gonna lay the smack down...Starting...as soon as this Minnesota Blizzard has past....Thanks for what you do sir...

Beckman, thank you so much for this video, it is very interesting and informative. Fortunately, in my case, my dogs have never turned on me but now I know what to do if it ever happens. I look forward to seeing more of your videos! You just earned a new subscriber! 😎

Very interesting. I agree about dogs and kids. My son's older dog used to always go under their dining room table to get away from the kids. Smart dog.

Had a dog which i had for years when suddenly he began biting me with the last time leaving 4 punctures in my calf ... left a message with the vet to have him put down . They ran a test first and discovered he had no functioning thyroid.... after starting the thyroid med he didn't ever bite for the rest of his life (about 4 years) and regained a happy attitude

My parents had a Chow named Bear. He was a beautiful dog. But three times he bit neighborhood kids who had come to the house to play with my little brother. One of them I actually witnessed. My mom had given the kid a dog biscuit to give to Bear. As soon as Bear was let out of his kennel, he turned and lunged on the kid, sinking his canines into the kid’s abdomen. My mom said it happened because Bear remembered this kid teasing him previously, which made absolutely no sense to me. I am still surprised my parents were never sued by the parents of the kids that Bear bit. Then one day, a storm was coming and my dad was standing in the doorway with Bear by his side. Bear turned around and sunk his teeth into my dad’s knee. That is when they made the decision to put Bear down. My mom regretted that decision for years and said she would have rather taken him to live with a sweet old lady in a remote location. I think that would have ended badly, too.

Very much agree with your reasons of deduction for Biting an owner, I first heard the redirection diagnosis from Cesar Milan about 12 years ago, referring to dogs redirecting when they’re fighting and you try to pull them apart from another dog. This has always made perfect sense to me, and I have seen it on numerous occasions with people trying to separate their dogs in a fight. The other reasons, make also very good sense, as dogs don’t attack humans, specially their own owner, without a very good reason.

The puppy my son brought home, if he gets over-excited, on a hike or during play in the yard, he will do something remarkably like attacking. I use the beep on the Ecollar to get his attention. THE IMPORTANT THING IS TO NOT LET HIM GET WORKED UP IN THE FIRST PLACE. The door method, and loose leash walking, which I learned from these videos has been incredibly helpful in structuring him. Had I seen them sooner, I probably wouldn’t have needed the E collar. As soon as I notice the puppy turning, I get him sitting, put the leash back on and go from there. Years ago I had a Belgian Tervueren. If she became overexcited she would turn. I could see in her eyes that she didn’t even recognize me. The secret with her, was to never let her begin barking during play. All play would have to stop until barking stopped. Her eyes would come back into focus and she was once again a domesticated animal… Anyway, keep up the good work with these videos! Very down-to-earth and helpful.

The old saying, let sleeping dogs lie is true with a lot of dogs. I have a dog that simply doesn’t want to be petted while he is sleeping. He is very gentle, never has bitten anyone, but I quickly learned from his soft growls that that he wanted his space while sleeping.

Redirected aggression can happen with pet cats as well. It's called displacement I think in cats. I once had a female tabby who was the queen of displacement. When she sat in her window and saw another cat outside she would growl and bristle. If another cat or person was nearby at the time she would attack. She would snap out of it instantaneously once removed to the floor and the stranger-cat was out of her vision.

About turning on an owner: My brother-in-law had a friend with 2 dobermans. He came home staggering drunk and they set on him. (He took both dogs out back and shot them.) I have a feeling they were in fear because of prior cruel experience from the owner when he was drunk. So basically they were trained to be in fear and reacted to that training with self preservation. I watched the woman on the bed with the pitbull. She seemed to be in an abusive relationship with it. The angrier it got, the more she petted it and tried to please it. You can create mental illness by inappropriately responding to bad behavior. You get what you pet.

As always, an amazing topic with a lot of valuable information. I live in South Africa and we have human settlements where dogs roam freely and often have to fend for themselves. The weak dogs generally don't make it and as a result, we have dogs with very strong genetic survival skills. My mother's dog came from there and at the age of 12 moved into my pack recently. Although she is sweet and loving, she turns on me when I grab her collar. Although very loved, this dog never had any formal training, she lived on a 10-acre plot and her only outings were to the vet. She resource guards me and has shown very dominant behaviour towards the other dogs. I have worked on the collar grabbing daily and even though she now accepts it, I am still wary and careful. I will always make sure that she is aware of my presence. Please could you do a video on resource guarding, especially if it is a human?

This might be a long one but I'll give you my experience. My first dog when I was 12 was an Old English Sheepdog from a championship line with BEAUTIFUL color and markings. He was always on the aggression, over-protection side and he was extremely smart. I found that he also had an unnecessarily mean streak in his play with me as he grew from a puppy. Like we had a game of chase where as he got bigger and faster he would bite pretty hard (not skin piercing). Soon I resorted to jumping up a tree to escape him. And he would go hysterical as I waited for him to calm down...eventually. But when he got fast enough that he could leap and grab my leg, he did whatever it took to snatch me out the tree and pounce on me in aggressive "play" mauling. After a couple times of that I stopped playing the chase game. Another example of his nature is when I would lock myself out the house and had to break in through a 6' high window. This dog would patiently wait until I was half-way through then snatch me down and proceed with the same hurtful engagement. I dreaded when I locked myself out. Well this behavior did serve my family well when during a blackout someone broke into that same window. And I KNOW that dog must've sat patiently waiting in the dark for that burglar to get half-way in. When we came home the front gate and front door was wide open. We pretty much followed a trail of blood drops to the slashed window. And then our bloody maw dog trotted back in the house moments later panting and proud. Anyway by the time I was 17, my household was chaotic. My parents were constantly arguing. Sometimes physical. There was a whole bunch of bad energy around that house. And just as it impacted me, it triggered my dog even worse. Add to that my father was intimidated by the dog's nature and my mom coddled the dog-- even if it showed complete aggression toward my father or I. During one of my parent's bad episodes, I was so angry I punched a door to get their attention and then my dog lunged a bit me on the back of my arm. This did break the skin but he didn't sink he teeth in. But it broke up the argument at least. Some time later, another argument, this time I'm going to leave the house and let all 3 of them fight among themselves. But when I was leaving out the door my dog grabbed me by my boot, clamped down and snatched me back in the house as he's violently shaking. I could tell he broke skin. I snapped trying to kick the dog off my foot. I only got free when I was able to grab a vase and smash it on his head. He let go but it was on-- he was coming back for my leg! I tried my very best to him. He ducked AND THEN LUNGED AT MY FACE/NECK. Amazingly I caught him mid-air by the scruff of the neck as he went berserk and I threw him out of the door and over the porch. When he came back up the porch, he had his head lowered and skulked back in the house--until he got behind my mom and SHOW ALL HIS TEETH. From this point, the dog's behavior just escalated as the turmoil continued. Our relationship deteriorated and at that point he kind of became my parent's dog. Eventually he did wind up sending me to the hospital for a few days with the fear of losing my hand when I was 20 (But that's another epic story). And my parent's still kept him. Pretty soon after that, they split apart. And not too long after that I relocated to NYC. I always thought that maybe that dog was so crazy because of something in the breeding. Sometimes I muse that some evil reincarnated soul leapt into my dog at birth. Well since that experience I went on to have 2 Rottweilers and now 2 English Staffordshire Terriers and a Pitbull. Never once did or has any one of them ever showed me anything but the love I and my family have poured into them. It is unfathomable for me to think that they would ever turn on me or any one of our family. I myself sometimes assume that if a pet turns on its owner, it must be neglected or abused... but then I remember my first dog, Callicoe, and think, yeah sometimes things come out the oven spoiled BUT stability of a home may provide just as much to the dog's temperament.

Great overview and advice Sir…Thank You 👍🏻

Never be afraid to kill a dog that's aggressive and a threat to u. Remember it's just a dog

You are so knowledgeable and I’ve learned a lot of new info on dog behavior watching your videos!

I added a 4 month old rescued what we think was a Pit/Boxer mix (Brandy) to my family and we already had a very social but submissive 1 year Boxer/Lab mix (Buddy). Brandy showed dominance immediately, but Buddy was alright with it. However, I had to set her straight over exhibiting acceptable and respectful behavior during feedings as she would have steamrolled him and eaten all of his meals, he’d just back off and look at me and whimper. 😂 She also came to us with a bit of resource guarding, with not just food but toys too. I worked that out with her. First feeding by hand, then in her bowl but holding it, then with body touch while she ate out her bowl in its stand. Never showed another sign of guarding her food. And we worked out the toy issue with discipline and back and forth give and take - both building trust and an understanding of who’s really in charge and that no one was taking her things away from her, she could trust us. They hit it off playfully immediately, but I had to work with her about her trying to dominate him and work with him about calming the hell down and not trying to play every waking moment. Respecting each other formed a bond that was unbreakable, they were inseparable until the day Buddy passed, Brandy passed only 6 months later. They were both trained professionally as well, and that I believe was KEY. But that’s a foundation that you still need to work into your individual family and house rules. Eventually they knew wrestling was for outdoors, and we don’t steal food or hoard toys. She learned to sit about 6 feet behind him while he ate, (as I stood between at first but didn’t need to for long) and when he was done and walked away, she then was allowed to go lick his bowl clean after every meal. She also learned not to snatch toys out of his mouth when they weren’t actively playing. I even helped her overcome her instinct to hunt small animals, as she bought us bunnies and dig up moles in the backyard. At first she wanted to kill them but after a ton of training, she was laying on her dog bed with our daughters 2 guinea pigs 😂 You have to really understand your dogs and pay close attention to catch their cues EARLY to get a jump on the potential for problems. And all of that training I did with them, whenever they did get injured, they actually sought us out to let us tend to their wounds. Brandy would avert her eyes and every once in a while slip us a side eye, exhibiting LOADS of self restraint, which made me so proud of her. Whereas Buddy was the one who gave us sad eyes, looked like he was so thankful for the help. Very different dogs, but both trusted us explicitly in their own ways. Had either one ever given me crazy eyes or lunged, we probably wouldn’t have been able to keep them. I wouldn’t have put my kids at risk like that. While puppy nipping is one thing, I would NOT have tolerated any of us being bitten. No way. So, Training is NECESSARY, and that means continued training every single day . I DON’T CARE WHAT ANYONE SAYS!!! That’s how you have happy, healthy mentally and emotionally balanced dogs.

Great video! Another scenario, which happens with our 80 lb female Pyrenees/Golden Retriever is “resource guarding”. She’s 15 months old and if we try to get her to drop something she doesn’t want to give up, she’ll growl and snap, often grabbing an arm or hand and holding on. She’s never sunk her canines in but I worry that may be coming. Today my adult daughter had taken something away from her and the dog instantly grabbed my daughter’s forearm. Daughter got her off but she kept jumping up and grabbing arms and hands, seemingly out of anger/frustration. I’d say her eyes do “change” at those times.

I have been a subscriber to your channel for the past 3 years. I respect your knowledge base and your training techniques. Zhahn-Pam here from Team Peaches Dog Training and Education. I have been training dogs since 1969. I like that you brought mental issues in this video. like humans, dogs can be mentally unbalanced. Whether it is due to genetics or environment it is something that that needs to be addressed.

I know of a collie who slept on their owners bed and had a very strong relationship with their owner who attacked the owner viciously in her sleep putting her in hospital, it turned out the dog had some sort of brain tumour that at some point caused the dog to just switch.

Thank you for posting this very informative video. I've had dogs most of my life and had no idea dogs can have mental illnesses. You are a wealth of knowledge.

I rescued a starving dog. My son caught the dog eating his food off his plate on the table. He said something to the dog which attacked my son. I had heard the noise and came and my son was holding him off with a chair. My son didn’t say anything but later I saw the scars. I sorted out the dog though he was always skinny and even had trouble keeping food down. I would massage him to keep his food down. Also his former owner had taught him to attack. He became a lovely dog and honestly the love of my life.

We took in a Dalmatian from the pound around 7 months ago. He’s now a year old, up-to-date on shots & neutered. Very high strung & energetic. Plays rough, always has. We believe that he was starved bc he’s constantly hungry & will eat literally anything/everything. My 14 year old son was outside petting him & he had a really small bone in his mouth. The dog growled, my son brushed it off bc this dog always growls while playing. Well he snapped, turned up & bit him in the face. Bit almost thru his cheek fully and split his upper lip in half. He has possible nerve damage bc he cannot smile fully. It’s heartbreaking to see him like this. I believe that my son pulled away when he was bitten (bc, instinct) which is why so much damage was done. He received 14 stitches & 2 internal sutures to his lip.. My husband is super attached to this dog, but as you say in your video, your own dog should NEVER turn on the owners! And esp on kids! If this bite had occurred just a few inches lower, he would have gotten his throat & he could have DIED. My question is, should he be returned to the pound? I say yes, as my sons terrified of him & who knows if this will happen again! My hubby believes that it was our kids fault, he shouldn’t have stayed while the dog growled. I don’t feel this is any time for a “guilt trip” toward my son.. I understand that we’ve put a LOT of time, love & effort into raising this dog the best we can, but obviously it’s not working out.

I have a dog like that….it’s the scariest thing I’ve ever had to deal with. It’s complex, and too long to explain, but we have never abused him, but he had bad allergies and we had to clean them and it hurt, now we can’t go near him, as he growls and will try to bite.. we can have great days, you touch near his collar, his eyes turn , lips come up, fierce growling and he is huge. Trying to love him, to not show fear,but it’s scary.

My first GSd was hit by a car and lost a front leg. Though medical exams didn't find anything other than a fractured elbow, she had pain at random times during her life. Then she got early arthritis from compensating. She couldn't stand active children or dogs for the reasons you outlined. She was fine as long the child or dog approached slowly and gently. Just before her 12th birthday, She lost the use of her back legs and had more pain from this Neuro issue. While monitoring her in her final days, she snapped at everyone but me and made a serious attempt to bite my husband's hand. So I was her sole care taker during a time of intensive care and numerous vet visits, where The techs couldn't even help. I was changing her bedding one night and she just looked at me and curled her lip. Broke my heart, but I knew we'd gone as far as we could and the pain was too much for her. I always said that one dog would never bite me. And she didn't because she knew she didn't have to.

This is the first time seeing a video from you, thanks for being so informative and concise. If possible, could you please do a video on an issue for me? I have a sweet g. shepphard and she is super quiet when I'm home - only barks if there's something out of the ordinary. She's loving and is non aggressive with the family. However, when I'm gone and at work and when the family is home she barks and barks non stop just over and over and over. I've called with my wife before and all I hear in the back ground is her barking and barking. When I get home late at night she barks a couple of times "I think it's the reaction to her hearing the door make sounds?", but when I enter in she immediately stops the barking and instead starts wagging her tail often hitting it against the surface pretty hard out of what I am sure is excitement of where ever she's at. Once I'm home the barking is done unless something is out of the ordinary. Is there a way I can help her to stop barking when I'm gone?

One of my dogs was sleeping off some post exam sedation next to me and I just shifted and jounced him slightly. He came immediately awake and snarled with his teeth bared at me, a totally unique behavior. He quickly realized it was me, and I was aware to stay still and not respond with anger, and he lowered his ears and moved to come appease me with his head down. He didn't look "nuts" but he was not himself, I've tripped over him in the dark when he's out cold and he never responded aggressively, or when I need to examine/treat/groom him. I think it's very closely related to the mental illness category, but temporary and externally initiated like a family member who is great until one too many drinks and then they're trying to start a fight every minute.

I've only experienced a couple dogs that nipped, but never gone crazy. I remember when I got a GSD as a puppy I worried a little because I was a 70s kid when GSD were considered a dog to fear. I told my kids to "never" let him bite you. I'd have them tap his nose when he bit as a puppy. He grew up to be a great dog, super respectful of kids & adults.

I had a Chow Chow previously and she literally switched in a moment. Her eyes went from brown to black. This happened after she had drawn blood after nipping someone visiting my mom and walked in between my mom and my dog while my mom was dog sitting my dog. It was devastating because she was never the same after that. The brown to black eyes happened directed at my nephew. The vet told me you never know if you have a sound chows till they turn 3yrs old. I wish I had known of you way back when.

When my dog was younger he used to redirect on me off and on. I ended up spending the money to go to one of cesar millan’s clinics and work with him and his team for a week and it was the best decision of my life. Turns out my dog isn’t aggressive at all. I mean there’s always a possibility with any dog but as cesar said the issue was because I had little to no confidence at the time and I would second guess everything and be extremely tense because I was living in the past of things that had happened and I also had a sensitive dog who in his mind he was thinking ok she’s thru the roof with her tension she either doesn’t like the dog or the person I need to protect her so he would lunge and act aggressive. Then I would be doing the complete wrong thing which would piss him off and would cause him to redirect on me. In my case and I hate to say it but I didn’t have the skills at the time I guess I don’t even know if that’s the right wording but I didn’t even realize what my problems were doing to my dog or how I felt affected him. It’s been just over a year now since we did the training and it’s not perfect but it’s way better then it was. We are making progress by the day but like everything some days are better then others. Just now I am better at learning to read my dog and I am better at being able to set us up for success. Only time we seem to have any issues now is when we are in new places or something unexpected happens like an unknown dog gets off it’s leash or a random dog in general with no owner in site approaches my dog and I can feel myself for the most part get tense before i even realize it and then my dog reacts but it’s a work in progress. It’s still a struggle for me but I guess it’s like an addiction when you do things for so long that sometimes you take a step back before you can move forward. I know my dog is fantastic but I just have to work on my inner demons which sometimes affects our relationship ☺️

I'm so glad I watched this video, so very helpful. We have a 13mo male dog (lab mix). In the past six weeks he has had several instances where he has exhibited aggression. He seems to have some possession aggression. In one instance, he had gotten hold of several waded up tissues. My son tried luring him away with a treat. When he got close, Yogi bit our son. He lacerated his hand. My wife tried holding him back. When she let him go, he turned on her, and bit her repeatedly on both arms. She needed three stitches on one arm, seven on the other. He has bit my older son one other time in a similar situation to the waded-up tissue incident. We know that's a trigger that we avoid, and he's been fine since. Lastly, there have been a few other instances where he has lashed out. Twice when we tried looking in his ears for ear mites, the other when I tried toweling him off after being in the rain. I will say we adopted him from a rescue 2mo after his birth. He has traditionally been very nervous, so I think this plays into some fear biting. We have an appt with a vet to check him out. They want us to strongly consider euthenizing him. I would rather not, but I can't ignore what's happened and whether we can safely coexist as a family. We're looking for a recommendation. The vet seems to think the severity and occurrence will only continue to increase hence the reason for euthenizing him. I would be indebted for any help/guidance. Tx.

I want to thank you for opening a new world for me. Your videos and instruction are always on point and have actual situational applications. I take pride on being a good dog owner. I have a daughter who always fed her two dogs together. Food caused the death of the smaller dog. I now give ample space while feeding my dogs.

Thankyou Joel, this was fascinating. I met a lady once at the hospital, who's bull terrier had fallen asleep by her on the sofa it's was dreaming and woke up startled it clamped onto her arm and caused serious bone, nerve, tendon damage. She said the dog was old, had gotten it from a pup, that up to that point had a marvelous temperament and that usually her child would of had its head on her knee where her arm was. Luckily the child wasn't at home that night. She was distraught about having her dog put to sleep. The vet had mentioned that due to age it was probably very confused when it woke up.

After watching this video I felt I had to comment there is another instance we're a dog can turn on their owner that you didn't mention. It happened to me a few years back. My husband and I had been verbally fighting for like 3 days straight. It only ended when our pit bull decided to attack me. You are right, you can see it in the eyes. I saw him from across the room and I knew what was about to happen. This fully grown adult dog we had had from about 3-4 months old dropped me to the ground instantly. He wouldn't let go my husband was freaking out trying to get him off of me. I had to tell him to stop that he was making it worse. The dog was crazy, trying to RIP my arm off of my body! I finally got loose one of the times he tried to get a better hold on my arm. I had to run to the other room for safety. When a friend of ours was next to me calling an ambulance for me, I found out that my husband grabbed the dog and ran to his him, afraid the cops would come for the dog. Anyway, the inside of my arm was hanging out of my arm and I had to have Surgery. It was bad! I know it wasn't the dogs fault it was the humans fault for fighting in front of the dog. I just thought maybe you should bring attention to a situation like this. I know I never thought my own dog would ever turn on me even if my husband and I were fighting. In the past the dog would just go hide in that kind of situation.

I have a rescue dog that attacked my other dog because he is insecure and was jealous of the other dog receiving attention. I am careful now to always show affection to both dogs anytime I show affection to one.