Aggressive Saint Bernard

by Hamza Qarooni
(Bahrain)

Diana is our 4 yrs old Saint Bernard living with us together with a male Saint Bernard. She used to be aggressive only to strangers but very friendly with all family members. Lately, and in 2 occasions, she has attempted to attack my wife or something my wife is holding as if she did not recognize my wife. Luckily, I was with her and Diana responded to my repeated firm "No'. Since then my wife insist she is in the kennel when she or our little son goes to our garden or when she leaves home or come back.

One time she run to the outside door when a stranger just left after talking to me and started growling at me and twice took a step towards me while growling but after some firm commands from me like "NO" "Go inside", she went back to the kennel. After her attack attempts and my firm reactions, she started obeying my orders immediately.

She was mated couple of months ago and we thought it could be over protection because she might be pregnant but now we know she is not pregnant.

Our driver and housemaid have no problems with her and she listen to their commands with no problem. They are the ones feeding them and cleaning their kennel. However, our nanny living with us in the house can not ask her to go inside when she is eating. The nanny and my wife do not have much interactions with them.

We all love them and want to keep Diana but are afraid that one day she bites a member of family if somehow she does not recognize him because it is dark and he/she putting a new perfume.

I play with them with no problem and somehow if she sees my wife and recognize her then we know she is fine. The main worries is when my wife just steps in or out and especially when it is dark and she is somehow wearing high heals, putting different perfumes, etc. or may be I am just saying all these because i want to find excuses for her.

Please help us and help Diana. She is a fantastic dog and we want to keep her. how can we trust her again? Can she be trained to be more social at this age?

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Feb 11, 2013
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Stop Saint Bernard Aggression
by: Adam G. Katz

Hi, Hamza:

You'll need to start by asking yourself two questions:

1. Does the dog understand that the dog aggression is unwanted behavior?

and

2. If she understands that she shouldn't be aggressive, then she's choosing to ignore me. In which case, you have a respect issue.

Get a prong collar and a six foot leather leash and learn how to correct your dog in a safe and humane manner. I can guarantee that you'll see an almost immediate, dramatic improvement. Check out DogProblems.com to learn more. (You can click on the banner, at right).

And finally: Employ the "Nothing In Life Is Free" approach, so that your dog starts to view you as the "pack leader." If your dog doesn't see you as the leader, then your corrections will be meaningless. So, if you're doing subtle things (inadvertently) to undermine your leadership role around the house-- it will be counter-productive.

Be sure to sign up for our free:

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All the best,
Adam

Adam G. Katz is the author of, "Secrets of a Professional Dog Trainer!" -- which you can find at DogProblems.com.

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