Pedigree on Aggressive Dog

[GSDLove]

Hello,

Some folks in the Aggression forum suggested I post Bailey's pedigree in hopes of getting a better understanding of where his people/dog aggression is coming from.

Thank you forl your opinions.

[GSDGenes]

What kind of home situation is he in? Are his owners experienced with GSDs? Has this dog been well socialized? What age is this dog? This dog's pedigree is approx 3/4 German working lines & 1/4 German show lines. I've seen many adolescent dogs from German lines who were purchased by people who never had a dog before, or had a breed very unlike the GSD in intelligence, activity level, etc & when the cute little puppy turned into an adolescent ready to try to become boss of the house and
test the humans to see what they would let hm get away with, all sorts of problems resulted because the people didn't know how to assert their authority as leaders of the pack in any way the dog would understand. By the time the humans would seek help, the problems had already been escalating for a long time, problems that an experienced person would have seen coming and handled at the beginning. Most dogs who end up in shelters are adolescents who are dumped for behavior problems related to their adolescence. To a dog, the human family is the dog's pack. If the owners don't know how to assert their authority as leaders of the pack, the dog will keep pushing until he takes over with disastrous results.

Some people unknowingly encourage aggression in their dogs or set up situations for others to teach the dog to become aggressive. A frequent scenario is a dog on a tie-out chain that gets teased by neighborhood kids---the same tactics helpers use to teach a dog to do bitework. The inevitable day comes when the dog gets loose, somebody gets bitten, the dog is labelled aggressive.

Fear aggression in adolescent dogs is sometimes mistakenly encouraged by people who attempt to soothe and calm and stroke their dog when he shows fear. In the dog's mind he's getting praised for acting fearfully aggressive.

Medical issues & pain are another possible cause of a dog's aggression. I once read of a Golden Retriever who suddenly turned vicious and mauled one of his owner's small children. The dog was euthanized, upon necropsy a portion of a pencil was found jammed deep down inside the dog's ear.

Genetics play a part in temperament but there are many other factors that also play a part & except for dogs bred purposely to be animal or human aggressive, most often other factors are to blame for inappropriate aggression.

[GSDElsa]

I'll give your post a little bump and give my guess, but I am FAR from the most educated person on this board as far as reading pedigrees.

My gut on it says that the Tierkerhook/Mink combo on the dam's sire's side (known for producing strong aggression coming in on both sides) mixed with the showlines on the dam's dam's side probably created a bit of a nerve issue...doesn't seem like that was the best combo...

[cliffson1]

Genetically, I would say this pedigree has a nice recipe for aggression. If I were analyzing this pedigree for someone without knowing the dog as I often do, I would definitely have said there was a high possibility of aggression issues.

[carmspack]

There is nothing wrong with Tiekerhook or Mink Wittfeld .

I was sure we had covered this pedigree before or perhaps it was a response in a PM ??

It is always tricky to give critical comments on dogs that are living , still producing, kennels still in operation.
When two of those parties who are indirectly involved have more money than I will have with my measly litter or two per year then .....

This is a pedigree built for aggression risk and the problem is on the dam's side.

As soon as I clicked -- I saw it .

Carmen
Carmspack Working German Shepherd Dogs

[GSDElsa]

Originally Posted by carmspack

There is nothing wrong with Tiekerhook or Mink Wittfeld .

I was sure we had covered this pedigree before or perhaps it was a response in a PM ??

It is always tricky to give critical comments on dogs that are living , still producing, kennels still in operation.
When two of those parties who are indirectly involved have more money than I will have with my measly litter or two per year then .....

This is a pedigree built for aggression risk and the problem is on the dam's side.

As soon as I clicked -- I saw it .

Carmen
Carmspack Working German Shepherd Dogs

I didn't say there was anything wrong with mink or tiekerhook...

[carmspack]

Tiekerhook has been criticized before in a youtubey showing dogs barking at their food , resource guarding, which was not created by the owner . They don't breed dogs for pets .

As always it is in the combination.

When I see a great line being directed away from it's potential and value for all to tap in to that makes me sad.

Sometimes I guess they got lucky and didn't know what they had or how or why they had it.

Carmen
Carmspack Working German Shepherd Dogs

[cliffson1]

Definitely in the dam line.....that being said the DDR lines from the sire line aren't a good match for bringing balance back to dam line; even "if" you could bring back balance.

[carmspack]

right Cliff . The dog would have needed heavy wurtemburger family lines -Bernd, Marko , something to stabilize . Not something dense in faulty Canto.
Carmen

[Emoore]

I'm in Pre-K compared to Cliff and Carmen, but I know there are some nice dogs in Bailey's pedigree. I also know there is an aggressive streak half a mile wide running down the DDR lines and a breeder has to know what they're doing-- really know what they're doing-- when breeding them if they want to avoid it.