Sudden Aggression towards Me (Owner)

First, his color is not part of this problem. I've heard the 'black dogs are weird" thing before but it's not true. The age could be factoring in though.

My first step would be a full work up at a vet, including bloodwork and tick testing. I just spent a year with an unresolved groin injury on my girl and after $10,000 (yes, really that much. Thank god for insurance), it was immune mediated inflammation in her spinal fluid treated with steroids. Which, btw, also caused behavior changes. My friend had a girl that developed Lyme and she becomes aggressive in a flair up. So do a full work up.

Second, no more furniture at all. A dog growling at me loses all privileges to be on the furniture and loose. I would crate him at night. Get him a bed and teach him Place. Feeding happens in a crate. Everything should be black and white to him and consistent. You sit before you get your food. You sit before you are allowed out of the crate. He just entered bootcamp for chatty doggies.

I suggest you do a quick inventory on your leadership skills, with respect to Louie. It could be helpful, or not.


Leadership is an Attitude, by Nicole Silvers

Leadership is an attitude, a state of mind. Leaders are fair, kind and consistent teachers.


Leaders lead with their posture, their eyes, their voice and most of all with their breathing. Did you know that dogs recognize the one with the slowest heart rate as the leader? That’s the one who will be calmest under pressure. That’s the one they can follow to safety, to food, to rest.

Often, dogs are asked to make decisions that they are incapable of making. This is the reason for most lack of socialization and behavior problems.


Leadership is a grossly misunderstood concept. Leadership is often associated with words like “dominance”, “alpha”, “authority”, “respect”, and “challenge”. Rarely, if ever, is it associated with the word “trust”.

Leadership is a role that requires the earning of trust from followers. Trust cannot be demanded. Force (the tool of the Dominator) creates resistance. Trust can only be given, not taken. Leadership, unlike "dominance", requires followers to CHOOSE to follow. Trust is broken in a heartbeat, but repaired, re-earned, only over a long period of time--not hours, but days, weeks, even months or years. Sometimes, it's irreparably broken.

An individual dog always has the right to choose whether to follow another dog or not. Even the most severe aggression will not force an individual dog to follow a leader it does not willingly choose to follow. It is only the benefit offered by the leader that encourages a follower to follow.

Whether we are referring to corporate management, family structure, or canine management, the basic principles of effective leadership remain the same:

To lead is to set the example. To design structure of activities. To plan. To create expectations. To minimize conflict. To intervene and mediate conflict. To consider the best interests of all parties when creating boundaries or structure. To listen as often as speak. To compromise your own ego, your immediate interests for the benefit of all parties, putting the needs of your followers before your own. A good leader builds willing cooperation.

To “dominate” is to bully. To ignore the needs of your followers when it conflicts with your own personal interests or desires. To repress free will. To have one-directional conversations. The product of domination is conflict, since only one party’s will or desire is considered, but all parties have needs. The “dominator” forces “cooperation” (compliance).

Among households with canine family members, lack of leadership is a common cause for serious problem behaviors. Failing to plan is planning to fail, they say. Responsibility for leadership issues is often shifted to the dog, calling the dog "dominant".

While a dog may have strong leadership tendencies or even capabilities, it is the yielding of follow that creates a leader. When a human or another dog reacts, rather than initiates, that individual is following. Interestingly, this "reaction" is the very hallmark of application of "dominance" techniques-- wait for the dog to screw up, then intervene. Who is leading who?

Waiting for the car to run off the road before steering is obviously a bad idea. But somehow "because dogs aren't like us", this approach is often attempted.

Sadly, I've seen a well-intentioned "positive" approach used in the same way. The dog jumps up, THEN the person asks for a SIT. This is ineffective for so many reasons, now "positive" training has been misidentified as the cause of ineffectiveness.

The key to leadership for your canine pals is developing the ability to read the current situation, anticipate what behaviors come next, identify "crossroad" moments when steering is needed, and a toolbox full of ways to elicit the behavior you want BEFORE an undesirable behavior emerges.

I'm often asked by folks with dogs displaying aggression toward other dogs what to do if the dogs get into a fight, again, reflecting the "follow the dog" backwards approach. Some people are looking to use the fight to "teach their dog a lesson". Others are simply trying to prevent injury to the dogs.

Returning to our model of leadership as steering the car, PREVENTION is the key strategy to address accidents. Maybe there's that 1-in-a-million race car driver out there who can adeptly intervene WHILE the car is crashing--maybe. But if you were that 1-in-a-million dog owner who could effectively intervene while your dog was in a fight...your dog wouldn't be in a fight to begin with!

Once you've "crashed the car", once you've missed the "crossroad moment" where you needed to steer the behavior in the correct direction, once the dog has jumped or barked or lunged -- the dog's learning is out the window. You may be able to use the moment to learn how to handle such a circumstance, but the dog's learning for application to future interactions has ceased.

By learning to lead effectively, you will not see the "crashes"!

Dunkirk said:

Returning to our model of leadership as steering the car, PREVENTION is the key strategy to address

Click to expand...

YES!! That's one of the first things I tell people with dog reactive dogs! The way you stop them reacting is to catch them the moment they see the other dog, and distract them from it. As the leader YOU should be the most interesting thing in your dog's world, not the other dog!

One reason dogs don't like being hugged is a hug usually involves putting your head across the dog's neck or back. And that's exactly what a dog will do when trying to dominate/bully another dog. If the other dog doesn't like it, a fight will often break out.

Arg. Language is so tricky sometimes. 'Dominance' has become a loaded word, but in this case, I don't know what else to use. But anyone who has studied canine body language will tell you that when two dogs 'tee off' like that (one standing at right angles to the other) LOOK OUT!

Most everything is mentioned. One thing is eye contact which you mentioned. Staring into the eyes is perceived as a challenge to dogs. A dog should NEVER attack their owner for staring into their eyes, but if the dog does not see you as the leader, if he is wondering what his place in the pecking order is, then it may be a contributing factor. I would avoid sustained eye contact until you feel the leadership skills are brushed up on.

Another thing, with a dog like this, don't move the dog physically, tell him OFF if you want him off the couch or whatever. If you need to get his leash, connect it and tell him to heel as though you are going for a walk. If you physically grab the collar and pull the dog off the couch or bed that may not go well.

Another thing is teach the out or drop it command, and then call the dog and crate him if he is chewing something you do not want him to, like a bottle of pills. Don't wrestle something away from him. Trade up you need to, cheese and bacon are hard to turn down, but get him to his crate and in it, give the treat and shut the door, then go after what he should not have had.

I suggest this not because you shouldn't be able to take something from your dog's mouth or drag him off the couch, but because if the dog does bite you, then we go to a different level. The first thing that happens when a dog bites you, is that you stop whatever you were doing that the dog didn't want. This is rewarding to the dog. And the next time you are doing something he doesn't want he may be quicker to bite. We want to avoid the very first bite. We do this by improving the bond not with physical affection, but with training and leadership. The training can be, should be mostly very fun and rewarding for the dog. The leadership is mostly training you to be a better leader for this dog. If that means expecting the dog to do something to get a treat or pets, if it means he stays off the furniture, if it means he is not allowed to bark at the windows and doors, if it means consequences. Look up NILIF. Also, work with a trainer to help be consistent in your body language and timing, that's huge.