I have a 5 month old German Shepard male dog in obediance training. He has...

[suscarsct]

...gone aggressive! Help? Last Thursday we went to class and in the class the dogs are not allowed to associate with each other. Not allowed to smell each other or do other dog related things. My male, started barking and lunging at the other dogs, which he has never done before. I really feel he just wanted to play, but when he acted like that the other people jumped back and pulled their dogs back, which made him worse. Now, when out on our walks he is not staying at heel, not paying attention, and is acting extremely aggressive when we meet and greet on our walks. Tonights walk I finally had to almost sit on him to leave this dog alone. He was not like this before last thursday's class. We go to dog parks, pet stores and walk 2 times a day. He normally goes everywhere I go, weather permitting! Now What? He is going to be over a 100 pds and we are using a martingale collar. Any suggestions?

 

[Lindsey S]

Watch some episodes of the dog whisperer. It sounds stupid but he makes really good points. A lot of dogs inappropriate behavior can be due to their struggle to establish themselves as pack leader. If you establish yourself as alpha dog he will look to you for acceptable behavior and won't act out.