Silver's Corner

I really admire all the work you've done with Cory, I've told you this in the past : ) ! My parents' German Shepherd is like that too, very aggressive and despite a ton of effort on their part to socialize him, he can never be allowed to be anywhere near anyone. We don't walk with him in a muzzle because most people have enough common sense not to approach him without asking first. We've never had children run up to him, thankfully. I don't mind it when people call him a mean dog or a bad dog. The dog himself would probably feel proud that he's considered mean enough to protect his loved ones. Shepherds are very protective of their families. I've noticed in the past that he tends to act out more when he sees a strange dog near a family member rather than just one simply walking by. We love our dog, but unfortunately Shepherd males have these aggression problems far too often, and ours is no exception. I know first hand about how hard it is, and you do a lot of outside class work which I would never do with our dog.

All of the males from our breeder have bad aggression in some form or another, and some of the owners put a lot of work in with their dogs and agility, tracking, herding classes, etc. It's just something that would make me too nervous. You are the epitome of an excellent, responsible pet owner. Some owners would abandon their dogs when they start running into these kinds of issues. I heard a sad story that one of the shepherds from our breeder bit a kid and they chose to put it down : (. I always think, that would have been our dog if he was in that family....