Serious aggression issues- friend can't afford a behaviorist.

Bump. And wanted to add, is there maybe a certain book that you would recommend?

I hate to be the bringer of bad news but your friend obviously is in over her head. If she cannot afford professional help, then she can not afford to keep him. Since your friend sounds like an inexperienced dog owner, she is going to need help saving this dog. This dog has multiple behavioral problems going on simultaneously, although each can be dealt with and controlled by someone with experience, the question is whether your friend is able to do what is necessary and secondly willing to do what is necessary to save the dog.

I agree that she's in over her head and needs help... I should mention that she's not even considering having him put to sleep or giving him up. And also that he's perfectly fine in public, at the vet, etc. It's on his home turf that he becomes aggressive.

Well besides the fact that the dog runs the household (which is your friend's fault) he has territorial aggression (probably as a result of his temperament and history). However, in order to live with this dog, your friend will have to completely change the way she interacts with the dog in every aspect of his day, something I feel that she is not willing to do.
 
Your friend falls into the category who claims she wants help but is not willing to do what needs to be done. Ultimately what will happen is that the dog will continue to bite people until the wrong person gets bit and they are either sued civily or will have to put the dog down. I truly feel sorry for the dog.

This sounds like resource guarding, which is really responsive to training.

Your friend should get a copy of "Mine!" by Jean Donaldson. This hardly sounds hopeless, based on your description, to me.

As to the food aggression, she should get this bookhttp://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB740
As to the leadership issueshttp://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=dtb479

Some articles that may help your friend identify her dog's problem more accurately:
www.k9aggression.com
http://www.petplace.com/dogs/territorial-aggression-toward-people/page1.aspx
http://www.shilohgtf.com/Aggression.htm

Wow, at-a-loss, you are quite a pessimist!

I understand the situation with your own dog as you wrote about it. I have had to put a dog down because of aggression issues myself, and empathize with your situation.

But I have to say that serious aggression is a pretty rare occurence, and that aggression in dogs is rather like aggression in people. Just like everyone is aggressive sometimes but sometimes it's pathological... most agression in dogs is relatively normal and solvable.

It doesn't seem so helpful to assume that everyone is in your shoes. It doesn't seem helpful for this dog, who will probably be fine. Resource guarding is a lot like predation--it's normal dog behavior--animals who don't do it in the wild are the ones who are in trouble...

People are capable of changing their behavior, and there are lots of resources available to this friend.

at a loss- I agree that right now the dog is running the household, but my friend knows there's a serious problem and is willing to change things.

fisher and spirit Dogs- thank you thank you thank you!! I'm going to give her those links and book recommendations. I hope to have a positive update in a few months!!

actually I never did an update but I decided not to put the little guy down. The guilt that I may not have done everything I could possibly do to change him outweighed the probability that he was "just a bad seed". I hired a qualified behaviorist and have done a lot of reading on wolf and dog behavior. It saved his life.
 
The behaviorist was able to pick up on things that I had overlooked. Turns out that the rank order in the past year had been upset because of me now working the midnight shift. Although nothing had changed around the house in my eyes, the whole world had changed in my eyes. So my dog took on the alpha role in my absence during the day time while I was sleeping. By tweaking a few things, my dog is much happier and has much less stress, ultimately a completely different dog.
 
I am not saying that fixing the problems with the dog is hopeless because it isn't. Actually quite the opposite. I said I feel sorry for dog because when the owner fails to do what is neccessary, the dog is the one that truly loses.
 
But what she HAS to do is become the leader of her household before anything else can work.

if she is willing to do what is neccessary, then give her this link:
 
[linkhttp://leerburg.com/articles.htm]http://leerburg.com/articles.htm[/link]
 
Have her read Groundwork for Establishing Pack Structure with adult dogs: [linkhttp://leerburg.com/groundwork.htm]http://leerburg.com/groundwork.htm[/link]
 
and many of articles on dog aggression that he has on the site.

Sorry, but I don't agree with some of leerburg's harsh "techniques". I've read some of it before.... One thing he recommends for aggression is basically roughing up your dog. [&:]

I don't advise the leerburg route.  This dog sounds SCARED and I don't think his approach is suited to fearful dogs (???). 

This is just my thoughts because I have little experience with true aggression.  If I were in your friends shoes I think I would be raising the cash for a behaviourist somehow, but I do have a few thoughts on what might be behind his behaviour and some things she COULD do in response to it... just what I would do if I were in that situation.

I think fear is the reason the aggression is manifesting on his home turf - because that's where he feels confident enough to challenge those he finds threatening.  And why does he only find MEN threatening?  Either past abuse, or because men are generally more threatening than women - they are bigger, stronger, louder, have deeper voices etc.  So that's why I think it is largely fear-related.

I think that your friend should implement NILIF as soon as possible and really religiously, so the dog gets NOTHING without working for it.  Perhaps she could hand feed him for a couple of weeks?  I would feed out of 4 or 5 bowls to help combat the food aggression; put a little in the 1st bowl, wait for him to eat, move to the next, repeat.  This helps to get him  to relax about people approaching the bowl because he runs ahead to the next bowl and waits happily and is rewarded by food being put in the bowl. 

I think keeping the dog seperate with a crate or gate is the best thing for safety's sake.  I think this could be coupled with a tasty packed Kong when male vistors are around, to build a +ve association?

Your friend should acclimate him gently to a basket muzzle, for the times when he comes into contact with men.  He should be encouraged to poke his nose in with treats put in one end and he should wear it at "happy times" so he doesn't just associate it with men and stressful situations.

I don't think his crate and his timeout place should be the same - partly because it should not be seen by him as a punishment, but also partly because I think his timeout place should be well away from sight or sound of your friend and her guests and the crate should be available to him (although a little way away from visitors) so as to provide him with a bolt hole, a sense of security and the option of Flight.  I think this is really important - probably THE most important thing, but that is just my opinion.

Just a suggestion:  If your friend is truly concerned about being bitten when she moves him perhaps EVERYONE could get up and leave the room, leaving him behind?  He should think "Sh*t where did everybody go????"  This takes away any need for physical confrontation and conflict.  If she does lead him out of the room - no pushing or pulling, don't say anything or even look at him.  I think this means less likelihood of getting bitten and also makes the message "uncluttered".
 
Edit to add:  Note heavy use of  I thinks!

Chuffy- Thank you so much for your very well thought out post. [] You're definitely right that it's fear based. I read all of the articles that Spirit Dogs listed and the Pet Place one has a description of territorial fear aggression that fits him to a "T". He doesn't have the confidence to be aggressive to people away from his home turf. I think he's afraid of men because they're taller with louder voices, etc. There's no indication of him being handshy or anything like that, so it seems to me like he was neglected and unsocialized rather than abused.

Your suggestion of everyone getting up and leaving the room is good because, like you said, it doesn't involve any confrontation at all. The only bad part I could see is that he might think he succeeded in "chasing off" my friend's boyfriend..I'm not sure if I'm reading too much into that though.

I'll definitely forward your suggestion of a basket muzzle and how she could introduce it to him. I know her and I'm almost positive she would feel mean having him wear a muzzle. Of course it's DEFINITELY better for everyone involved if he's muzzled, so hopefully she'll do it.

Anyway, thank you again for your post!!

Tamara,
 
Your friend's dog is a hound, and that presents alot of issues in itself.  There are very special needs that hounds have as far as training goes.  Hounds are stubborn as heck but are also "soft."  They just plain don't respond well to harsh techniques.  You might want to PM houndlove (Cressida) as she's got scenthounds and Ann (spiritdogs) as well for any other tips they might have. 
 
Tell your friend that intimidating a hound NEVER WORKS.  And hounds NEVER FORGET, they might forgive but they won't forget any harsh treatment.