Hi all,

I will try to give you as much information as possible so you can understand my situation better... and it is a lot!

Meet Ranger, a 2 yo male Mal. He is the biggest lover you could imagine! He follows you around the house and looks at you with his big doe eyes, and you can’t help but sit down and give him a good snuggling! When we play ball or train out back, he is a ‘robot’. He does whatever you ask, when you ask.

 Now meet Sofie, a 2.5 yo female German shepherd. She rules the roost; at least she thinks she does. She doesn’t want any attention from mom and dad unless it involves them throwing a ball or giving food. She is always bullying Ranger and taking his rawhide, fighting him for apparently no reason. She lowers her body and stalks him around the house, and he tried to turn away from her and leave but she usually ends up cornering him and then they end up fighting.

It used to be that Sofie would fight him, they would get separated and that would be that. But in the past year, Ranger has started to slowly “grow a pair” (he’s neutered) and start defending himself. It started with a snap, and now he full on defends himself. This only enrages Sofie even more because “he had the nerve to stand up to me?!”  So now instead of pulling one of the other, we have to pull them both off each other.

That’s inside the house. Now let’s go outside the house, to the bark, beach or wherever.

Sofie is a lover; she will greet other people and dogs with a wagging tail! She doesn’t play much, she prefers to chase balls, but occasionally you will see her join in a group run around the park when a new dog shows up. When children are in the park she will usually avoid them (mostly because she is focused on the tennis ball and if the child doesn’t have one, they are of no use to her), but when she interacts with them she is kinds and gentle, often showering them with kisses and she occasionally ‘talks’ to them with her wide range of vocals.

Ranger on the other hand turns into another dog when we are out of the house. He chases little dogs and usually ends up tramping them, leaving them squealing in terror (often mistaken by their owners as pain). The big dogs, which is usually who he targets first, he will challenge (I guess) but running towards them and ‘chest bumping’ them. He does this when other dogs are playing rough or when they are chasing the new dog at the park/beach.
He avoids people and barks or growls if they come to close to him or my husband and myself. If a dog is near us, he will run square into them, knocking them over, regardless if the dog was even looking at me or not.
He has snapped at a man before at the beach because he was carrying a fishing pole in his hand he has bitten a kids but twice now, once because he was playing ball with the kid and I’m not sure what happened, but my husband said the kid was teasing him and wouldn’t throw the ball so Ranger went up behind him and snapped at his but.

The other time was at the beach. We were playing ball, and a kid was lying in the sand and got up as Ranger was running by after having gone to fetch his ball. Ranger got startled and knocked the kid down via his chest bump. The kid, who was about 10-12, and a little on the heavier side, got back up so Ranger tried to knock him over again. When the kid didn’t fall, he bit the kids but. No blood was drawn either time, but I’m sure you can imagine both my horror and the child and his mother’s horror when a dog is biting her kid. The kid wasn’t scared, he has grown up with large rotties his whole life and is used to the rough play, and mom was understanding that the kid scared Ranger, and said everything was fine.