Mauling

Question
I recently came into posession of a German Shepherd that I have known since he was a pup. He is 4 years old now. His previous owner was a woman with special needs, and would not train the dog. She asked for my help a year ago to train him so that she could take him on walks. She kept him in a dog crate that he could not even sit up in, and he was tied outside the rest of the time. I do have some obediance experiance, I went to classes with my Shelties and my Great Dane for ten years. I do know the basics. The first couple of times that I worked with "Taz", the shepherd, were a little rough. He was used to getting his way, and didn't like being told what to do, but after a week I got my point across to him that he would listen to me. Well, the lady was happy with the results, but thought there should be a better way to get him trained, and kept trying to change the way I was working with him, so on so forth, I ended up with a very confused animal on my hands, and since he wasn't mine, I wasn't giong to force the issue. I told her that we would see the damage that she was doing when he attacked someone.
Skip ahead to last week. She finally gave Taz to me. I was excited because I can finally put the training on him that he so desperately needs. Problem. My mom enters the picture since I am living with her. My husband and I and my Cousin-in-law were home (thank God), and my mom went to the porch where we had housed Taz for the night. He had free run of it with our other shepherd Lulu. We just moved into this place a month ago, and my mom was trying to get a box off of the porch to unpack. Taz began growling, my cousin in law had a hold of Taz, and my mom tried to see if letting Taz smell her would help him settle. He attacked. He bit her between five and seven times on both forearms and he also got her chin and throat before we could get him off of her. it wasn't a good situation. He was in a new place with new people, and everything seemed to be new and scary to him. I thank God it wasn't one of my kids, I wish it wasn't my mom. She's ok by the way. My question is, do you think there might be hope to rehabilitate him? He is super smart. He was somewhat abused by the neighborhood drunks and punks, and my mom had been drinking, so I wonder if the smell of alcohol set him off. There are just so many what ifs.... I don't want to see him destroyed since it wasn't all his fault, but can he be saved? One other thing, he's not fixed. Should this now be a priority?
Thanks, Melissa King

Answer
Hi Melissa,  Yes if he was abused by anyone that drank, that can set them off on someone who smelled of alcohol.  Dogs senses trigger their reactions, so if he felt threatened, and she smelled of alcohol that would do it.  Neutering might take some of the aggression down, but it won't help you in this situation.  You have a dog you have no control of and that is a very dangerous situation.  He needs to be trained, but not dominance trained.  That can cause you more problems when you are dealing with a dog who is already dominate.  He needs leadership training that gets him to understand where he is in the pack.  The problem is that he is 4 years old, so he is set in his ways and will not be easy to change.  Also, it takes a good 4 weeks for an adult dog to acclamate to a new home, so it could take time just for him to adjust to all the goings on in your home.  I would get him neutered, and start him in training as soon as possible.  Also keep a good eye on him around people, cause once they start this type of behavior, they normally don't stop it.  It normally progresses worse.  Hope this helps,

Dawn