Agression/dominance?

Question
I have a 6 mo. old White GSD.  He is a good puppy in every area except agression toward my 11 yr old son. "Brody" resists any commands that my son gives him and sometimes shows his agressiveness when chewing on a bone or when they are playing with dog toys in the house. Yesterday my son took a chew toy the dog had brought to him and the dog growled and nipped at him even after my son had dropped the bone. My daughter could not pull the dog away from my son and he would not stop his agression until I ran into the room and called him off. I grabbed him by the scruff of the neck and put him on the floor and told him NO! He was immediately submissive and after I let him up went right into his kennel without 'talking back' or avoiding the kennel. (I have not noticed the agresssion towards my son when they are out of the house.) I have 2 other children, a 12 yr old and 3 yr old girl. I am concerned that his agression will eventually spill over to my other children, esp. the 3 yr old who at that age would have a hard time exerting her place in the 'pack'.   "Brody" recently showed agression towards my husband when he tried to take him to his kennel and he wanted to stay with me.  I can see that I am the 'pack leader' in the house by the dogs actions toward me. He will always listen to me and I have no problems, however the others in the house have to work a bit harder for compliance. How can I get my children to establish the place in the 'pack' so that the dog will not be agressive, not just towards them but to other people in the community.  Will steralizing him help?  (He has an appointment.)I do want "Brody" to protect the family, but do not want to worry about him being agressive to people I invite into my house.

Answer
Hi Jennifer,  You have a couple of problems going on here.  First your dog is a dominate dog.  You are dominating a dominate dog.  That is not a good thing.  When you put him on the floor, you are dominating him.  When you do that to a dominate dog, they will get you back, just in different ways.  What he is doing is showing dominance to the "dogs" under you.  Basically your children.  He won't take you on, but he will take others on because you have established that type of behavior with him.  The dangerous part here is that he is only 6 months old.  That is the mental equivalency to a 6 year old human child. Think of a 6 year old child acting aggresively to another child.  How would you react?  Another problem is that a bone was involved.  So you have a lot of factors involved.  My biggest concern is that he showed aggression to your husband.  The reason that is my biggest concern is because the bone situation is a food situation which can be explained, but the situation with your husband is from dominance training, which tells me the dog is already getting things in his head about taking control and dominating.   When you see aggression in any dog under a year of age, then you have a problem.  How old was he when you got him and where did you get him from?  Did you meet his parents?  As far as protective ability, you don't want to see any of that until they are at least a year of age as they are mentally immature to understand what they are doing.   I would stop trying to take him down immediately because you are really imprinting some bad ideas in his head, and he is passing them on down the line in the pack.  I would also get him in obedience training that is a leadership training method, not a dominance method.  I would have everyone work him in the obedience (except the 3yr old) so that he understands that he has to listen and obey everyone in the pack.  If there is anymore aggression, make a note of everything that happened leading up to it, including what his body language was, what actions and reactions the dog & person involved had and then e-mail me at puglover_1@juno.com.  You need to nip this in the bud now because this dog could get dangerous if you don't.  Hope this helps,

Dawn