Aggresive German Shepherd

Question
Please help.  I have a Female German Shepherd approx 16 months old.  We have had her about 1 year and she was a stray when we found her.  We had her spayed when she was 12 months old and we also got a new puppy right after she was spayed.  We now also have a 5 month old Siberian Husky male.  The Shepherd has been showing a lot of aggression now towards other dogs, people that come to our house and also to the puppy.  Just the other day she bit my 5 year old son.  This is the first time she has ever showed any aggression towards him.  He usually plays with her, tugs on her, and nothing has ever happened before.  When she bit him she did have a chew bone infront of her and the puppy directly across from her.  She did not break the skin but we are extremely worried about this situation.  What should we do?  All local dog trainers are not willing to work with her and want us to go out of state which is not financially possible.  Please help.  Any info is greatly appreciated..

Answer
Hi Holly, It sounds like the chew bone was probably the issue. What you are dealing with is that naturally in the wild when a dog gets to approx. a year to a year an a half in age it establishes its place in the pack.  This is now where you are with your two dogs.  Your female is the leader of the pack (in her eyes), and the husky is up and coming to try and take over the pack (in the GSD's eyes).  So she is going to get more protective whenever the Husky is around, the closer the Husky gets to a year of age, to keep her place established in the pack.  This is nothing abnormal, it is normal canine behavior in a pack situation.  The best thing for you to do is get her obedience trained so that you establish yourself as leader over the pack and can keep things under control. You can also teach your son how to work with her to so she sees him as higher on the pecking order in the pack than herself.  We have worked with kids as young as 4.  Hope this helps,

Dawn