Min Schnauzer Behavior

Question
Karen,
We have a 3 year old min schnauzer. We got her when she was a puppy, we recently got her trained (basic training)that was a challenge by itself, she is afraid of people and other dogs. Back in march of this year she bit one of our neighbors. I can't walk the dog because she wants to bark and go after everyone she sees. My question is how do I know  the kind of training she needs and do you recommend a style of training. We take her to the dog park and she interacts with the dogs fine and completely ignores people, even though we are now very scare she will bite someone at the dog park. She is not viciously aggressive, I believe is just her way to keeping people away, she is totally scared.

Answer
You need to get your dog back into obedience training, work with her every day, and you need to practice "Nothing in Life is Free" with her. http://k9deb.com/nilif.htm It sounds like she has no respect for you as alpha, and wants to handle any situations herself when you are out walking. Basically, she is "blowing you off" on your walks.

My attitude in regard to dog rearing is "the more a dog doesn't like something, the more it needs to be done." If she is afraid of people, places, and/or things, she needs to be exposed to that even more. If she likes to eat, take her places when she is hungry and have people offer her treats that she cannot resist (ie. string cheese, bits of chicken, etc.).

As to the type of training, most schnauzers do extremely well with motivational training (ie. clicker training), as opposed to "correctional" training. However, I am not a "clicker purist", as they believe in purely motivational training and never correct the dog for anything, while I believe that once a dog knows how to do something, like a child, it can make a conscious decision to do or not to do something... and if a dog is told to come, sit, etc., it MUST do that because as alpha, you told it to.

You might want to consider getting an animal behaviorist to help you with your dog since she has already bitten someone. Your vet should know the name of someone in your area.