[Bhikku]

Bhikku said that Cesar Milan's dogs are not afraid of him. Actually the dogs on the show that he trains do show major stress signals. They obey him because they fear him or fear the consequences. I prefer training that helps my dog to trust me, not fear me.

I've seen dogs that he is working on for someone else fear him, but his own dogs do not act fearful to me, and I've worked with a lot of fearful dogs. Of course a problem dog which is being taken up for acting out is going to be stressed - the expectations for his behavior are changing. But I think that the stress sometimes displayed by the dogs he works with is a temporary transition. My dog shows major stress signals when he's being isolated or crated away from me, and right now he's afraid I'll leave him when I go away, but that doesn't mean he'll always be afraid I'll leave him.

Also this subject of dominance is taken out of context. A dog is not submissive or dominant. A dog can be confident or not confidence, however submission & dominance are fluid.

I understand that. What I mean by dominant is that the dog (seems to be) acting dominant with her family. A submissive dog, in my experience, will not "charge" anyone. A submissive dog will practice avoidance and attack only if restrained or cornered. I don't know all the details of this situation, so I don't know what the brother's actual trigger is. Without knowing that, I can't know whether it's dominant or submissive behavior. I can only guess based on what the OP said.

Dogs also know that we are not dogs and while they can see us as leaders and look to us for cues, they do not see us as "alpha" anything.

Being alpha is being the leader. If your dog is giving behavioral cues that he considers you his leader and is subordinate to you, congrats, you're alpha! (According to the theory, anyway.) When someone lets their dog snarl over the food bowl and attack incoming vistors and bark at strangers on the street, they are exhibiting alpha behaviors. It's up to the master/trainer to correct. Otherwise your dog will not take your cues and will make up his own rules and you won't like it.

Dog body language is complicated and difficult to understand. Dogs understand other dogs. We can understand them if we practice enough and read enough and train enough.

I guess I have just been working with dangerous/fearful/aggressive dogs so long it seems like a second language at this point. It is probably harder for people with less experience. Since the OP is bewildered about the dog's violent outbursts, I'm sure she doesn't know enough to pick up the signals prior to his attacks.

What methods? Though positive reinforcement (which I suggest the OP find a trainer to help with specific methods) you can train the dog that the child is a good thing - that being in the room with the child and being calm means they get treats. It's called conditioning. Only a trainer can look at the situation and say "OK the dog bites when the child shrieks" - then you desensitize the dog to that noise.

She said the dog isn't just biting the kid, he's biting everyone else in her family too.

The only problem I have with positive conditioning (and you have to consider that positive conditioning is the training I use primarily with my dogs whenever possible) is that for very intelligent dogs, it's an easy way to manipulate the system. So, say, you condition the dog that he gets treats whenever he doesn't bite people. And initially, it works.

Eventually the master/trainer will begin to phase out those treats, and the dog thinks, "Hey, I used to get rewarded constantly for being good!" So he relapses and shows aggression. The master/trainer goes back to square one, thinking he/she moved too quickly. The treats come back. Amazing! "Hey, I can use negative behavior to regulate my rewards!" And for some dogs, it becomes a perpetuating cycle.

I had a particularly sharp Siberian Husky in college that did this for months. Finally, I had to take up a different tactical approach - isolation training. It was amazing how much more quickly she responded to the loss of attention versus the introduction of food rewards.

It sounds like the OP has a dog that has no confidence and doesn't know what to do about the situation so he bites. I would be willing to bet there are some warning signals first before he bites, but without training the OP won't be clued into what they are.

Like I said, I wouldn't be able to tell if it was a dominant or fearful aggression unless I saw the dog in action. I just made a suggestion based on what the OP said. I would really like more details about the situation, personally. The original post didn't give much information. What constitutes "making a commotion"? Where on the boy does the dog bite? Who else has been bitten? There are a lot of unexplained variables here.

Very few dogs are actually "dominant aggressive" And they aren't like this dog who obviously has triggers that set him off, which to me says fear.

I have personally seen a lot of dominant aggressive dogs. There are a lot more fearful aggressive, definitely, but if I had to venture a guess, the ratio would probably be 3 dominant to 7 fearful in the dogs that I've worked with and trained.

This sounds like one specific behavior with a specific trigger. If she had said the dog was biting over food, over resources like the couch, whenever people pet him, etc. that is different. A dominant aggressive dog would not be "so sweet otherwise" Something is setting him off. She has to figure out what that is.

Agreed.

To the OP: I'm sorry this has gotten out of hand. We only want what is best for your dog. Please seek out a trainer who can come to your home and address this immediately. Some steps can be taken right away and others will need to be done on a daily basis for months, but there is hope.

Ditto. But I don't think the discussion has gotten out of hand (off-topic, maybe ) we just have different training philosophies. Not surprising, considering there's thousands of people in this forum and all of them raise/train their dogs differently.

In short, I agree with Erin and YorkieMother. Seek a behavioral specialist. I'm sure it will help. Whatever training methods you choose, be consistent!!