[Sweetums]

Cesar Milan had several episodes where there were dogs who were hostile towards members of the owner's family. I would suggest you go to the Blockbuster online site, or if you have Netflix, go there. You can rent a season's worth of episodes at a time. One episode was a woman whose dog did not like her son and attacked him. Cesar said in one instance with the son that the dog considered the woman his property and she had to discourage the mother/son relationship between her and the dog, and discourage the aggressive behavior. Whenever the dog started to snarl at the son and go after him, Cesar made his PSSHT! noise to distract and stop the behavior. The woman wanted to immediately cuddle and comfort the dog, but Cesar said that in that state of mind (the dog's) it would be encouraging the behavior. You give affection when the dog is being calm, submissive not when it is an aggressive state of mind. Cesar repeated this method over and over each time the son sat close to his mother and the dog finally got the message, that it was to be submissive and not act like the owner of the woman instead of the other way around.

The other instance was an African American woman (just describing it a bit so you can perhaps find the episode amongst the various descriptions on Blockbuster or Netflix if you rent it) whose dog did not like the mother and the feeling was mutual. I am trying to remember, but I think the daughter was to bring the dog on a leash to the mother who was sitting calmly and just let them sit side by side without any interaction. If the dog tried to get aggressive, then Cesar made his PSSHT! sound and grasped the dog firmly on the shoulder just under the neck using his third finger and thumb to reprimand him. This is what he calls a "bite" grasp and is what other dogs do when one of the dogs in a pack misbehaves. You do not dig your fingers in too hard, just firmly grasp the dog there like your hand is a mouth and your fingers are the teeth and stop him.

The important part is to communicate the right energy. You have to act as pack leader. You have to "own" your dog and you have to mean business. And btw, a leash is very important. You can't really control your dog's behavior unless you've got it leashed. You don't have to keep the leash in hand, but if the dog is leashed, you can at least grab the leash as soon as the dog makes threatening moves.

The other key is that your son must cease all aggressive moves towards the dog immediately. Otherwise the situation will not be resolved. I would seriously tell your son that unless he stops all aggressive moves, he cannot move in with you, even if he has to live under a bridge. And if he agrees, he must also understand that he will be thrown out of the house if he breaks that rule.

Eventually, in the mother/daughter situation where the dog did not like the mother, the mother was able to just lightly pet the dogs head a few times while Cesar stood on one side and the daughter on the other. The dog tolerated it, and after practicing this knowing that any other behavior would not be allowed, the dog finally came to tolerate the mother and the mother finally began to see the dog as friendly.

But I highly recommend getting those episodes and watching how Cesar handles this problem.