@deerocks Right??
I had one that bit my neighbor several times, and the trainer didn't think he was a loss. To be fair, said neighbor kept coming into my yard and loudly threatening me, so my dog would attack him. But I wanted the dog to learn to listen to me and get to safety. Also, it made my dog reactive to men who yelled, at all, anywhere, even if it was just calling their kids to leave a park or something like that. It didn't have to be angry. He wouldn't try to run off and attack (he was on leash, anyway), but he'd bark and growl and scare people.
The trainer said his breed mix, boxer-pit-heeler, meant he was likely to always be vocal when he thought someone was threatening me. If he wasn't trying to move toward them, especially off leash, I needed to understand that was actually really good training. He said he wasn't at all surprised my neighbor got attacked multiple times. He was surprised after the first time, my dog waited until the neighbor yelled, and that I was able to call my dog off every time after the first bite. The neighbor kept calling the cops and animal control over it, but they just told him to stay the hell of my property if he didn't want it to happen. They even came out a few times, because he called, and arrested him for trespassing. Why yes, there was a lot of alcohol involved in that man's decisions.
Animal control and the cops, btw, all tried calling my dog to come off my property because the neighbor claimed I let him run the neighborhood. He would walk up to the line and stop. Even when they offered treats. The only way he left the yard was if I said he could. Even on leash, he'd stop at the edge of the yard and refuse to move if I forgot to verbally give him permission. We had a fenced area, as well, mostly to keep the neighborhood kids from playing with him when I wasn't right there, but if I was in the yard, he was with me. I found out one day he could absolutely make it over that 6' fence to get into the front yard to go after the neighbor, though. He legit climbed the chain link and launched himself off the top. I installed coyote rollers.
We moved away, and it took about a year, but the dog learned to listen to me and not growl and bark at every man who yelled at anyone in any way. Unless they were nearby and directly threatening me. He'd stay at heel on his leash, but he sounded evil. I decided not to train that out of him, because it worked. The men went away. It was hilarious that my dog also thought cat calling was threatening. I'm guessing he felt my annoyance.
That's not a breed mix I'd have chosen, btw. I adopted him as a small puppy and was told he was a a totally different mix. I'm not a huge fan of protective breeds because I hike and camp a lot. I've got huskies now, and people friendly dogs who don't often bark work much better for my lifestyle. I did have to work with one a lot to get him over his anxiety of strangers, but he was never aggressive. He just hid behind me. He spent the first almost 8 years of his life with very little socialization. It was just his elderly owners and sometimes their kids and grandkids. They lived somewhere remote, too, so he'd never walked on a leash, never met new people except a vet twice in his life, never got any experience. He's still tentative about new people on leash most of the time, but he'll greet them if I give him permission, and if they rub his face, he absolutely melts.
Most of his anxiety is gone after 3 years, though he's having a meltdown right now because there's a porcupine in the yard, and I won't let him out to run it off. He won't touch it, thankfully, but I don't need him barking at 2am and bothering the neighbors, so he's pacing the floor and crying. For the last hour. Every time I try to go to bed, he starts howling. The other dog has gotten up and smacked him a few times, as if that's helping matters. I sent him back to bed and told him to stay there. He grumbled the whole way but did it. Welcome to owning toddlers with ADHD in fluffy form.
