I have a German Shepherd that is becoming more and more aggressive toward me as he gets older. He has growled at me while lying on the couch a couple of times and just last night while lying on the bed. He will not maintain eye contact with me, but continually looks away nervously. I'm not sure what this all means, and if he continues this behavior my husband is going to have him put down. Any help with this would be greatly appreciated for I would not like to see him put down. He seems to do his growling when I come close to his face or sit closely to him. Thanks for the help.

I have 5 Shih Tzu dogs. When they were puppies they would play with each other and the main game was nibbling at each other, until one or the other would let out a squeal,before and after their teeth came in. I did wrong was to put my hands in the game because they felt and still do feel so tender and cute, since then they would play nibble with my hands too to the point of making me squeal too. I realized what I did and stayed out of their game and started gentle training so that they would stop biting my hands by now. I knew that it would become a severe bites when they got older. However, they did not know that their game would become severe bites as they played, so now they play amongst themselves.
Putting down a dog, any size of dog, just because he bites is not a solution. Remember that when we adopt a dog, or any animal, you adopt it until it dies on its own. Your German Shepherd just needs a bit more training to get it to stop biting You. Your German Shepherd is a large baby who does not know that when he plays with you, because he does not have anyone else to play with, it is alright to put some pressure on its bite when it plays with you, or any one else. I happen to have a German Shepherd big girl of 6 years old who thinks she is one of the little Shih Tzu and wants me to play with her as I play with the Shih Tzu, and I do.
As any dog, your Shepherd does not like to be kept enclosed nor tied up. What we did was make a 6ft tall wood fence around the back yard, that's perfect with her and the tiny Shih Tzu dogs. Venus, my son's German Shepherd who has been with us since birth, could jump the fence anyway, but does not because she is very comfortable there.
When any of my dogs do something bad, as biting, I look in the internet with Cesar Milan, whom has juat about every way of training your dogs not to bite you nor anyone else and everyone will be happy. I do that.lol

Dear Sir.

My Boyfriend has a 3ish year old Germen Shepard Mix, Saint.
Saint has a very bad habbit of licking everyone and everything he comes in contact with. We say over and over "no lick". Nothing seems to be working. What else should we do?

To R Wiegand:

That situation is tough. Most likely what will have to change first is how you carry yourself around the dog. Most likely the situation has gotten worse since you're now wary of the dog biting you, and he can sense that you're nervous about something. It's just a bad cycle. Since it is a big dog, and a bite could be a serious injury, I would suggest help. I would get someone who is comfortable with working with the two of you together and helping you establish both trust between the two of you, and your dominance over him.

To Linda,

How old is Rudy? It sounds like he's a bit skittish and that's where the fear-aggressive behavior comes from. He's fine with his family, because he trusts you all. New people are scary. What I would suggest is keeping him on a lead when you have new people around, and correct his bad behavior. He needs to be socialized. Take him around other people, other and other dogs. Make him understand that lashing out is not acceptable, and that other people and dogs are ok.

To Donna:

Dog naturally have a pecking order. Being pack leader you should be able to stop the alfa in his tracks if need be. However, if the baby refuses to stand up for himself, he'll get picked on. What I think is the biggest problem, is the energy level of your pure lab. Labs can be high energy dogs. They're a sporting breed after all. Get him out to the dog park or do something else that will burn out his energy. It sounds like he's picking on your youngest pup because he's got so much energy he doesn't know what else to do with himself. Get him out and active, and you should have a more hospitable dog on your hands.