Question: I have a two-year-old German Wire-haired Pointer that I purchased from a breeder here in Michigan. I think the dog has mental problems. He has gotten worse with age and is now aggressive towards anyone but me. He runs around like he is crazy  when in the field and will not come or listen to me. The breeder told me I did something wrong and that the dog will grow out of this weirdness. How can this be my fault and do you think he will out-grow this behavior?

Name withheld by request, Traverse City.

Answer: Sorry, but I don't think your dog will out-grow his aggression problem. I know this breeder very well and have seen many poorly-bred dogs from his kennel. This breeder has a standard answer to any problems his dogs may have. Blame the owner. I bought a dog from him once. The female wouldn't hunt, she showed no interest in birds at eighteen months of age, and she was scared to death of her own shadow. I returned the dog to him to have her evaluated. He claimed that I'd beaten the dog and was too harsh while training. The only problem with this is that I hadn't started to train this dog. My method is to first build game desire and then begin training. If there's no desire for game, there's no training. This dog had never been disciplined for anything.

Charlie Linblade

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