My dog has generally been a sweet dog. Unfortunately, she has not be socialized as much in the last few years as in the earlier years. She is 6.5 years old, and a German Shepard/Boxer rescue. She has always slept in the bed at my feet. I know she will startle and nip in the air when I would accidentally touch her in the middle of the night. She has never actually made contact until recently. The other night she got in bed with my son and knowing that she made contact with me last week I went to get her out of the bed. As I reached for her she started growling and showing her teeth. She also seems to showing more aggression to the other dogs in the home. She will stand at the dog door and not allow the senior dog to come back inside. Even though there is multiple food bowls, she will stand over one of the smaller dogs as they eat and show her teeth. She also tends to be more "protective" over one of the smaller dogs when the two are playing together and will snap/bite at the other to make him back off. With 4 dogs in the house we have had our occasional dog fight.
She's always been a bit of a fearful dog, but the recent aggression is a major problem to me. I am trying to stop it before we have to make a major change in the family with her.
