I have an 10 12 mth old American cocker dog (castrated)
He is a bouncy dog and in the 2 wks ive had him he has been obediant and only had 2 accidents BUT
he goes for anyone who comes to the door and is vary aggresive to other dogs.
i have no other pets and am not sure how to deal with this behaviour as I have 4 nieces who Im afraid to have round in case he turns on them can someone be good enough to advice me .
I know ive got to be patient as the person I got him from said he was abandoned and had to be cropped as he was so matted. any advice would be welcome as he is a lovely dog and keeps my 83 yr old mum company when im out /

Admin edit

Will he go to his bed when told?  Perhaps you need to practise sending him to his bed when the doorbell rings (maybe get some friends round to ring the bell so you can teach him what you want him to do?) Maybe nobody's ever told him what they *do* want him to do - dogs understand that far better than being yelled at for doing what comes naturally to them.

Being agressive to other dogs is more difficult and can have its roots in a variety of reasons - maybe he wasn't socialised well when he was a pup, maybe he feels some tension from you (is he worse on lead for example?), maybe again, nobodies ever told him what he is supposed to do when he meets a strange do (or rewarded him for good behaviour?).  You really need some hands on tuition with this from an experienced behaviourist who can decipher what is driving this behaviour.

thanks for advice Im going to take him to classes as you are probably right he does not know how to behave so we can both learn what to do thanks