[sunshinegirl_98]

i adopted my dog when he was 8mos old and he's now just over 1yr old--and an incident happened last week that upset me. he seems okay with alot of other dogs and i've been trying to socialize him by exposing him to others at dog parks. he has played with tons of different dogs there, and even has his playmates he plays with regularly. but last week he went after a dog who wasn't even near him! i tried to tackle him, and luckily the only injury the other dog suffered was a scratch on his nose. i've never seen him do this before--although he has snapped at others occasionally, and after much research i concluded his behavior could be mild fear-based aggression. anyway, since i had never seen him go after another dog like this, i was surprised. does anyone have any experience with this??

i've signed him up for an obedience class but the instructor said it will help some but not with specific dog-dog interaction. my main concern is that i can't trust him with other dogs.

i'd rather not have to muzzle him, especially since he is such a sweetie with humans. we suspect that maybe he was attacked by a dog (or group since he gets nervous when suddenly surrounded by a group of dogs) when he was younger...

help! any advice would be much appreciated!

 

[shewolf]

It's hard to say without actually seeing his behaviour around other dogs... if he's okay with some dogs but not with others, do the ones he has problems with share any characteristics? Are they a similar breed/look/colour/shape etc? My rotti can't stand staffies as she was bitten by one when she was a pup.

Obedience will help your level of control over him. Train him to come when called, if he is very reliable at recall (even with dogs around) then you should be fine. Whenever he comes when you call reward him lavishly, never ever ignore him or chastise him for something he was doing. They have to WANT to come back to you. Don't remove him from the presence of other dogs (I did that and am regretting it intensely) keep up the socialisation. The instructor is right that he may still have a problem with some dogs but as long as you can control him through love and trust he shouldn't be a problem. Good luck!

 

[kpickell]

do you keep him on a leash?

 

[sunshinegirl_98]

shewolf,

thanks for the advice. i have stopped taking him to the park until some obedience work is done, but we did have a playtime today at a friend's house since i still want to keep socializing him.

kpickell, i do keep him on a leash, except when at the dog park, since it is specifically an off-leash area.

 

[kpickell]

I would recommend going back to the park and keeping him on a leash this time, and whenever he encounters a dog he doesn't like wait for him to lunge for the dog then yank on his collar, say "No!" and make him sit and when he calms down, reward him with a pat on the head, "good dog" and some slobbery kisses.

 

[Skylark]

Are there any dogs you know your dog gets on well with? Maybe increased exposure to those dogs could help all of the dog-dog interactions.

 

[GhostUser]

My border collie was great with other dogs too, until he turned 1 yr. It's like he was not content with being submissive anymore since he was fully mature. He just always wanted to be the dominant dog. I found that once he established pack order with any other dog around him, he was fine. But, if the other dog he was trying to establich pack order with was not going to let my dog be "alpha wolf", my dog would get into fights with him. If you want your dog to interact with other dogs, try having him interact with smaller, docile and submissive dogs~ Hopefully this helps....good luck!

btw- what breed/s is your dog?