Dog Aggression - Page 1

I have a 1.5-year-old intact working line female. People have always referred to her as somewhat 'dog-aggressive' since she was a pup. As in she hackles up and barks like she wants to kill every new dog she sees, but actually loves to meet and play with them. (If she meets once she doesn't bark again) I don't consider this really dog-aggressive, but I guess it depends on your definition. I don't take her to dog parks (just don't like them personally), but she is around some friends and family members' dogs. She meets new dogs fairly often and is fine (after the initial barking). She recently got in a fight with a male GSD- same age and they  grew up around each other- and cut the side of his face. Not too bad but it did bleed. I had to break them up. They were fighting over a toy. She went after my smaller terrier tonight- didn't hurt him but she's never done that before either. Several situations like that-she has started going after my other dogs - usually when she is worked up or excited When I first let them out when I've been gone)- like she is trying to start something. She likes to jump on them and bite at the back of their neck. This leads to ticking the other dog off and then turns into more.  And if there are more than 2 dogs they all start to join in. She is definitely the dominant one of my dogs (except one older male, who is not around the others nearly as much).

So basically I am asking, is it normal for dogs to become more dog aggressive as they mature? She'd never got in a fight or acted as aggressive besides the barking before this. But if she is challenged she won't back down. I have started not letting her out right away with the others until she calms down. When I get them out to work them I work her first or put her somewhere she cannot see because if she knows I am working another dog, she will try to do the jump on their back and bite thing the first chance she gets. I avoid the overly-friendly dog owners who want their dog to meet every other dog out there, she only meets dogs I know and am familiar with. My main concern is I want mine to be able to be out together without fighting, which didn't used to be a problem.

my female went through a food agression stage for a few weeks at a year, and tends to be agressive towards one male dogs at our club.

i feed dogs in their crates, and try to keep her away or focused on me when the male dog is close.

is she dominate agressive or fear agressive?

She is dominant aggressive. And she is actually great with food- any dog or even the cat can stick their head in her bowl while she is eating and the other day I turned around and the cat was actually pulling on a piece of raw chicken she had in her mouth! She just let her bite off a piece and kept eating. The aggression usually comes when there is a toy involved or very often when they are excited and one of the other dogs jumps up toward me (Can't jump ON me so they pretend lol) She tries to tackle them when that happens (and bite the back of their neck). It is worse and more aggresive when it is about a toy. I don't let them have most toys when they are playing together, but they seem to always find something to play with.. They 'tussle' alot but recently she has had a few times when it is definitely more aggressive and not play.

Hello Mystee,

Sounds like she is being allowed to assume too much power and control within your Pack.  Probably without realising it you are 'feeding' her attitude.  For instance you are waiting until she has calmed down, well don't wait, let her know you object to her bouncing around like a madam!  She already knows her intentions, you have the advantage of also knowing, so step in and stop those intentions from formulating.


Equally, when training and working her first, well don't.  She is not the No.2 dog, and you obviously do not want to encourage her to think that. 


Hiding her away while you work the other dogs, is again playing into her paws (excuse the pun) and admitting she rules!  You cannot teach her anything by avoiding the situation.  You determine that she will wait and watch, and then be ready to correct her if she so much as looks 'cross-eyed' at one of your other dogs!!!!


Don't  find yourself having to merely and repeatedly respond to what she dishes out, (as if she is the Prima Donna and you her Maid), be the one who determines the manners and actions and ensure she takes notice.


Hope this helps,
Regards,
Vixen

Our Golden Retriever was 5 years old when we our GSD was a puppy, both males. Our Golden is the boss when it comes to the crunch but as our GSD grew up he played hard with our Golden and biting him on the neck was our concern. Golden's take a lot of nonesense from a young dog before they become angry and pull rank so as our GSD was maturing, the play got rougher as time went on. Although it looked aggressive the way our GSD would grab our Golden on the neck, pulling and growling, he wasn't being aggressive or loosing his cool, he was just a rough player, but our poor Golden wasn't standing his ground for a while and running away which made the play more exciting for our GSD in the chase.

Our GSD leaned the word "walk" very early and if you mentioned "walk" he would get excited and immediately look for our Golden as we walk them together and bite him on the neck, our Golden would raun away, our GSD would chase him and bowel him over in a neck tackle, but the play was getting out of control. We tried separating them out in the yard which made our GSD worse when he did get hold of him and the play rougher which appeared to be making our Golden's life misurable until one day our Golden had enough and lunged at our GSD teeth bared and our GSD jumped back and stopped in his tracks with a confused look on his face like, "what are you getting nasty for" we are only playing".

Not that our GSD ever showed viscious aggression, he was 18 months old, very strong and a lot larger than our Golden and could have easily hurt him if he wanted to, but as bad as it looked, was purely rough play but getting out of hand where it was more a case that our Golden would loose his cool in the end and attack our GSD which a fight was something we needed to prevent at all costs.

We fixed the problem only by correcting our GSD which was time consuming but the moment our GSD even looked like grabbing our Golden on the neck, who ever in the family saw it, it would be "grrrrrrr leave it" as a command and grab our GSD by the collar and snap him back sharply. The best way we found to correct the problem was encourage him to do it out in the yard together and not avoid it. The more we could catch our GSD misbehaving like this, the more opportunity to correct it. Even now he can still grab our Golden on the neck on occassion when he is very excited and runs around, but  will let him go and stop with a "leave it" command, but it was hard work and persistance then suddenly he began to get the message. Having a GSD for the first time after 26 years of Golden Retrievers, our GSD was more difficult to train than a Golden, but far more eager to do things correctly and retain what's learned once understanding the message or command.

Thanks for the advice! Mindhunt I am in the process of switching her to raw and I like the results so far so will probably stick with that. I would say the "aggression" toward strange dogs is somewhat fear aggressive, as it involved the hackles up, deep bark, trying to make herself seem big and bad. That part is pretty much under control (still happens occasionally but she understands it is not acceptable) But amongst her own pack it is different, I don't know really how to describe it. These are the dogs she lives with every day and are not threatening her (they might be trying to take her ball or jump on me- neither of which she appreciates) As Vixen said I am probably allowing her to get away with too much- how would you suggest correcting when she barks and goes crazy in the kennel when I am working the other dogs? Or are you saying only correct if she goes after them?