Rescue Dog that is agressive - Page 1

One of my mates has recently got a 11month old rescue dog call Marley. He is a great dane cross (a few people have said he looks like a Boxer X great dane) He was in the kennel since he was seven weeks old. Had a temp home for a month when he was six months but the family gave him back to the local cat and dog shelter claiming he was too energetic. My mate bought him this month and she had to get all his injections (something the shelter should of done) and they didnt warn her he wasnt good with other dogs. So when he was at the vets he was growling and trying to get to one dog but she kept him under control then on her way out he got in a fight with another dog. Marley came out worse with a bleeding nose etc...

My mate is now really scared when she walks him cause he is a big boy and is desperate to get to other dogs. Can anyone give her any advice?

I also have a GSD who is dog agressive so i cant really help her. We would like to walk them together but sadly we cant cause both our dogs wouldnt get on with each other.

There is another thread on here discussing fear aggression issues:  http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/bulletins_read/423860.html

A young dog in a rescue situation can often become aggressive because he's been young & confused and surrounded by older aggressive dogs - the young dog takes the attitude of "the best defense is a good offense" and becomes extremely dog aggressive.

I adopted a 20-month old GSD who has this issue.

I'm not blanket-ly stating this dog has fear aggression as opposed to simply being an aggressive bad apple, but it is certainly a possibility that's where this is coming from - a lot of this aggression "for no reason" (that we can see - the other dogs aren't threatening him in any way) is fear based.

Check out the other thread and see if that helps.

This dog is good with people and only shows aggression to other dogs?