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We have 4 dogs they all pretty much get along ok for the past year with no problems. All the sudden my 1 yr old shepherd is going after my golden retriever. for no reason. sometimes the retriever starts it. most of the time its the shepherd. How do i control this ? They are fine with us, no problem.

-- Contributed by: fighting dogs

Hi Angelicamb,

I think taking your dog to training classes is an excellent way to begin addressing this problem. Obedience training puts you in the pack leader position. Our dogs often take their cues from us, so in addition to the training, it's going to be very important that you nip your dog's aggressive behavior in the bud the moment you notice him begin to tense up. Tell him "no" in a calm but authoritative voice, and then redirect him into another behavior that will A) distract him from the other dog and B)present an opportunity to praise him for an acceptible behavior. If you do this consistently, it should result in lessening these episodes and eventually eliminate them altogether.

You might also want to visit our Dog Forum to get more suggestions on curbing this behavior problem.

Thanks for sharing your situation, and good luck.

-- Contributed by: Kelly

I recently brought home a male Sheppard mix to foster, and ended up keeping him, mostly because of his agression to other dogs at adoption events. What puzzles me is that he does very well with my neighbor's three large males. He has not spent a lot of time with them (6 - 15 minute visits in 6 weeks) but plays easily with them with no trouble. The only thing I can come up with is that these 3 have good pack behavior and he does not find them threatening. My dog (unfortunately)spent 4 months on a ranch in emergency rescue where there is a large pack of dogs, some of them very agressive. I am assuming my dog is somewhat damaged from this experience. I am planning to take him to classes and have no problems with him around people, but am concerned as I want to be able to take him places and don't want to be constantly on the lookout for him going agressive. I also understand that it is common for adult rescue dogs to be overly posessive of their people, but he has gotten overly agressive without my presence as well. Any ideas what more I can do to disarm this agressive behavior towards other dogs?

-- Contributed by: Angelicamb

Hi Kathy,

Let me try to help. It seems that your male dog sees himself as his sister's pack leader, so he's trying to defend what he sees as his. If you haven't had your dog and his sister neutered and spayed respectively, it would be a good idea to do so. Sometimes lowering those hormone levels helps alleviate some of the aggression.

Since you really need your dog to respond to commands that will make him stop in his tracks, I highly recommend enrolling in an obedience course. This puts you in the pack leader position, and you will find you have far greater control over your dog even when he is tensed up for a fight.

Finally, when you see another dog approaching this pair, try to keep your own energy calm and authoratative. Your dog can actually sense you tense up in anticipation of a conflict. When one is on the horizon, try to distract your dog out of aggression mode the very moment he begins to display it. I'm going to recommend you read our article on Dog Clicker Training. It's a great way to teach your pet the behaviors you want him to repeat, and it works on reward, not punishment. Many people have found this training method quite useful, and I'm hopeful it can also help your situation.

Thanks for your question, and I hope these suggestions help alleviate the problem.

-- Contributed by: Kelly

My red heeler is never aggressive by himself, but if his sister (part fiest and heeler) is with him, and another dog comes around, he turns into a monster and will try to attack the other dog. They will be 2 in the summer and the situations are getting worse. I am trying to keep them separated at all costs which is wearing me out. Please help.

-- Contributed by: kathy

Hi Kiri,

I really think putting both dogs through obedience training would give you more control over them. The key here is that you need to interrupt the aggressive behavior before it has fully begun. If you watch closely, you'll see them tense up as another dog approaches. This is the time to give them a check and redirect their attention to you. As their pack leader, you're giving them the signal to knock it off. Conditioning them to respond to a sit and stay command would definitely help.

Thanks for your question, and I hope this suggestion helps.

-- Contributed by: Kelly

We have two dogs, both neutered males. They are obedient, affectionate, and friendly towards people, including children. I have a strict routine for excercise with 20-30 minutes high intensity exercise twice a day, every day. I have a strict routine for feeding - I can leave the dogs plate on the ground in front of them and they won't touch it until I say they can. I train them regularly, they can sit, lay down, stay, fetch and find. They have never shown aggression to people, but they are aggressive towards other dogs and they completely ignore me when they go into attack mode. They won't stop even when the other dog submits. So far I have been able to break them up and there have not been any serious injuries, but I am very concerned. From watching a couple of situations unfold I suspect that the alpha dog thinks he is protecting the younger dog. Usually I can avoid other dogs, and I do check very carefully, but sometimes I just don't see another dog until it is right on top of us. I need a more permanent solution. How do I change their behaviour before they hurt another dog?

-- Contributed by: Kiri

Hi Tamara,

This is a very serious situation, and your husband is right about the shock collar. It isn't suitable for use on a dog with anxiety problems and would only make the problem worse.

As I see it, you have very few options. You either need to build a reinforced kennel your dog cannot escape, or keep him secure indoors when you are away. Keeping him indoors may be the better option because you can control the environment a little more. Play a radio while you're gone to drown out noise from outside, and keep shades closed to minimize your dog's awareness of any storms.

If he continues to escape, an angry neighbor might harm him if he enters their property. They would likely be within their rights to protect their own pets, but no one wants to see an animal harmed.

I'm sorry I don't have any other options for you, but medicating your dog would only be a temporary solution, and probably not feasible in the long run.

Thank you for sharing your situation, and I do hope you find a solution to your dilemma.

-- Contributed by: Kelly

We have a 10 year old male Akita who we have had since he was 4 months old. We have known since he was about a year old that he does not do well with other dogs and have been careful to avoid those situations. He also is very afraid of thunder and lightening, fireworks, power tools, gun shots, etc. - we live out in the country and those sounds periodically erupt with no way of knowing ahead of time. Anyway, our Akita who we keep chained up in the side yard and/or kenneled when we are away or secured in our shop at night has become a problem as when he is frightened he goes nuts and he tears through the kennel and/or pulls out of his leash/harness and then ends up in someone else's yard where he has attacked and hurt other people's animals. He is an extremely gentle giant and very, very sweet with all people, but we are feeling so distraught with this behavior and how to handle it. We don't want to get rid of our pet or have him put down, but there is a huge liability risk to owning a dog that can't be restrained. My husband doesn't think shock collars would stop him in his moments of "freak out". Any advice or suggestion would be appreciated.

-- Contributed by: Tamara

Hi Dolores,

I'm sorry to hear about your experience. From what you describe, the situation your pup was involved in was largely natural, although I can understand your concern. It sounds as though the alphas were making sure your more submissive dog knew where he fell in their pecking order. Did you observe any snarling and/or biting? If not, this was just typical posturing.

It would have been better if your husband had yelled at the dogs first to break it up rather than toss the Huskie. I'm glad neither dog was hurt, but there was a risk of injury to the Huskie at that moment.

Honestly, I'm not a fan of dog parks. My personal opinion is that dogs risk exposure to viruses from possibly unvaccinated dogs. There is always going to be an issue over owners who do not keep proper control of their pets when the animals are off leash. Ideally, everyone should be concerned about every dog having a good time together, and bullying should be stopped when it's obvious a particular dog is no longer having fun.

Bottom line, your husband may have overeacted a bit, but the other dog owners did not follow through on their responsibility to monitor and control their own dogs. I would not advise trying to make your dog more aggressive, but I would recommend avoiding that park.

Thanks for sharing your situation.

-- Contributed by: Kelly

We take our 8 month old kelpie pup to this off leash park where there are often large dogs that, although for the most part are well behaved, today we felt some of them were starting to behave pack-like. Our 8 month old kelpie pup is extremely friendly and never ever aggressive. We took him to the off-leash park this afternoon where there were 3 huskies and a dalmation amongst other dogs. Our pup loves to run around with the larger dogs but after 5 minutes or so the huskies had him on his back and one had his throat in his jaws. This type of play has been going on for some time with no incidents but today the two other huskies came in and our pup was surrounded, pinned down and frightened. The owners did nothing to discipline their dogs. It was long enough for my husband to walk across the park and pull one of the huskies off. He did it in such a way to show strength and threw him back to free our pup. He did not hurt the husky.

The owner of the dog then procedeeded to tell my husband off and said they were just playing and they had done this before. What we witnessed was quite frightening to us but the three owners abused my husband and said this is normal behaviour at the dog park and not to bring him down if he can't take it.

When my husband tried to explain how friendly our dog is and that the other dogs are not under control the other owner (who I'm pretty sure is a boxer) then very threateningly told my husband to back off and leave the park. In fact, the owners then started to behave like a pack, telling him off and belittling him. The huskies are quite young but are now becoming adult dogs and we felt this behaviour was intimidating. No blood was drawn but it could have been. At what point would we have been justified in removing their dog? Did we have to wait till he drew blood. We understand pecking order etc. This was pecking order out of control and the people there seem to think it's okay to allow this.

Do you think my husband over-reacted? Is this pack behaviour acceptable? Should we train our pup to be more aggressive (he is neutered).

Your advice would be most appreciated as we were very upset and are not sure if we over-reacted. I never felt comfortable with these people from the first day. I actually felt they were very aggressive and wonder if my husband and are are too protective.

Regards Dolores

-- Contributed by: Dolores

Hi Heather,

It's difficult to say whether this behavior happens because your dog is startled by another dog's yelp or if she is taking the opportunity to assert dominance over a dog in a weaker position. What I do recommend is that if you are in the direct area and hear that yelp the same time your dog does, you should react swiftly to vocally pre-empt her behavior and make it known that you don't find it acceptible. You are effectively asserting your own dominance over her. Hopefully she will learn the lesson and refrain from attacking the next time the opportunity arises.

Thanks for your question. :)

-- Contributed by: Kelly

I have a female dachshund/beagle mix who is a fairly dominant dog. She is also very cuddly and often gets along just fine with my parents dogs. However, whenever she hears another dog yelp in pain or surprise, she attacks them. What can I do to stop this behavior? Thanks for the help.

Heather

-- Contributed by: Heather
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