My dog has a problem with male dogs?

[Mrsblueberrymuffin8]

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Hi everyone! Some help on this would be very much appreciated

I have a 9 month old Staffordshire bull terrier called Diesel. He's the sweetest most loving dog you could ever meet and we love him to pieces. He's amazing with people and is even great with our guinea pigs!

However, he doesn't seem to like male dogs? He's absolutely fine with females but as soon as he sees another boy dog he goes crazy. We had him neutered when he was 6 months old though so I wouldn't have thought this would be a problem? Does he view them as a threat? Any advice would be great thank you xx

 

[JoanneF]

He may be anxious about them and taking the "attack is the best form of defence' approach. Also at 9 months he is outgrowing his puppy license, the tolerance dogs have for puppies. But you do need to address it because at his age, there are many years of dog meetings ahead of you.

He will have an invisible radius of space around him where he feels secure . Find out what that is and keep him far enough away from other dogs that he is relaxed. Reward his calm behaviour. Gradually, over weeks and months, not days, work on reducing the distance. But - be aware that if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for up to 48 hours so a distance he was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch his body language.

Trainers describe behaviour like this with reference to the three Ds. Distance, as above but also be aware of Duration (your dog might be tolerant for 10 seconds, but not 15) and Distraction - how distracting the stimulus is; a calm dog might not trigger any reaction at a given distance but a bouncy one might.

Alongside that you could train a 'watch me'. As your dog looks at you, mark and reward the behaviour. Ask for longer periods of watching. Then if a dog approaches, after you have worked on the distance issue, you can get your dog to focus on you and not the other dog. BUT - some dogs find this scary as they cannot see the thing they are anxious about so you need to judge your dog.

 

[Violet Turner]

Welcome, i love staffys!
What has caused this behaviour? Has something happened between a male dog and Diesel: Fight? Was Diesel socialised with other dogs when he was a bit younger? Did this behaviour just occur or has this always been the problem? Does Diesel have a tendency to resource guard? - Resource Guarding.
He is now an adolescence, but training is something you can do throughout a dogs whole life! You could teach your dog the cue 'watch me' kikopup does a video on it:

.
He could be showing signs of anxiety but you aren't picking it up...
How To Read Your Dog's Body Language.
If you would like any more information please ask - Violet

 

[JudyN]

My neutered dog used to be like this too. I think of it as an expression of insecurity, which can result from early neutering, as one role of testosterone is to make a dog feel confident. In very simplistic human terms, it's as if duffing up another dog can make a dog feel all brave and macho. (If he was really brave and macho he wouldn't need to duff up other dogs.)

He's much better now, though I still have to watch him with young unneutered males and cocky, confident males who have a bit of a strut in their step.

As well as @JoanneF 's excellent advice, I gave my dog a treat when we passed any dog. This wasn't a 'reward for being good', it was simply to link seeing another dog with something positive - and more importantly something that would make him turn to me instead of approaching the dog. He still looks to me for a treat when we pass pretty much any dog at any distance, and I still give him one, just to reinforce it.

 

[leashedForLife]

.

some Staffies are same-sex aggro or even reactive - it's not apparent at 8 to 12-WO in most pups, it rarely rears its ugly mug B4 puberty, & symptoms usually start 'around' puberty, between 5 & 7-MO, then grow.
Scotties & JRTs are 2 of the many other breeds that are especially noted for M:M aggro, & Akitas can show same-sex aggro in both sexes.

He may or may not be able to learn tolerance toward Ms - B-Mod as described by JoanneF is the best way to work on it. "Open Bar / Closed Bar" with pea-sized tidbits of high-value & high-protein coming in a steady stream WHENEVER another dog is visible or audible, is my favorite B-Mod for this & other reactive issues.

note: Mute his tags.
Wrap a wide short rubber-band around them, or buy or make a tag-silencing bag, like Quiet, Spot! - a neoprene bag with a drawstring, that slips over them on the collar.
Other dogs will be scanning for him as soon as they hear that jingle, & HIS reaction to THEIR reaction will only be heightened by their anticipation / arousal. Dogs can hear incredibly well, & it wouldn't surprise me to be told that they can hear tags jingle 150-ft off.

- terry

.

 

[Mrsblueberrymuffin8]

He may be anxious about them and taking the "attack is the best form of defence' approach. Also at 9 months he is outgrowing his puppy license, the tolerance dogs have for puppies. But you do need to address it because at his age, there are many years of dog meetings ahead of you.

He will have an invisible radius of space around him where he feels secure . Find out what that is and keep him far enough away from other dogs that he is relaxed. Reward his calm behaviour. Gradually, over weeks and months, not days, work on reducing the distance. But - be aware that if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for up to 48 hours so a distance he was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch his body language.

Trainers describe behaviour like this with reference to the three Ds. Distance, as above but also be aware of Duration (your dog might be tolerant for 10 seconds, but not 15) and Distraction - how distracting the stimulus is; a calm dog might not trigger any reaction at a given distance but a bouncy one might.

Alongside that you could train a 'watch me'. As your dog looks at you, mark and reward the behaviour. Ask for longer periods of watching. Then if a dog approaches, after you have worked on the distance issue, you can get your dog to focus on you and not the other dog. BUT - some dogs find this scary as they cannot see the thing they are anxious about so you need to judge your dog.

Th

He may be anxious about them and taking the "attack is the best form of defence' approach. Also at 9 months he is outgrowing his puppy license, the tolerance dogs have for puppies. But you do need to address it because at his age, there are many years of dog meetings ahead of you.

He will have an invisible radius of space around him where he feels secure . Find out what that is and keep him far enough away from other dogs that he is relaxed. Reward his calm behaviour. Gradually, over weeks and months, not days, work on reducing the distance. But - be aware that if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for up to 48 hours so a distance he was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch his body language.

Trainers describe behaviour like this with reference to the three Ds. Distance, as above but also be aware of Duration (your dog might be tolerant for 10 seconds, but not 15) and Distraction - how distracting the stimulus is; a calm dog might not trigger any reaction at a given distance but a bouncy one might.

Alongside that you could train a 'watch me'. As your dog looks at you, mark and reward the behaviour. Ask for longer periods of watching. Then if a dog approaches, after you have worked on the distance issue, you can get your dog to focus on you and not the other dog. BUT - some dogs find this scary as they cannot see the thing they are anxious about so you need to judge your dog.

What you've said is a lot of help thank you! I never thought of him as an anxious dog to be honest, he always been a really bouncy, happy go lucky puppy. However, looking back I do think there were some behaviours I misread. I used to think he just wanted to play with them but was being a little rough. But now I don't think it was play and maybe he was anxious around them

The "watch me" training sounds like a great idea and I'll definitely give it a go thank you and what you've said makes a lot of sense xx

 

[Mrsblueberrymuffin8]

Welcome, i love staffys!
What has caused this behaviour? Has something happened between a male dog and Diesel: Fight? Was Diesel socialised with other dogs when he was a bit younger? Did this behaviour just occur or has this always been the problem? Does Diesel have a tendency to resource guard? - Resource Guarding.
He is now an adolescence, but training is something you can do throughout a dogs whole life! You could teach your dog the cue 'watch me' kikopup does a video on it:

.
He could be showing signs of anxiety but you aren't picking it up...
How To Read Your Dog's Body Language.
If you would like any more information please ask - Violet

Thank you! I love staffies too!

I'm not sure to be honest, he's always been funny around boy dogs. He's never been in a fight with one and I don't think he'd ever bite another dog but he barks and growls at them. He was socialised but as I said before, he's just never seemed to like males. He gets on great with my parents dog, molly and loves playing with all girl dogs.

He's never shown any type of guarding behaviour and is totally fine with food and toys thank goodness he's the definition of a nanny dog around people, he's so gentle!

The watch me sounds really good, thank you so much for your post xxx

 

[Mrsblueberrymuffin8]

My neutered dog used to be like this too. I think of it as an expression of insecurity, which can result from early neutering, as one role of testosterone is to make a dog feel confident. In very simplistic human terms, it's as if duffing up another dog can make a dog feel all brave and macho. (If he was really brave and macho he wouldn't need to duff up other dogs.)

He's much better now, though I still have to watch him with young unneutered males and cocky, confident males who have a bit of a strut in their step.

As well as @JoanneF 's excellent advice, I gave my dog a treat when we passed any dog. This wasn't a 'reward for being good', it was simply to link seeing another dog with something positive - and more importantly something that would make him turn to me instead of approaching the dog. He still looks to me for a treat when we pass pretty much any dog at any distance, and I still give him one, just to reinforce it.

That does make sense, maybe that contributed to it. I'm deffo gonna try giving him a treat when we see another dog, thank you for the great advice! I'm glad your dog's a lot better for you now xx

 

[Mrsblueberrymuffin8]

.

some Staffies are same-sex aggro or even reactive - it's not apparent at 8 to 12-WO in most pups, it rarely rears its ugly mug B4 puberty, & symptoms usually start 'around' puberty, between 5 & 7-MO, then grow.
Scotties & JRTs are 2 of the many other breeds that are especially noted for M:M aggro, & Akitas can show same-sex aggro in both sexes.

He may or may not be able to learn tolerance toward Ms - B-Mod as described by JoanneF is the best way to work on it. "Open Bar / Closed Bar" with pea-sized tidbits of high-value & high-protein coming in a steady stream WHENEVER another dog is visible or audible, is my favorite B-Mod for this & other reactive issues.

note: Mute his tags.
Wrap a wide short rubber-band around them, or buy or make a tag-silencing bag, like Quiet, Spot! - a neoprene bag with a drawstring, that slips over them on the collar.
Other dogs will be scanning for him as soon as they hear that jingle, & HIS reaction to THEIR reaction will only be heightened by their anticipation / arousal. Dogs can hear incredibly well, & it wouldn't surprise me to be told that they can hear tags jingle 150-ft off.

- terry

.

Maybe that is the case, I know that staffies genereally don't tend like other dogs and he has always been more people oriented.

That's so amazing how far they can hear! Maybe that will help, thank you so much for the advice xx