My Dog's Drastic Changed behaviour - Dominance?

[saraphillips]

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Hello

My whippet girl who is 3 has developed some worrying behaviour. She has previously been a very placid and sweet natured dog but in the last few days she has started to bark and jump up at people as they are walking away from her. This has happened three times in my view. She meets them OK and is very quiet and docile and will even ignore them but she then suddenly seems to get aggressive. Our next door neighbours had told us that she had 'hustled' them and i flatly disbelieved them because she is normally such a gentle and quiet dog. I was also told that she barked really loudly at my parents next door neighbour and i put that down to the fact that that was because she was overawed by his size (6ft 7!) Now have to face the fact that my perfect dog is not perfect!

Is she displaying dominance? We try and do show her who's boss but perhaps we should be stricter? Are there any other reason's why she should start acting in this way.

Apologies if a similar topic has appeared b4 - i've had a look in past posts and couldn't find anything.

 

[*Lesley*]

Not sure why she would be doing this but my thoughts would be,

Is she been in/due in season?

Is she hurting anywhere, this can make them act strangely?

Have you changed her routine recentley i.e anything in the house/garden ect?

Have you changed your rountine,time she spend with you i.e working hours ect?

Has she had any sort of trauma/ accident/ run in with another dog even small upsets can change a dogs attitude?

I can't really think of anymore but others may have some :thumbsup:

If you are really worried I would have a word with your vet hope things work out

 

[fallenangel]

if its happend suddanly I would take a trip to the vets and get her checked over agrassions not common in whippets to start with and if its very out of caricter for her its worth geting a full mot done on her to rulie anything medical out first of all

wendy

 

[FeeFee]

I'd agree it's worth getting her checked physically first, just to be on the safe side. Hormone imbalances or Thyroid problems, for example, can change dogs' behaviour.

Has there been any change of diet? Some dogs react quite badly to certain additives in dog food.

Other than that it seems very odd behaviour to be reacting to people when they are walking away from her. If a dog is going to show aggression, for whatever reason, it would usually be directed at someone walking towards them I would have thought.

This really isn't the sort of thing anyone can advise on over the internet without seeing the dog and the behaviour. I'd suggest it's worth finding a good behaviourist who can assess what's going on and, hopefully, nip it in the bud before it becomes a serious problem.

Good luck, I really hope you manage to sort it out :luck:

 

[saraphillips]

Thank you everybody for your suggestions. I think i will book in a trip to the vets to make sure. I am expecting her to come in to season so that could have a bearing on the matter.

She hasn't had a change in food but she did stay at my parents for 10 days when we were on holiday, so possibly that put her out of kilter.

Hopefully its just a blip!