out of character aggression whilst on the lead!

[fabeslinnell]

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Hi,

I've joined in the hope that someone can give me some constructive advice. My 16 month old pup has started showing aggression towards other dogs while he's on his lead. He is a very kind and faithful friend, he plays with my children lovely and has not ever shown any aggression, you can take his bone from him, remove his dinner whilst he's eating, take his toys away etc and no nastyness. When he is off his lead he is brilliantly behaved, he loves other dogs and plays really nicely with them with no aggression. However, when he is on his lead, if he see's a dog even in the distance the hair on his back goes up, he'll start to growl then as the dog gets closer he almost turns into a wild beast!! He will thrash around trying to get off the lead, bark aggressively and bare his teeth towards the dog!

It's so strange and a shame as he comes across as such a scary vicious dog when he does this but he really isn't!! He's a big lad, German Shephard/Boxer/Lurcher x, so is intimidating to the other dog owner and dog!

Can anyone help????

 

[TTT]

Have you owned or trained a dog before? You would probably benefit from joining a dog training club to work on your dog's social skills/manners. Training and social skills are something that need to be worked on throughout a dog's life - by joining a dog training club, you may even progress to participating in activities such as obedience or agility to help your bond and communication with your dog and help him put all that energy into a constructive activity.

 

[fabeslinnell]

Yes, I've always had dogs, my last I had for 15 wonderful years. I've just never come across such a change in personality.

 

[mamastood]

Hi,

I've joined in the hope that someone can give me some constructive advice. My 16 month old pup has started showing aggression towards other dogs while he's on his lead. He is a very kind and faithful friend, he plays with my children lovely and has not ever shown any aggression, you can take his bone from him, remove his dinner whilst he's eating, take his toys away etc and no nastyness. When he is off his lead he is brilliantly behaved, he loves other dogs and plays really nicely with them with no aggression. However, when he is on his lead, if he see's a dog even in the distance the hair on his back goes up, he'll start to growl then as the dog gets closer he almost turns into a wild beast!! He will thrash around trying to get off the lead, bark aggressively and bare his teeth towards the dog!

It's so strange and a shame as he comes across as such a scary vicious dog when he does this but he really isn't!! He's a big lad, German Shephard/Boxer/Lurcher x, so is intimidating to the other dog owner and dog!

Can anyone help????

hi, sounds to me like simple socialisation, do you allow him off lead and what is he like with dogs then?

 

[hanneroon]

showing aggression, whilst on a lead is a fairly common thing. My older rescue dog does it, and i wish i had the chance like you do, to have been able to sort it out properly whilst he was still young.

I think, unneutered male dogs have a bit of testosterone surge around 18months, so this could have been a trigger for him to start acting up. It is a fear based aggression, as proved by his placid behaviour off lead. Dogs rarely go around being aggressive for no reason, lead based aggression is because for some reason, (maybe being restrained round the neck!?) they are getting the idea that this is what they should be doing. If they are uncertain as to how to behave, and can't run away, what option do they have, fight or flight type scenario...

The theory goes; you, or dog spot another dog in the distance, and alert each other through various signals, him ears up, rigid stance, you think 'right, here goes!' and pull a bit on the lead, to get your dog under control. Your dog then interprets this tension as further reason to worry and barks his head off. You then yell No! And pull a bit more and your dog thinks you are joining in at best, or just really stressed, at worse. I think its something to do with dogs being contrary mary's, if you push them they push back, if you pull they pull. So basically you both set each other off, and if neither is acting calmly and confidently then that calmness won't happen. He may think he's guarding you, or himself, or just being alert to a possible danger, then getting a signal from you to go ahead and see them off.

I would suggest seeing a fully qualified trainer for at least one session, to give you some help and suggest safe ways to practise approaching and greeting other dogs. And they will be able to tell you what is triggering this behaviour; especially as your lad sounds like quite a big chap, i have trouble when my whippet kicks off, a gsd, lurcher, boxer, must be a right struggle.

If you have a few buddies with dogs that you can rope in to help you, and a bit of time spent practising, i'm sure you will be able to help your pup overcome his fears and learn how to behave himself....

I think the important thing is to try not to worry too much, especially when you are out walking, tonight tomorrow morning etc, act confident and ignore other dogs completely, perhaps even try to distract him with whatever works when you notice him tense up, but before he goes nuts... There are plenty of folk on here asking the same question as you, so perhaps a little search through the forum, might yield a bit more helpful advice....

After all, my dog is still partly crazy, so maybe a professional would be better asked. Good luck!!!

Hannah

p.s. Photos please, having trouble imagining him..

 

[Jasp]

I think that hanneroon has hit the nail on the head. At 16 months your lad is no longer a pup and is moving through adolescence to adulthood. Teenage dogs are as random and as unpredictable as teenage children and just like children, the changes taking place can affect everything from mood, behaviour and even their perception of things around them. Now is the time for plenty of back to basics training.

If his problems are all only while on the lead then it sounds like it may be a perception thing. Dogs communicate and relate to each other primarily through body language, even at a distance, so it may be that he is now seeing things a little differently and combined with the feeling of constraint while on the lead, leaves him feeling he has no option but to fall back into defense mode.

When this happens he is obviously getting stressed (as are you, which he will pick up on) so try and stay calm and reassure him. Distract him if you can but don't reward him with anything unless he is focusing on something other than the other dog. If he spots the dog and reacts to it then you shove a treat in his face then you are rewarding that reaction. If he spots the dog and you take him aside and maybe get him engaged in a game of tug for example, then you can reward him for focusing on you and not the dog.

You could also help him socialise by walking him on lead with other dogs that he is familiar with, even if they meet off lead first. He may well learn more from a canine companion than any trainer can ever teach him.

 

[Doggy Dilemmas]

Hi there. You don't seem to have mentioned what kind of collar/lead you are using. If you're using a choke (aka check, but don't believe it, these things CHOKE) chain, then that could be part of the problem. Dogs learn by association so if his experience of pulling towards a dog is one that results in pain then as far as he's concerned the other DOG caused the pain, not his own behaviour.

I'd recommend you taking LOTS of tiny treats out with you and from the second you set off on the walk, use the treats to keep his attention on you, saying, "What's this?" and giving him the treat. Make it so he's more interested in you than the other dogs, then if one appears you can say the "What's this?" to hopefully get him to look at you. You can also try using Mikki Training Discs (available on Amazon) to deter his bad behaviour, but you MUST read the booklet and condition him first.

You can find out more by checking out my book called Doggy Dilemmas: the Animal Antics of Canine Psychologist Jo Wood which is available on Amazon for download or on paperback. Good luck with him. x

 

[eingana]

This sounds pretty normal to me for a 16 month old entire dog GSD who is just growing into his breed normal characteristics. It's not desirable and it needs work, but it also doesn't sound unusual. We don't usually call it aggression in this form, we call it being reactive, mostly because in the vast majority of these situations if the other dog was actually approached, there is no actual attack, just lots of noise and bluster. Not appropriate and not how you want it to be, but also not that likely to try to rip another dog's throat out.

I'm not a specialist in other breeds so I can't tell you whether it's common in boxers or the other breeds that make up his lurcheriness, but it's pretty standard for GSDs and there's a lot of work that you can do to change this..

Apart from not losing faith or losing confidence the biggest piece of advice I have for you is to socialise, socialise, socialise.

Socialising GSD style doesn't involve letting your dogs off a lead in a park together (at least initially) it involves parallel walking- lots of it. Parallel walking basically exposes your dog to other dogs without letting them overreact to the other dog. What he's doing is guarding you from the other dog at the moment, which is natural for a GSD, but he needs to know that this is not how you want him to be.

If you can find anybody local who has a relatively calm dog and is prepared to go for a walk with you that won't involve any risk to them or their dog, then going for a lead walk together as often as you can is really important. Parallel walking works because if you keep a dog's brain working by walking quite quickly then while they can see the other dog on their periphery and they can smell the other dog, they are being kept too busy with walking and with the instructions you're giving to react badly to the other dog.

Start off walking 50m apart from each other, walking the same direction with the humans on the inside and the dogs on the outside. Walk quite quickly and at the same speed as each other, so that neither dog is in front, and both continue to talk to your dogs and ask them to walk nicely to heel on the lead.

As you walk, very gradually get closer together. Over the length of a field get a few metres closer to each other, then turn around and start back the other way, again getting gradually closer. If your dog starts to react to the other dog, get a bit further apart again and speed up your walking a bit so he's kept really busy paying attention to you and the walk, then resume dropping the gap between you again. A proper parallel walk introduction takes a minimum of half an hour, but sometimes can take a lot longer. When you get to being quite close together you can either fall into a walk with the humans on the inside and dogs outside so that they still can't interact, or if he is finding that stressful you can then develop onto walking in a large circle so that each is following the other but still not close enough to interact. This allows them to see and smell each other better, but still not interact. Gradually shrink the circle.

Repeat as many times as necessary for that one dog to be accepted and normal and then repeat with as many dogs as you can find to walk with.

Eventually this WILL pass and you WILL be able to trust him with other dogs again. It may take work to get there, but it's worth it.

Neutering may help him to calm down faster, so please discuss this with your vet if he's not been neutered already.

Good luck- I hope you find some walking friends and have lots of progress soon.

 

[fabeslinnell]

Thank you all so much for your replys, I will put some of the things into practice and let you know how it goes x

I've added a couple of pics of my beautiful boy x

 

[banana]

Oh he is adorable - I have added one of the pictures as your avatar!

 

[fabeslinnell]

Thank you, I couldn't do that x