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Possible puppy "aggression" need advice

2K views 23 replies 8 participants last post by  madis 
#1 · (Edited)
So we've been taking Alvin to a local park to work on recall and basic leash training for the past few days. He's been doing great, he still tries to meet people and dogs walking by but speeding up snaps him out of it. yesterday we were taking a break playing fetch on a long lead and this woman was letting her dog pull her towards us. They were coming from behind us so Alvin hadn't seen them and it looked like they were going pass us so I ignored them. All of a sudden this woman's dog comes out of nowhere 10 feet from us on the right. Still pulling still barking. Alvin put himself between the dog and I and let out the deepest barks I've ever heard out of him. Luckily I had him held close to me. His fur was raised, ears up, tail straight. This dog had 40lbs on Alvin and he was not backing up. I told the woman we were training so we couldn't really socialize right then but she KEPT LETTING THE DOG COME CLOSER. I got up and put myself in a position where I could keep Alvin behind me and got ready to get out of there. She said "sometimes we make make friends sometimes we don't" and she kept talking about how deep Alvin's bark was and just small talk. I had to be rude and told her to please keep her dog back and she rolled her eyes and drug the dog away. I drew pictures of the situation.

Drawing Text Line Design Diagram


Text Drawing Handwriting Diagram Line


We have taken every measure possible to NOT make a nervous dog. Alvin did not look afraid or nervous. Could he be being protective? The dog was full blown hyper and lunging HARD.

Alvin has met other dogs big and small and behaves with them. We only let him play with calm dogs though, so I have no clue what was the reason behind his barking.

Please don't just say "remove your dog from the situation" we were in the process of doing this. it all happened really quickly. I want constructive advice on WHY he could be acting like this. Alvin is 12 weeks old

Thank you



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#2 ·
I love those pictures! And I want to point out a flaw in your thinking: you were not "rude" at all, you were conveying to this woman to get the heck away from you in a very polite manner. Much more polite than many here would be, lol. Alvin is a puppy and puppies do these kinds of things. He might have wanted to play? But you did everything right!
 
#5 ·
I would highly suggest that you remove the dog from the situation....okay couldn't help myself and you were just begging to hear that....LOL

Okay, here are some cookie cutter possibilities from a web site. I like the first three......

German Shepherd Aggression


German Shepherd aggression can have various causes, as we discuss below. But whatever the cause of the German Shepherd aggression, you need to address it now straight away or it may soon become both scary for you and others, as well as dangerous.
Causes of German Shepherd aggression

There are many potential causes of aggressive behaviour in a German Shepherd:

  • Your GSD may not yet have accepted you as the alpha leader in the pack
  • Your GSD may feel threatened if you or someone else is sometimes intruding its territory in a disrespectful way
  • The aggression could lead back to an attack by another dog or by any person during the dog’s life
  • Dog aggression may result from a mistake made with the puppy
  • Dog aggression could be triggered by heredity and genetics
  • Most of the time however aggressive behaviour in German Shepherds is down to stress and fear


SuperG
 
#6 ·
I would highly suggest that you remove the dog from the situation....okay couldn't help myself and you were just begging to hear that....LOL


SuperG
Haha! I knew someone would bring it up lol!

Thanks for the info, dude. We register for puppy class wednesday so ill talk to the trainer about it.
 
#8 ·
dog park is the worst place possible to take a pup for a training session --- because you meet these "entitled" people .

take an air horn , blast away , draw attention to the person , they'll scamper away fast out of embarrassment

" we were training so we couldn't really socialize right then " believe me that dog wasn't in the friendly socializing mode -- too polite --- but you did the right thing
yell at the top of your lungs - "control your dog"
 
#11 ·
in my sweet artistic drawing? lol It looked like some sort of akita mix. black and white with bushy fur. It had a wide head.
 
#23 ·
never been to a dog park with him and have no intention of going.
 
#12 ·
Dogs meeting or attempting to meet on the leash can sometimes not be good as they pull forward straight towards each other rather than going to each others sides or nose to tail, like the dog you encountered was doing, this can be seen as a direct challenge and by the sounds of it Alvin accepted the challenge. How were your emotions? Were you worried, afraid, annoyed? Think back to how you were feeling at the time and then with the combination of the lunging forward you might be able to work out why Alvin took offence.
 
#13 ·
I was calm throughout the whole thing, but my boyfriend looked worried. I do most of the training so I guess I'm used to dealing with him. We try not to make things "a big deal" if it has the possibility of becoming a negative experience because he just feeds off of it. We were assertive but calm at the same time. Alvin probably reacted to my boyfriend


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#15 ·
I guess there really isn't a problem, but we are hoping to therapy train him and he can't be reactive at all (while working). He is still really young, could this hurt us, or will he grow out of it? We have never done this before :crazy:
 
#22 ·
He is a baby puppy! I'm not sure what you are expecting from him, but I'd only be introducing him to different experiences/surfaces/sounds and not over do any of it. Work on some rear end awareness, focus and recalls(but not in public) play some great tug games, crate games. Don't expect much, he is still such a baby puppy! If you are planning on going the IPO route, find a club and start going(not to say Alvin needs it, but you may benefit from observing).
 
#24 ·
lol I know he is still a baby, thats why I was surprised by his reaction. We never train for more than 15 minutes at a time and never push him once he get's bored, kid loves to play fetch so we go to this big park by my house (aprox 100 acres) we are generally "alone" when we train there because it's all open fields. This particular day was the nicest saturday north Texas had seen in a while, so it was hard to find an empty spot. He has impressed me more than I ever thought he could at this age.
 
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