Recent Dog Aggression

[xIke]

I have a four year old GSD that I've had for three years (she was a rescue). She's always been very wary of other dogs and growled at them if they were near me. A few small dogs have attacked her, and now she's much more aggressive, growling at dogs who are near other people she knows, and even getting in a few brawls (no bites on either side thankfully). What do I need to do to correct this? She's very obedient otherwise.

Thanks

[Jax08]

That is fear aggression. She's thinking "I'll get you before you get me" First, do everything possible to avoid her getting attacked. Second, you need to stop the behavior. Third, you need to get her to view dogs, or ignoring dogs, as a good thing.

We're doing a lot of work with "Look At That" game. For the first time ever, I watched my dog lay down in the middle of a store, perfectly relaxed and just look at another dog. It does work. Do some research into it.

[gsdraven]

Another vote for LAT. It did wonders for one of my fosters who almost got PTS because he was so dog reactive (not aggressive) but after a couple of months of LAT and careful training, he was actually used as a friendly test dog for the CGC! I would definitely google it and try it out.

Look at That! A Counterintuitive Approach to Dealing with Reactive Dogs Dog Training for Dog Lovers Blog

[MaggieRoseLee]

Originally Posted by Jax08

That is fear aggression. She's thinking "I'll get you before you get me" First, do everything possible to avoid her getting attacked. Second, you need to stop the behavior. Third, you need to get her to view dogs, or ignoring dogs, as a good thing.

We're doing a lot of work with "Look At That" game. For the first time ever, I watched my dog lay down in the middle of a store, perfectly relaxed and just look at another dog. It does work. Do some research into it.

I'm with the others, no CORRECTIONS! That only adds to the aggression and STRESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS. Instead learn how to REWARD for what you want so 'teach' it. No stress in being a good dog and getting praise rewards!

[xIke]

Thanks for the answers...

So you guys really think this is a fear thing? She'll trot right up to a strange dog and start growling. It seems like if she's afraid she'd be hiding behind me or running away (like the dog she pounced yesterday).

[martemchik]

There are dogs that will attack out of fear in order to get the first shot in. If I were you I would not let her "trot" up to any dogs in the near future, and not let her be near any other dogs. You're just asking for someone to report her and then you won't have a dog to fix period. True aggression wouldn't involve "trotting" it would involve a full out sprint and attack from anywhere at anytime.

[xIke]

This has only been with friend's dogs. One of them she used to play with fine, but hasn't seen for about two years. When she met it again I thought she'd remember it and go back to being friendly, but she growled at it anyway. So far she's only escalated when a dog that she's growling at approaches a person that she knows well. If the dogs are just meandering around and not near people, she seems fine.

[martemchik]

So you think your friend won't be angry when your GSD rips apart their dog because it comes over to you? It sounds like you are defending your dog, so if you like this kind of behavior thats fine. Until you can completely trust her, you should work on the "Look at That" system and don't allow her to be around any dogs. If you have friends that will allow her around their dogs so that you can work on these issues that is awesome and they can really help you, but if its around a strange dog and you don't know what can happen, that is just not a situtation I would put myself or my dog in.

[xIke]

Originally Posted by martemchik

So you think your friend won't be angry when your GSD rips apart their dog because it comes over to you? It sounds like you are defending your dog, so if you like this kind of behavior thats fine. Until you can completely trust her, you should work on the "Look at That" system and don't allow her to be around any dogs. If you have friends that will allow her around their dogs so that you can work on these issues that is awesome and they can really help you, but if its around a strange dog and you don't know what can happen, that is just not a situtation I would put myself or my dog in.

Here's what I was trying to explain which I guess I wasn't clear about:
1) this is in a controlled environment with friend's dogs. I'm not letting my dog run wild and attack dogs everywhere. We've controlled the introductions, letting the dogs sniff each other, and during those intros my dog growls.
2) The only two times my dog has pounced another dog, it was approaching a person that she seems to be protective of. Maybe I'm interpreting this wrong, but it seems like she's overly-protective of the people she knows.

In no way am I trying to defend my dog or make excuses. I'm trying to explain my situation as clearly as possible so I can get the best advice. It's likely that I'm not handling any of this right- the introductions, the growling, etc. I'm just trying to be clear about what's happening because what I'm doing right now is obviously not working. If I didn't care about my dog's behavior, I wouldn't be here asking for help. She's a fantastic dog and I hate the idea of her being put down because I can't give her the help that she needs.

Thanks

[martemchik]

Then I think you should make the person she is "protective" of go over to the dog and play/pet it. Make sure your dog understands and sees that the person doesn't need protecting from said dog. Start out with dogs that you trust and then move on to strange dogs, but always make sure that person plays with that dog first. I try to do this with most dogs anyways just to make sure my dogs "protective" instincts don't come out. If he sees me playing/petting the other dog he knows that its ok for him to calm down and play also.