Can fear aggression be overcome??

It can go into remission-that's what I call it.

You can get the dog as confident as you can, give them good leadership, consistancy, have them as comfortable as possible and allow them to be the best dog they are capable of being.

You can do it slowly, using desensitization and it sticks for life-remission but no cure-it's always there but not apparent.

You can do it quickly and then constantly need to reteach it every time.

That's how I feel about it anyway! But Kramer, Bella, Mariele, and now working on Ilsa (who is batcrap crazy ) have all (knock wood) done really well using that slow, NILIF, calm, lots of obedience classes, baby step approach.

Breaking it down-need to think about it more-but look at all of those things above as a whole done very slowly over time and the entire time protecting your dog from a situation, person, event that will cause it to go into a panic.

For the vet office, many visits over time just popping in for a weight check and a howdy with lots of good treats makes a big difference.

There are a lot of good sites http://www.k9aggression.com and http://www.goof.com/~pmurphy/shy-k9s-faq.html with a link to the Yahoo shy dog group-worth joining just for the archives.

Do you have two dogs? How is the other dog?

I have a fearful dog, while her's is easier to handle because she will just fold up instead of being aggressive, I don't ever want to push her to that point.

Like John said being a FIRM but Fair leader. That is sometimes a lot harder than people realize. Usually there are triggers, the Vet's office, other dogs, etc. Identify the triggers, write them down and since you don't have any help local let's all put out heads together and see if we can come up with some type of program schedule that you can work on.

First with my female when I see she is concerned I have to be very strong, shoulders back, head up so she can feel that I am in charge and she doesn't have to worry. When a dog gets worried and feels that they have to handle all the stresses is when they will either become aggressive or just shut down. So part of this is going to be on you, practice your posture and also keeping your emotions in what I call the nuetral zone, just very very even, that will incourage your dog to be more even, centered or focused.

Val

It is genetic and in 90 - 99% of the time in can be managed. But the word is managed, but it isn't cured, it doesn't really go away, it is just managed.

With the Vet's office, if your Vet and staff will work with you, that is something that can be over come. It takes a lot of happy no stress visits to the office. I always do this with my pups, the Vet's office is one of my socialization places because I want my dogs to be as relaxed as possible there. So we go in and sit, do some OB sits and maybe downs if the pup/dog is relaxed enough to handle that. My Vet's office has two scales that are accessable from the waiting room, so we go get on the scale, most of the time when I have a young pup or a new dog the Vet staff if they have time will come and sit and be treat machines for my dogs. There was a good post on the Vet office problem with Timber1 and his dog.

The thing with the breeder at 10 weeks of age, wasn't a good thing possibly a fear period, but a dog with solid nerves would have been able to recover from that, so what I am saying is the problem was there with or without the breeder interaction.

Try to stop people from approaching your dog and let her approach them. Always carry a baggie full of the best treats in the world and have the person feed them to your dog without talking, petting or making a lot of eye contact. Raya wants to sniff people over before they try to touch her, so I am very careful to instruct people let her sniff first.

Are there any class settings in your area?

Onyx could actually benefit from the program in the book "Click to Calm-- healing the aggressive dog" by Emma Parsons. I have never thought I would give this a try, but.. wow. I had no idea something as simple as a clicker could make a dog actually begin to feel in control of a situation in which they normally feel NOT in control and at risk.
While the program is begun in your livingroom doing simple OB Onyx already knows, in a room she already knows, with zero distraction... in a few weeks, doing a lil click-n-treat(use special, high value treats in these distraction zones)in a very mild outdoor situation, then later after a few weeks in more stressful situations, thinks: "Oh, man.. clicker stuff is happenin'... whoa, I know what THIS means.. time to WORK! Just like at home in my very own comfy livingroom with Mom, when I gotta sit and down and do a watch command and stay and stuff! Hey, wait a minute.. Mom is askin' for one of those things right now I think.. oooooooh, it's SIT! I do WAY GOOD at sit! A snack is comin'! Yummm.. great!! Ok, next is... what.... stay? Down? What's next, Mom? " etc. Her sense of control comes in the idea that she is winning.. succeeding..easy OB she knows. Plus, The clicker takes the handler outta the pic-- our emotions can add to the frazzled dog's responses. Plus-- and this is BIG-- clicker means working.. not bad stuff happening! Working = better focus.. gonna get good stuff! Doggy also thinks "I went to a slightly stressful place today, and.. hmm.. nothing happened bad, I just worked hard, got praise and snacks, all good stuff happened, plus I was in control."
Read the book, then begin the program with Onyx. Weirdly, this can help the dog feel in control, gradually, in new situations in general. Then, move this-- clicker OB training, simple usual stuff she knows already but with clicker-- into gradually more stressful situations.
Another technique very useful (but also takes a loooonnng time) is click-and-treating in the midst of slightly stressful situations for when she does ANYTHING that indicates calmness-- finally rolling onto her hip while in a down position, sighing, etc. at the park while watching noisy, active kids playing soccer, for instance.
The clicking removes conflict.
I honestly have never been a big fan of the clicker idea... but seeing it in action is amazing! This kinda program takes a long time. But, it can help build confidence in her, distract-then-make-positive -associations-in-stressful-situations, and mark GOOD behavior (in her mind, it becomes GOOD behavior to relax) in these situations.
Wishing you and beautiful Onyx the best!!

Forgot to add.. really upping her NILIF and your leadership at home had a hugely calming effect when you go out, as Jean and John have said. Why should she worry, when scary situations and your responsibility as super-duper-alpha to handle, not hers? Whew!

I agree that management will be key, and genetics definitely can't be changed. But you CAN work on changing her emotional response to stressful situations, as others have mentioned. I just finished a book called Control Unleashed, which might be very helpful to you. It's written, and the program was designed, for reactive dogs in agility, but the exercises could be used with any dog, even companions who will never compete in anything. She very clearly explains the concepts and the reasoning behind them, which are to basically reframe the experience from a negative, fearful, stressful one into a positive one. One of the exercises is called "There's a dog in my face!", and it teaches the dog that having strange dogs running up to them unexpectedly is a predictor of good things. Take away the fear, you take away the reason for the aggressive display, rather than just correcting the behavior without dealing with the underlying cause, which is what an e-collar would do.

It's not going to "fix" a seriously aggressive dog, and you might need to carefully manage her environment for life - or not, hard to know from a post on the internet how serious this is, nor am I a behavior expert. But I do know from previously having a fear reactive dog that you can make a lot of progress if you work at it. Jean is the poster child for that, with her house full of weird and wonderful doggers! Finding a competent trainer who is experienced in aggression, fear, and phobias, or a group class designed specifically to work with 'issues' dogs would help a lot.

Jean Donaldson's Dogs are From Neptune is also a good book for counter-conditioning and desensitization techniques.

Edited to add: I haven't read Click to Calm, as Patti suggests, but I've heard great things about it!

After reading these posts i am beggining to wonder if my dog has some sort of fear in her too, i think someone mentioned that.I rememeber taking her to a friends house ,they had 4 dogs , and the whole time she hid under the table.

I dont know what to tell you because i am still learning.

My question is does she urine when lots of people interact with her at one time? Mine does ,is that fear?