showing mild aggression at 1 year old

I have a staffy cross german shepherd. she is eleven months old i had her from seven months old.When i got her she had been negleted and was very hyper. she now has basic training is excellent around food.she has three walks a day.
my problem is that when out walking recently she shows dog agression when playing with other dogs and makes a really nasty growling sound and bites their necks.(no injuries have occurred). i have to pull her off the other dog.
what is the best way to handle this?

Thanks

Hi & welcome.

German Shepherds have a habit of doing this when they get to about 12 months or so. It sounds like very rough play, but without seeing her body language it's very difficult to say.

Many dogs make quite fearful noises when they play - growls/yelps/barks etc - but that's just like children shouting & squeeling when they play rough.

How does she look when she's doing this, and is it immediate or after she's been playing for a while?

Is it deffinatly aggresion? Buster is very vocal when he plays with some dogs (I did think all untill he played with a german shepherd last night and didnt make a sound ) but he is never aggressive. He can get carried away and will bite the other dogs, but never hard and he has never caused any injury. Because he can play so rough (although he can play gentle and does with my brothers little pup) I never let him off to play with older or more timid dogs.

Biting the neck of another dog is usually part of play - it really depends on what else is going on!

Thanks for replying.she scares me when she makes this noise.she has been playing for a few minutes before the growling happens. the dog she does it with is a i yr old ridgback and she has been playing with her since i have owned her and they get on well apart from this. she meets loads of other dogs in the park and has no hint of this behaviour with them.

Is the ridgeback submissive or dominant? Are her hackles up when she growls and is she just 'mouthing' (even if it's quite hard) or actually biting to cause pain?

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the other dog is passive and has no hesitation playing with poppy. infact when she sees us in the park she runs directly towrds us. there is no real biting just hard mouthing but my dog does have the other dog pinned down. but i really do not like it because staffs have a bad name and i do not want to have to keep her on the lead as she loves rolling in the grass and chasing balls.
I would really like Poppy to stop this behaviour have you any ideas.
Thanks

I think the only way to stop it (and I'm not sure if you even can) is to keep her on a lead or long line and then if she starts it will be easier to stop her. As long as the other dog doesn't yelp or seem in pain and Poppy's body language hasn't changed then I would try not to worry too much. As I said, Buster can be very vocal, and he often plays with a staffy x boxer who is also quite vocal but we know they are only playing, and neither has ever drawn blood on the other. People will walk past, and some shake their heads as if we were fighting them unfortunatly alot of people only think bad of staffies not realising they are as good - if not better - than any other breed of dog

It certainly sounds as though she's just playing. Short of stopping the play altogether there isn't a lot you can do, I'm afraid. As Charlie says, you could keep her on a lead or long training line, but then she loses her freedom & could get caught up.

If the other dog keeps coming back to play with yours it should be OK with it, if it wasnt having fun it wouldn't bother. As already said Staffies can be very vocal and you can mistakenly think they are really having a go at each other when in fact it's just playtime for them.

If you would prefer to keep your dog on a lead then do so for your own peace of mind, you will have a bit more control over what happens and be able to get your dog out of the way should you need to.

kathytake2 wrote: As already said Staffies can be very vocal and you can mistakenly think they are really having a go at each other when in fact it's just playtime for them.

GSDs are even noisier!

Here is a link about body language that might be usefull to you

http://staffy-bull-terrier.co.uk/dogbodylanguage.html

The activity you describe seems like play to me but hard to tell without a video. Biting the neck is not neccessarly aggrerssion. Suki does this all the time. It's actually safer than biting ears, legs or the tail.

You could try keeping them on a long lead and seperating them after a few minutes of play or if either handler is uncomfortable until they calm a little

Thank you all for your advice. i feel better about her behaviour after hearing your views but i think for a while i will keep her on a long lead when in the park if it is busy.
thanks again

Any chance of some pics?

there is some pics a video clips but i will have get my son to help upload them. she is brindle in colour small build but taller than a staff.

Here's a link that might help with the pics

https://staffy-bull-terrier.niceboard.com/t11091-adding-your-photos-to-the-website-gallery

You can also hit preview just to be sure you got it right

That doesn't sound at all like aggression to me.

My american bulldog is THE roughest at playing i've ever seen and he has scared alot of people with his 'play' growl and he also goes straight for the neck, so to speak and pins dogs playfully.

Dogs always to be submissive around him and will roll straight onto their back but even with this rough play he seems to know when they have had enough.

He has been in 2 serious fights where 2 different dogs tried there luck while Chance wasn't looking and the difference in Chance when properly fighting is massive and unfortunately the other dogs came off alot worse

Millie's not a staff, she's a lab x collie but she growls, barks and makes high pitched noises constantly when she plays. I end up stopping them playing at times just because of the noise, I keep waiting on the neighbours complaining