Help please

Just wondered if anyone can give some advice, we fostered our staffy for a while then adopted her. She was a complete mess when we took her in, and does occasionaly show fear aggression, but last night while out she went for a lady carrying a baby. There was no reason for it and luckily she didnt get anywhere near, but am seriously worried ...

Good advice on the link provided. Also you should work on socialization as frequently as possible

Keep up with her training constantly, make everthing a training session that you can. Give lots of praise when she gets thing right. Try to keep yourself calm and relaxed (yes I know that s easy for me to say) she will pick up on your behaviour too. Calm owners make calm dogs.

That must have been very frighteneing for everyone concerned.

Can you give us more detail on exactly what happened - what was the woman doing? What was your bitch doing? Was she on or off lead?

Hi guys thanks for the advice, will keep working on it!! Caryyl she was on the lead, I dont let her off unless in a secure area, and the lady did nothing, she was simply walking past us carrying a baby, Daffy (the dog) gave no warning just launched, and luckily she was on a short lead, and I was a bit quicker. So sad now because I wanted to adopt another little one.

Do you know anything about her past? Its possible that her past owners had a baby and she wasn't allowed to see it so was beaten when she went near it. That would give any dog baby aggression. Try calling a behaviourist, they will tell you exactly what to do. They may suggest a muzzle in this case as going for a baby is clearly very dangerous. I personally wouldn't be letting her off the lead until you sort this out incase a child walks around the corner or into wherever you are. Good luck, i hope she comes around.

Did she actually attack, or was it excitement or fear? Could you tell from her body language?

Very few dogs will actually attack without any previous sign at all, so she would have shown some sign of discomfort or fear before you reached the woman with the baby.

Without actually being there it is hard to know. She could have just wanted to see and was over exuberant. Hayley's suggestion of asking a professional for help is a good one.