my baby is dog aggressive, will getting her a forever freind help her?

hi, im new so please bare with me. basically i have a gorgeous 3 year old girl called sky, last year my wife and to daughter took her to the shop, where she was attacked by 3 GSD who were with their owner and on leads. but the owner was a petit lady and clearly unable to control 3 such big dogs. anyway long story short my sky gets absolutly crazy when she sees a dog whilst walking, even if its 2-300 yards away. just recently ive considered getting a male forever freind, and trying to re-socialize her. any advice much appreciated.

I'm not sure bringing another dog into the home is the best answer. I would try to find people who had very well socialized dogs and take them for walks together as the first step to resocialize her.

I would not bring another dog into the home. If your girl goes mad at the sight of dogs out in the street, how do you think she will react to another dog on her territory? If you brought another dog in and she hated it, you would have to give the other dog up, and that's not fair on the other dog. What if she does like the other dog, and gets jealous and possessive of him if another dog tries to greet him while you're out and her behaviour rubs off on him and you have 2 dog aggressive dogs to deal with?

If you want another dog in the family, you need to work on Sky's DA, and if that improves and you decide to get another, you would need to do a number of introductions with Sky and the other dog before you make a final decision so that you can be sure they can live together harmoniously.

Agree with advice as above , generally you can guarantee if a dog is DA it will only escalate at home so if its what you want nobody can say it won't work but you have to concentrate on getting him along with other dogs outside the home first

Hiya and welcome from me and Moo, I can't really add anything to what has been said

Bringing in another dog now will only put her under a lot more stress than she is already in but there are ways you can help her.

When she is reacting she is in fight or flight mode, she can't run away so she is prepared to fight, when in this mode her brain has completely shut down so she can concentrate on surviving. Before you do anything you need to understand stress in dogs.

Hopefully this will explain a dog’s stress levels easier, we can only teach our dogs if their stress levels are well down, once they start to go up a dog will find it very difficult if not impossible to learn.


You walk your dog every day, starting off with stress levels being well down at zero, this is what happens.

Day one - Your dog's stress levels are at 0, you are having a lovely, relaxing walk when you come across another dog that races up to your nervous dog. Your dog's stress levels jump up to 6.

Day two - After a night's sleep your dog's stress levels have now dropped to 4, so your dog is still stressed from the loose dog you met yesterday. Your walk is a little stressful because your dog is not as relaxed as he should be. You meet another loose dog, your dog's stress levels then goes up to 10, you now have a very stressed dog.

Day three - As your dog was really stressed yesterday his stress levels have only dropped to 8 over night, still a very stressed dog. Meet another off lead dog and his stress levels go off the scale, he can't cope and shuts down, when a dog shuts down many owners think their dogs have got used to off lead dogs and think their dog is now fine, in fact, in this shut down state your dog is very dangerous.

Day four - Your dog hasn't relaxed over night, he is still very stressed and racing round with stress, you don't know what to do with him or to help him so you take him for another walk, thankfully you don't meet a loose dog and to your dog the walk was a lot better, his stress levels haven't gone up, he hasn't shut down and the walk has helped your dog because it was stress free even though your dog was very stressed anyway.

Day five - After the lovely walk you had yesterday you are looking forward to another today, your dog's stress levels are now down to 10, much better although still far too high. You meet another dog, again he shuts down because he can't cope.

Day six - You are now getting desperate, you don't understand what is happening with your dog, one day he is fine the next he wants to kill every dog he sees so you are also very stressed and many owners give up and stop walking their dogs. You go for a walk and don't meet any dogs.

Day seven - Your dog's stress levels are now down to 10 because he didn't meet another dog yesterday and doesn't today, 2 good days.

Day eight - Your dog's stress levels are now down to 8, so much better even though he is still very stressed, you don't meet another dog again.

Day nine - Your dog's stress levels are now down to 6, you have a much calmer dog although still stressed, he meets another off lead dog and he jumps back up to 10.

As his stress levels are now back to 10, including today, it will take your dog 6 days for his stress levels to go to 0 if he doesn't meet another off lead dog.

So that you can teach her not to be frightened of other dogs you need to get her stress levels down to Zero, the only way you can do that is to keep her well away from other dogs, if she reacts she is too close so get her away fast.

When a dog reacts like this and the dog is then taken away by the owner, the dog thinks they have frightened to dog away, the next time because to your dog it worked they tray harder to get the dog away quicker. The dog is self rewarding this behaviour, no reward we can give the dog will be higher so we have to use other ways.

Once her stress levels ae down to Zero you can start to work with her to make her feel safer when she sees other dogs. What will help is for you to teach her to "Watch me" while you are getting her stress levels down, this will help a lot.

You are a lot taller than your dog so can see much further ahead than her, if you suspect that the person hs a dog with them you have to take action BEFORE your dog sees the other dog. You have to learn how far away from another dog you are before your dog reacts, NEVER let her get inside that area if you can help it. I used to hide behind vehicles, go up peoples drives, hide behind bushes etc.

When she is far enough away not to react you put her into a sit and stand in front of her, she can see the other dog with your legs as a barrier between her and the other dog. While the other dog goes past keep asking for "Watch me" and reward her every time she looks at your eyes. At this stage don't ask her to hold the look, once she has improved a lot then you can start to ask her to hold it.

Gradually that area were she reacts will get smaller and smaller until one day she can pass another dog without a problem. It isn't a quick fix, it will take a long time, it took me a year and I know others it has been longer. Dogs that were really bad now play happily with strange dogs.


That is put very simply, it does help us understand stress in our dogs, how it happens and how long it takes for the stress to get back down again. Depending on how long a dog has been stressed will affect how long it takes for the levels to come down again. My foster dog was a very stressed dog when he came, it took him nearly 6 weeks to become relaxed and to be the dog he should be.

Hi & welcome.

I agree totally with Shontelle.

thanks very much for all the advice, think i will put off the new dog idea until i can sort out her DA. its a shame really because with humans she is the softest cuddliest dog ever, but what you have said makes sense. thanks again everyone.

Good choice

I have problems with Lola, I am trying to make her sit when we see another dog and treat her so she associates dogs with treats

Chiara wrote:I have problems with Lola, I am trying to make her sit when we see another dog and treat her so she associates dogs with treats

Is it working?

Lola is only DA with smaller dogs mainly JRTs and bitches. It's helping but it is going to take a while no quick fix

My boy is exactly the same. He hates the small breeds and this has only started in the last 6 weeks or so. I think it's because everytime we passed a small dog, it would start snarling and barking and lunging at him. He's great with dogs his size or bigger, but none of the small ones. I just call him back and ut him straight on a lead if I see a small breed dog.

DA dogs tend to be scared, in Sky's case she had a traumatic event with the GSDs she is trying to avoid another terrifying situation. Charlie is in the same boat. Lola saw Lily savaged by a JRT and I think that is why she reacts. it's hard to deal with this type of situation as ppl blame the Stafford.

Charlie never seemed scared of the little dogs, he just ignored them and one day just snapped. He went for a JRT and a Westie. It's a shame cos he was gold as gold before that and brilliant with all dogs we nmet but he really can't stand little ones now.

My girl is DA and has always been this way. She has never had a bad experience so I don't know what caused it. She is the alpha female of the litter she came from so maybe that's why. It doesn't matter the size or age of the other dog though. I have never let her "work it out" with another dog, that just seems terribly dangerous to me. I don't know what to do and it may never be resolved at this point. She is 7 now.