Aggression

I have been having a fair share of issues with my dog Maxi, who is a rescue. I got her 8 months ago and she is 7 years old. She has been dog aggressive the whole time but has slowly improved and become more and more reliable around dogs.
A couple of times she has growled at humans but it has been in situations when i feel she must have felt unsure. Like when we are out in the dark and someone comes out from nowhere and scares her and such.
But just now our neighbour knocked on the door (who she met a couple of hours ago for the first time) to let me know i left my keys in the door and maxi was barking as usual that there was someone at the door and I opened and she runs out (as per normal) but she tries to attack and bite him. I got a hold of her on the second time she goes for his hands and get her inside. He said she got him but did not bite hard, there was nothing to be seen.

I am quite emotional and upset about this at the moment since this is new behaviour and it worries me as I have always told people and fully believed that she would never hurt a person. Now I'm not so sure.
Anyone with similar experiences that can offer advice?
Obviously she will now always be on leash when I open the door.

Tommy can be really stupid and bouncy and nippy when new people are around and when I come home etc just over excitement for him though. So for this reason we put a kiddy safety gate on the entrance to the front room so anyone can walk in through the front door or we can answer the door etc unhindered

Dave wrote:Tommy can be really stupid and bouncy and nippy when new people are around and when I come home etc just over excitement for him though. So for this reason we put a kiddy safety gate on the entrance to the front room so anyone can walk in through the front door or we can answer the door etc unhindered

She is usually like that as well, but this was different, she was being really aggressive and I am worried she would have hurt him if I wouldn't have grabbed her.

Rescues can be difficult because you don't know their history. I wouldn't be overly alarmed but do agree with either keeping her on lead or away from the front door when visitors arrive.

They can be very territorial as well. If you have a friend, neighbor etc that is willing to help out you can have them come for a visit multiple times during a day. This will help her get used to people coming to the house. After awhile she will become accoustomed to the experience and not react as much with visitors.

Socialization with as many different types of people as frequently as possible will also be helpfull

We have Rockys crate in the hall near the front door, so when anyone comes to the door he just pops in there and we know he is safe and not able to get out of the door.

I couldnt advice on what to do on the aggression but jstaff what jstaff adviced sounds a good idea

But i would may invest in a baby gate or pop in a seperate room. Tyke is very giddy when the door goes but i have a small by who is nosey and whats to answer with me so we pop tyke inthe kitchen and then let him out when the person is in side

The good news is, it sounds like she has good bite inhibition

It's really hard to comment on this kind of behaviour without seeing it so I'd recommend you find a good trainer/behaviourist that can come and see you. A good place to look is on the APDT website - http://www.apdt.co.uk/

ETA: If cost is a problem then perhaps contact the rescue centre she came from as they often have behaviourists that maybe able to help without charge

Thanks all for the advice and comments.
I think i mainly got a bit shocked about the behaviour and as much as I can keep it under control when opening the door now I am just concerned about the behaviour in itself and why it happened.
At the moment it happened I imagined the worst (her getting picked up by the pound and put down).

Galadriel, I have worked with a great behaviouralist with some of Maxi's other issues, mainly her dog aggression with great results. I will definitely contact her on Monday and tell her what happened.

Annie and Maxi wrote:...Galadriel, I have worked with a great behaviouralist with some of Maxi's other issues, mainly her dog aggression with great results. I will definitely contact her on Monday and tell her what happened.

My dogs not scared of humans or anything like that; she literally thrives on being close to people and having ALL their attention! However, a few times she's been asleep on my bed with the door open and it's opposite the stairs and as my dads came up the stairs (he's super loud!) she wakes up as she can hear him and growls, after I say it's only grandad she wags her tail says hello and comes back to bed it's only happened about twice but I think sometimes they're a little caught off guard with things like door bells ect if they're startled! I'm really not sure about the biting thing, but calling the behaviorist sounds like a good plan! Good luck

I spoke to the trainer and she thinks that I in general still need to work on my leadership role and be a bit more firm with Maxi. She also thinks that Maxi might have (in addition to all other things) a problem with men. There has been a couple of other times she has acted funny around men, never like this though.
I will try and do some desensitisation exercises with the doorbell with her as well.