Grumpy Gordon

Hi
Gordon is 20 months now, we had him since a pup and always socialized him from the start, he was brilliant with other dogs for the first 15 months but it seems to have gone downhill since then. He's fine with dogs he knows, with no signs of aggression, he's also great with smaller dogs and pup's. But he's gradually getting worse with mainly male dogs especially bigger ones, lunging at them teeth showing and growling (he's always been on lead so I have control) they don't have to do anything to him for him to flip!!. Theres been no change to his routine ,food ect and he gets 2 1/2 hours exercise a day. I just wondered if anybody else has been through this and how best to deal with it. Just to add that he saw his friend get attacked by a dog a few months ago which was quite nasty, could that have added to this change ?? would really appreciate any advice

Thanks Tracy

Has he had an incident with a bigger dog before? Does it happen more when he is on the lead and the other dog is off? Sometimes that can cause your dog to put his guard up straight away because he cant defend himself properly if needs be. Do you let your dog off or give him freedom with a training lead when he is around dogs?

Some dogs interact so much better when they are of the lead.

Have you noticed that you yourself put your guard up when a larger dog comes near but you feel relaxed when a small dog comes near? Your dog feels the vibes and tension and will automatically put his guard up when you do so try and stay relaxed and not act in a different way.

Hi Kita, he's had a couple of incidents with bigger dogs which I think this stems from, we have changed where we walk him, not as many dogs so he does get time to run like crazy off lead. It does happen when he's on lead and I do tense up so I guess he's picking up on this but i'm so afraid he will hurt another dog. Do you have any ideas where I can go from here, do you think back to training classes?
Thanks Tracy

Ah okay...so at least you know its stemmed from something! Is there anyone you know or another dog walker you could walk with so you can walk them on leads next to one another so Gordon can realise there not a threat? Hows Gordons recall? It may be that every time you see a bigger dog you call him back and pop him on his lead for safety reasons, its not ideal but responsible. Going back to training classes may help...or even socialising lessons?

Suki is basically the same way with larger male dogs. For whatever reason she just does not like them so in general we just avoid them as she is great with other dogs.

KITA90 wrote: Hows Gordons recall? It may be that every time you see a bigger dog you call him back and pop him on his lead for safety reasons, its not ideal but responsible. Going back to training classes may help...or even socialising lessons?  

The above is what I would suggest. My Flo has always picked up on tension through the lead and it was very difficult to train the OH to behave differently. They are both fine now.

I use a distraction method which works 99% of the time, however, if I really feel that Flo might be compromised by unwanted attention I will lead her, take avoiding action And add the distraction in to the mix.

Bugs also bad with large dogs, but great with her size and smaller. Sounds like he's a little insecure, perhaps for being previously attacked/seeing the attack. As others have recommended, parallel walks with no interaction may help?

Thanks for the replies, I think I will try and find out about socialization classes, his recall is good but when he see's another dog it goes straight out of the window . I have a friend who has a Huskey cross so will ask if she's willing to take a walk with them both on lead x.

Axl is the same and like you, it happened out of the blue suddenly he decided that he wasn't going to be friendly to dogs anymore. Like your sitatuation he's great with dogs he knows or dogs with people he knows it's just dogs that he's never met and the dog doesn't even have to be on the same side of the road!

We're still working on it and we've taken the decision to muzzle train him. Not as a permanent fix but more of a way to help me stay calm when I'm walking him, which we hope will help him stay calm and then I can put into practice all the training. The problem I have at the moment is I panic when I see a dog which makes him panic which causes him to react. With a muzzle i'll feel a lot better and work on it from there.

The other thing we do is take him to our local dog park and keep him in the car with the boot open, we let him look at dogs walking past and if he reacts we correct with distraction or a "hey" or sometimes just a little jerk of the collar to snap him out of it.

We spent a long time avoiding dogs but that wasn't helping as we couldn't correct Axl's behaviour without actually seeing a dog. We had to face the fear .

It's a slow process and I am still none the wiser as to why he got like this but consistency and perseverance is paying off

Debs i'm the same as you with getting nervous, the thing is I know that i'm doing it and it's not good for Gordon so I could kick myself I also don't want to isolate him from other dogs. We now drive him to another place to walk him where there is not too many dogs and you can see for miles so we can see when other dogs are coming and we can let him off for a good run, pls keep us updated with Axl's training hun I hope you see some improvement xx

Have you tried a training lead Tracy? You can get 50ft ones which is a brilliant tool for recall, you can use this then when your out and about and still have some control and Gordan can have a good run. It's easier to go elsewhere where there aren't any other dogs but this wont help your confidence or Gordons socialising skills.

Hi Kita, yes we do use one but not all the time, we mainly use a strong retractable lead about 10 meters which I feel safer with when other dogs are running loose

Pixee is not good with bigger dogs either. Just before we moved, on a walk, Pixee was put back on the lead, due to another dog, a cross staffie/lunger was on a lead too. For some reason that dog went for Pixee's neck, I ended up having to grab the other dogs lead as the owner let it go and pulled that dog back. I did check Pixees neck, couldnt find any blood or holes. I was quiet cross with the couple, their dog should have been muzzled! However when we got home, I checked her collar, and there was 3 holes. She wears a thick wide collar to help spread the load round her neck should she pull. That collar saved her from some bad injuries. Since then she has been more wary of bigger dogs, so I try to get her attention, walk the other way or warn the owner. She is getting better again. Like all the above posts, Pixee is worse when on lead. What we tend to do is, if theres plenty of space around her and she sees the other dogs, we check the dogs body launage, if all is fine, we let her have a play. At least you know why its happening, you can work on those points.