Aggression, Dominance, something else?

Hey guys, I have a  13 month old English Staffy who's started to change her behaviour a bit around other dogs the last month or so and I'm unsure of what it might indicating. She's always been a gentle soul but I can see her turning a bit and want to make sure she doesn't lose freedom because of how I may have been teaching her bad habits. Hoping to get a bit of insight and advice

She's always been great with other dogs, plays a bit rough sometimes but always allowed the other dogs to give it back to her too and nothing the other dogs seem to not enjoy. Recently she's started doing this thing with particular dogs where she'll walk up to them and say hello and have a sniff, then she'll tense up a bit and start barking around them. Kinda like a 'hey play with me!'. If the other dog does nothing she'll continue to bark. While I wouldn't really say its an overly aggressive bark, its turning into  a bit of a weird bark that I think is inappropriate. I try go to step in to correct it but he uses the other dog, and the owner who's usually there, to keep in between us and keeps barking while I pursue her around in a circle of futility. If the other dog barks back she seems to get a bit more aggressive now. It's almost like she's picking a fight.

She's had no aggression issues before, no food issues or protective over anything. I'm not sure what this is as it seems to be only with particular dogs. I'm feeling like maybe I've allowed her to play rough and try to dominate bigger dogs who are cool with it, and she's now trying to employ those same play rules to all dogs who sometimes aren't in to it.

Would really appreciate some advice or thoughts on whats happening here. Thanks in advance!

Hi ya Moose, welcome to the Forum from Flo & me

I feel you kinda know what's happening with the behaviour and it's no result of what's happened before but simply a case of growing older and being bolder. The key here is to manage interactions in my opinion.

I have a girl that will play happily with some dogs but will take a dislike to others for no other reason than they are collies (ok she might be breedist) but we watch the body language and see what happens. If we see the hackles rise, we've learnt that it isn't necessarily a sign of aggression but a sign of excitement and wanting to play, however, we watch and see if she looks threatened too. If it's the latter we will distract and move her away.

We've discovered that she loves her Stix more than anything and will watch that above any dog bothering her so use that if we feel she'll be uncomfortable, and to be fair, she looks for it if she feels unsure. That's what works for us, something that will distract and keep attention whilst the problem passes

Thanks for the quick reply Ian

I definitely can tell when she's about to exhibit the behaviour so the challenge I guess will be finding a way to distract her. She's not ball or food obsessed to be able to leverage that, so might just need to put in some hard work with a command she knows is to put her attention on me immediately.

Thanks for the tips, I'll try this out later today at the park and bring something tasty with me for her

treat smelly as possible.consistency is the key here remember you're.dog.may be going through the teemahe phase just something to bear in mind

A couple of things to add to the great info already from Ian. The first is just to pick up on your thread title - definitely not dominance. The dominance theory has been proven as rubbish - there's a pinned thread on it.

Avoid anything that is at all negative in these situations, such as telling off, pulling by the lead, etc. What can happen is that a dog starts to associate being excited around other dogs, or just being around other dogs, with unpleasant things and then anxieties can build, and then you start to get fear aggression.

I know you said your girl's not terribly food or treat orientated, but I'd try and teach her to get really excited about something you have - such as Flo and her Stix - so that you can call 'this way' and start running off with whatever the exciting thing is. It can be different things for different dogs, but a rope tuggy toy, a squeaky ball, some smelly fish treats, there will be something that you can work with away from other dogs to train her that when you call 'this way' she knows there's be a bit of a run with you (always fun anyway), followed by her favourite treat. You might have to try various things but it's should just be a question of finding something high value something to her, something that she loves to start off with but then learns is even better than she thought, that trumps everything else.

Another thing to teach is 'enough'. Again it's something to do away from other dogs, so playing with you to start off with, and the idea is that you play, then call 'enough' and stop to give her a treat. Keep practising until she understands that 'enough' means 'stop playing'.

And the other thing, picking up on what Ian said, is to step in as you see her excitement rise. It's a bit like driving on ice, you need to brake gently and steer into the skid before it takes hold.