MatejCipka

Hello! I have a mini bull terrier Barry who is almost 2 years old. We did puppy school, a lot of socialising, also with kids. He is crate trained, well behaving, mischievous and stubborn but overall super happy dog. I am a bit suspicious that he sometimes felt our stress and he was then also stressed. Basic daily routine home office job stress. Not sure if relevant. He was submissive, and great with other dogs, once he had a little fight with bedlington terrier who was very dominant (fight over female dog partially involved). Even after that he had his dog friends in the park and behaved normally, but sometimes he was a bit aggressive to some random dogs, only male. After discussion with vet we decided that we will neuter him (that was not the main reason, we wanted him also to be more chilled, and eventually want to take him to Australia where it is a rule). We neutered him in March 2022 and we left him in April with our parents for 3 weeks (we did that a lot of times for a few days, max week and he was always coming home as an angel, like from spa - parents did a good job, even spoiling him a bit). Since we came back, he is stressed a lot, he is checking his tail (stress sign from childhood), and the worst part, he is growling and barking on other dogs, and he is initiating it now. He is doing it to females too. There is no pattern in it, he goes with wagging tail, super happy, sometimes sniff the other dog, and 90% of the times he snaps and growls/barks. Sometimes he does it from 3 meters already. He is not doing it to people, he is totally fine with them. I also realised that when he is having a positive experience meeting some other known person with dog, he first wags his tail approach lick a hand or something and then starts to do a rounds like tail chase a bit, like he is not sure about himself. He is also unsure about himself at home, before when I told him NO, he was like yeah yeah ok sure. But now he is like more scared of me. We discussed this with vet and they recommended a dog behavioural therapist, which is very expensive. I wanted to ask if some of your techniques could help this behaviour, or we really should go for the therapist. Thank you! Matej

Hello! I have a mini bull terrier Barry who is almost 2 years old. We did puppy school, a lot of socialising, also with kids. He is crate trained, well behaving, mischievous and stubborn but overall super happy dog. I am a bit suspicious that he sometimes felt our stress and he was then also stressed. Basic daily routine home office job stress. Not sure if relevant. He was submissive, and great with other dogs, once he had a little fight with bedlington terrier who was very dominant (fight over female dog partially involved). Even after that he had his dog friends in the park and behaved normally, but sometimes he was a bit aggressive to some random dogs, only male. After discussion with vet we decided that we will neuter him (that was not the main reason, we wanted him also to be more chilled, and eventually want to take him to Australia where it is a rule). We neutered him in March 2022 and we left him in April with our parents for 3 weeks (we did that a lot of times for a few days, max week and he was always coming home as an angel, like from spa - parents did a good job, even spoiling him a bit). Since we came back, he is stressed a lot, he is checking his tail (stress sign from childhood), and the worst part, he is growling and barking on other dogs, and he is initiating it now. He is doing it to females too. There is no pattern in it, he goes with wagging tail, super happy, sometimes sniff the other dog, and 90% of the times he snaps and growls/barks. Sometimes he does it from 3 meters already. He is not doing it to people, he is totally fine with them. I also realised that when he is having a positive experience meeting some other known person with dog, he first wags his tail approach lick a hand or something and then starts to do a rounds like tail chase a bit, like he is not sure about himself. He is also unsure about himself at home, before when I told him NO, he was like yeah yeah ok sure. But now he is like more scared of me. We discussed this with vet and they recommended a dog behavioural therapist, which is very expensive. I wanted to ask if some of your techniques could help this behaviour, or we really should go for the therapist. Thanks! Matej