Dog Aggression

[CynthiaSchertell]

Just in the last week my almost 2 year old female dane has been aggressive towards other dogs 3 times. I live in foothills where she has been able to walk and run off leash without any problems in the past. There has never been any biting but it looks scary and mean. I put her back on the leash and don't let her walk off leash for the rest of the walk. I would like to know how to put a stop to this before it becomes a pattern and gets more agressive.

[Adrienne]

Hi Cynthia,

Welcome to the forums,

In cases as such, we want to manage our dogs as much as possible, preventing them from rehearsing the problem behavior. The more they get to rehearse the problem behavior, the more it puts roots and establishes, becoming more difficult to overcome. You did right to remove her off leash privilege and keep her on leash.  That's the best way to put a stop to it and prevent it from becoming worse as long as the other dog owners keep their dogs on leash as well. If not, it may be better (and safer) walking her in areas where there are no off leash dogs. 

To better understand the situation, have you noticed exactly what happened in these 3 instances?  Is your dog spayed? Was there any food or toys around? Does she have a tendency to guard you? What were the other dogs doing when it happened? There can be various dynamics going on when there are squabbles among dogs and not always the causes are clear-cut, but sometimes we can identify some precise triggers. These cases have a better outcome in terms of prognosis as they are more "situational" (occur in precise circumstances) versus squabbles occurring without any identifiable/distinct triggers. 

Not uncommonly, as dogs reach social maturity (between 12 and 36 months) they start becoming less tolerant of certain behaviors and therefore this is when the first squabbles in the dog park takes place, even if the dogs were playing well with other dogs before. Often these reactions occur in response to rude "all in your face" behaviors of other dogs or attempts to put a paw on the shoulder or hump.