Christine Hibbard, CTC, CPDT
One of the most common calls we get from prospective clients starts with something like, “My dog is aggressive with other dogs, can it be fixed?” I’ve learned over the years that dog/dog aggression is sometimes in the eye of the beholder. The situation is further complicated because there are different types of dog/dog aggression.
Normal Dog Play
Sometimes, what an owner describes as dog/dog aggression is actually normal dog play. The way dogs play can seem scary to some human beings. These owners are overly conscientious about their dog’s behavior and his/her interaction with other dogs. While being conscientious about your dog’s behavior is a very good thing, like any good trait, it can be taken to an extreme. I sometimes wish I could wave a magic target stick that would make some overly conscientious owners worry less by transferring some of their worry and concern to owners who do not have enough of it. There’s a hilarious blog called Three Woofs and a Woo published by a photographer. She has wonderful shots of dogs playing.
Playground Bully
Some dogs never learned the manners of polite dog play society. They are like some people, just kind of clueless about how their behavior affects others. Jean Donaldson calls these dogs “Tarzans”. The most common sign of a playground bully is that the dog just doesn’t read cut off signals from their playmate. The other dog throws all kinds of body language that says, “OK, we’re done now, that’s enough play from you” and these bully dogs just don’t take the hint. Some dogs handle bullies quite well while others, well; they get a bit snarky when being mugged rudely by another dog who just doesn’t know when enough is enough. These dogs are rude, but not what we would call “truly dog aggressive”.
Fear Aggression
Many owners believe that in order for their dogs to be mentally healthy, they must go to the dog park, or have social interactions with other dogs of some kind. This is not always the case. The reason that a dog is afraid of other dogs can stem from several causes. Some puppies were not exposed to other puppies during their socialization window. The socialization window is the first 18 to 20 weeks of a dog’s life and it’s the most important developmental learning period in a dog’s life. Puppies who never learned how to read other puppies’ body language and play cues can be afraid of other dogs later in life. Imagine if you lived at home with your brothers and sisters and never saw other children until you were 16 years old. When you finally left the house to go to high school, you’d probably be pretty uncomfortable around teenagers your own age, right?
Some dogs have had one or more traumatizing experiences from their interactions with other dogs. These experiences might have been terrifying, but not result in any physical damage. The damage comes in the form of fear of other dogs. When I see young puppies at the dog park being knocked down, run over, and played with inappropriately for their age, I cringe. What may seem funny or cute to the owners who think they are doing the right thing by “socializing” their puppy with other dogs inappropriately may be setting that puppy up for fear aggression around other dogs later in life. Its inappropriate to socialize a young puppy at the dog park where you can’t control the play interaction. If you have a puppy, find a Puppy Kindergarten that focuses on lots of supervised, off leash play with other age appropriate puppies. I’ve had clients call me because their dog was brutally attacked by another dog and now their dog is afraid of all other dogs. That’s the problem with fear; it has a tendency to generalize.
Leash Reactivity (aka Leash Aggression)
I don’t like the term “leash aggression” because many of the dogs that react badly on leash by growling, barking, and lunging at other dogs are not aggressive. They’re reactive. You can tell whether your dog is exhibiting dog/dog aggression vs. leash reactivity by answering a simple question, “How does your dog play with other dogs off leash?” If your dog plays well at the dog park, but acts aggressively toward other dogs on leash, you have leash reactivity. If your dog displays fear aggression towards other dogs off leash, you have what most people call leash aggression.
Sometimes the most difficult cases for me to handle are the ones where the owners have never let their dog off leash around other dogs based on their reaction to other dogs while ON leash. I got a call from a woman who adopted a black lab mix from a shelter. Whenever she took the dog outside for a walk and encountered another dog on leash, she said her dog “was uncontrollably aggressive”. She had never let her new dog play with other dogs off leash because she was afraid of what her new dog would do. I decided to have a look for myself, or I should say I decided to let my dog Conner have a look for himself (see my colleague Greta’s post about Canine assistants for dog/dog fear & aggression). My dog Conner is absolutely amazing with other dogs. He just “speaks dog” with the most beautiful, calming body language that he throws at other dogs.
I had the owner stand with her dog on the sidewalk. I got Conner out of the car a block away. As we walked closer to her dog, I saw her dog put his ears up and rotate them out (sexy ears!) and then he started prancing and throwing play bows. As we got even closer, he starting barking hysterically and lunging on leash. Her dog wasn’t aggressive. He was leash reactive. He was so desperate to get to the other dog to play that he acted like a total lunatic. When I told the owner to drop her leash, I dropped Conner’s leash and totally appropriate and hilarious play ensued. It’s wonderful to see an owner cry tears of happiness.
We had some work to do with that dog, after all, while the owner was relieved her dog wasn’t dangerous, she still couldn’t walk him in the neighborhood acting like a total hysteric every time he saw another dog, but we knew what we had and could fix it relatively quickly. The way we treat leash reactivity and leash aggression can be quite different, but to treat it appropriately, we’ve got to know what we’ve got; hysterics, fear, or aggression?
Dog/Dog Aggression
We do encounter what we call “true dog/dog aggression”, but it’s the most rare type of dog/dog aggression. Some dogs just find fighting with other dogs incredibly reinforcing. Other dogs, because of their breeding, or how they’ve been handled, or both, actually will kill another dog. This type of dog/dog aggression is quite rare compared to the dog/dog aggression that we see that is fear based.
These cases are difficult because of the time and resources that it takes to counter condition this behavior. Performing this type of work to help these dogs takes controlled environments, a great deal of time, and many, many stimulus dogs before we begin to see any effect. Often the cost and time are prohibitive and we’re left with two choices; the 3 Ms (a lifetime of Management/Muzzles/Medication), or euthanasia.
Do you have stories from your trips to the dog park that you’d like to share? Have you or are you dealing with leash reactivity? Tell us your stories or share your thoughts. We love to hear from our dog owners.
Hi,
We just adopted (saturday morning) a 6 month old German Shepard from a local shelter. She had been surrendered by her owner due to a substance abuse issue so we don’t have any history on her.
She is the sweetest dog…with humans. On sunday afternoon our neighbors that have a Chesapeake Bay Retriever (2 year old) was around, he is a great dog that just ignores other dogs. I told Annette she ought to bring Tess outside to meet Aragorn since he’s so laid back. She put Tess on the leash and took her out….as Aragorn walked toward her (he wasn’t on a leash) she went ballistic, barking histerically, pulling on the leash, nipping at Aragorn…we were very surprised at her behavior. She was fine with his owners…
We brought her back inside and now aren’t sure what to do…I don’t know if she’s like this only when on leash or would be OK if she was off leash but I’m afraid to take her off leash since she might bite another dog…
I’m very surprised that the shelter did not find this out and had her form marked “good with other dogs”, of course she lived with her sister and 4 chihuhas so they might have assumed she was good with other dogs…
I’m leaning toward just taking her back to the shelter since what I’ve read online is that it is very difficult to correct this behavior and the neighborhood we live in has quite a few dogs that wander around unleashed and it would be horrible if she bit one of them (especially one of my neighbors dogs that is a small fox terrier that came from a shelter and runs away from her own shadow…
Any thoughts?
Thanks!!!
Frank
What you experienced with Tess and Aragorn is not unusual since one dog was on leash and the other dog was off leash. If you think about it, it makes perfect sense. Tess is on leash and can’t get away while a strange dog she doesn’t know comes towards her. She can’t escape and run away, she doesn’t know what is going to happen, so she makes an aggressive display to warn the other dog off. We could have an interesting discussion about barrier frustration, but that’s a topic for another blog entry and we need to help you with your issue instead.
My least favorite way of having new dogs meet is on leash. You’re just setting the dogs up for failure. When I’m working with clients in this situation, I refuse to use leashes unless the client dog has a history of dog aggression. Find a deserted area, a field or a dog park VERY early in the morning before other dogs arrive. Bring the two dogs that you’d like to introduce in one at a time. Try to get as much distance between the two dogs as possible. Bring your dog in first and then bring in the second dog.
I think that you face two challenges with Tess. One is that she is a rescue and you don’t have a complete history on her. The other issue is that German Shepherds are bred to be very sensitive to sudden environmental changes like the one that occurred with Tess. Given her breed and circumstances, I would recommend that you find a professional with experience working with dog/dog aggression cases using positive reinforcement methods so that you can get an evaluation of whether Tess is leash reactive or fear aggressive towards other dogs.
There is good news here Frank. Tess is only 6 months old and many behavior problems can be corrected when a dog is this young. If you’d like, you can Contact Us (or send an email to info@companionanimalsolutions.com) and we’d be happy to refer you to a qualified professional in your area to help you decide whether you want to work on Tess’ issue or return her to the shelter. To learn more, you can purchase an inexpensive book titled Feisty Fido by Patricia McConnell. McConnell is a professor, PhD, and Certified Applied Animal Behaviorist: https://www.patriciamcconnell.com/product/the-feisty-fido.
Oh, thank you for the explanation of leash reactivity! I have an excitable Papillon who is quite leash reactive–he interacts with dogs of all sizes off-leash just fine, but on-leash he absolutely falls over himself desperately trying to get the other dog to come over and greet him. He’s even mostly fine when he’s on leash and other dogs are off-leash, because generally the off-leash dog will approach and greet him or our other dog.
He barks, bows, bounces around, lunges, makes weird noises, and is so focused on the other dog that the only way to break his focus is to physically pick him up and turn so he can no longer see the other dog. And the moment I allow him to greet the other dog? He’s ecstatically happy and stops with the weird noises and the lunging.
We’re going back into training classes this winter, and this is one of the things I’m going to ask for help with.
Hi Kris, thanks for sharing your story about your excitable Papillon. He’s what I call a WOO HOOer. He finds other dogs so exciting and wonderful that he goes over threshold with barrier frustration. Barrier frustration is a form of behavioral thwarting. Its kind of like showing me a piece of chocolate cake and then not letting me eat a piece. 😀
Good luck with your training classes this summer. If you think of it, come back and share your experience of fixing this with your wonderful little guy.
We have a dog on my flyball club that has dog/dog aggression that I do believe it is fear based. After over a year of training and proofing this dog was able to compete for 6 months without an issue. Unfortunately, he went for a dog at practice, corrected and was fine again. The following weekend at a tournament the dog was bumped twice by a dog on another team. It sucked because now the club dog focused on this other dog and went after him. We have pulled him from tournaments and are working slowly towards re-focusing him back on his handler. It seems to be working. We don’t know if this dog will be allowed to compete again but we will always allow him at practice because we can make that a “safe” area. We are starting to add dogs back into the situation but again not sure we will let him compete again which is horrible because the owner is wonderful and the dog is great.
This dog goes to reactive dog classes and has for a couple years. He was bullied at a dog park when he was about a year old. From this persons blog it sounds like he was fine until that happened.
So yes I agree, dog parks are not always a great place to socialize dogs.
One of my two dogs is having issues at the dog park. She is a 3yr old boxer/terrier cross. We have been going to the dog park for about 10 mths now and her dog to dog aggression and possessive agression is gradually getting worse. I no longer throw a ball because she gets too possessive of the ball with other dogs. Now she reacts agressively when I pet another dog, sometimes when my other dog plays with another dog and sometimes over a found object like a stick. Needless to say, I watch her very closely and walk away and call her when she is showing signs of starting a reaction. It helps if I keep moving, she always sticks close by, and if we stay on the fringe of activity. She does play with some dogs and plays well with my other dog at the park and at home. But when she reacts, she charges and starts the tussles. She has never been hurt or hurt another dog but I am very concerned.
It sounds like you’re doing a good job of managing your dog’s interactions at the dog park. We also appreciate that your girl is inhibiting her bites, just lost of snarling and spit flying. That’s a good sign, but the escalating guarding behavior is not.
There is a book you might find useful titled “Mine” by Jean Donaldson. The entire book is devoted to the topic of resource guarding. One of the things that you’ll learn from this book is that for your counter conditioning exercises to work properly, you’ll have to give her ZERO opportunities to guard while you work on changing the behavior (extinction). That might mean eliminating the dog park in the short term while you find an experienced dog trainer to work with you. Let us know if you need a referral to someone in your area by visiting: https://companionanimalsolutions.com/contactUs.php. Good luck and thanks for stopping by Behind the Behavior!
Hi-
Thanks for your great post on dog-dog interactions. I have a challenging young (2.5 yo, male, neutered) pit bull, rescued from the humane society 15 months ago. The humane society told us he “didn’t like some dogs.” Yup.
Vanya, the young male pit bull, gets along very well with our two female dogs–he has learned to read their signals telling him to back off, and he plays with them appropriately (this took some time to teach). We live on a farm, and he has also learned to calm down around the chickens (thanks to lots of Control Unleashed games, especially Look at That).
But his responses to new dogs are another matter. We had him in a couple of positive-based dog classes (one for family obedience, the second for “barkers”), but the first class in each course was too much for him–he would soon go way over threshold with the other dogs. He wouldn’t lunge at them, but he would start shrieking and dancing, and increasing the distance between us and them to help him relax just wasn’t possible inside, with the available space. So we dropped out of both classes, and instead we did a 2 hour private consult with a well-respected positive trainer in our area. After an hour watching Vanya interact with people (he adores all people), the trainer brought in a very large black dog (a newfie) on leash, and Vanya (leashed, at the opposite end of a large arena) responded to the new dog with lunging, snarling, intense barking. The trainer concluded that he had serious dog aggression issues, and that he really couldn’t be trusted with new dogs. I had never seen him respond with such intensity to a dog, but since then, he has responded similarly to very large dogs (always with him on a leash, from far away).
Since then, he has played twice with new dogs that came onto our farm by mistake, and each time he has been a little overwhelming in his exuberance, but not aggressive, and he came back to me when I called (after a few moments). On leash, when I try to use LAT games with other distant dogs, he needs to be extremely far away from them to stay under threshold. If a new dog surprises us by coming close, he often goes into shrieking excitement (with lots of tail wagging and yipping), but rarely he does go into lunging scary barking. (Usually I just walk into the woods with him so he doesn’t react.)
My challenge is this: I really would like to find some dogs he can interact with, in addition to his two elderly housemate dogs. But I’m not sure how to set this up safely, because if he did zoom over threshold with them into aggression, I’m worried he could do some serious damage (oh, the joys of pit bulls–I adore them, but they do present challenges). I’ve been trying for a year to work slowly to reduce the distance where he can stay calm on leash around other dogs, so we can get to the point where we can do parallel leashed walks, then do curving introductions, etc. But he seems so starved for dog-dog interaction, that we don’t seem to be getting anywhere near the point where we can actually interact with another dog. At about 30 yards away, he starts screaming. When we started the work, his screaming-distance began at 100 yards away, so this is progress, but I can’t seem to reduce the distance any more). He has learned self-control and calming in many areas of his life (we do Overall’s relaxation protocol most days, along with off switch games, look at that, etc.) But around new dogs….not yet, not close.
I’m tempted to try letting him meet a calm, somewhat smaller dog from opposite sides of a fence, so he could have some unleashed interactions without worrying about damage. (He is much less reactive to smaller dogs). Or possibly a basket muzzle might be worth trying?
How do other owners of exuberant bullies deal with their own concerns about the damage a bully might do in the process of learning proper greetings?
Thanks for any input. There is one more well-known positive trainer I can try in my area, but I’m a little exhausted by my trainer encounters to date.
Nancy
Hello Nancy! I’m so impressed with the work you’ve been doing with your pitty boy. There’s no doubt that the Control Unleashed exercises are amazing in helping dogs with arousal issues.
Your boy sounds like what Jean Donaldson would call a “Tarzan”. He loves other dogs but because of his breed (and early socialization or lack there of), he’s never learned to play politely. I agree, this can be overwhelming for some dogs while others can adapt to that type of play style. I can understand why you’re being cautious though. Sometimes I worry about pit bulls becoming “gamey” when they become so over aroused in play.
The challenge in working any dog/dog case whatever the underlying cause is finding enough stimulus dogs to get the job done and once you do and it’s time to let them off leash with other dogs, it can be daunting. Here is what I would suggest:
– Teach your dog to love wearing a plastic basket muzzle. If you’d like a good source for buying one and instructions for teaching your dog to love it, email me and I’ll send you my handout on this: christine@companionanimalsolutions.com. I’m also happy to help you troubleshoot this remotely (we have an instructional video in the works for this process).
– Try to find dogs that are rough “players” (if you’re ever in Seattle, my dog Conner will play roughly without “tipping over”). Sometimes breed can be your guide. Look for other bully breeds like Boxers or Old English Sheepdogs. Labs are pretty rough and tumble.
– Use a drag line along with the muzzle. If the play becomes overly rough, you can just say “that’s enough” and reel your boy in.
If you ever read Jean Donaldson’s book “Fight”, you’ll discover that she recommends off leash play with other dogs BEFORE executing a counter conditioning session if you have a “woo hooer” (not fear). I used this technique with my bark/screamer Aussie named Flynn. I don’t know that I ever could have counter conditioned his bark/screaming without the off leash play first. Well, I could have, but it would have involved using negative reinforcement and I didn’t want to do that.
Thanks for reading Behind the Behavior and telling us about your journey!
Christine,
Thanks so much for your suggestions! They give me hope that we can move forward with this. “Gamey” is exactly what I worry about with him. He and his pal Tiva the elderly pit bull can go from play to scary in a millisecond. I would love to receive the basket muzzle suggestions–I’ll send an email for that.
best,
Nancy and Vanya the Barbarian (who me? he says innocently)
My boxer/German Shepherd mix is great with other dogs for the most part, but sometimes gets into situations with other pushy dogs that always end in my dog pinning the other dog. There is lots of snarling and teeth and they are both on their hind legs, but never any biting. It is always with dogs that are equally “bossy” and he never picks on a shy or submissive dog. Still, the behavior is rude and unwanted. How do I teach him to stop doing this?
I have an eight year old golden retriever who has always been very submissive with other dogs. She is wonderful with people and children and okay most of the time with small dogs but with puppies and large dogs she is fear aggressive when on leash. She will seem fine meeting the dog but then when the dog moves in too close or is too bouncy she will snarl, bark and lunge. We socialized her at puppy classes when she was young and she was always okay until she turned 2 or 3. Almost overnight this behaviour started. I think that there must have been an incident with our dog walker and another dog but she said only that her lab had told my dog off a couple of times and no other incident took place.
We walk her off leash now in a forested area and she is learning to play with other dogs, even when they come in groups! I was terrified at first but I am learning to keep walking and let her do her thing. The only problem is that one of my neighbours has a large male golden about 1 1/2 years old who she has gotten snarly with and now the neighbour has it off leash a lot. This dog runs at my dog and my dog will get really snarly and bark. I don’t want to make an enemy of this person but I am really afraid that my dog is going to bite hers. Any advice?
Cynthia, the are a couple of things that you can try with your Boxer/GSD mix:
– First off, keep moving at the dog park. Don’t stand around too much. Dogs that are kept moving are less likely to get into it with other dogs. Even if your dog starts playing with another dog, keep walking away. Your dog should be checking in with you occasionally, so get some distance so your dog will run to you to check in.
– Pay very close attention to your dog at the dog park and if think there might be trouble, call your dog to you before it starts. If you’re looking at your dog interacting with another dog and you’re not sure what’s going to happen, get your dog out of there. If you don’t have a good recall (your dog doesn’t always come when you call), work on recall exercises. There’s a great DVD titled Really Reliable Recall that will help you train this.
– If play gets started, but starts to go bad, tell your dog “that’s enough” and then time him out. You just need to pull him out of play until he calms down and then you can let him go back with the command “go play”.
Remember that in order for your dog’s behavior to improve, you have to stop letting him practice the behavior you don’t like. I hope this helps!
Nancy2, first off, try to find a trainer who can help you with your dog’s leash aggression. She’s not feeling happy and confident on her walks (bummer) and I’m sure that you’re not enjoying your walks as much as you’d like. If you’d like a referral to a trainer in your area, just let us know.
Now for your neighbor, I really feel for you on this one. I think I’d talk to my neighbor and explain that you love her dog but your dog is fearful. Her dog is scaring your dog and ask her if she can help by coordinating with you. Perhaps you could call her when you’re going for a walk and she can call her dog inside. If cooperation with your neighbor isn’t an option, I’d try a can of Direct Stop (I think it’s called something else now but I can’t remember off the top of my head). Direct Stop contains citronella and sprays out at a high velocity. It usually just takes spraying a familiar dog once and that dog learns to stay away from you.
It’s important that you protect your dog from other dogs running up to her on leash. You’ll never successfully counter condition her leash aggression if this situation continues.
I run a playgroup for adolescents at the training center that I teach classes at and I have a question I’ve never been able to really get a clear answer on: if two dogs are really enjoying rough play, not becoming too aroused, and generally having a good time, but the play itself is of a type that many other dogs would not appreciate, should humans intervene?
The dogs in our playgroup love their play sessions and we rarely have anyone get upset during play, but being adolescents of larger breeds (Labs, Shepherds, Goldens, etc.), their play is very rough and tumble and I worry that we’re not doing them a service by letting them think other dogs all play this way. Thoughts?
I’m sure that different trainers would give you different answers to these questions, but here’s my take on it. Dogs read social cues and they’re also sensitive to context. Even if big dogs play roughly with other dogs who enjoy that style of play, they’ll adjust their play style given their playmate. A puppy or dog with good play skills will change their style of play and even self handicap to get smaller or shy dogs to play with them or keep playing with them.
I’m fostering a puppy right now and she plays very roughly with my adult male dogs, so when I took her to puppy play group, I was ready to time her out for rough play with the other puppies. Her play manners were perfect. She adjusted her play style beautifully. The only time I time dogs out for rough play is when it’s obvious that the playmate is not enjoying it, otherwise, I let dogs be dogs. That’s the whole point of play groups, yes?
That’s generally how I view it too – thanks for confirming that I’m on the right track. I guess the crux of my concern is that if these guys never meet dogs that don’t play differently, how will they know to change their behavior?
Ah, but the whole point of play groups and socialization is that they meet and play with all types of puppies/dogs with all types of play styles. I’m a huge fan of not segregating puppies based on size… now with dogs, it’s a different matter. Try to get your puppies playing with all types and sizes of other puppies.
Good point – I just always worry about the little ones. Our Preschool classes are all sizes, but once they hit 17 weeks and we’re seeing a bigger size range we split them up into an “over 25lb” and “under 25lb” groups. How can one ensure that a 50lb pup doesn’t hurt or scare a 10lb pup in a group where the majority of dogs are 45lbs and up?
Great ideas, Christine, thanks! These seem to be working quite well-the recall is definitely still a work in progress. I find a cheery “let’s go!” while walking away has worked the best. Is there anything I can do to keep him from even wanting to get in these situations, or will not allowing them to occur/escalate eventually result in him playing nice and forgetting all about his old bad habits?
Just for reference, the citronella spray is now called “spray shield.” I take it with me on all our walks, just in case an unleashed dog won’t leave us alone. I’ve never actually used it, but it does keep me much calmer, which I’m sure is the largest benefit. (And if you forget your bug spray and the mosquitoes are bad, it does a good job as insect repellent!).
An update on Vanya the Barbarian: we finally got a play session arranged today, after a month conditioning him to his basket muzzle, and a longer time finding a good solid playmate (a goldendoodle). They both seemed to enjoy the play, and Vanya came and sat each time I called. That’s the good news. The not-so-good news is that 3 times, Vanya was too much for the other dog, and the other dog started growling, and Vanya responded not by backing off, but by getting more intense (that’s when I called him to me each time). I was glad he came to me when I called, but I’m not really sure how he’ll learn to read social cues so he doesn’t push the other dog over the edge.
(The other unfortunate news is that I just found a bite on Vanya’s ear–I hadn’t realized at the time that the other dog wasn’t just growling, but also bit Vanya’s ear when Vanya pushed his buttons. I think this means that this particular dog isn’t ideal for the Vanya rehab project, since I don’t want to push him over his tolerance, and I don’t want Vanya getting bitten while muzzled. So time to find a rough-and-tumble dog who will respond to Vanya’s nuttiness by walking away)
I have 2 dogs who are maternal sisters, they play well with one another, follow one anothers cues when the play gets too ruff. One is very laid back in nature and could care less about most things she greets and plays well with all dogs. The other however, is hyper by nature and always tends to stay in a dogs face making this high pitched barking noise and kinda body bumping them. What does this sound like to you behaviour wise and maybe a few tips on getting her to chill the heck out around new dogs .
Hi Nancy,
I’m conditioning my dog to a basked muzzle too so he can go back to the dog park. He’s developed some human-aggression issues, so I want to make sure the people at the dog park are protected. He leaves them alone if they leave him alone, but sometimes he nips if people charge up to him and pet him on the head. Anyhow, any tips on muzzle conditioning? I can get him to wear it as long as I’m constantly feeding him treats, but I need help getting to the next level. Thanks!
Hi Cynthia,
I’d strongly advise working with a professional trainer–I’m just a regular person, and I’m not qualified to offer advice for human aggression. Good luck!
Nancy in WI
My dog (an Aussie) is one of the types you mentioned in the article: fine with all calm, well behaved dogs (she goes to doggy daycare) but NOT fine when a large dog runs at and proceeds to jump on or bang into her. She will always get snarky when another dog doesnt read her “I don’t want to play” signals and continues to try to jump on her and invade her space. In my opinion, it is the dog that runs right up and jumps on her that has the bad manners but so many people think their dog is good with other dogs and that that pushiness is normal behavior. After Sonoma gets upset the pit/GSD/lab/whatever is jumping all over her the owner of course says something like “well my dog was just playing”. Well my dog obviously didn’t want to play WWF with yours! It makes me so upset because it comes off as if Sonoma is aggressive, although she will generally just growl/snap enough to get the other dog OFF of her. I’m not talking about dog parks either, people just let their dogs run right up to us without an invite all the time. My dog isn’t aggressive, but won’t take any lip from other dogs either. What should I do? How can I condition my dog not to freak out when big, unknown dogs run up to her face and jump right onto her in ‘play’? In a way I feel like I shouldn’t have to, people should have the courtesy not to let their dogs charge mine, but since that will never be the case…any suggestions? Thank you so much.
We have a wonderful lab mix rescue dog. She was fostered in a loving home for 4 to 5 weeks. She had heart worms when she was turned in to a shelter by her owners. She has had Phase 1 and Phase 2 treatment and has recovered, hopefully. The foster family said she was great with other dogs. They also walked her off leash in a wooded area near their home. She is a dream. She is great with children, very obedient and calm. I live in a subdivision where dogs have to be on leash when outside of fenced in yard. We have had Shelley for a weeek and when walking in neighborhood she lunges and barks pulling me towards other dogs. She does not do this with people. She is very non-agressive but other owners and dogs are not so sure at first. My first reaction is to pull her back with her leash. I was also told to turn her around and walk away. I want to correct this as soon as possible because we have a lot of dogs in neighborhood. Please advise.
Hello Julie,
Congratulations on the furry addition to your family! It sounds like Shelley is what I call a “Woo Hooer” which means that she likes other dogs and when she sees one, barrier frustration kicks in and she barks and lunges because she can’t get to the other dog for a butt sniff. You can click and treat Shelley for staying calm around the other dog and and turn and walk the other direction if she reacts badly. This takes time to train, but it can be done if you work slowly and at a great enough distance from other dogs. Patricia McConnell just updated her book titled “Feisty Fido” which I highly recommend. This book can be purchased for $9.95 at: https://www.patriciamcconnell.com/product/the-feisty-fido
Please write back and let us know how your work with Shelley progresses. Good luck!
I used Feisty Fido with my leash-reactive dog (she is fearful of dogs and it’s worse on-leash). I have been working on it for about three months and we have made a lot of progress! It seemed slow at the time, but now that we can actually walk down a street when there’s a dog across the street without hysteria (she was pretty bad!), it seems miraculous. The day you get your first “autowatch” (where your dog looks at you for a treat without being asked when she sees another dog) is a huge milestone. So the book comes highly recommended. Also: a new edition JUST came out, make sure you get the new one.
Great article! I’m a new dog owner and this helped me a bunch! Thanks!
We adopted Luke, a 1-2 year old neutered White Shepherd mix from a rescue 6 weeks ago. He was in a foster home with 6 other dogs for 4 months and was at a shelter for 2 months prior to that after intake as a stray. He is a great dog, but hasn’t received the training that he should have. We are currently in obedience classes with him. He is very good around people and other dogs except for a couple of recent instances at the local dog park.
We have taken Luke to the dog park four times. Two of the visits were great with no issues. Luke played well with all of the other dogs, large and small, even some of the more aggressive dogs. A perfect little gentleman. The other two visits had to be cut short. In each instance, Luke was playing fine with the other dogs until a very submissive female dog arrived. It was a different dog in each case, but both were females, still puppies, smaller than Luke, and very submissive. As soon as these dogs came into the park, Luke went to each one and was very aggressive. Barking, hackles up, acting like a lunatic. He rarely even barks at another dog. He would not listen to myself or my wife and even when led away from the dogs would immediately run back to them and continue the aggressive behavior if we let him go. In both cases we left the park since he would not calm down and leave these two dogs alone.
He has been around smaller dogs exhibiting submissive behavior in one on one encounters and at obedience classes and has not exhibited this behavior. Our neighbors have a 6 month old female Puggle that Luke has been around without issues and his favorite doggie friend at obedience class is a much smaller male dog that is also submissive. Any ideas on why this would trigger the aggressive behavior in Luke?
My dog Kay, who trains in agility and rally, is reactive to unfamiliar dogs. She’s fine with people. She is a four-year-old australian shepherd and spaniel mix (maybe) and I have had her since she was around 10 months old. I rescued her over three years ago. She is fine with my other dogs and I have never known her to actually bite.
Kay and I took basic obedience when she was about one, a few months after I took her in. She was uncomfortable and timid, but managed through okay and learned the basics with little obvious reactivity. Although she didn’t seem to enjoy herself, there were no specific scary incidents.
For the next year, I regret to say that I didn’t socialize her very well. Then, when she was three, I enrolled her in another basic obedience class. She was a holy terror the first day, lunging, growling and barking forcefully at whichever dog was nearby. It was an ugly eye-opener for me.
In that year, which has been the past 12 months, I have been extremely committed to her training and socialization. She has gained confidence through clicker work, and rally and agility training.
Her reactivity has also improved through use of Control Unleashed games, attention work, and plenty of structured socialization several times a week, but to my dismay, even when she is acting happy, confident, and full of herself, she is still very reactive around unfamiliar dogs. Her reactivity threshold to unfamiliar dogs is about 10 feet. She can be very close to the other dogs in our classes because she knows them.
I would like to be able to walk Kay around in a pet store without her actively seeking out another dog to lunge at. I would like to be able to walk her past an unfamiliar dog without her lunging and barking, hackles and tail up. I would like for her to be able to greet an unfamiliar dog calmly. By the way, she is worse when I am with her than when I am not.
I have heard several times that a reactive dog will always be reactive; that it is incurable. I am beginning to question whether Kay will ever become normal, no matter what I do.
My questions are: Do you think Kay could learn to exhibit normal behavior around unfamiliar dogs? If it is possible, what on earth can I do to teach her? If I am unwittingly contributing to her reactivity, I am committed to change.
Thank you for reading all this and any advice you are willing to offer.
@Anne: First off, let me say how impressed I am with the work you’ve put in with Katy. I believe that you are definitely on the right track with her training. The Control Unleashed protocols are fantastic for dogs like Katy. You don’t mention where you live, but I would recommend finding a Control Unleashed class. Our trainer in Portland named Greta Kaplan teaches a Control Unleashed class as does the Seattle/King County Humane Society.
When dogs plateau, it’s usually because owners are pushing too hard. If your dog is still lunging at other dogs, perhaps a break from agility is in order. Maybe pulling back a bit and focusing strictly on the reactivity might be beneficial.
Often, when we’re working with reactive dogs, it can get discouraging over time. We wonder if our dogs will ever be “normal”. When you get to this point, it’s best to seek out support. If you can’t find a Control Unleashed class, I would recommend the DVDs that Leslie put out. They’re a fantastic way to get you to the next level.
Thanks for reading Behind the Behavior and telling us about your experience with Katy. Good luck!
I have a 4-5 yr. old rescue Bichon who was found in a field in Dallas, apparently having been abandoned for some months – in bad shape, hw positive, with tons of ticks and fur down to the ground. They were taken in by Jeff Tarpley Rescue in Texarkana and three months later, the male, Shiloh, was transported up to the Boston area, to me. The female had been adopted three weeks earlier and Shiloh spent all of his time searching everywhere in Jeff’s home and yard for his mate. He lived in the house with 20 dogs and never had a sign of an aggression problem. He bonded instantly when he met me and has been attached to me like glue ever since.
I was shocked to discover upon walking him where there were other dogs (I live in a rural area and rarely see others) that he was extremely dog-aggressive – in the RED zone. He just silently attacks, lunges, snarls, makes throaty sounds and tries to bite – uncontrollably! He’s also very territorial at home, once bit a friend who was dog-savvy when I wasn’t there to introduce them, but is usually sweet and affectionate with all people immediately upon being introduced.
I took him to “Puppy School”, as he had no training, didn’t even know how to go up and down stairs, and was a baby at heart. I was amazed they even let me attend, because of his extreme aggression. He went after every dog there, even the puppies. He did the same when the trainers handled him and even when I had left the area for 10 or 15 minutes. However, my groomer, who has a doggie day-care center, says he’s good with the other dogs when there. He does however get a bit nippy and bossy if someone gets too close to his groomer, whom he attaches himself to in my absence.
He viciously attacks any dog of any size and recently bit my neighbor’s pit bull on the lip – not a good idea! I usually try to keep him under my control, and I’m fairly good at it, but when I’m at the park, there are so many dogs running loose that I’m a nervous wreck! I try to be calm so I can calm him down, and sometimes I’m successful. I’m not certain that it’s fear-aggression, as I’ve had dogs before that were fear-aggressive and it’s not quite the same. However, he has always been afraid to go onto the grass, even my well-manicured lawn, so something bad must have happened to him in that field in Dallas.
I’m at a loss as to how to treat him, as the aggression doesn’t stop when he’s not with me. It does seem to be more leash-related as well as protective behavior. But the fact that he’ll go after even small puppies bewilders me. I found your site through a Vet friend of mine and so far the comments have been extremely helpful, but I didn’t see any dog with Shiloh’s symptoms and that’s why I’m writing you this long request. Please help me if you can, as I really don’t know where to begin. I have a wonderful sweet affectionate little angel at home and a devil on the street – literally. It upsets me greatly. Any help would be greatly appreciated.
Thanks so much for your kindness and your time!
Hi Christine,
Thanks for the great article. We recently adopted a Tibetan terrier mix female puppy (10 weeks at adoption, now 15 weeks). She was initially very afraid of the big bad world, and has made a lot of improvement and seems much more confident, yet still is quite fearful in certain situations.
We take her to puppy socialization class once a week, where she passively plays with the others (running after other puppies and then getting distracted by interesting smells when the puppy responds to her play invitation). When we’re on walks, she sometimes shrieks horribly and flies backwards when approached by a large dog. With smaller dogs she is typically cautious but curious – large dogs and running, overly excited approaches do not go so well. She will also sometimes bark at people on the street, but usually only when it’s nighttime and dark – we live in a large city, so she encounters people on the street all the time without problem. It seems like the dark somehow makes her more nervous.
Aside from not encouraging this behavior by picking her up and trying to calm her, is there anything we can do to get her to snap out of this fear behavior? Is this normal for a 15 week old puppy, or should we be concerned? Living in the city, it’s very important that she’s well socialized and comfortable with all the people, dogs and noise outside.
Many thanks!
Hello Katherine,
First off, I’d like to say “great job with your new puppy!” for taking her to socialization classes and helping her work through her fears. It is not normal for such a young puppy to be so fearful. In my experience, puppies who exhibit fear at such an early age require intense counter conditioning work through out their lives to avoid fear aggression later in life. There are a few things you can do to help your dog:
Get informed: there are great resources for the owners of fearful dogs. Here are some of my favorites:
The booklet titled “Cautious Canine” by Dr. Patricia McConnel is a short booklet packed with useful information: https://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=dtb586
The book “Help for your fearful dog” is another good resource: https://www.dogwise.com/ItemDetails.cfm?ID=dtb878
https://fearfuldogs.com is devoted to the owners of fearful dogs.
Lastly, find a qualified professional to help you. Your dog will begin to come into social maturity between 12 and 18 months of age. This is when dogs begin to act on their fears (we first see fear aggression). If you would like to write to me privately at info@companionanimalsolutions.com and tell me where you live, I’d be happy to help you find someone qualified to assist you.
Hi again, Christine!
Please see my entry of August 18th, above, with reference to my Bichon, Shiloh, and his severe dog-aggression. For some reason you answered the entry after mine, but neglected to answer me. You probably missed my entry.
Please help me with whatever information you can, as I still haven’t seen a similar case to his.
Thanks again for your help.
@Regina: I reread your original entry about your dog aggressive Bichon named Shiloh. You don’t say how old Shiloh is but I’ll assume he’s past a year old at this point. My guess is that Shiloh is fear aggressive towards other dogs (given his breed and history). I’m also guessing that he’s not “OK” at your groomer’s dog daycare but has instead learned to tolerate other dogs in that particular setting. The best way to begin to counter dog/dog fear, is to begin to work it through on leash first. If you’re careful and do it properly, the positive conditioned emotional response that your dog develops to other dogs on leash, will translate to his off leash experiences. At this point, Shiloh will probably never be completely happy and relaxed around other dogs but we should be able to counter condition his panic response. If you’d like to email me privately (christine @ companionanimalsolutions.com), I can help you to find someone in your area to work with you. If you’re looking for books and DVDs to help you, here are some suggestions: Feisty Fido by Patricia McConnel, Reactive Rover by Kim Moeller: https://www.moellerdog.com/resources.htm. Hope this helps!
Hi!
I’m writing because I need some help with some aggression I’ve seen coming from my dog. She is a little over a year old (not quite a year and a half) and is a boxer/lab/mastiff mix. We adopted her from a rescue group where she was being kept and socialized in a foster home at about 9 weeks old. We continued her socialization by taking her to the dog park near our home and also introducing her to friend’s dogs as well.
Eventually we moved away from our original location and got a large yard where our dog could run and play (previously we lived in an apartment) and so we spent more time with her in the yard. After some time I discovered that there is a dog park in my new neighborhood and decided to begin taking my dog there. At first she did very well, she generally tends to be a very friendly dog toward both people and other animals. When other dogs are aggressive toward her she generally turns away or submits to them immediately and avoids the situation.
One day at the park a pair of dogs that was quite a bit larger than her (and she is a pretty large dog, about 85 pounds) attacked her and she was unable to get away from them. Several other dogs jumped into the mix and when I (and a couple of other people) were finally able to separate them she had been pinned and bitten several times. Thankfully no one was injured or bleeding.
Since then though she has become aggressive occasionally during play or when another dog approaches her and is dominant (she growled snapped at one dog that jumped on her and tried to grab the back of her neck). I’ve noticed this happens generally when it is a large group of dogs playing and there is a single dog that is smaller or more submissive than the rest and my dog gets suddenly aggressive (it usually starts out as complete play, no growling, no raised tails, or fixed eyes or head up posture – it is bowing and bouncing and tail wagging in the beginning). She will usually snap or bite and growl and try to jump on the other dog and pin it down.
I do try to keep a very close eye on her but it is a large park and they can get far away from me when they’re running. My course of action so far has been to grab her as soon as I see her getting aggressive or starting to display dominant posture and to remove her from the situation immediately. I try to pull her focus away from the other dogs (if we do not leave the park entirely) and make her sit and calm down before I release her again. This does work (if we stay at the park that is) and she has been able to go back to playing without aggression. This hasn’t happened very many times (only three or four) but I find it alarming that this is happening as she has never been aggressive before and I want to make sure I nip this problem in the bud before it becomes a very serious issue.
I would like to know if my actions are correct or if there is something I can do in addition to what I am already doing in order to correct this issue. I would really appreciate any advice you can give me. I would like to note that though she does get aggressive during play sometimes or when another dog is dominant toward her she does not approach other dogs aggressively and if another dog snaps at her or tries to initiate a fight with her (no matter what the size of dog) she will still turn away quickly and try to leave. It is only during play or when she is approached with dominant behavior that I have witnessed any aggression from her at all.
Hello, we have a 4 year old Labrador who is very agressive. He acts like the sweetest dog with our family, but as soon as he gets around other dogs he turns crazy. He’s great with our children, but will shake and act very strange around other children. We have tried training him with the use of a muzzle, but haven’t seen any improvement. We do not want to be blinded by what he could do, so we are contemplating euthanizing him. Is there any hope for dogs who will attack unprovoked? I’m desperate for help as we do love him very much. He’s absolutely wonderful with our kids and has never shown the slightest agression toward them.
He was attacked twice as a puppy by other dogs, so we stopped taking him around other dogs. He was very hyper, and the neighbor kids would scream when he was around. We stopped taking him around the kids because they would cry and scream. I know this is our fault, but can we fix our mistakes? Thanks
I’m sorry that your Lab is displaying behavior problems. Without evaluating your dog, it’s impossible for me to advise you about how to fix his fear and reactivity. I recommend that you consult with a qualified animal behavior professional to help you: https://companionanimalsolutions.com/blogs/qualified-animal-behavior-professionals.
If you contact me via email or phone: https://www.companionanimalsolutions.com. We’d be happy to help you find someone in your area.
Hello! I was reading your article and I was wondering what you were able to do to help the dog that was leash-reactive because it wanted to play & not because it was aggressive? My dog (an 8 month old 80 lb dane/lab mix) is the exact same way with the bows, barking, tail wagging, and lunging! He is an absolute joy with other dogs if allowed to approach them or off-leash at the dog park, and I’m sure this problem can easily be dealt with since it is certainly not an aggression issue, so I was wondering what you were able to do with that specific dog?
Thanks so much!
Actually Alyssa, dogs who love other dogs can sometimes be the toughest leash reactivity cases to fix. I use a combination of clicking/treating the dog as long as they stay calm and if they begin to go off, I say “let’s go”, u-turn and walk them away from the other dog. If you think about it, what does your dog want? He wants to sniff that other dog’s butt. He will learn that if he stays calm, he gets treats AND gets to move closer to the other dog. If he gets too excited and starts to go off, he gets taken away from the very thing he wants the most.
We adopted Max from our local shelter and have had him for about 10 days. He is neutered, and somewhere between 10mos and 14 mos of age (estimated). he seemed to get on well with his kennel mates. He also was at a mobile adoption on leash with other dogs and behaving well. He did go after his previous owners cat, and that was disclosed to us, but not really something that would stop us from adopting. Our dog Mindy (a shelter dog we have had for 2 years, Terrier mix, about 3 years old, stable, well behaved, easy going and dog and people friendly) and Max get along fine (the usual little arguments about toys or stepping on each other, but never more than a little growl, usually from mindy)
We love to take Mindy to the dog park. She interacts well and loves to run around and retrieve balls. Never a problem. We took Max to the park the day after we got him and the next day too. He was fine. The following weekend we all went and both days, Sat and Sun., he went after small chihuahuas. He fixated on one particular dog and wouldnt leave it alone. First barking and then nipping. One even submitted and he was holding down with his paw and snarling. We picked him up and reprimanded him and left. We do not know what to do. He seems fine in all other situations. We have already taught him to sit, and potty training was a breeze. I will be so disappointed if we cannot take him to the park. Will obedience classes help? is he a bully? He doesnt do this to Mindy at home. Granted we have had him ten days so we dont know much. I might add, we are loving and cuddly with both of them and they sleep with is. The get affection all day long.
If Max gets along with you dog and other dogs at the park, bullying doesn’t sound like the right diagnosis, does it? We still don’t like the behavior though and punishing Max has the possibility of creating behavioral fallout where Max could learn by association that small dogs predict punishment.
You don’t say what type of dog Max is Michelle. Is there a large size difference between Max and a dog as small as a Chihuahua? I can’t really evaluate behavior I haven’t seen but you might want to consider “instinctive drift” or what many trainers call “predatory drift”. This is something that can happen between large dogs and very small dogs. The small dog goes from being a dog to being “prey”.
You can manage Max around small dogs (now that you know small dogs are a trigger for him) by calling Max to you. IMPORTANT: Call Max to you BEFORE he gets fixated on the small dog or has the small dog pinned. Pay attention at the dog park (no cell phones, talking to other dog owners, etc) and if you see a small dog in the vicinity, call Max to you and walk the opposite direction. If you don’t have a strong “come” command, that is something I highly recommend that you train. I think that training classes are always a good idea as long as the training methods are appropriate. We recommend never going to a class that uses metal collars (choke or prong). We recommend instead positive reinforcement based classes (sometimes these classes will use clickers). Here’s a link to a DVD titled Really Reliable Recall that we like a lot and it’s less expensive and more convenient than a class: https://www.dogwise.com/itemdetails.cfm?ID=DTB810P.
Hope this helps and thanks for reading Behind the Behavior!
Hello,
I have a problem with my American Bulldog. He is 18 months old. We have had him from a pup and socialised him well. He lived with a staffy x maltese (female) who is 1 year older then him and had 2 older American staffy’s as play mates. (1 six months older and 1 18 months older)
One of the Staffy’s (6 months older) played very rough with him and twice ended in a dog fight where the dogs had to be pulled apart (I wasn’t present for the fight as other people took the dogs out for a walk when I was at work). We tried to keep the staffy and our dog seperated but his owners would continually drop him off where we were staying and as it was not our house we could not stop this.
Our dog used to be care free and very playful, has now become dominant and unpredictable around other dogs. It started at the dog park when my partner was there and he got into a fight and pinned a female boxer. My partner didn’t see how it started but a week later I was at the dog park with him and he was running around when a small female puppy came in. She was very submissive and laid down immediately and my dog got on top of her. He was growling and I told him to stop and he started attacking her. There were no real injuries but it was horrible to hear this puppy yelping and my dog snarling and going at this poor little thing for NO known reason.
Now when he is off the lead (sometimes, not always) and see’s another dog he will crouch down about 20m away and won’t keep walking with me and as the dog approaches he will run towards it full pace, chest out and be very dominating. Chasing the dog and growling.
He is extremely leash-reactive too although it isn’t just lunging and bouncing, it is snarling and more aggressive. I took him out today on his leash and my neighbours dog was out the front and he started attacking her. He walked fine with her after this too, although she was less then happy anytime he went up for a sniff. Dogs in the street are normally fine to walk past without to much hassle.
I am more concerned with his unpredictability as I don’t know where we have gone wrong and he is a powerful dog who could do a lot of damage. Sometimes he is a complete angel and will sniff the other dog and be on his way. I try to read his moods and take him out of a situation when I feel that it is escalated or going to escalate.
PLEASE HELP!
Hello Sarah, I’m so sorry to hear that your dog is exhibiting some dog/dog aggression. I think you might have three things going on in combination:
Social Maturity
Dogs don’t reach “social maturity” until 18 months. Social maturity means that a dog is biologically capable of showing how he really feels (barking, growling, lunging, air snapping, etc). This is a time when all dogs begin to experiment with social behavior to see what will happen. This is a time where any socialization deficits become apparent and if you’ve simply punished out behavior, shut it off as opposed to changing the emotional response or training a different response, you’ll see the unwanted behavior surge up again, worse than ever. We see about 200 new dog behavior cases a year and anywhere from 60% to 70% of these dogs are in the 18 month age range.
Traumatic Learning Event
It’s possible that your dog learned to be afraid of other dogs based on the fight in which he was involved. Many fearful dogs learn that a good defense is a good offense.
Breed Characteristics
I’ve seen 10 cases with American Bulldogs over the last six years and every single one of them was for dog/dog aggression, usually intra-household dog/dog aggression. These dogs are absolutely fabulous with people and kids: ride them, pull their tails, scream and they just shake it off. Dealing with other dogs however, is a different situation entirely. Add to that the reality that bully breeds can be, well, bully. They have a rough play style that can “tip over” from play to scuffle/fight. Now, don’t get me wrong. Breed specific characteristics exist but there is huge variation within a breed. You always have to look at the dog in front of you and not make generalizations. You could just have a dog who is trying to understand what type of social behavior works for him and what doesn’t and that puzzle is being complicated by the negative interactions he’s had with some dogs.
Bottom line, you need help from a qualified trainer or dog behavior consultant in your area. This person can help you identify the true cause of your dogs behavior and recommend solutions to help your dog feel and behave better. I’m happy to refer you to someone in your area. Let me know if you would like me to do this. Hope this helps!
Hello Christine,
Thank you so much for your quick response.
I am in melbourne, Australia and I think your site is based in the US. If you know of a dog trainer I would love to try it out as I love my dog and want to enjoy taking him out again!
I have a 3 month old puppy who my dog loves. I would hate for his unpredictable nature to turn on her although I don’t think he would ever hurt her. I’d rather be safe then sorry.
If you don’t know of a dog trainer due to the fact I’m on the other side of the world, I will take your advice and find a trainer myself.
Thank you 🙂
Sarah
Sarah, I have put out feelers to find a trainer in your area. If you find someone on your own, I would be happy to help you evaluate their approach/credentials. Hang in there, we’ll find you someone.
We adopted this sweet and playfull GS mix, she was a cruelty rescue. Although still full of fear from her previous experience, Cuca came to our house with a very puppiesh nature, sweet and obedient and very friendly to all dogs, she loved them all males and females. We had 2 cats at the time. A few months later we adopted another female, same size and nature, a pitbull mix, also extremely sweet but very naive. They both got a long like they were long time friends, except that after a few months Cuca started showing signs of dominance towards her sister. Their play almost always ended up too mouthy because Cuca would get out of hand and bite too hard, she chases her and shepherds her till she is with her belly up. Sometimes she gives her turn to Lola, its actually quite funny to watch because she “lets” lola get her way. About a year after their adoptions Cuca started showing signs of aggression towards other females, especially submissive ones, it’s like she targets them. We used to take them to dog parks, but she started attacking other dogs, so now we cannot take her off the leash. She is fine with males, loves to play with them. One other thing is that sometimes she gets this panic attacks on walks, for no reason she puts her tail between her legs and carries us back home, it happens quite frequently. We have read a lot about it, watched cesar’s milans way, and my husband is the only one who can control her on walks. We put her on her back (belly up) everytime she shows aggression, but its like she does not see, feel, anything at that moment, she just wants to get the dog. She does not respond to the rib nudges, or to treats, or with affection when she is out of the house. Indoors she is very obedient. We really don’t know how to help her overcome this.