Daphni and aggression

im having a bit of trouble with daphni and i dont know quite how to handle it.

shes become aggressive with other dogs. shes always been a bit wary of them since she got attacked a few times when she was younger. but its escalated recently, i dont really know why as i cant think of a trigger.

this afternoon she charged up to a dog, and started growling at her and getting in her face. she kept trying to get on top of her too, but there was no biting involved. she never actually bit her it just seemed alot of noise on her part and trying to be on top.

she wasnt listening to me at all, and i had to run up and put her on lead. luckily i knew the people and their dogs and they played after with the boys.

if shes on lead and sees another dog she starts pulling and growling.

its definitely something i want to stop right away. any help?

Hmm. I imagine trying to stop her rehearsing it as little as possible would help and maybe try and keep her attention on you with food/toys/fuss etc when other dogs are around, and as soon as she reacts to the other dogs the nice stuff stops and she just gets ignored for a bit? I'm no behaviourist, and it might be worth talking to one, but I'd maybe suggest keeping her on a lead for now, I know she's not very big but if she ticks off a bigger dog i imagine she could get hurt being told to 'bog off' by them?

I'm probably chatting out my **** haha, hope you get it sorted!

I posted a thread below about our new rescue being pushy and aggressive. We've eliminated opportunities to be aggressive and to not listen to us, until we can get him going a bit better on his obedience training. We've eliminated all off leash situations where he may encounter other dogs, including in our own yard (which is unfenced, and the neighbors have not so friendly dogs that occasionally wander over). We'll trust him a bit more once he has a 100% reliable recall, and will come back to us as soon as we call.

Socially, we only meet dogs on lead. We meet other dogs that we think he'll get along with - females, close to his size or larger. We do not set up meetings with male dogs, and we'll avoid them when we can. If we can't, we keep him calm and keep the meeting short. Any signs of aggression or growling and we say bye.

Until we really have a bit more training under our belt, we can't really address the aggression itself. At least, in my opinion, anyway. For example, a dog that will only go into a sit/stay "sometimes", is not a dog I want to be trying to control or introduce to aggressive situations - where I know he's going to choose to not sit/stay (since he chooses to ignore me anyway for no reason somedays!).

I hope some other folks are a bit more helpful to your particular situation here. I see you've been a member here for awhile, so hopefully you get some good words of wisdom!

thanks for the reply. where i walk them every day we dont meet many dogs. seeing her up there is the first dogs we've seen on there in a week if not longer.

shes not interested in toys, i can try food treats though just to keep her attention. i very rarely take treats out, need to get back in the habit of doing it.

Also, I should add, that ours is only aggressive in some social situations. We can take him to his organized day care (with our other boxer), and they rave about how well he does. He shows absolutely no signs of aggression there. It is a neutral place, with people supervising that he is not attached to.

So, just to give ya some hope..just because your Daphni is acting this way in this situation, doesn't mean she will be dog aggressive in all situations. Obedience training first, then addressing the aggression second (possibly with a behaviorist).

If she takes treats perhaps start to take them out with you.
Distracting her and working below her threshold so she doesn't practise the behavior will probably help.

Try to ensure where possible that the interactions she does have with dogs are positive ones.

When Kestral started to become wary of dogs I found stepping up the training and only letting her near dogs I was confident would interact well with her helped her gain back her confidence.

Good luck, keep us updated

Is she entire? If so, how long since her last and before her next season?

Just out of interest, has this problem escalated since she had pups?

Yes she's entire, her last season would of been November time, she then had the puppies, So she is due in soon, she's never been one for every 6 months though, more every 8.

No, she's been fine with other dogs majority of the time, the problem is I don't meet any when we are out Sonora hard to judge. But we met a springer spaniel and she was fine with him having a play, and she was fine yesterday with their staffy bitch. They did say their other dog had just come out of season so maybe that could of been something?

Thanks. Its hard to train her to stop bevause we hardly ever meet any other dogs. With me not driving I can't put myself and daphni in those situations.