Problem Girl??? (GSD)

The problem I have is with Tilly, she doesn't particularly like other dogs especially small ones so she stays on lead if other dogs are about.
sometimes tho we might bump into one of her offspring, she can spot them from quite a distance when we get close tho she goes Ballistic, wanting to literally rip them to bits, it's flipping scary, luckily she is ball motivated so when she starts to kick off we just give her a ball and she wont let go of it for anyone. so therefore wont bite just thrashes about. but more often than not we will just change direction whenever we see them.

Sometimes I will take Tilly out first come home and take the other 2 and visa versa.
on a few occasions Tilly has been in the park with my daughter and I have gone with the other 2 to meet them. But Tilly will just race up to Bailey and start a huge fight
with him, I mean a scary up on the hind legs stand up fight, Bailey used to cower but now he's 4 he will fight back and this enrages her more. 5 minutes later she is fine again and we can all walk around the park peacefully. if we take all 3 out together she is fine.
apart from this she is an angel and butter wouldn't melt in her mouth lol!
Any Ideas anyone as to whats up with her????
She is 8 years old now and has always been this way.

She`s doing it because she can. And because that`s what she wants to do.
Do you really want to retrain her or do you just want to manage her? It is possible, but it`ll be hard work after 8 years.
I would train her round other dogs to start with, so she learns control.

Yet you bred from her

ooer, Im with JB on this,

how are the pups? do they show any sign of aggression?

I also agree with C&D on this,

if she has always been allowed to behave this way she will do it. At 8yrs old it may be worth thinking more of management of the issue, at least to start with.

I had this problem once with my dog aggressive shepherd, many years ago. The other dog I had at that time was older, so couldn't manage much of a walk, so they rarely went out together for the first few months of me having the new puppy. Anyhow, one morning I decided to take the pair of them up the yard, and all was fine IN the car, until I went to let them out, my dog aggressive bitch went ballistic at my older bitch, I just couldn't believe it because at home, they were best friends It would have been the same if I had met up with the older dog if out, when I had the youngster with me, I know that, and that's what you have. I never could fathom out WHY though, except I knew that my youngster was dog aggressive since being floored as a puppy by a collie and badly mauled, and although I tried and tried, I accepted that she was never going to get on with other dogs.

Regarding the daughter of Tilly that she goes ballistic at, I do know when I met up with my own breeder of Zena last summer, that she would have gone for her had she had the chance, but the breeder warned me to keep her away from her because she is like that with ALL of her offspring and always has been, but NOT with any other dogs! I can't understand that myself, but I'm not a breeder, so I wouldn't know the reasons why.

ive had similar problems with my pup but only when she sees her sister,when they where younger they spent all there time togeather while i finished setting things up at my house to take her home i think her sister is the more dominant of the two but cookies always been bigger than coco.i think because they no there family your dog as the mother still believes she has to show dominance over her offspring,as coco always seems to want to fight cookie now that she does not see her as much but as u said litrally 5 mins after they all smiles and wagging tails. since you already have a method for distracting your dog youve solved half the problem, what i did is i taught cookie LEAVE IT,i started by taking some dry food making her lay down and put the food infront of her, i then gave her the command leave it every time she went for it. when she mastered that to the point that i could put 1 on each of her front paws some in between them and even ballance some on her nose and she wouldnt go for it i started walking around my garden with her walking of lead next to me. i then started to dropthe food as we were walking every time she went for it i said "leave it" we then progressed up to live animals. wed go for a walk and as soon as i saw her ears errect at something like say a fox or a bird id say "leave it" an pull her lead, wed sit on my door step as other dogs walked by my house id hold her collar turn her face to me and say "leave it" i dont even have to say it in a stern voice any more or reward her with treats .shes getting better and better at leaving other dogs alone now but she still goes a bit mad for foxes she loves chasing them i reinforce leave it every single day i make her food put it on the ground tell her leave it then go away and throw away the can of wet food then i let her eat it so she knows shes only allowed to go for it wen i say. i really think the leave it command is a very versitle 1 and i hope it works for you to

thanks Claire I reckon i need to manage her.

when I said she's always been this way I meant since she had the pups and she's 8 years old now. I bred her 4 years ago, it's too late to preach and I have learnt a lot since then.

thanks Shona not one of the pups have shown any signs aggression to any dog and I am in contact with them all. I think management is the way to go too.

thanks gyalis
I had never thought about the dominance thing with the pups. I will have a go at the 'leave' command too.

no problem,lemmie no how it goes or if u need any help pm me