I am wondering if he has not always been comfortable withg other dogs and chose to avoid looking at them on lead because of this? And now that he has matured perhaps he feels he is more confident and can show aggression to keep them away? Just a thought that crossed my mind when I read this

....

House moves can be incredibly stressful for owner and dog alike - whatver is wrong, this added stress might have made your dog more reactive.

Sometimes a bad experience can set a dog off (to "get in first" if you like) and this is usually motivated by anxiety/fear.

Staring/eueballing from one or both can be one of the signs. But often just the presence of another dog will set the problem off.If you check out some of the body language info on the net, you may be able to see other signs which are attempts at appeasement or warning.

There is some good specific info on lead aggression from Kim Moeller and she has done a booklet and dvd called Reactive Rover

There are explanations for the behaviour, info on how to train your dog certain exercises, etc.

Re the neutering, if there is a problem with adult entire male dogs then it might help. It would be worth a try as long as there is no real nervousness to the behaviour

Wys
x

Hi David,
I have just had my two entire male dogs implanted with a male contraceptive. One benefit is that once it fully takes affect, they will not be pumped full of testosterone which can make them give off an aggressive 'aura' to other dogs. The implant is called Superlorin and I haven't as yet heard anything negative about it, only positive feed back and means a surgical castration is not necessary.
I have today posted a thread on it in the Dog Chat section.

sounds like your dog is comming into his own,mature.iv experienced the same over the years,it like you just got through pup trainging,and there was a period where all is fine and you got the dog trained you feel you, made it...then an issue arises,im convinced it just faze 2.maturity issues..just thought and my experiences .hope all goes well

Hopefully it's not medical, but PWD's can suffer from thyroid problems which can cause aggressive and abnormal behaviour. I would think you'd have noticed other symptoms, but if it continues and nothing else helps it might be worth investigating just to rule it out.

iv been through this as well,turned out to be a quil from a porupine,just a small piece,in the back of the toung,could not see it and there was no resone to belive there was trouble,it was 6 monthes later we noticed,maenwhile the dog was progressivly getting worse,with behaviuor,once she healed ,she became herself agian,i felt terrible,im very causious of my dogs health,and see the vets often,i get discounts!im there so much.

Hi Tabitha

Sorry to butt in on this thread but just wondered if you could explain the "watch me" command - i think it would be something very useful for my dog.

Bax

We don’t believe he is in any pain, we’ve checked him like usual and couldn’t see anything, nor got any strange reactions.
He is very rarely off lead at the moment due to this problem, so I’m not sure how he’d be off lead at the moment.
After reading a bit more it’s unlikely we’ll bother having his bits off, as it doesn’t seem very often that it sorts the problem. It seems to be something we need to tackle through more training.

We’ve taken to being a bit more cautious, getting him sat and calm with a bit of distance before the other dog passes which is helping for now.

Will certainly try this, although his tummy is off, so using treats to train him is out for a little while.
I’m sure once we have finished moving house we will do. Thanks for the offer SLB.
I'll be sure to check this out, thank you very much Wys.
I will bear this in mind, but I think I’ve decided I’d like to try to work on the behaviour first.
You just filled me with dread! Lol
I think a bit more training on our side of things would help him, time to get more consistent and regular.
I had not heard that before, I will look into it and symtoms.
We have checked him over and can’t find anything. Will always keep our eyes peeled though, thanks for the tip.

Whats he actually doing David? (sorry if you have said, may have missed it) is he actually starting a fight, does he attack the other dog , or is it all posturing (handbags at dawn) don't get me wrong you don't want any of that behaviour, but it may help if you say what his aggression actually entails, will he run over to another dog to attack it, or does it only happen with dogs that come up to him and he meets face on??

The breed is not usually an aggressive breed, (always an exception though ) did he have a bad experience with another dog to set this of, it could be he has reached his "kevin stage" but what ever triggers this behaviour, you may be best getting one to one help from a reputable trainer....would be good though if you can take up SLB offer, and anyone else near you , to help evaluate the situation.

Hope you get this sorted soon, before it becomes a habit for him.

couldnt agree more with this!

id also say google turid rugass (sp?) Calming signals and watch her videos, might turn out your boy has been communicating all along