Occasional aggression

hi,i wonder if anyone can help...i have a 3yr old lab and a 5yr old springer,the problem i have is with my lab,generally he is good natured and nearly well behaved! on acouple of occasions recently when he has been down the park he has attacked other dogs.this doesnt happen everytime we go out,one minute he is chasing his ball then he comes over to where my springer is playing with the other dog,all the time he is wagging his tail,suddenly without provocation he has the other dog around the neck and has to be pulled off.so far luckily he hasnt done any damage but im so concerned that he is behaving like this, i dont know what to do.it is nothing to do with protecting his ball as he has dropped this on the appoach towards my springer and the other dog,sometimes he approaches has a sniff and wanders off but today he just grabbed the other dog around the neck..i have thought about putting a muzzle on him but then he cant chase his ball and he doesnt do it all the time...he isnt like it with my springer or aggressive towards me.any suggestions?

Unprovoked attacks like this by yuor dog are serious as I am sure you know. To attack once is bad enough but he has done it more than once.

If he were my dog he would be kept on a lead at all times until I knew he could be trusted, if insisting on letting him off you have to think of the other dogs he may meet therefore there is no alterntive than to muzzle him.

If ball playing is an issue then just dont take balls out to play with you.

Look at this as a warning by your dog, sorry but its fairly obvious you have an unpredictably aggressive dog it would apear and you may not be so lucky next time maybe real damage will ensue. What would happen if the dog your dog decides to grab by the neck fights back - this is not a situation that you could easily break up and serious injuries would probably be the outcome.
Good luck and keep him well under control please.

Sorry, no because I have the exact same problem with my 20 month old gsd only on the initial meet up or if a dog comes charging over to us. Nobody could come up with the answer except to do the training, but of course, all that training goes right out of the window doesn't it when this happens, it's all so blooming quick!

What I'm doing now is, everytime I go to meet another dog on our path, I keep my dog with me, I never let her say hello to it, and if another dog actually wants to say hello to her, then I put her onlead so I'm there for any initial outbursts! I did this last night with a 2 yr old lab we met on the green, but the lab instantly rolled over, let my dog sniff her, my dog's tail was wagging like mad and off they went playing together! You just can never tell can you if it's the same problem as I have here, I just never know! I think it's because the other dog says the wrong thing on that initial meet or maybe they're a bit aggressive and our dogs take umbridge to that and like to put them in their place! My dog is the same too, she is pretty ball orientated and yet every dog she meets, she always gives them her ball at the start!

I also met a lovely bulldog this morning on a longline who wanted to play with Zena, so I told the guy about her current "problems" he said his dog was ultra friendly, so I let Zena say hello ONlead, and all was fine, the other dog went berserk to play with her and she leaped all over it with her tail wagging coz she wanted to play with it too!

Do you find it's NEVER after that initial meet coz I do? It's only ever at the very start???

ETA: My dog doesn't grab them by the neck though, she just has them underneath her in a ball whilst they are going mad at her, never any teeth, never any marks, is it the same with you?

One of mine gets very anxious about entire male dogs. So if I see him near a dog I check the plums and if needed recall him. Better safe than sorry. Work on your recall, and don`t take chances.

i agree that it may appear that Toby is aggressive but thats just it,he isnt..most of the time he doesnt bother at all with any other dogs,i think sometimes he is wrongly thinking that my other dog is being attacked as he always jumps around barking when playing and thats when it seems to happen...on the whole Toby approaches has a sniff wags his tail and goes back to ball chasing but just on that odd occasion he comes over tail wagging,sniffs and then just turns,never has he drawn blood but i know thats not the point and this cant carry on
he does get then around the scruff of the neck but just seems to hold them..never rags or barring of teeth and never left any marks

Hi Helena,
Sorry to butt in but your Zena doesnt grab the dogs by the nect whereas the Lab does.

This action by the Lab is instinctive of the killing instinct. This is how dogs kill rabbits and rats etc.... For the initial poster I think she realises (or hope she does) that her dog seems to have gone beyond the probs yuo have with Zena or indeed I have with my Doberman..... they NEVER physically contact the dogs they bark at or run at...

I hope this original poster manages to get him sorted out but intil then this sort of dog is the one we dog walkers all dread to find on our dog walks.... sorry but its true.

Hope she sorts it, I really do.

sorry but youre making my dog sound like some raging attacker..he isnt..99% he is fine and plays nicely if he bothers at all but just the odd occasion he just turns.i have another dog and he is never aggressve twds him at home or on walks,my sister has 2 dogs,never been a problem.interacts very well,never been snappy twds me,by you saying that im the sort of person you dread to meet on a walk really inspires me

Hi, difficult problem but here's my experience....

One of my good friends has a chocolate 8 year old lab... Lovely bitch, super friendy... But... She hates all predominantly white dogs... Don't know why... Probably some experience with a white dog when she was a pup.. What does my friend do? When she sees a predominantly white dog approaching.... She puts her onlead and warns the other owner.... No problems!

There is another thing.... Our Tess is now almost 11 months old and has been friends with this lab since she was 10 weeks old... From the beginning the lab has been very protective of Tess... Basically Tess could do no wrong... Very sweet to see... But... When we're all out together and another dog comes into the picture... The lab will still try to defend Tess... Even if the other dog is perfecly friendly... Somehow the "need to defend" the pup has remained even though Tess is no longer a pup....

My point is that it may help to analyse the moments that your dog has attacked just to find out if there is a common link between all the situations... If you can come up with this link it's far easier to find a solution....often "random" agression isn't random at all in your dog's mind.... The trick for owners is to find out what the triggers are....

Good luck, and hugs to your dog!!!!

I don`t dread you. But I do think that it would be good to check the two dogs are going to be OK before letting them play. One day another dog might turn round and flatten yours, and think how you`d feel then. Or worse, your boy might grab a disabled dog and really hurt them. I had an old boy with spondylitis who would have really suffered if another dog had taken hold, even in play.

thankyou cinvelt,i do think that it may have something to do with Toby thinking that he is protecting Jake (my springer) as when Jake plays he jumps about alot barking , this has happened twice now and both times Jake was playing with another dog..Toby was minding his own business running after his ball away from Jake when he decided to come and have a look at what was going on,he walked over tail wagging in the air,dropped his ball on route and went and did the usuall sniff..then in the blink of an eye grabbed the other dog round the neck..no barking,no teeth barred nothing to indicate he was going to do anything..he was pulled off put on his lead shouted at and taken home
in reply to claire and daisy..you werent the person making the dread to meet my kind of dog and owner remark, i know he sounds like a terrible dog but really he isnt.