October 16, 2014
My dog attacks certain dogs and most recently a puppy. I do not understand why he does this. Do you know why?
Full Question:
Hi,I have an 8 year old neutered male doberman who I have had since a puppy. He has been a wonderful loving animal towards humans and most dogs. Several years ago he started dog aggressive behavior at the beach. He would start out with play and then become aggressive...grabbing the other dog by the neck and growling but never breaking skin.
I stopped taking him to the beach 2 years ago but still socialize him with friends' dogs...which has been fine. I have dogs over to my home and vice versa...he is always fine. Tonight I was walking him around an open field by my home and there is a small black lab puppy who also lives close by. He has attacked her once before for no reason...and did it again tonight. Luckily I have him on a leach and pull him off of her. She cries...and backs away. My dog never breaks the skin but acts very aggressive. I do not understand why he does this to only certain dogs and why to a puppy?
Ed's Answer:
Why your dog does this is not important.
Managing the dog properly IS IMPORTANT. That starts with the leash on all the time when it's around anther dog. You were lucky the dog was on leash. Here are some photos of people who didn't have their dogs on a leash and they tried to break up their dog fighting.
This dog should not be allowed around strange dogs.
If we had this dog it would quickly learn that showing aggression is not acceptable behavior. It would learn that we are the pack leader and there would be no aggression unless we asked for it. It would get a correction that would not only change the dog's behavior and we would be consistent enough with that correction that the dog would remember it the next time we told it to stop acting aggressively.
That's not happening with you. Pulling the dog off a puppy says absolutely nothing to the dog. What did it learn from that? Not one single thing.
No dog is too old to train. Your dog is partially trained. I have that in the same book as being partially pregnant. A partially trained dog is an untrained dog.
You need some training as much as the dog does. We have a lot training resources, including online courses, etc. Usually when I am blunt with people they go somewhere else. My point is you need a wake-up call, people get dog bit breaking up dog fights. When that happens people get sued and dogs get put to sleep. When people get sued they lose their home owners insurance because insurance companies HATE DOG BITES.
So why this dog does this is irrelevant. The fact is you have allowed this dog to become dog aggressive. If you love the dog you will get some training and then train your dog.
Regards,
Ed Frawley
Managing the dog properly IS IMPORTANT. That starts with the leash on all the time when it's around anther dog. You were lucky the dog was on leash. Here are some photos of people who didn't have their dogs on a leash and they tried to break up their dog fighting.
This dog should not be allowed around strange dogs.
If we had this dog it would quickly learn that showing aggression is not acceptable behavior. It would learn that we are the pack leader and there would be no aggression unless we asked for it. It would get a correction that would not only change the dog's behavior and we would be consistent enough with that correction that the dog would remember it the next time we told it to stop acting aggressively.
That's not happening with you. Pulling the dog off a puppy says absolutely nothing to the dog. What did it learn from that? Not one single thing.
No dog is too old to train. Your dog is partially trained. I have that in the same book as being partially pregnant. A partially trained dog is an untrained dog.
You need some training as much as the dog does. We have a lot training resources, including online courses, etc. Usually when I am blunt with people they go somewhere else. My point is you need a wake-up call, people get dog bit breaking up dog fights. When that happens people get sued and dogs get put to sleep. When people get sued they lose their home owners insurance because insurance companies HATE DOG BITES.
So why this dog does this is irrelevant. The fact is you have allowed this dog to become dog aggressive. If you love the dog you will get some training and then train your dog.
Regards,
Ed Frawley
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