My dog attacks other dogs without a warning. What can I do to stop this?

Question

I write you because my dog attacks other dogs without warning. I've had 2 different trainers revue her and find nothing wrong with her, one trainer specialized in aggressive dogs. My dog doesn't attack all the time, it's extremely random. She gives no warning signs except for some posturing, there is no growling or anything. In fact she is quite silent. Never barks. A huge problem is I'm not strong enough to really pull on the pinch collar enough to do anything useful when she gets into fight mode. Now recently, we had a new play date at my apartment and she attacked the dog (14mo. puppy) before they even entered the threshold. I ended up at the ER with a bite from the other dog. There was no room to break them up properly.

I can't live with a dog that is unpredictable, yet I don't want to get rid of her. I've spent hours training her and she is responsive with commands (except when attacking-of course) and I keep an alpha household. Heck, she even models for magazines and has an agent. I originally wanted her for therapy work, but have since changed that thought since she has problems with other dogs. There are three cats in this household one who attacks her and she doesn't attack back. I know it's got to be something I'm doing wrong around other dogs, but at this time I can't pinpoint it. She is friendly with people of all ages and even plays with 2 year olds, supervised of course!

What is it with certain random dogs?

She is a purebred rescue puppy, I got her at 12 weeks. She is a sight hound.

Help? Any ideas?

C.

Accepted Answer

There is no such thing as a dog that attacks without warning. It’s typical that the humans don’t understand or recognize the signals the dog is sending, but your dog is sending warnings. These signals can be very subtle and are often silent. Barking and growling are easy to recognize, but once you understand what you are seeing dogs become very easy to read. You say your dog postures, in the canine world that’s like screaming at another dog. it’s a VERY serious warning.

I recommend this book about Canine Body Language.

Your dog is telling you and the other dogs that she isn’t interested in playing with other dogs. Play dates for dogs are a human idea of fun, and unless the dogs already know and like each other is a horrible idea. We feel the same way about dog parks. Our dogs are friendly to dogs in our family pack but we don’t expect them to play with strange dogs. It really goes against the nature of many dogs. Our dogs expect us to protect them from strange dogs, not put them in a position where they feel so worried they need to behave aggressively in order to maintain their personal space.

I suggest these videos DEALING WITH DOMINANT AND AGGRESSIVE DOGS and was a 5 year project. This DVD shows you how to safely handle your dog when she is showing aggression.

You can go to the web page and read the outline of what’s included on the video. My DVD's are not meant to be watched one time. The fact is anyone who needs this information needs to watch it many many times because every time they watch it they will pick up new ideas.

Pack structure and how to live with a dog in your home are the first issues to deal with whenever you add a new dog to your family or have problems with an existing dog. We are taking orders for a new DVD that extensively covers the way Ed and I live with dogs in our home.

Please click in this link for a description of what is covered in this DVD on Pack Structure. There is excellent footage in this dvd of dogs showing signals to each other and how they handle rudeness in other dogs.

Here is a link on dog fights problems, with a lot of information for you to read.