I have an intact female bull terrier who shows dog agression. She was fine with her sister and has attacked her twice. (and showed agression a few times while on a leash) Once when my husband was walking towards the dog food (they are fed seperately) and once when we were playing ball (maybe she was just being dominant about the ball.) They are now seperated but what is scary and she shows no warning signs. No posturing, growling, lip curling, NOTHING. She just turns and attacks. We've gotten away without serious injury. But now I am worried about my kids since I am not seeing a warning. It seems that her agression is excitement related because she's always in a really excited over-stimulated frame of mind. Bull terriers are prone to being over stimulated and can be kind of obessive compulsive and impulsive (bite first-think later.)

We are taking her for bike rides every day to help drain energy and help get her out of this excited frame of mind. She's also been a kennel dog for about a year and I think this has not been good for her.

I am giving her to my sister who lives down the road and has no dogs and will be able to have her in the house and work with her more. Get her out of the kennel. My sister is an experienced doberman owner.

Anyway, my question is: My sister and I both have small children who the dog seems to be fine with and I have NEVER seen her show human agression, and she was raised from a puppy indoors with kids, but because of the dog agression with little warning should I be worried about the kids and human agression.

I will discuss with my sister the ground work to becoming a pack leader and the steops to dealing with dominance. But does dog agression usually translate to human agression? I've not had a lot of experience with dog agression or human agression. I'm a standard poodle girl and they are marshmellows.

 Quote:

should I be worried about the kids and human agression.

Yes. Not necessarily because of a single reason, but the situation as a whole.

 Quote:

But does dog agression usually translate to human agression?

No,again, not necessarily. But since you don't know whats going on with her you'd be better off living with her like it does in her case.

Does dog/animal aggression usually translate to human aggression?

Vanessa,
I'd say no. Not in my experience.

That being said; however, IF one has a forward and possessive dog who has had bad enteractions enre to humans or likely to encounter any of same, all bets are off.
Hint, hint. The children.
Only if the bad experiences are continued in an on going basis does the dog actually becomes human aggressive.

M & M Enterprises

How old is she?
How experienced are you with dog aggression?
There may be stares or crowded situations that are triggering this. Doggy things that you haven't noted yet.
I would, without more info,wonder if this is a young dog (around 2-3yrs), has hit some maturity level and decided that sister is a PITA.
Has she attacked other dogs? or is it just the bitch to bitch?

I have had the experience of a bitch that started with a seemingly increase in her prey drive, then went to bitch to bitch aggression, then dog aggression randomly then odd reactions to things like clothes on the line, then a growl to a human after a stare. Several very qualified breeders and area vets, including Cornell narrowed it to either seizure disorder or a brain tumor....leaning to tumor. We did not CT scan, we euthed her. My point is that this was a progression of behaviour, not in a good way. Also, this was a 5yr old plus dog that had been a total trustworthy dog up til the last 6 months... therapy dog and very obedient with any family member (even young kids).

I also have two bitches that can never be trusted together due to 'personal differences'. Been separated for many years. No aggression with anyone or anything else....just each other.

Does dog/animal aggression usually translate to human aggression?
I will also say no, BUT some dogs view small children a some weird things in between dogs and humans so I wouldn't necessarily take her off the hook.

I have known a few bully dogs for whom just being over stimulated is the trigger for becoming aggressive towards what ever dog is near. The dogs could be playing and having what appears like a great time and then out of no where "boom" the bully goes into full out attack mode.

when I Have a dealt with dog aggression, the dog was only ever in that state of mind when it came to unfamiliar dogs... so it is very different than your case where the dog attacked a conspecific familiar (dog in your pack.) Maybe there is another root to the aggression in that case, like you said possessiveness over the ball.

I have been around cases where that dog aggression gets redirected to something reachable because their target is not due to leash, fence, or whatever. the dog will snap at the owners leg, a dog in the same pack, or possibly your child if they are close.

Regardless of the cause it sounds like too dangerous a situation for a kid. I'm no expert, this is just what i have observed had explained to me.


Good luck in sorting this out,

Rob

This is my opinion, based on research I did because my late dog was half pit.

The bull terrier is a descendant of the original pit bull dog, that was selectively bred for the face. Fighting other dogs is in its genes and this usually comes out around two years old in bully breeds. A properly bred fighting dog will be game (ready to fight) anytime, anywhere, but will never show human aggression because human aggressive dogs were killed on the spot to remove them from the gene pool because a judge had/has to be able to unfang a dog without getting bitten.

As far as which dogs she's agressive to, she had definately shown agression to and bit her sister and andother time when I had her and my other bitch (standard poodle)on a leash and she was really excited and overstilmulated she snapped at the poodle bitch but they were on leashes so I was able to just seperate them.

she has been in may shows and has no problem with other dogs when she just sees them. She can be within inches of other dogs and just focus on me and show. It's when she gets in this over stimulated zone. I'm talking about the bitch in the picture below.

And yes she is almost three. The situation I have is making it worse. I can't put her in the yard with any other dogs because I don't trust her. So I put her outside alone and she sita at the door and cries and starts to get a little frantic. She scratches at the door and digs and tries to get inside. I'm home all day with the little kids so I rotate dogs outside and in crates until he gets home so I can work with them. It's a viscious cycle because the more she's agressive/anxious the more she's isolated and the more she's isolated the more anxiety she gets.

Like I said I have never seen any agression towards people. She will do typical dominant things like bolt through doors but nothing major.

If it were me...I would probably train her to a treadmill if I couldn't tire her out some other way during the day. And plan on keeping her separated from the other bitch for the rest of forever.

You could always try either the approach that Ed teaches for fence fighting in the Dominant/Aggressive video, which will likely be frowned upon as oldschool (most of what I recommend from that video is, anyway), or do what Willie's doing with her new household pack member.

Here's a link to that topic: http://leerburg.com/forums/ubbthreads.php/ubb/showflat/Number/269981/page/2#Post269981