I am relatively new to the board. I have gotten a lot of information from past posts and was hoping the group could help me with this situation.

I have a 1-year-old male Mal named Cody. He has very high drive and is well socialized with people. He has been through a novice obedience coarse and did extremely well. I am continuing his obedience and beginning tracking. He has done some bite work with our local Schutzhund club and he loves it. I got him at five and a half months old from the breeder. She was going to hold on to him for a year and train him and than sell him for more but she decided to breed another one of her bitches and didn’t have the time for the training. She had three other males from a different litter that were six or seven months older. The older dogs heavily dominated Cody.

The problem: He is shy around other dogs If we are at a park training and a dog comes running up to us he drops his tail and ears and his hackles come up. If the dog gets closer and is pushy he will turn his head away in a lowered position. He has raised a lip on two occasions and nipped as he turned his head away. He wasn't trying to bite the other dogs, they were within inches of him and if that was his intention he could have. He nipped the air as he turned his head away from them. Both these times the dogs were unfamiliar and overly forward. If the dogs walk around him and aren’t two forward he is fine

There is an advanced obedience coarse and the training is done in very tight groups with other dogs. Cody is very nervous and uncomfortable and keeps checking to make sure other dogs aren't to close. We took the novice coarse with this same group and there were several biting incidence. In the advanced coarse there are no aggressive dog problems. This is not the Schutzhund Club, he has no problem there, in fact he likes it.

Should I continue to take him to this other advanced obedience coarse?

Sorry for the large post. I felt the information was necessary.

Gary

The breeder should know better than to let a dog get dominated by another one. Every dog should have the chance to develop his own personality. Since he was the 'underdog' for quite a while it is possible that he will remember this always. He is still young and his reaction is normal. What I would worried about that if he gets older and stronger that he will be aggresive around other dogs. You can try to expose him to young dogs and puppies. He will not feel threatened and you can build up from there. But on the other hand these young dogs might be dominated by yours and this is not good for them. I realize now it's hard for me to give a good advice.

I would make sure he meets alot of older males that are really nice. Now by "meeting" I do not mean setting up the dogs to be friends. I mean working beside dogs that don't really even look at him. These dogs would have to be impeccably trained in obedience so you will probably have to talk to a couple great trainers and ask for their help. If the 'advanced obedience course' has ONLY such dogs (at least the males) it will be great for this dog and he will soon see there is no threat.
Meanwhile you should correct any aggression coming from him towards another dog for any reason (correct even his weird looks at another dog -don't wait for him to growl or snap). You don't want him to learn to get away with that as it will soon become worse. Lastly you must always keep your mind on protecting him from another bad experience. Even another male dog just walking up to him at this point is another bad experience as he will growl at it and either a) intimidate it or b) get his butt whipped - both bad. Don't have him around any loose dogs (or free from a command). Train him to ignore other male dogs. This is easier if he stays around dogs that ignore him for the next few months. I believe with proper work he may be able to fully recover and totally relax around other males -not 'friendly' -just relaxed when they are not posing any threat. Playing with GIRL dogs that are friendly, playful and around his age and size will teach him to have fun and proper doggie etiquette without teaching him to dominate.

What exactly do you mean by "several biting incidents?"

It depends on what you want to do with Cody. If you think he's got the ability for Schutzhund training, I would say no. Drop the Advanced OB. As long as he is under control and focused with other dogs, you've achieved all you need to in a group class. Don't put him in situations that will re-enforce the submissive behavior. Any advanced training you think he needs can be done on your own.

If you want an all-arounder - a family pet who can do obedience, some tracking, some agility, then yes, continue the advanced OB class. He's still young enough that, with repeated safe exposures, you might be able to make him more comfortable around other dogs. Maybe not social, but at least not worried.

Just make sure the other dogs keep a reasonable distance. I don't like people sticking their nose in my face, either.

I agree the breeder failed this dog, but sounds like you'll be able to make it up to him. Good luck.

Thank you for all of the advice.

David, you are right it was a bad move by the breeder but aside from this he is a great dog. I have exposed him to other younger dogs but never without my supervision and I won’t let him even begin to dominate them. We also have a 5-month-old lab that he loves.

Stella, I have been introducing him to friendly dogs. Certain dogs he has no problem with. I hike on a regular basis with friends who have a large male rotti and a smaller dominant female. We all hike off leash and there are never problems in our Schutzhund class the dogs are under strong control and very obedient. We train in lines six feet apart and it is also at a different field and he has no problems. The advanced obedience class is where the main problem is. He gets nervous when we walk on to the field. I think he remembers the biting incidence.

1.First day of class medium sized nasty rat dog constantly lunged at all dogs near it. Broke it’s leash and attacked the instructors Shepard. Advanced trainer came and worked with the owner.

2. Two weeks later the same dog got hold of a dog, owners fault and killed it. Dog was put to sleep.

3. Rotti handled by a 13 year old with no experience. Dog lunged at other dogs for first four weeks of class. Instructors tried to work with handler but he was too inexperienced to be handling a dog like that. He couldn’t read his dog so he was never prepared.

4. Another dog, mutt was also dog aggressive and bit another dog, and they finished the class on a muzzle. Dog wasn’t aggressive when muzzled.

5. We had one more incident. Two dogs that never had any issues got into it on a healing exercise where the instructor had us weaving trough the group.

Linda, I am training him for SAR. I don’t think I’ll do Shutzhund because the instructor is moving in June and I may have trouble finding someone to work with. Problem is we don’t have a lot of open areas to train and I run into people that have no control of their dogs and let them off leash more often than not. Again, he has never gone after another dog and if his hackles go up I immediatly correct him and they go down. He doesn't like dogs in his face.