Please help. I've had Peaches since January. She is a border collie/American Bulldog mix. The only thing border collie about her is her spots, tail and speed at which she learns (when she wants to learn and isn't off in lala land) the rest of her is bulldog body. Which my poor right knee has found out since she collided with it twice putting me in a knee brace.

She will be 2 in July. I got her off craigslist from a woman who didn't want to part with her but she and her family had moved into a smaller place and there was no room for her. When I went to pick her up she barked and protected her family, but I walked in the door smelling like Mcdonalds cheeseburgers and dropped to her level and ignored her to get her to come to me. While there I watched the family. The husband and kids did not spend anytime with her. THey did not even tell her goodbye. The wife and I have kept in contact. Through the wife I found out that the husband trained her and she tore up a crate so they stopped crating her. She also bit a maintenance man since she slept in front of the door and he opened it and scared her.

She now has full run of a 1 bedroom apartment with 2 cats and is the most happiest dog in the world.

Since I've had her I've noticed that she goes nuts over men with ski knit hats and if a man stares at her it sets her off. The first night I introduced her to my boyfriend he came down with his hand to scratch the top of her head and she went off on him. He immediately pinned her to the ground and they're best buds now. In fact I get replaced by him every weekend in her book!

She also acts out if a man stares at her. Peaches will also act out if an African American man has dreadlocks, and sunglasses. She cowers and whimpers, frozen to the spot (her previous owners were African American). My boyfriend and I are working hard to get her out of her shell. She does not act this way around women or children. She is still afraid of 1 friend of our and his one brother. His poor brother has to drop to his knees and let her come up to him to get her to calm down.

The issue we had happened the other day. We've taken her to outings before where she met hundreds of people and she was the sweetest dog. But this past weekend, we took her to an airplane show (we've never seen a dog who will spend hours watching birds and planes fly she can even tell the different planes of our frineds apart). My boyfriend was judging planes, and I had to help out for about a half hour. I tied her to the plane. She then proceeded to get nasty and bark and try to attack a small dog who went near the plane and 1 person who tried to look in the plane, a friend of ours was next and he just went over to calm her down. When I came back to the plane she was fine. I talked to a guy for 20 minutes, the second he reached over to shake my hand she snapped and lunged after him barely missing his arm with her teeth. Not 5 minutes later my boyfriend came back and we had a guy come up talk to us play with the dog, scratch her and make friends until he went to reach into the plane and she went nuts again. My boyfriend then went and moved the plane and she was fine the rest of the afternoon. In fact she sat down and played with kids of all ages afterwards. We've had many offers from other pilots who want to hire her to protect their plane.

I love the protection she gives me and I don't want to lose her because of her acting this way. We do a lot of weekend trips that require a lot of socializing
We bought an electronic training collar for her.

All ideas appreciated.

Thanks Laura

Laura, I am not qualified to give advice about aggressive dogs, but one thing that you should be cosidering is having her evaluated by a professional dog trainer/behaviorist who has experience with aggressive dogs. It sounds like she is very fearful around certain men and is responding to this fear by lashing out and biting.

Certainly you should not leave her tied up unattended in public places anymore..

In the meantime, there is a lot of good info on this site for you to read. I highly recommend that you invest in the Pack Structure for Family Pets DVD that is sold here. Some of her problems may be related to pack structure issues.

Here are some links to free e-books get you started:

http://www.leerburg.com/pdf/packstructure.pdf (Pack Structure E-book)

http://leerburg.com/pdf/dealingwithaggressivedog.pdf (Dealing w/ Aggressive Dogs)

http://leerburg.com/308.htm (Link to DVD)

Laura... I want to throw an idea out there for you to think about... You say :

 Quote: laura williams

I love the protection she gives me and I don't want to lose her because of her acting this way. Laura

Which kind of seems to contradict. It's also a bit out of balance. If you allow the DOG to decide who is bad and who is good, you are allowing the dog to be in charge. Here is an example of that:

 Quote: laura williams

The first night I introduced her to my boyfriend he came down with his hand to scratch the top of her head and she went off on him. He immediately pinned her to the ground and they're best buds now. In fact I get replaced by him every weekend in her book!

Your boyfriend dominated her, so she listened. If a "bad" guy breaks in then dominates your dog, she will also listen to him!
Bottom line, you need to be the absolute center of your dogs' world BEFORE you start introducing her to the world. If she is not following YOUR lead when meeting people then she should not be meeting people yet because you have not built up the bond and working relationship WITH her yet. Also - if she misbehaves it should ALWAYS be you that corrects her. Not the person she is meeting, not your boyfriend. Please read those e-books taht were suggested above, and before starting with the e-collar please learn all you can about pack behavior and body language. Also read this article : http://www.leerburg.com/pdf/whocanpetmypuppy.pdf
It might give you a better idea of the "goal" in socializing.

The last one I recommend is here: http://www.leerburg.com/pdf/dealingwithdominantdog.pdf
Read these and the ones listed above BEFORE working with your dog again, or trying to take her anywhere. A lot of what seems to be going on is "mixed signals" and you not understanding the importance of things that are happening. Fixable, DEFINITELY! Hard work? absolutely. You came to the right place to get some help!
Have you found any trainers in your area yet? That is also going to be key... as long as they are experienced in dealing with this kind of thing. Make sure to get a good idea of what to look for in a trainer FIRST. Use this board to help with interviewing! Ask all the questions you can think of.

Edited by Cameron Feathers (05/22/2008 01:09 PM)
Edit reason: spelling