Hi, I just joined the forum a few days ago and have been having a look around, lots to see and read!! I'm hoping you guys can help me here. Sorry for the long post but I know I have to include every detail I can think of!
I have a 15 month old rottie bitch that I bred. We own her in partnership and she lives with the partners, good friends. She lives in harmony in the home with another rottie, a rescue male, neutered, nearly 3 years old now. Cara is a show dog, we dont work ours, (thats something for the future I hope!). The problem is in the last couple of months she has turned dog aggressive. She is show-trained and has had basic obedience training too, which she is good at. Her owners no longer let her off-lead when exercising because if another dog appears, even at the other end of a field, she will run over and attack - full on! She has gotten hold of another dog and fortunately Simon (owner) got hold of her pretty quick and nothing serious occured, but the intent was there.
She is fine with dogs she has already met and knows, she can come over to our house and turns into a submissive, friendly dog with all of mine,( I have 5, including her mom and dad) and behaves herself perfectly. I have taken her out for a walk myself and she doesnt put a foot wrong until she spots another dog. I can distract her with a firm 'NO!' but I know if she was off-lead she would ignore me completely and head right on over to the dog and attack.
At dog shows she is fine until a dog comes too close to her and then she will growl and snack at it. I cannot have this sort of behaviour at shows!! I have tried to work out what may be causing this, we dont know of any event that may have set her off on this road, she hasnt been attacked or anything. At first I thought it may be fear agression, but now I am not so sure, she seems so confident in her display of agression. I dont know whether to treat this as fear or dominance. She is very people friendly and has never shown any signs of agression to people. She will show agression to her litter sister though, who is also shown and the owners would travel together in one vehicle. We cant do this anymore as she will not leave her sister alone and keeps going for her (they have trained together as puppies and socialised together since birth). Her sister is a much quieter temperament though and very submissive to other dogs.

Can you guys help and point me in the right direction to correct this? Anything I have missed out and you wanna ask, feel free!

Well I think you answered a few of your questions all on your own

You said she can be re-focused back onto the handler, even if their is a dog, with a "no". So she must be leashed at all times. When she needs to run, muzzle her and keep her on a long line. Find places that you are not very likely to see other dogs/people.

She doesn't need to like every dog, she just needs to tolerate them and be respectful. So have you done any desensitizing?

If you use the search option of the forum, you should find many a thread on it. I would start with desensitizing her to other dogs starting from the closest distance that DOESN'T illicit a reaction and moving closer as she starts to ignore the other dog. Don't rush it, and don't cut corners, you will just get farther backwards!

As for the aggression with the sister, these two dogs must be kept seperate at all times. With committed training, the owners may be able to get them to be civil in the same space as long as the owners are supervising. For now, crate and rotate...or kennel and rotate. When travelling, crate the dogs. Then there is no chance for aggression AND it is much safer for the dogs to travel in crates in case of an accident.

Niomi - thank you for your reply!

Firstly, when in the car, the dogs are crated but Cara will not leave her sister alone - growling and snacking through the cage and it leaves Treacle rather nervous and she doesnt enjoy the show. She now travels with us and our dogs no problem.

I can get her to react to my 'NO!' but the owners arent as quick as me at pre-empting her. And she takes less notice of their commands! I think its because I'm firmer with her and she knows I wont stand for any nonsense.

I will do the search thing and look up de-sensitizing though, I was thinking something similar, but wasnt quite sure how to go about it.

Thanks again!

 Quote: Victoria Herbert

...when in the car, the dogs are crated but Cara will not leave her sister alone - growling and snacking through the cage

Perhaps they could try putting a visual barrier between the crates...cardboard, plywood, a sheet, something.

leih

I got my two seperated with crates and kennels. when I do have them out they are working. Obed training has to be wired tight. they don't have to love each other but they MUST obey. When I'm working them together and I see the first hint of ranking I give them a command to redirect them and reward both immediatly

Thanks for the replies!!

We have been away this wkend doing two big shows with hundreds of dogs about. I convinced Caras owners to put a check chain on her all the time as she reacts very well to a short sharp pull, if she lunges out to another dog. She lunged out once and snarled at a dog on the Saturday and I checked her and told her no in a very firm voice. She got such a shock and looked mortified at me!! She behaved very well after that for the rest of the weekend, apart from going to lunge once on the Sunday at another bitch standing close by, I managed to pre-empt her and she didnt do anything. I think as long as her owners keep up with the correct attitude with her, she will be fine now.

That is great that she responded so well to the correction and the interruption.

I think if you could bring her current owners with you, show them when to interrupt (and how to correct if they miss the interruption), they will be able to #1 see that it can be done, and she can behave herself and #2 how to go about doing it.

If they can not correct her like she needs to be corrected, they may have to look at an alternate home for the dog. With the small amount of info provided by your above post, it seems to me this dog is just lacking leadership. She needs to know what is expected of her and what will not be tolerated.

I am happy to hear this is something that can be managed with some stepped up leadership. Awesome job with this girl!

Oh, her owners were there and did see me working with her. I agree its a leadership thing and I think they got the message loud and clear!!

Cara is so much better behaved with me and my husband than with them. We had a long talk and I think we did get through to them what they need to do.

Thanks again!!