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Dog to Dog aggresion

Posted June 5th, 2009 by Kaos
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I am an avid clicker trainer and all my dogs are trained using one. I am also working on expanding my knowledge as a Trainer. I have a Golden Retriever that get growly face at other dogs. However, it is not all the time. She does not lunge at other dogs. She sometimes even will greet them with mutual sniffing. Then go into attack mode. Other times she just instantly loves the other dog.
I know there is a way to resolve this using the clicker, but I want to avoid accidently clicking the aggressive behavior. Even if she is just thinking about it. Any ideas besides the obvious having her look at me when meeting a dog. I would like her to learn appropriate social behavior and to interact with other dogs. I do know she has SERIOUS issues with dogs acting at all dominent around her (ie putting their feet on her, head over body). Some of it seems dominance based and some seems almost fear based. She has been attacked by other dogs at least twice. Once by her mother when she went for a visit around 5 months old and once at PetSmart by a lab. She loves Rottweilers and Pit Bulls. She especially find puppy behavior insulent. She usually gives them the "evil eye". A sideways glance and gets stiff. She looks very much like Caesar Millan pretending to be an aggressive dog. lol

Thanks for any ideas you may have,
Kaos

Comments

re: Dog to Dog aggresion

Aidan's picture
On June 5th, 2009 Aidan says:

Hi Kaos, sometimes it's easier for me to give advice when the dog is dangerously aggressive, or aggressive all the time. Your Golden Girl is one of those dogs where you really need an experienced trainer to make an assessment. It sounds like she is actually just one of those dogs who likes to have a bit of a grumble to keep the other dogs in their place, which IMHO is perfectly acceptable so long as it doesn't lead to any real harm.

Has she ever hurt another dog? Has the growling every started a fight that has lead to her or another dog being bitten to the point that blood was drawn?

I will have a better idea of how to proceed when I know the answer to these questions.

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com

Dog to Dog aggression

On June 6th, 2009 Kaos says:

Hi Aidan,

I also agree that it is a perfectly normal way for dogs to show others ow they feel as long as serious injury does not occur. However, the rest of the world thinks she is a vicious killer and is going to eat there dog. Especially my in-laws.
She has caused injury to my other dogs. Very minor and usually when a human gets involved and tries to pull one of them out of the argument. She exhibits all the signed that should tell them to back off, but when they don't she pushes the issue until they do. My Aussie, that recently passed away, originally was the aggressor, but as she aged the Golden took over the 4 legged pack member "repremanding".
The issue I had to deal with tonight was resource guarding. Me. Off lead she is pretty cool about other dogs, but if she feels at all trapped she goes into attack mode. It sounds bad, but is usually just slap fighting and a lot of slobber. She will also guard food objects that she perceives could be hers. If left to there own devices the argument usually only last 10-15 seconds or until the other dog runs away screaming like she is dying. This has happened with my sister in laws 8lb Papillion.
I am trying to use petting both her and the other dog at the same time to demonstrate she has no need to guard (it worked with the Aussie when Arrow first came), but tonight she went after the mother in laws Sheltie and Father in law had a fit. She is my service dog and goes everywhere with me. So if She gets banned I essentially will be banned. Not good.

Thanks for your help,
Kaos

re: Dog to Dog aggression

Aidan's picture
On June 7th, 2009 Aidan says:

Hi Kaos, regardless of what anyone else thinks (not that I am discounting this), I think this is something that needs to be managed so I'll offer a few suggestions.

I would certainly work on the resource guarding. I like your idea of petting both her and the other dogs at the same time but I would split it down and take it further. Seeing as she is your service dog, you would probably benefit from having her perform some service behaviours with other dogs around. Set her up for success, make it easy and keep the trials short. Have her on a long-leash at first and have helpful people around, family are probably not particularly helpful because there are too many emotions attached and they generally aren't dog trainers.

It's not really so much a question of demonstrating that she has no need to guard, as giving her something specific to do. As she gets better and better, then you can have her perform her roles as you give the other dog attention, or in more confined spaces.

I guess what I'm getting at is that you must acknowledge how she feels and modify the situation to suit, but don't try to change how she feels - try to change what she does. Does that make sense?

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com

Dog to Dog aggression

On June 8th, 2009 Kaos says:

Hi Aidan,

That does make sense somewhat. When she is wearing her Service Dog attire she never gets to interact with dogs. Her service dog tasks are all involving touching me. So I will have to make up other tasks she can do and make up scenarios for her to deal with.
The aggression mostly happens when she is in a situation where she is expected to deal with another dog and they do not heed her body language or she feels threatened. I will add your suggestions to my training tasks. I will have to brain storm ideas of what she could do instead of getting aggressive, when she feels threatened or dominated. She responded well this weekend to clicking her when she was calm and allowed me to pet or feed the Sheltie and Dachshund.

Thanks again,
Kaos

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