[TangoLover]

First post on here and I would appreciate any advice you have to offer me!

We adopted a 15 month old Lab/Boxer three weeks ago today from a home that wasn't able to keep him as the landlord changed his mind. She was not able to provide a lot of information to us about his past and it is pretty clear now that she probably didn't have him for very long. Before us he lived with his brother from the same litter. Ours was the runt of the litter and his brother was the biggest of the litter.

As soon as we met him we fell in love with him, he was a total mush ball! The same night we picked him up we took him over to our neighbor's to meet their 8 month old German Sheppard. The first meeting he was growling pretty good at the neighbor's dog so we removed him from the situation fairly quickly. For the first week or so he barked through the fence at the other dog, so we decided we should try and get them together again. The two of them now love each other! They'll run along the fence together and when they are together in the same yard they run around and play.

Unfortunately he is showing agression to nearly every other dog we come across on walks. Dogs that have showed nothing but friendliness towards him, only wanting to play with him, he with start growling and most of the time jump at them and show his teeth. It really doesn't matter what size of dog, it has been anything from a small dog to a huge rottweiler. In a couple instances where he has come really close to another dog they have begun to sniff each other and things seems good when he suddenly starts to freak out!

He is such a wonderful dog otherwise and is so calm and happy any other time! Any ideas on where this aggression is coming from? I was just told by the previous owners yesterday that when they had him the only other dog he interacted with was his brother, but from what I was told the previous owners before them said he was really good with other dogs. We are starting puppy training with him tomorrow morning. He is pretty good with basic commands, but I thought if anything this might help him socialize with other dogs in a controlled environment. I would love to "test" him out with other dogs on his walks, but not surprisingly people do not exactly like a 60lb dog lunging at their dog!

Any advice would be greatly appreciated!

[CorkyMax]

People How to Stop Your Dogs Aggression towards Other Dogs
You may find this site interesting But I sure wouldn't use the Prozac!!!
I put the words: dog agressive to other dogs in my browser and this is one of the sites listed. There is prob. more info you will find if you put those words in your browser!

[Long Island Dog Training]

As a dog trainer who has dealt with his share of aggressive dogs, puppies too, I know better to than to lend specific advice without observing the behavior. So, I will give you my general advice...get a professional dog trainer to come to evaluate what is going on. Aggression comes in many forms, fear aggression, dominant aggression, and a mix of both. I am a straight shooter when it come to dog training and behavior modification. This is a behavior MODIFICATION scenario if your description is right.

Behavior modification is intended to modify, not eliminate, this aggression. It may surpress it, and you may never see it again, but that would be a bonus and not an expectation.


I would seriously advice on getting professional help, this is alot different than command training.

[TangoLover]

Thank you for the info! So funny because when we went to puppy training he was sooo great with all the dogs at the store! There was a pug literally jumping on him and he was cool as a cucumber! The only time he had a bit of a freak out was when he was lying down and another dog sort of got on top of him.

The trainer recommended this "Gentle Leader" collar which I have been using on him for the past 4 days when we go on walks. When we have come across other dogs and he shows any sign of aggression I am able to distract Tango quickly (with the help of this collar) and have him take his focus off the dog.

His aggression does seem to be improving slowly as he gets exposed to more and more dogs. We came across the same dog he had a spat with the other night and his reaction was much better this time around. We came across a beagle tonight and he did not show any signs of aggression, so things are looking really positive!

We will continue with the training and maybe even take him to the pet store just for him to interact with other dogs on a regular basis.