Recently Started Dog Agression

[Sarah]

Welcome Back MaryAnn great to see you.. You are right, dog owners should always watch their animal's body language..

[Deaf Dogs]

Have you corrected your dog for going after another dog? I never correct my fear aggressive boy, ever. He is reacting because he's scared not because he has bad manners. He needs to know, that under every circumstance, I can be trusted. I make sure he's always on a leash, and I never allow him to get over his threshold of tolerance, on purpose anyway. We do everything we can to prevent unexpected meetings with other dogs, but that's not always possible. If we have a bad meeting, I just let him react, the second he calms, he gets a click and a treat, and a scratch from me. Within minutes, he's met the dog safely and we're on our way. The more dogs we meet, the better he gets. There's a book called "Click to Calm: Healing the Aggressive Dog" It's an amazing reference for people dealing with reactive/aggressive dogs

[MaryAnn]

Deaf Dogs.....Very good...our dogs need to know we can be trusted to always keep them safe.

I just cannot stand it when someone is chatting on their cell phones and ignoring what there dog is doing. I will not allow my dog to "meet & greet" another dog when that owner is not focused on their dog, as I do not know exactly how their dog will react to me or my gal. That is all I was saying.

Do you teach your dogs "Sign Language"? My little gal knows a few signs...Like "I love You" and "Thank You", as well as a few more.....I will sign to her if we are somewhere where I shouldn't be talking at the momment...like a club meeting or a class during instruction or whenever someone else has the floor. She caught on rather quickly.

[mia]

Yes, Exactely MaryAnn! When Holly and I go on our walk it is she and I. I have my cell phone with, just in case I would need something, never chatting.

[nanoki2]

Actually, my belief system is a bit different. What I do is calm her down myself. In a way, I guess its a correction but what I do if I know the dog she is going to meet is not going to hurt her, I put her in a down and allow the other dog to sniff her and praise her for allowing the meeting. It works well and any reactive agression goes away immediately. If its a dog whos body language is questionable, I pull her behind me so she sees me as the protector and she doesn't have to do it. That works well too. I've never used a clicker so I don't know much about that method. We have introduced her to several new dogs over the last few weeks and her reactions seem to be lessening. Another thing we've recently done that is working out well is we've taken in another dog. He's just a little guy (Yorkshire Terrier) but his energy matches her very well and she's VERY accepting of him. They are the same age. What we have discovered is that having the other dog also allows us to watch Casey for any behaviour that is unacceptable and it seems to be working well.

[Deaf Dogs]

Deaf Dogs.....Very good...our dogs need to know we can be trusted to always keep them safe.

I just cannot stand it when someone is chatting on their cell phones and ignoring what there dog is doing. I will not allow my dog to "meet & greet" another dog when that owner is not focused on their dog, as I do not know exactly how their dog will react to me or my gal. That is all I was saying.

Do you teach your dogs "Sign Language"? My little gal knows a few signs...Like "I love You" and "Thank You", as well as a few more.....I will sign to her if we are somewhere where I shouldn't be talking at the momment...like a club meeting or a class during instruction or whenever someone else has the floor. She caught on rather quickly.

I don't use sign language, but a mix of obedience hand signals and made up ones. My reactive boy though is hearing, not deaf. All 3 of my deaf dogs are good with other dogs. Scout my first deaf knows over 50 signs, Mouse my second, knows around 20 and Boo, my new rescue has learned 5 in less than a month. I use clicker training methods with my deafies too, Scout gets a thumbs-up and Boo and Mouse get a little LED click light.

[MaryAnn]

To add to this ... if you watch your dog and learn how they will react at something up ahead....simply change direction. Do not allow a confrontation to ensue.

Also....Check the ratio of protein and carbs in your dog's diet. Without a proper ratio...a dog who is fed too much protein and not much else....has been known to become aggressive.

[Deaf Dogs]

I'm sorry to contradict this, but this has never been scientifically proven In fact, it's been proven that dogs don't need carbs at all. Many who feed raw meat/bone/organ diets feel very strongly that this is a complete myth, raw fed dogs are not more aggressive. I do not feed raw, but have done a lot of research on the subject. I feed all 5 of mine a grain-free diet, and the only aggressive one of the bunch is one with extreme fear-reactivity.

To add to this ... if you watch your dog and learn how they will react at something up ahead....simply change direction. Do not allow a confrontation to ensue.

Also....Check the ratio of protein and carbs in your dog's diet. Without a proper ratio...a dog who is fed too much protein and not much else....has been known to become aggressive.