Serious aggression towards other dogs from pup

willmunny1990

My new pup whos 5 months now is seriously aggressive towards other dogs, he hates them and I can't stress enough the word hate.

If he catches a glimpse of a dog outside while hes playing in the garden he goes nuts, runs around barking and growling mad, the same in the car if he gets a glimpse of a dog he goes mad, the other day while we were parked a woman walked by with a dog in the distance and when mine saw him he literally bounced his head off the window in a temper, barking and growling mad trying to get out to him.

Today was the worst, I was sitting with him in a park and a woman walked past us and he was literally chomping at the bit trying to get to him, straining mad barking and growling. The hair on his back goes up like a Mohawk and he strains trying to get over to the other dog.

Hes a terrier/collie cross and I was looking for some advice on how best to deal with this.

bmwguy

Have you made any attempts to socialise your pup with other dogs? I have one just a couple of months older and she is fine with other dogs and always was. A trip to local dog park or training and socialization classes might be needed. If he/she doesn't interact with other dogs it might be the cause

willmunny1990

bmwguy wrote: »

Have you made any attempts to socialise your pup with other dogs? I have one just a couple of months older and she is fine with other dogs and always was. A trip to local dog park or training and socialization classes might be needed. If he/she doesn't interact with other dogs it might be the cause

yes hes been around other dogs since Ive had him, hes slowly but surely gotten worse with strange dogs for some reason. He gets on fine with my older dogs its just other strange dogs he hates.

I was recommended socialization classes and I have gotten the number for someone who does it in my area.

Nody

willmunny1990 wrote: »

yes hes been around other dogs since Ive had him, hes slowly but surely gotten worse with strange dogs for some reason. He gets on fine with my older dogs its just other strange dogs he hates.

I was recommended socialization classes and I have gotten the number for someone who does it in my area.

But did you bring him to dogs he did not know of various sizes as a pup? Because the first thing coming to mind is like poor socialization as a pup (i.e. not meeting a lot of different dogs at different locations) and the dog aggression is simply fear that's being acted out.

Either way I'd say you'll need more then just socialization classes (as you're far away from the sweet spot) and should consider professional (as in certified, not bob the cowboy down the street who claims he knows dogs because he watched a certain TV host strangling dogs) help as well.

Frigga_92

I would say he wasn't socialised enough. It's great that he gets on with your other dogs but that's not the same as strange dogs.
And the time to tackle this is ASAP. You need to sort it while he's still so young and before it gets worse.
Look into the classes in your area.

willmunny1990

I have looked into classes at the moment im waiting to hear back from a woman who does puppy socialization classes in my local vets.

He was always walked around other dogs in different areas, this problem just started creeping in slowly and kept getting worse and worse for some reason

ShaShaBear

willmunny1990 wrote: »

I have looked into classes at the moment im waiting to hear back from a woman who does puppy socialization classes in my local vets.

He was always walked around other dogs in different areas, this problem just started creeping in slowly and kept getting worse and worse for some reason

We had the same problem with our Opie. Walked twice a day and would have had sniffing time with roughly 5 different dogs on EVERY walk! Not to mention visits to the in-laws dog, and a foster saluki that lived with us for a few weeks, and a rescue terrier that he played with at my partner's football games. When he started to mature sexually, he would get reactive on the lead, pulling and baying, which meant a lot of people would avoid him and he met less and less dogs. The last dog he met, he attacked (although in fairness the other dog didn't seem too impressed with him either). Now he flips out on walks when he sees another dog and were taking him to training for his manners. The lady doing it said she will work on lead training last and try to at least get him unresponsive and work up from there.
Same as you though, it got progressively worse for seemingly no reason. Not one single dog he met showed any aggressive behaviour!

Worth bearing in mind and by no means is this a lazy way of not dealing with the problem but sometimes it's the genetics of the dog itself that needs to be managed but this should only really be mentioned after a number of tried and tested professional training methods.