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Aggression or fear?

Discussion in 'Behavior' started by Simba13, Oct 17, 2014.

  1. Simba13

    Simba13 Forums Enthusiast

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    Jun 25, 2014
    Dublin
    My 8 month old Sheltie gets on great with other dogs but recently he has began to 'act out' around certain dogs. For example today he was playing happily with 2 dogs (a Leonberger and a Golden Retriever), then another young boxer cross came over and Simba came back over to me. Every time the boxer who is very high energy but extremely friendly came over or ran past us Simba would bare his teeth and bite at her pinning her to the ground. I put him back on his lead after the first incident and she came over before I had a chance to leave and he did it again.

    The strange thing is when we where leaving we walked the 10 minute walk to the gate with the boxer and her owner and Simba and the boxer chased each other and played as if the incident had never happened.

    I don't know whether or not he was scared because she was playing with the other dogs and knocking into us. I've never had this problem with my extremely large GSD. He seems to get on well with any dog (except husky's) whether they are high energy or layed back.

    Any thoughts on why this happened?
     
  2. cookieP

    cookieP Forums Regular

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    There's no telling exactly what Simba was sensing. I work at a doggie day care and observe large groups of dogs playing everyday, for hours at a time. Hard to tell what sets one of them off sometimes, but usually it has to do with one dog having unstable energy. The boxer may have come off as friendly and high energy to you, but Simba may have judged him as unstable. I see the harshest reactions towards unstable, wild high energy. Dogs consistently across the board do not like unbalanced energy. Unstable doesn't mean unfriendly. Oddly enough, many huskies in these kind of pack environments can exhibit unstable energy. We have had to expel several huskies just because their energy was so unstable the dogs would gang chase them to a dangerous point.

    With an unstable dog, playing can quickly turn to screaming/crying/running/chasing. And correcting from other dogs.
     
  3. Toffee's Mom

    Toffee's Mom Forums Sage

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    Definitely not aggression
    Don't let that Boxer run your lil guy over, I am glad you looked after Simba and then just went on with it. It's very important to monitor play, sounds like that Boxer was overly boisterous and had to be told off by Simba, which was an approbriate thing especially if that Boxer read Simba's body language, never correct Simba letting another dog know withbody language that they're too much!! This way he will keep his confidence, but I would be careful to let him interact with dogs you know more than ones you don't...
    Too many of these types of experience if your dog can't get away from an obnoxious dog COULD eventually lead to fear reactivity
     
  4. labgirl

    labgirl Forums Sage

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    Merlin would have done exactly the same. Certain breeds, boxers included, are very boisterous as teenagers and they can seem threatening or out of control to sensitive dogs. They are also very bad at reading doggy signals.

    Merlin put a young Dalmatian in its place the other day and the dog took no notice but kept coming back for more.

    Unfortunately I don't think the owners often help in these situations as they don't stop the dog being obnoxious and say things like "he has to learn" and so think it is a good thing your dog is growling and snapping at theirs.:rolleyes2:
     
  5. Caro

    Caro Moderator

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    Like Sophie mentioned, Boxers are one of those breeds. They're big, boisterous, and have zero skills at doggy language. Deska will also take on Boxers and pull them into line - he likes them generally as a breed but likes to establish some ground rules with them first. Fortunately he can also pick which ones will take a good growl in the right direction.

    Now that said, at 8mths old I wouldn't be letting a dog do too much of this pinning down. He is an adolescent himself so may get himself into trouble as he still won't be entirely confident at reading signals. Next time you see him growl at another dog and the other dog keeps coming on, step in and move the other dog away (or move him if you can't). It will also show him you are there to look out for him so he doesn't need to be scared. Big difference in size with a GSD and sheltie, doesn't take much for a sheltie to be injured by sheer exuberance.
     
  6. Simba13

    Simba13 Forums Enthusiast

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    Thanks a million for the reply. The boxer had a lot of built up energy after being neutered a couple of days before so she was playing almost frantically. I think I may have panicked a bit as I did had never seen a reaction like this from him before and the boxer kept coming back so leaving the situation was the best option! Luckily I know most of the 'regular dogs' in the park so I know what dogs are the best to let him interact with and which ones have a tendency to be snappy (a lot like my border collie when she's playing with her ball).
     

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