Selective aggression
I've been bringing my dog to my new dog-friendly work place and noticed that he gets along with some dogs great like they're BFFs but with some others he growls and snaps at them almost within seconds. I thought at first he may just get along with females better since he may be trying to be the alpha male when another male is present, but he's snapped at and befriended with both genders, neutered/spayed or not. There's a female puppy at work whom he snapped and growled at right less than a minute into just meeting her, as well as another male dog. But he will play along with other dogs fine. It stresses me out since I never know if he's going to snap at the next dog he meets. If this persists (especially since the puppy is my boss's dog), I won't be able to bring him to work and having him alone at home doesn't help him socialize better.
I've had him since he was a puppy and he's always been great at dog parks, dog beaches and friends' homes. Any advice would be really appreciated!
I've had him since he was a puppy and he's always been great at dog parks, dog beaches and friends' homes. Any advice would be really appreciated!
Replies to This Discussion
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Permalink Reply by Sky and Lyla on
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How old is he? My Aussie started doing the exact same thing just a few months ago at 1.5 years. In fact, he really, really hates our agility instructor's dog, which is super embarrassing. I've tried watching him to see what it is that really sets him off. For him, it seems to be if another dog either stares at him (which is actually an intimidation tactic by the dog that is doing the staring) or if a dog sniffs him for too long. I have also learned to pick up on his body cues and have noticed that right before he snarks he gets very stiff. It's a subtle change, and other people watching don't catch it, but I've become in tune with him enough that I do and can stop the interaction before it goes bad. Then, when he doesn't growl or snap (normally because I pulled him away first) I tell him what a good, wonderful boy he is and sometimes even give him a treat. With the dog he particularly hated, every time that dog walked by him, I would give him several treats in a row, both to keep his attention on me and so he would start to associate that dog with getting treats (Note: I always stopped giving treats though if he decided to ignore me and growl because then he would think he was being rewarded for aggression). He has been getting a lot better since I've been connecting other dogs with positive things (praise and treats). Now, when I notice him start to tense I give him a "ah-ah" and it usually stops him. He'll turn to look at me and then I throw him a little praise party for being such a good boy.
By the way, where do you work that you get to take your dog? That sounds like the kind of place I would like to be!
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Permalink Reply by Vacationholic on
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Sky and Lyla - My corgi is 1.5yr old too! I'm just puzzled because I've taken him to dog parks, hiking trails, doggie day care to socialize him, and he never acts like this toward another dog. If anything, sometimes he's scared of another dog when I walk him and backs away. I wonder if it's because he's in a new environment and wants to establish alpha male status. Yet he doesn't act this way to every dog.
I work for an Internet company in LA. A lot of them (or startups in general) have casual environment and are dog friendly, or as friendly as your dog gets. :] I'll have to try the positive reinforcement too, but it's hard doing that at work since I would have to monitor his behavior with other dogs all the time.
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Also, be sure to establish a really reliable "leave it" command. I've started working on Sky's lately and now when I notice him start to tense or bare teeth I can say "leave it" and he will, but if I wait until he's already pounced it's usually too late. In fact, we were at the dog park tonight and he decided he really disliked this Boxer (I can't blame him, she was really poorly behaved) and after about half a dozen "leave its" whenever he looks her way, he began to ignore her completely.
I don't know what it is about that age, but I've heard simar stories from a lot of people. Sky too was socialized at parks, classes, and daycare from an early age and then one day... boom, it just happened. I think a change in environment certianly might trigger it. I personally think Sky's started when the super barky, growly, dominant Scotty moved in next door and kept starting fence fights.
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Permalink Reply by Beth on
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You've been given some great advice. I just wanted to add that I would not assume your corgi wants to be dominant just because he's showing aggression. Very often, truly dominant dogs don't need to show aggression to other dogs at all. My male Corgi is somewhat dominant (he's happy to be in charge, but he would be very unlikely to fight if another dog pushed the issue, which probably places him as a natural content-in-the-middle dog) and he's never shown aggression at all, yet I can't tell you the number of dogs we see out that he plays with that immediately roll over and show their bellies as soon as they see him, before commencing in any play.
When dogs show aggression, it's as likely to be fear or insecurity as dominance. At that age, dogs are really just moving from puppy-behavior with other dogs, to full adult-dog status. Sometimes even when fairly well socialized they can get insecure as to their place and what other dogs expect of them, and an insecure dog is more likely to show aggression. He also might just be snarking at other rude dogs, something a puppy would almost never do (lacking the status to have earned the right to correct anyone but a littermate) but now as an adult it would be normal.
Jack as I said has never shown aggression, but a few weeks ago my two were off-leash playing with a very rude pit-bull/ labrador mix. She was about 7 months old and literally kept running over the top of everyone. I was just about to say "Jack usually puts up with anything" when he turned around and gave a very loud yap/air-snap. And guess what? He did not get run over again, but they continued to play nicely together after that. In that case, the puppy's rudeness was obvious, but sometimes something has happened that is an absolute insult in the dog world but invisible to us.
By the way, correcting a puppy is a natural thing for an adult dog. I was not there to see what happened, so it's hard to tell just by your description if it was an actual aggressive move or just an adult's "puppy, you are rude!" response. Sort of like us saying "ah-ah!"
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Thanks for that insight Beth! As far as I remember, the puppy was doing nothing more than excited sniffing. The other adult dog is well-behaved and never shows aggression unless provoked. When they first met, they would do staring contest until the other dog's fur in his back stood up and Bumblebee growls with his teeth showing. As you can imagine, not a great thing to witness anywhere, especially in the office. Lately Bumblebee is better with the adult dog, but as soon as I give the dog any attention, Bumbles would jump up at me and bites at the dog at the same time. Major single child syndrome.
Today I even tried conditioning treats with presence of his "enemy" like Sky & Lyla suggested, but as soon as he saw the treat and knows another dog is near (wanting the treat as well), he became really defensive and tried to send away the dog by growling. I basically had to leash him to my chair all day and I know that's not giving him good signals either.
Now I'm dying to know, if it is an insecurity thing at this age, does it get better with age and if so, how long? I won't be able to do consistent reinforcement and training at work and seems like he'll have to be banned from the office until I can test him in other settings... My dog messed with the wrong puppy because the puppy belongs to my boss. It would just be really awkward to have my dog bully my boss's dog, :\.
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Is there any way you can walk them together at lunch or something? I think meeting suddenly like that in a confined area is probably not the best situation. Imagine being thrown into a new job with all new people, not being told who the boss is and not having any introductions and just being asked to get to work! That's sort of the situation we put our dogs in when we just toss them together like that.
The article Joanna referred you to is a good one. You also might look up "Nothing In LIfe is Free" and just sharpen up your place as leader in your dog's mind.
Showing teeth is not the same thing as yapping/ air-snapping, so I'm glad you clarified! If the other dog's hackles are raised, they mean business and since Bumblebee is not backing down and the other dog is not backing down, you definitely need to either avoid that situation or get it under control.
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Also, when you mention that they started a staring contest as soon as they met, that is a huge sign! It is often hard for us humans to realize who really is the instigator of these things. A lot of times it's not the dog that makes the most noise or movements. If the puppy is trying to be intimidating by staring, you might not notice it, but it could be what is setting Bumblebee off. Your best bet is to do what Beth suggested and try to get them used to eachother. Maybe even after a few walks give them somewhere to play off leash together (closely supervised). And when in the office (or anywhere really) once you see the staring start, immediately get Bumblebee's attention on something else, like puppy push-ups. Or, if he's too intent at that moment to break focus, which he very well might be, help him do it and turn him away or lead him away, and then praise him for not starting a fight.
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Permalink Reply by Joanna Kimball on
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Look up the article "He just wants to say hi!" by Suzanne Clothier. Snapping and growling isn't necessarily aggression at all; it's how dogs tell other dogs to behave. If they're approaching him in a way that's rude or chaotic, he's completely within his rights to use his mouth to tell them that what they're doing is unacceptable.
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Yes, what "Sky and Lyla" said about not always seeing what instigates is so true. When we walk our dogs, we frequently run into a woman and her husband who do rescue and are regularly walking a large group of dogs, 4 or 5 at a time. Jack usually loves dogs, but we saw them and Jack did not want to go anywhere near them. He kept hanging back and trying to leave. I didn't force the issue, and the woman later confirmed her leashed Aussie-mix is dog-aggressive.
Now, that dog did not make a sound, but was apparently giving off "keep away, this is my pack!" signals that were like a flashing neon sign to my dog. The sign was so obvious, in fact, that we were later in a training class with this woman and another one of her (dog-friendly) dogs, and Jack did not want to go near them for a class or two til he confirmed that the Aussie-mix was not showing up with them!
He's since become pals with some of her pack, so when we see them now he just carefully skirts away from the Aussie-mix to say hi to the others and the owners. But again, the point is that the Aussie-mix did not even curl a lip but my dog knew she wanted to take a chunk out of him, given a chance.
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This site is great when you need it the most! Thanks guys for all your feedback. I do agree that I may be seeing things only from a human's perspective. I'm not even 100% comfortable in my new job yet, so I can't expect him to be by being there twice a week, while meeting a new dog every week. Although I can't be sure what triggered the growling 100% of the time, I can't rule out the possibility that the other dog might have done something to irritate Bumblebee. On the other hand, I also saw Bumbles growling at the dog without any physical contact just because he's around, as if the other dog has stepped in his territory or something.
Maybe I'm not defining growling/snapping correctly. He doesn't really air snap. Sometimes when the dog he doesn't like is nearby, he just goes up to him and bites at his ears, not in the pure playful way that I see him with some other dogs, but more in the "let me bite you out of my way" manner. Obviously the other dog gets irritated, tries to bite back, and it's over by then. Usually this happens so fast that by the time I decided there was hostility, they're already going at each other, growling/yapping, paws up, crazy mean faces... It's the growling and attack-like movements that really alarmed people.
Today all the office dogs were brought to work (5 of them!) and they all played together outside in the grass. Someone commented "now only Bumblebee is missing". It kind of made me sad that my dog couldn't play cordially with the other dogs, but maybe it just takes time. It's also kind of embarrassing and distracting that he would bark every time someone comes through the front or back door. I could call it a "corgi thing" but another guest corgi isn't nearly as vocal.
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I have five dogs, a very loving and well-established pack, and they'll do that horrible-noises-stand-up-and-act-like-death-is-coming fighting at least once a day. It's scary-sounding but as long as there's no real fighting or blood I don't interfere. And there's never once been blood. It's a big vocal yelling match and then they both back off and shake and it's over. It seems to be the escalation of a disagreement that they couldn't solve with very minor/subtle signals; it's usually over food or (rarely) over something status-related like a place on the couch next to me.
It sounds to me like he's being the police, which is very common in dogs that feel a little insecure. He is going out of his way to correct other dogs and has taken that on as his role. The overly active barking is a hint too; he's trying to feel his way into the correct pack position and figures that policing everybody is a good start. I still think the other dogs are likely starting it; they're doing something he's interpreting as incorrect or rude. But he can be told to lay off and tolerate some nonsense from them; the trick is getting to know him well enough that you can shut it down before it gets even close to physical contact. You should be able to tell when he tenses or begins to listen to the other dogs, and tell him "No, that'll do." It's a lot easier to shut down behavior at that stage than it is to intervene once he's on the move or has even stood up or turned his head. Once he begins to look to you first, for a signal of how to address the noise he just heard or the dog he's just noticed, you've won the battle.
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