Bertie Wooster is officially a Canine Good Citizen (and we have the patch and certificate to prove it).  The testing person was very complimentary about what a good boy he is, and our agility teacher (who was observing and helping out) chimed in by telling her he's a super agility dog (she's never said that to us before!).  So it was a red letter evening.

But when we got home, little Ethel (who is 2) suddenly attacked Bertie apparently out of the blue, with lots of growling and flash.  They were sort of tussling on the floor a little while I was walking around, and I'm not sure exactly how it happened. He yelped, and I could not tell if she was actually biting him (but he had no scratches or marks, so I think he yelped out of fear).  I pulled them apart and she calmed right down, although growled a little when he came to close.  He, now, is giving her a very wide berth, and was very upset, needing a lot of hugs and pets to calm down.  I know I am anthropomorphising, but Ethel seemed contrite as if she'd made a mistake (that's just so you can understand how she is behaving).

Bertie is very easy going, whereas Ethel has always been somewhat fearful (of loud noises and dogs who are too much in her face), and she has growled and snapped (as a typical sort of warning, not attacking) if a dog bounces up to her with tons of energy and tries to get her to play.  She's fine with dogs that are calm -- and she's also fine once the bouncy dogs back off a tad, and she gets to do a little sniffing of them quietly.  She also doesn't like other dogs sniffing her for too long.  She'll allow a little butt inspection, but if it goes on too long, she sits down, the ears start to fall, and the lip starts to curl.  I take the dogs with me all the time (we live in rural CT), so they have met and played with all kinds of dogs and people, and are really comfortable in a lot of situations.  Ethel has NEVER shown an iota of aggression toward any people, ever.

Anyhow, all is quiet this morning, although they are both avoiding each other.  They ate their meals in the kitchen as usual, no problems, but Ethel has repaired to her crate and Bertie is lying with me in my office.

I just don't know what made her go off the deep end, and what exactly to do to make them comfortable around each other again.  What do you think?