# dog on dog aggression



## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

Hello this is my first post. I actually came upon this site while searching for ways to improve on my dogs aggression issues. I don't know if there is something I can do to help it or if he just is what he is. He's 3 years old. We ended up getting hin fixed at about a year and a half to try and stop the dog aggression but, it did nothing. He loves my female golden (she was 2 y/o when we got him as a pup) but any other dog is fair game. He also loves people. He's never met a person that he didn't assult with kisses. It's not a leash issue. He acts the same off leash. It doesn't appear to be a handler issue because he is in a boarding in program right now and is still dog aggressive. I thought the extensive socialization he'd get from the program would help but, all the other dogs are now scared of him and any attempts by the trainer to get him to adjust to the other dogs failed. I figured I'd throw it up here and see if anyone had any advice. It looks to me like he is just dog aggressive and we'll just have to deal with it but, I'm no expert. That's why I'm here.


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## CeCe (Jun 1, 2011)

Is your other dog a male? Same sex aggression is not unheard of in this breed. He needs training to learn how to be in the presence of other dogs while on leash-I wouldn't ask him to be friendly to dogs off leash but he needs to learn self control. Look into LAT training and try to find a feisty fido class in your area. Talk to your vet about medication. It can help in some cases. E-collar work is also an option. Make sure to get an experienced trainer for that. Often this is a fear based genetic issue. One of my girls has the same problem and training has helped immensely. Good luck.


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

Yes he's male. He will litterally run across a field to get to a strange dog so that he can confront it. I could be wrong but, I don't think it's fear based. I've never seen him act afraid of anything.


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## jakes mom (Feb 29, 2012)

Harley's dad said:


> Yes he's male. He will litterally run across a field to get to a strange dog so that he can confront it. I could be wrong but, I don't think it's fear based. I've never seen him act afraid of anything.


When he does confront another dog exactly what happens? Does a fight break out - does he mouth, nudge, bark, or does he run up to them and then back to you?

How old was he when you had him, and how was he with other dogs when he was a puppy - would he play and was he well socialized? When did you first notice his behaviour ?

Sorry for all the questions but he sounds like our last dog. 
__________________
Sue


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

We've had him since he was a pup. He is well socialized with people, not so much with dogs. We live kinda in the sticks and when we walk him and stuff it's generally in the sticks too. That was why we sent him to the boarding in training that he is in right now. For the socialization. He's not taking to it though. As far as what he does when he confronts a dog, it can be him running up to the dog and posturing and pushing it around in a dominance display which requires very little to provoke him into escalating, but he has also run over to a couple of dogs out of the middle of nowhere and just jumped on them too. He does pretty decent on a lead. He will puff up and start to growl and I just give him a pop on his prong and he'll settle back down. He may throw a couple more glances at the other dog, but he lets it go. The biggest problem is that we have 3 dogs. The golden that he loves and our old dog (11 year old fixed male) who is very submissive and just wants to sleep in the bedroom. He has a thing with weakness. So he picks on the old dog and has attacked him multiple times over the last 2 years. We keep them separated, but once in a while he'll see his opportunity and take it. It's weird, he doesn't like it for dogs to stand up to him but, he also keys in on submissive dogs and will attack them too. It sounds like an extreme case of dominance issues but, it doesn't carry over to people. Anyone can put him on the ground by pointing at him and talking to him in a gruff voice. He doesn't challenge people at all. Sorry for the long rambling post.
Sorry I forgot a couple of the questions.. He played well with other dogs when he was little but, by about a year old he was starting to pick on smaller animals. Small dogs, cats etc. We chalked it up to a high prey drive and have now got him to deal with the cats. He'll still chase them but, he doesn't try and eat them and he is crate trained, so we put him in his crate when we aren't home. Just incase.


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## jakes mom (Feb 29, 2012)

Sorry, here I go again with one more question. Does he play with your golden? If so, is he rough with her and a bully, or are they equally matched, and does it ever get out of hand? 

The reason I'm asking that is our GSD was a bully, but he played great with our Dalmation bitch - they were rough with each other - but if he over stepped the mark - she would tell me off, and he'd back off. I would say she was the top dog. 
______________
Sue


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## Calindy (Feb 19, 2008)

It is a tough issue. I have 3 dogs, 2 females, 13 yrs & 2 years & 1 the male who is 8 yrs old. They are all rescues. The 2 yr old female was a foster dog we kept, and they all got along well for 4 months. Then the 2 females got in a horrible fight, and the older one was injured. The 2 yr old no longer gets along with the 13 yr old. They are all fine with people, kids, our parrots, other dogs, but they HATE each other! So they have to be seperated al ALL times, I do not want to risk another fight. It is a real pain, but I have no choice. There are some dogs (like people) that just do not get along, and there is nothing I have found that will change it. I have never had this situation before, and I hope I will never again! We have adjusted to "musical dogs," but it is not the ideal way to live! I tell people now I know where the word bitch comes from...LOL!


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## Clyde (Feb 13, 2011)

So far you have not mentioned the damage he has done to other dogs. Could you describe situations where your dog has broken skin etc.


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

OK to "jakes mom" He plays with my golden all the time. They are both fairly rough but, they stop as soon as I tell them to and just like your situation when he pushes her too far she lets him know and he backs off. There have been a few times that he didn't back off and they got into it a bit but, it was a snapping at each other kind of fight. Not really a full on trying to kill each other thing.
That brings us to clydes question. I'm only sure of one time he really did damage and that was only because there was nobody around to stop it before he had a chance to. He punched holes in the neck of our old dog that were dripping blood. There is a definite difference between when he is playing with my golden and they get into a sort of dominance scrap and when he really goes after a dog (like he does with our old dog). When he really lays into a dog he's trying to kill it. He'll latch on and thrash his head around. You have to physically remove him from the other dog.


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

Calindy said:


> It is a tough issue. I have 3 dogs, 2 females, 13 yrs & 2 years & 1 the male who is 8 yrs old. They are all rescues. The 2 yr old female was a foster dog we kept, and they all got along well for 4 months. Then the 2 females got in a horrible fight, and the older one was injured. The 2 yr old no longer gets along with the 13 yr old. They are all fine with people, kids, our parrots, other dogs, but they HATE each other! So they have to be seperated al ALL times, I do not want to risk another fight. It is a real pain, but I have no choice. There are some dogs (like people) that just do not get along, and there is nothing I have found that will change it. I have never had this situation before, and I hope I will never again! We have adjusted to "musical dogs," but it is not the ideal way to live! I tell people now I know where the word bitch comes from...LOL!


We pretty much do musical dogs too. It's only when one of the kids or someone leaves the bedroom door open that harley has a chance to get at our old dog. The old dog will just lay there and scream. He doesn't even fight back. It's not a constant thing though. They could be fine together for 3 weeks then one day harley will just go off on him. I've seen harley sleeping in the living room and actually wake up and instantly run to the back bedroom and attack the old dog. Almost like he was dreaming about beating up the old dog and when he woke up he was like "hey, that's a good idea!"


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## Clyde (Feb 13, 2011)

Your old dog doesn't have any medical issues does he? I know some dogs will attack dogs when they have a stroke or a seizure or just dogs they do not think are mentally stable.

Sometimes offense is the best defense when a dog is not confident about its relations to other dogs. Or he does sound like he is just plain not stable mentally. Sounds like a lot of management and control for you guys unless you can find a good behaviourist who can come in and properly assess the dog and tell you whether they think he is workable or a management for life type deal.

Not sure how good the person was that you sent him to but I am not a fan on working these type of issues without the owner present especially since the issue with your old dog is the most important one to get dealt with first. Not sure why he was put in a situation where all the other dogs could learn to be scared of him? Did this trainer explain his plan for your dog?


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## jakes mom (Feb 29, 2012)

Hi Harley's dad

Unfortunatley it's not unknown for two bitches who take against each other to fight to the death, and the only option is to keep them seperated, or rehome one of them.

I was thinking the same as Clyde, dogs will also turn against older dogs especially if they sense they are ill. It's an attempt to be top dog and drive the weaker dog away from the pack - this is what would probably happen in the wild because old or ill dogs will attract preditors. And in your case you also have a bitch in the mix, between your two males. Has Harley always been like this with the old male or was he ok when he was a pup, and this behaviour as shown itself since Harley has matured?

I'd also be very interested in how the Trainer is going about socializing Harley with other dogs. 

I doubt if there's anything wrong with Harley, apart from the fact that he wasn't socialized well as a puppy, and has no idea how to behave towards other dogs - or even your eldest one. 

That being said, I see no harm in getting his bloods tested, a full thyroid panel check might be in order, as thyroid problems have been linked to abherrant behaviours such as aggression. 

Has he ever been to Training school, apart from the one he's at now, and are there any in the vicinity ?

Does Harley behave the same towards other dogs if you walk him on his own - as opposed to walking him with Daisy and your older dog. I know our dog was much worse if our Dalmation was with us. 

How much exercise does he get and what's his level of basic obedience? Does he know, leave, watch me, sit, down, stay etc. - are they solid? And how about his recall? 

I would see how Harley gets on with the Trainer first and take it from there. 

These are some links into studies of thyroid problems - well worth a look.

DODDS-BEHV-THYROID

HEMOPET.HTM
_____________
Sue


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

OK, to clairify things from the start: The trainer he is with is a basic command type trainer, not a behaviourist. They do a good job with training basic stuff but, they are not the right people to diagnose and treat aggression issues. We are very limited here as far as what is available to us. His basic skills were lacking so we sent him to these guys to tune them up (we both work odd schedules and it makes it tough to work with him with the kids and all). I thought that being around the other dogs would help with his socializing. He wasn't sent there specifically for it. Daisy is generally not with harley when he is around strange dogs, so I don't think she is the contibuting factor in that situation. I have considered that he either wants to take the old dog (shadow) out because either A- He is old and as jakes mom said instinct tells him that an old dog would draw predators to the pack or B- Because the old dog just wants to hang out in the bedroom and not be an active part of the family harley doesn't view him as part of our "pack". Of course there is always option "C". He was bit on the face by a rattler when he was about 12 weeks old and after an emergency visit to the vet on a sunday night ($) he made it through fine. I like to joke that it caused brain damage. Who knows, maybe it really did. All in all I think it is probably just a combination of under socialization combined with just having a dog aggressive personality. If I had to choose I'd much rather have a dog that loves people and doesn't get along with dogs rather than the other way around. I'd just like to improve the situation if I can and I had high hopes that being around other dogs all day while in this training would settle him down.


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## mebully21 (Nov 18, 2011)

it could also be genetics..some breeders will breed certain traits in their dogs- DA being one of them DA is common in some breeds, moreso same sex. my last gsd had bad DA, i was told i trained her wrong.... when i met her 2 half brothers by accident their owners told me they were both over the top DA as well. my gsd and her 2 half brothers both had the same father,and all 3 had the same traits as each other.. some breeds are same sex aggressive, once they start to mature their DA becomes more apparent.. it was probably always there, and you just didnt see the signs . 

NEVER send your dog away to a trainer ..you dont know what they do to the dog, and its been shown that some dogs come back with more issues then when they left.

look for signs that set your dog off- is the other dog staring at him? giving the stink eye? dogs signals sometimes are very subtle, some so much that the human misses them completely.... its very possible your dog is reacting to other dogs staring him down, or their body language.

as far as taking your old dog out, some dogs will do that to an old sick dog.... my one dog tried to take out my rottie when he was dying of bone cancer.. once he figured out my rott wouldnt fight back he tried to remove him .. it didnt work, i kept them separated until he passed away.. 

some dogs just dont like some other dogs - just like people migh not like everyone they meet..

training to have him ignore other dogs on walks /public is the key now, this way he can learn to behave in public.

it took me a year of training with my female i had to get her to not act like a jerk in public when she saw other dogs.... but it worked.. it took alot of patience on my part.

a good book to use is Help for your fearful dog by nicole wilde on amazon.com- and i am not saying your dog is fearful- the book gives step by step training to work with a dog on ANY issue.. so you can use the book to your advantage to work on the dog issues ....


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

Thank you for the advice. While I wish he wasn't as dog aggressive as he is, he is manageable while in public. As long as he is on a lead it's not that big a deal. He'll start to puff up when he sees another dog and all it takes is for me to pop his prong collar and I can settle him down. I wouldn't walk him right past another dog and I can't turn him loose at a dog park (not that we have one) but, he's not hopeless. I've pretty well decided that he just isn't going to be trustworthy around other dogs. While I don't intend to give up on trying to make hime improve, I just don't think it's his thing. I wish I could figure out how to make him get along with the old dog but, he's never really liked him. At least not since he started to hit the teenage stage. I guess I should just be happy he like daisy and loves people. While it sounds a bit harsh, shadow is 11 and his time is somewhat limited.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

JMHO, from dealing with both ends of the spectrum, fear aggressive dogs and knuckleheads.

He sounds like a confident dog, who is a little hard, meaning he bounces back from a prong correction quickly. If this is the case, you just haven't given him a proper correction. If he continues the same behavior that you have corrected him for, the correction was not hard enough. In the words of Mr. Frawley, 1 good correction is better than 1000 nagging ones. 

If he is in fact fearful, I would recommend the BAT method of desensitizing him to stimulus that he reacts aggressively towards. Behavior Adjustment Training (BAT) | Official site for BAT: dog-friendly training for reactivity (aggression, fear, frustration) by Grisha Stewart, MA


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

He does quite well with the prong collar. It's when he is off lead that bad things can happen.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

Put him on a long line and give him some more freedom, praising and rewarding for good behavior. That's the step between a 6 foot leash and off leash.


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## jakes mom (Feb 29, 2012)

Hi

When's Harley due home from the training centre, and do you know what methods the trainer uses? 
____________
Sue


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## mebully21 (Nov 18, 2011)

my one dog doesnt play nice with others, he is DA and DS (dog selective) so he only gets to play with my gsd female.. i dont care that he doesnt like other dogs, as long as his temperment is stellar with humans that is what matters most.. yeah its a pain in the butt that he cant have doggy friends, but he doesnt need them, he has my female gsd to play with and that is good enough...


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## sashadog (Sep 2, 2011)

We're up in Fort Collins and I know that it would be quite a drive for you but have you looked into Two Bears Dog training? They are near Denver I believe but they came highly recommended to me and I was very impressed when I talked with them. They are trainers but are also very behavior savvy and we were going to work with them on the aggression between our two females but had to put that money towards medical bills instead. I did have several hour long phone conversations with them however and are saving up "dog funds" again to have some private lessons with them. 

I know it's a far drive but it might be worth it if only for a couple of sessions. In my experience with our girl, this is a problem that is greatly helped by an outside expert. Luckily it sounds like you already have a head start in that he's manageable when on leash.


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## martemchik (Nov 23, 2010)

This dog should never ever be off leash...you know what he can do and you still let him roam free? Unless you can call him off (which it doesn't sound like you can) before he gets to the other dog, he should always be under your control. I don't think you'll ever get your dog to accept/like other dogs. He's too old for that kind of behavior modification. You need to work on LAT and not allowing him to see the other dog and reacting to it. He should be paying attention to you at all times, so that he will completely ignore the other dog.


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

Harley comes home friday. They are into positive reinforcement training, aside from that I don't know the exact specifics. They are simply working on his basic obedience though. Not the D/A
mebully21 that sounds like my dog.
Denver is pretty far. Not undoable for a couple of sessions, but it is a ways. I'd probably try searching around in the springs for a good trainer first, before commiting to taking him to denver.
martemchik I do not allow my dog to "roam free". I am going to look into the LAT training though. Most people on here seem to have good things to say about it's effectiveness and it's sure worth a try.


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## martemchik (Nov 23, 2010)

It was pretty clear from your posts that you had more than one experience with your dog confronting another dog off leash and then he gets set off by the other dog reacting to his strutting...that's roaming free. Just because you're running after him doesn't make it not roaming free. He should've been leashed after the first incident and never allowed off until you worked on this issue.

I'm sorry, but the whole forum goes off on people when someone posts that they ran into an aggressive off leash dog, saying how as a person walking your dog you have all the right to do whatever is necessary to protect yourself and your dog from such an animal, but then when an owner that allows this to happen no one says a thing to them. Its great that you are trying to fix this problem, but testing your dog on other people's dogs that aren't consenting to it is just plain wrong. You can't just use strangers and their dogs to see if your dog is getting better, or if this was a fluke, this isn't a little bark, your dog clearly doesn't mind drawing blood and fighting to the death.


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## cliffson1 (Sep 2, 2006)

Some dogs are naturally DA, not many, but a few. Most DA is a result of environment, handler or situations. Any behavoir that is learned canusually be unlearned in the right hands. But for the few natural DA dogs, they will pretty much always engage another dog. Not saying your dog is naturally DA, but if he is; prevention is the best course.


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

I have only personally been there when he has gone after someone elses dog one time and he broke the rope (admittedly not strong enough rope) that I had him tied in the back of my truck with and bailed out to do it. Has he done it more? Yes, but I wasn't there. I HAVE been there when he has got our older dog multiple times. I have never let him run loose at a park or in town. I do not "test" my dog on non consenting bystanders, with the exception of walking him on a leash out of reach of other dogs so that I can correct his reaction. Rather than just assuming I turn my dog loose on there people's pets why don't you try asking me if I let my dog run free and let him confront other peoples dogs. Sorry if this sounds a bit rude but, reading a post that makes it sound like I feed my dog people's yorkies for breakfast kinda sounds rude to me too.


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

I now realize my best bet is to take him to a behaviorist and have him assessed. I'm not sure when I will be able to do it but, for now prevention and staying on top of him will have to work. I'm going to read up on ways to improve on it and see if I can make any improvements in the meantime. It may be a product of environment etc. but, it seems to be pretty ingrained. I'm sure that a large contributing factor is that I didn't socialize him enough with dogs when he was younger. It may not have prevented it but, it probably would have reduced it.


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## martemchik (Nov 23, 2010)

Harley's dad said:


> I have only personally been there when he has gone after someone elses dog one time and he broke the rope (admittedly not strong enough rope) that I had him tied in the back of my truck with and bailed out to do it. Has he done it more? Yes, but I wasn't there. I HAVE been there when he has got our older dog multiple times. I have never let him run loose at a park or in town. I do not "test" my dog on non consenting bystanders, with the exception of walking him on a leash out of reach of other dogs so that I can correct his reaction. Rather than just assuming I turn my dog loose on there people's pets why don't you try asking me if I let my dog run free and let him confront other peoples dogs. Sorry if this sounds a bit rude but, reading a post that makes it sound like I feed my dog people's yorkies for breakfast kinda sounds rude to me too.


Now you're assuming things. I never said you let your dog eat other people's dog, but why were you not there the other times he has gone after other people's dogs? Knowing you have a DA dog, how is it that he was allowed to do this more than one time?

I never said you allow him to run loose, but somehow he ends up off-leash in the face of another dog...the assumption is that you walk him without a leash. I completely understand you don't allow your dog to just roam daily, but when you walk him, is he on a leash? If he is, how is it that its possible for him to "attack" more than the first time when he broke a rope somehow.

To me, a behaviorist is a great idea, but I would look for someone that specializes in LAT. I don't think this behavior will be changed, it just has to be managed and any off-leash interactions with dogs should be completely stopped.


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

Yeah, sorry. I was in a bit of a bad mood and that just kinda got to me. He has gone after other dogs while staying at friends houses (their dogs) while out with my wife and getting away from her (still not exactly sure how that happened), most recently at this dog training place where they were at the other end of a large field and working on some sort of off lead stuff and he took off and tore all the way accross the field to get to another dog. I always walk him on a leash and usually we aren't walking him in town anyway because we'd have to load him in the car to take him to town just so that we could walk him there. It's easier to just leave from the house and walk him out here where we live. I have no problem with him never being allowed of leash in public. It's just not his thing and he does acceptable when on a lead around other dogs. I can take him to the vet and sit in the waiting room with him with out too much of a scene. I just make sure he doesn't get close enough to another dog for an accident to happen. My biggest concern is trying to get him to tolerate our older dog for his (the old dog's) last couple of years. I know they can never left alone unsupervised but, I think there should be a way to make things a bit more manageable. Anyway again, sorry about that. I don't like these stupid computer forum things. You don't get any inflection, tone, etc. when reading something and it's easy to take posts as condecending or misinterpret intent.


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## sashadog (Sep 2, 2011)

Honestly, if I were in your shoes, I would do everything in my power to keep him away from your older dog. If that means crating him when the older guy is around or putting up baby gates, do it. I'm of the belief that older dogs have the right to live out the rest of their life in peace without having to worry that they're going to be attacked. Often times even getting the stink eye constantly can really stress them out. Sure, this will be hard on you and it makes schedules and whatnot more difficult but the older guys deserve to sleep and chew on bones and enjoy their golden years in peace. I don't mean any of this in a condescending way as I understanding the emotion that comes up when your own dogs fight  It's a tough situation. 

I would strongly suggest even just calling the folks at Two Bears as this was the exact reason why I needed their help. Even just one training session might help you get headed in the right direction as far as managing them goes.


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## mebully21 (Nov 18, 2011)

harleys dad, instead of working with him to co exist with your older dog, just do a room/rotate.. since you know he will go after your older dog, keep them separated 24/7 from now on

as far as the DA, i socialized the **** out of my last gsd and she decided at maturity she didnt want to like other dogs anymore.... after meeting her 2 half brothers i decided i didnt mess up and it was genetic, while she was fine with my other 2 house dogs, she just couldnt be around strange dogs. take the time to work with him to get him to ignore other dogs, and seriously get the book Help For Your Fearful Dog by Nicole Wilde on www.amazon.com- your dog is not fearful, however the steps the book shows on how to recondition a dog is well worth getting the book.. you can definitely use the techniques on your dog with other dogs from a distance, and it explains step by step in easy detail how to do it...

you cant fix genetics, you can only manage it.. 

and be very careful of trainers who state they can "get rid or train out " the Dog aggression... that can backfire and make the dog even more reactive.... and never send your dog out for training... you dont know what they do to the dogs, and your dog could come back with worse behavior.. there is NO quick fix to dog aggression.. it takes time time time and patience patience patience to work with a DA dog


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## jakes mom (Feb 29, 2012)

sashadog said:


> Honestly, if I were in your shoes, I would do everything in my power to keep him away from your older dog. If that means crating him when the older guy is around or putting up baby gates, do it. I'm of the belief that older dogs have the right to live out the rest of their life in peace without having to worry that they're going to be attacked. Often times even getting the stink eye constantly can really stress them out. Sure, this will be hard on you and it makes schedules and whatnot more difficult but the older guys deserve to sleep and chew on bones and enjoy their golden years in peace. I don't mean any of this in a condescending way as I understanding the emotion that comes up when your own dogs fight  It's a tough situation.
> 
> I would strongly suggest even just calling the folks at Two Bears as this was the exact reason why I needed their help. Even just one training session might help you get headed in the right direction as far as managing them goes.


I agree with Sashadog about Shadow. 

As a matter of interest do you and your wife or older children (if there are any) ever take Shadow and Harley for walks together? That would probably mean muzzling Harley, but you can use a basket muzzle and give Harley a treat from a tube, such as cheese spread, for being calm. I assume they both enjoy going for walks and it be could be good for them - especially if Shadow feels safe, and has loads of treats as well, so he doesn't feel so stressed. 
____________
Sue


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

We do the room rotation thing and it would work much better if my kids (all of them old enough to know better) didn't insist on forgetting to close doors behind them. I do need to work on that (with them). Harley is crate trained and enjoys his crate, however if we put him in his crate shadow will still not comfortably hang out in the living room. He'd still prefers to be in the back bedroom where he knows that he is safe. We also walk shadow and harley at the same time and I's never been an issue. They both enjoy it and harley has never gone after shadow during a walk. They are both on leash while walking but, neither one has given any signs of stress or aggression and (while we don't intend to do it) I think they would be fine off lead together during a walk. Harley doesn't go after shadow on a nonstop basis. It's a weird random thing. There seems to be no indication of when he is going to "snap". As I said before I've seen him wake up and jump to his feet and go after him. He can also sit quietly in the living room with him with no problems. Of course we no longer try and let them sit in the living room together because of that every once in a while that it doesn't work. Anyway, we can and do walk them together and no muzzle or other special tools or tricks are needed. They are both just happy to be out walking.


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

mebully21 That sounds about like harley. He was around a year old when he really started to have dog issues. We thought getting him fixed would take care of it because that seems to be a common "solution" to a lot of dog aggression issues. It didn't change anthything about him. Aside from the physical part of them actually being gone you'd never know that something had happened. I'll have to look into that book. I can certainly stand to learn more about how to manage my dog. I've had quite a few dogs but, this is the first one I've had this issue with.


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## jakes mom (Feb 29, 2012)

That's good that you can walk them together happily at least. 

Did you take a look at the link for Thyroid problems? I think I'd have him tested to rule it either in or out - as these problems apparently can start from a year old.
____________
Sue


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## Harley's dad (Apr 28, 2012)

I forgot about that. Thank you for reminding me. I skimmed through it and some of it sounded very spot on and I intended to go back and read the whole thing but forgot. I'm leaving for work now but, I'll read the rest of it when I get home tonight. I do think I will make an appt for the vet to test for that though. Some of it really sounds like harley.


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## jakes mom (Feb 29, 2012)

Hi Harley's dad

I was wondering how Harley got on with the training, and if he's settling back in at home?
___________
Sue


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## Akozub24 (May 28, 2012)

Hi - I just got my first dog ever and he is a German Shep. He is only 4 months but he get aggressive towards other dogs, but only sometimes. He plays so well in my boyfriends families pack of 7 dogs of al dofferent breeds. But when another female dog came over to my parents he freaked out and his hair stood up on his back and showed his teeth when he was barking like crazy. I know they have loud barks but I don't like how he can be nasty with some dogs and fine with others. We like to take him places and I do not want to worry how he will act when another dog comes into play.


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## jakes mom (Feb 29, 2012)

Hi Akozub24 and welcome.

If you start a new thread of your own you'll get more help. It gets confusing when different posters want help in the same thread. 

Just copy and paste and perhaps put in the the Puppy Training Section.

Thanks
________
Sue


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## Akozub24 (May 28, 2012)

Thanks!! i did


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