# Never shown a sign of aggression... before today:(



## SocalGSDLover (Jun 4, 2019)

Hi all!

Background information my sweet girl Maisie is a four year old German Shepherd that I rescued from a shelter just over 2 months ago. Since arriving in our home she’s been nothing but a sweet angel with people and dogs, including our cockapoo who has declared himself as alpha. 

Taking her on walks she’s pulls to go near other dogs but has NEVER barked or growled she just LOVES to be around other dogs. And we’ve taken her to the dog park and again she’s again never been aggressive. She play bites like every dog does but it’s never been anything but playful. 

More information that may be necessary is I am definitely her “leader” out of my family. This morning my mom took her for a walk by herself and she came home in tears saying that she was growling and barking at every dog and even attacked one (luckily no blood or injuries).

I’m wondering what could’ve sparked this random aggression. She’s truly been the sweetest dog I’ve ever had so this was really shocking to hear. We are going to take her back out today with me to see how she is cause I’ll be able to calm her down if worst case she is aggressive again but I’m really concerned about this behavior.

Hoping for any advice or insight!!

Thank you!


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

2 months isn't a real long time. My first thought is almost always what you thought of as play biting, wasn't really just play. Be careful about the smaller dog being what you think of as "alpha". I'd make sure there isn't conflict going on there, because like you saw with todays walk, her acceptance and tolerance may not be exactly what you thought you were seeing. Make sure you guys are controlling everything, don't let them just work it out.


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## middleofnowhere (Dec 20, 2000)

Well, I suspect handler error. Hypothetically (or discerned from the post not the full story but) Mom doesn't know crap about dogs - when it was going south, she could have turned north - ie headed home instead of pushing and pushing and pushing. Know your limits, know your dog's limits. Dog likely has no confidence in Mom taking care of things.


And follow Steve's advise.


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## Steve Strom (Oct 26, 2013)

On another thread you mentioned her getting anxious when she's separated from you. You mentioned liking the bond. Look at it a little differently and remember its only been 2 months with her. Instead of bond, think about insecure, or needy and you being a little bit of a security blanket for her. You could be strengthening those insecurities, babying her, and in times you aren't there to be a crutch, she's more willing to act out. 

What may help is working on a more structured routine. Same time for this, same time for that. This time with you, this time with mom. And mostly, time doing nothing in between and then doing something consistent at the same time. Something like coming home at the same time every day and going for a walk. Down time and predictability for her for a longer time then just 2 mos and see how it goes.


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## Aly (May 26, 2011)

The only thing that I'd add to Steve's excellent advice is to _make sure that you and Mom on are exactly the same page when it comes to what you do with the dog (before, during and after walks, for example) and how._


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## Sunsilver (Apr 8, 2014)

Train you dog to ignore other dogs when it's on a walk. Problem solved! She should NOT be allowed to pull towards every dog she sees! That is NOT a well-trained dog! 

What if the other dog isn't friendly? People have dogs that are dog-aggressive or frightened of other dogs, and they still need to be exercised.

YOU should be the one controlling the walk, NOT the dog! The below article applies to dogs on-leash, as well as off-leash.

Going to the dog park increases a dog's expectations that it's going to be allowed to play with every dog it sees. Not to mention, you have no control over the behaviour of other people's dogs, and they may not be a friendly as their owners think they are! I could tell you many stories of people whose dogs have been seriously injured or even killed at a dog park. I have a few of my own, like the time a 120 lb. English mastiff decided to go after my 10 year old GSD. We were lucky to get out of that one with only a bad bite wound to the leg of the other dog's owner!

http://www.dzdogs.com/2014/11/dont-worry-hes-friendly.html


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## GSDchoice (Jul 26, 2016)

I second Sunsilver in being very conservative about meeting dogs on walks....

We generally pass calmly, my dog knows the "Stay Close" command I taught him. Yesterday we were trailing another dog and owner. This dog was calm and quiet, but he glanced at Rumo and began to loiter. He sniffed every bush extra long, ignoring his owner's tug on the leash. He looked back at us a lot. Then he planted all four paws and his owner was literally physically dragging him down the sidewalk with the leash! Well, being soft-hearted, I said, "Is your dog friendly?" He said "Yes" with relief, so I loosed Rumo's leash and walked up alongside and let them meet. There were a few seconds of mutual sniffing (although I thought the other dog did look a bit "whale-eyed"?) and then suddenly the other dog erupted with a snarl and leapt on Rumo's neck!! 

We both separated our dogs quickly and nothing happened, but it taught me a lesson for sure. 
Even dogs that seem friendly and eager to meet, are unpredictable. Owners don't always know how their dogs will behave, either. Better just to enjoy the walk and smells and not meet other dogs! 
In this case, I "read" the other dog totally wrong. Or maybe he didn't even know how he would react to Rumo until he sniffed him and thought he smelled funny...who knows!
Anyway...better just to train your dog to pass calmly and skip these annoying frightening episodes.


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## LuvShepherds (May 27, 2012)

It takes a few months for a rescued dog’s full personality to come out. Your Mom should not walk your dog, now or maybe ever. I had a Velcro rescue out at a party because he was new and I could not leave him home. I gave someone else the leash for a few minutes, and a party guest came over and and shook the dog’s nose. He snapped at the person before I could get back over to stop it. I made two mistakes. The first was not leaving him in the car when I needed to use the restroom and the second was handing off the leash. My younger dog now never bites or snaps at anyone. He is very social. We had to see a different vet in a different office a few weeks ago. After explaining he is vet phobic in a new situation and needs fear free techniques, the tech marched right up to him without warning and he barked and possibly snapped at her. I didn’t actually see what he did because I was closer to his tail. All she did was make eye contact and approach while the vet was also approaching. It was too much and he panicked. I doubt if it will ever happen again, but it did then. I told them again he is used to fear free methods, but they didn’t seem to understand how to do that. Once they realized it was up to them, they handled him properly and gave him a full exam without any more incidents. I also muzzled him for the rest of the exam, which was helpful. He even wagged at and licked the tech on the way out. My point is that we must always be prepared and another family member or professional can’t be aware the same way that we can as their primary owners.


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## David Winners (Apr 30, 2012)

It could be that your mom was nervous when she saw another dog and expected a reaction. That nervousness can go down the leash and effect the dog, causing it to react. Combine that with your absence, as her leader, and the dog was probably scared and being defensive.

After the first time, mom was more nervous so the reaction to another dog was worse. Rinse and repeat.


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

First of all, someone handed the dog over to you when you got her, so she attached to you and now she has confidence/trust in you, and her personality is coming out, but it isn't showing with you because you she trusts. She doesn't trust your mom. 

Now whether she attacked the very first dog she snarled at, I don't know, but once she did attack another dog, her hormones were in a state that needed a few days to normalize, so seeing other dogs while still elevated had her in a "fight" mode. She was attached to this lady who she does not trust to protect her, and her options are fight or flight. Flight is removed. So it's fight. 

Dog parks are not the best place for German Shepherds. But letting someone else take your dog to a dog park is madness. You have to know what dog-body-language is, not just your dog, every dog and bitch there. Some are subtle, so unless you know what to look for, you have no idea if she attacked because she was responding to a dominant reaction in another bitch or if she was responding to a bitch who did not have good body language, or to a dog. Sometimes bitches will attack dog, especially if they are spayed, it doesn't seem to matter as much the sex of the opposite dog. But she was probably fearful and attacked because she did not trust your mother to protect her. 

I think you can try again. I would leave dog parks out of her life. She really only needs to be around her pack, which is those she lives with. If you let her calm down and then take her for ordinary walks. She may be perfectly fine.


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## Jchrest (Jun 5, 2019)

Sounds to me like there are two issues here. First being her allowed to pull on walks. If any of my dogs start trying to put any strain on the leash, I immediately and abruptly stop. If they do it again, we go home. They don’t get to control why is walking who. We had to resort to a prong collar for one of our guys because he would literally choke himself out on any type of collar, harnesses made it worse, and an e-collar didn’t phase him one bit. We now put the prong on him, but attach the leash to the flat collar. Hoping to phase away the prong altogether. They all walk with zero tension on the leash. 

Second, she more than likely picked up on the fact that mom was not only weaker than you physically, but was also not confident on the other end of the leash. Lyka is my crazy girl, and we brought in a trainer when it became obvious that DH would need to take over her exercising due to injury/surgery for me. I got her to the point that she ignored people and dogs on our walks, and again, no tension on the leash. Handed DH the leash to see how it went, and she started pulling like crazy, growling and lunging at not only dogs, but people passing by. He came home coated in sweat and told me Lyka come straight from Hades. He wasn’t confident, he knew her history, and she fed off that. She knew she could get away with poor behavior with DH. He’s a big ole softy and is overly accommodating to both humans and dogs. She took advantage of that. He didn’t want to hear what I had to say about how he should be handling her, so I called my old trainer up, and let him train DH to handle Lyka, and now our foster turned permanent adoption. DH was so adamant that we keep him because he’s the first dog that follows him around the house instead of me. Our other 3 follow me everywhere I go. But it’s a Belgian Mal, so if he can’t handle my shepherd, he wouldn’t make a good handler/owner for a Mal, so he’s working with the trainer with him as well. Floki listens to me perfectly, but prefers to hang out with DH, which is fine by me!

I would recommend a temp reset. If you have the capability of exercising her in other ways besides walking, I would do that for a few days to let that amped up dog fight energy dissipate. Then bring in a trainer to help your mom. It was so much easier, and kept our relationship in tack, to have a trainer show him what he was doing wrong, and the correct way to do it. It’s really been a lifesaver while I’ve been laid up after surgery. 

I’d also stop the dog park visits, it’s negative energy and experiences she just doesn’t need. 

Hoping all goes well for you!


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

She's only been with them for 2 months though. I wouldn't use a prong collar on any dog. But that is because most people don't fit them right and don't use them right. Putting a prong collar a dog that is just beginning to be comfortable in the new home (it does take longer with dogs out of the puppy stage), and then putting the leash in the hands of someone she is not comfortable with, so they can take the dog for a walk might mean you get a worse outcome than attacking a dog. 

I also stop if the dog is pulling me. Not because the dog thinks she is running the show, but because I don't want to be pulled. And yes, I've picked up an adult dog from someone and removed the prong in the car, never to be put back on. The thing is, I know dogs and they know they can't pull one over on me. So I don't need the prong. 

I am not going to say that most dogs are in rescue because they have some behavior that the previous owners could not manage, but some are. And most are in rescue for the simple reason that the owners did not bother to train them. So it takes them a couple of months (when they are several years old) to settle in and sometimes the behaviors that got them chucked in the first place sometimes come out. An experienced/confident dog handler may never see them, because the dog is relaxed with that person. The rescue may have worked with the dog, but once the new family is not following through with that work, they can revert back into bad behaviors.


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## Jchrest (Jun 5, 2019)

@selzer, I swore to the moon and back I would never use a prong. And I am certainly not suggesting OP use one! I just finally met my match with the most stubborn walker I’ve ever met. None of the tricks of the trade worked with Crios. We could play fetch for an hour, swim for an hour, do scent and hide and seek for an hour, and then walk, and he was ready for a full blown marathon at 90 miles an hour. I commend husky owners if this is the norm. We literally built an urban sled that my son would use on him, and he could easily run while pulling the sled that my son was standing on, and keep a steady run for a good 8-10 miles and still not be tired. I wish I had a quarter of the energy he has!


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

If you are done with that sled, could you send it my way? It sounds great. 

I just don't like the idea with a bitch, a rescue, only there a few months, going out on a prong with someone she doesn't trust. Some dogs won't take a correction if they do not believe it was deserved or if it is from someone they don't accept as an authority figure, or if they are scared. That dog will come up the leash. I would hate to see someone get hurt when it is avoidable. The we have someone with a negative opinion about the breed, telling everyone she knows how this breed is, and a dead dog.


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