aggression in 11month old

[Boxerparent]

Hi everyone!

my boyfriend and i just adopted an 11month old fawn boxer named Chica. she's the absolute love of our life but she has aggression with other dogs. she tries to basically attack and bite them, she growls at strangers and isn't too friendly with little kids. her family before never really socialized her, they left her alone for 7-8 hours a day!!!

we knew all this when we were adopting and she is starting school in january, we just wanted to know if there is anything we can do or try in the mean time so that she may become more social.

we take her to the dog park,were trying her on meeting my parents three dogs and of course she goes on walks. it's kind of scary to see her like that because she's such a sweet heart with us and my family and basically anyone she meets formally. we don't know what to do until her classes start

 

[ehayes21]

The first thing you need to do is quit taking her to the dog park. The more times she practices the behavior you are describing the harder it will be to get her to stop. Dog parks are actually the worst place to socialize your dog, too.

Are you parents dogs well socialized? If so, you might want to get ONE of them together with your pup to see how she responds. I would do this in a neutral area, like a ball field (gated of course). If she still shows the same response, then I would nix the group training class and hire behavior consultant to come into your home and observe her behavior. Don't get a "trainer", you want either a behaviorist or a behavior consultant - they will develop a program to work through this behavior so she can be a more well rounded adult. Good luck!

 

[Boxerparent]

We stopped taking her because we don't want her to get used to being like this and yes my parents dogs are social(very actually), we tried today with Chica and each dog one on one but it didn't go to well, my parents dogs just wanted to sniff her and play but chica went to attack their 2yr old female boxer and the other two she was not happy with (she tried to bite them and dominate them :S)

Is there nothing we can try on our own for now?? We're gonna try the behaviorist and see but only in the new year, we hope it will help because she's such a sweetheart

 

[Furface]

If she is nervous about meeting dogs, then meeting your parents dogs (presumably all at once) may have been too much for her, and therefore, lead to this behaviour. She needs to meet with one good palcid dog. Try in the fist instances, both being on the lead and walking past each other (out of biting distance, so there is no contact). keep doing this until, she can do it reasonably relaxed, then close the gap. and so on until controlled meet.

 

[Sansal]

There are a few very good books out there that might be of interest to you and might help you understand her behavior better and give you some advice on how to work with her. (I do agree with Ehayes21 though, definitely also consult with a behaviorist).

2 examples:
Click to Calm:Healing the aggressive dog by Karen Pryor

On talking terms with dogs:Calming Signals by Turid Rugaas

I would also get a head harness (for example the gentle leader) for her. It gives you more control while you are out walking with her. Work on getting her attention (at home and outside) and teach her to focus on you instead of on what's going on around her. I always have a pocket full of treats when I walk my dogs so I can quickly get ther attention back on me if I need to, for example when we pass a yard with a barking dog or anything else that I don't want them to pay attention to.

 

[jackoman]

We are starting to see the same signs with our neutered 10 month old. Jacko has been to 2 different obedience classes, which has seemed to help with commands but not with socialization. From the day we brought him home Jacko was socialized with other family and friends dogs. In the last few classes of the 2nd obedience class Jacko started to growl, bark, lunge and try to bite the other dogs. We have been watching him closely to try and figure out what triggers his behavior because it is not with every dog and it is not all the time.

We started taking him to daycare because our trainer told us too, this ended up making things worse when he was there for too long. We found that Jacko's mind gets too wound up and he does not know how to channel his energy, when this happens he starts to react aggressively. Jacko also reacts aggressively when he finds the "weaker link" either person or dog. If jacko knows he can get away with it, then he will push his boundaries. So if there is a more dominant dog in the crowd he will leave it alone and go for the weaker dogs. And he only does this when the daycare has a lady that is nervous around Jacko and can't stop him. We cut back daycare to one or 2 days a week and for a maximum of 4 hours a day. We only take him when the girls who are confident in Jacko are there with him. This seemed to really help. Having a leader there that is not worried about the situation made all the difference in the world.

I have also noticed that Jacko gets aggressive towards dogs that are younger than him. He does try to go after the older weaker ones, but if the dog is younger he will try and push it around. When I take Jacko out to socialize him, I warn the other owners first that he is learning his manners and let them know what happens, it then becomes their decision if they want to let their dog socialize with Jacko. Finding a dog that is older and dominant seems to be working the best because they will put Jacko in his place and then Jacko respects that dog and plays properly.

Also, letting jacko socialize with a "down play" dog creates problems, Boxers are very high energy and if the dog that tries playing with them is not at the same speed, then Jacko can't control his mind and reacts aggressively. Especially because he found that acting that way gets him away from the situation.

I have started to take Jacko to the side and make him sit and watch the other dogs play when he gets aggressive, that way he sees what he is missing because of his actions, once he settles down and becomes calm again, he goes back in to play.

This all seems to escalade the worst when Jacko has not had enough exercise! The more exercise he gets, the better he is, unless he is over exercised then he is cranky.

Hope our experiences help you a bit, sorry this is so long.