My dog just went for another dog :-(

[WonderIfThingsWillChange]

I have 2 dogs, both rescues. One is an 19 month old lurcher and over the last couple of months he's started to be less friendly with some dogs while still enjoying playing with others. He went for one dog (more noise than anything) who was ill, I asked for advice and was told this may be because he can sense the illness. Since then I've been more nervous about introducing him to new dogs (may be part of problem?) and have kept him on lead on walks unless I can see the field is clear. I always put him back on a lead if i spot another dog and walk out of the way of others so it won't happen again. The second incident was with an off lead dog with no owner who came up and started jumping over him and he turned and snapped and the other dog retaliated (again no marks on either dog). This experience has made me really nervous about walking him and I thought he may be picking up on this. My DH has been doing most of the walking recently to see if things are better as he's much more relaxed but as he was in the street with our 2 dogs on leads another small, elderly dog on a lead walked up for a sniff and quite quickly my lurcher went for this poor dog. DH was really apologetic to the owner (who lives by us and has seen our dogs lots of times) and said if there are any marks/vet visits etc to let us know. I feel terrible about it but dont know what to do next? I think we will have to muzzle him when outside from now on. I don't know what's happened as he used to be great meeting dogs all the time. He's so lovely and gentle but something has changed and I don't know what to do to help him any advice greatly appreciated

[financialwizard]

Get him checked over by a vet? Is there any possibility of him having an injury or being ill?

[WonderIfThingsWillChange]

No injury but a vet check up wouldn't hurt, at least we would know if it was illness causing this behaviour change or not

[JadeJ123]

I feel your pain op, mine was vey dog friendly until he started getting snappy then just turned into out and out aggression he's on a muzzle in public and on a lead as I can never take the chance of another dog being around however he's lovely to my rescue dog. I'd muzzle him and get a trainer in until he's dog friendly again. Good luck

[WonderIfThingsWillChange]

What happened JadeJ123? Was there a trigger for your dog? I've just ordered a muzzle and will walk both dogs separately so he can have more focused time (clicker, treats, distraction etc) on walks until things improve. Will look for a behaviourist too I think

[JadeJ123]

Some of it was dominance so got him neutered but he didn't get any better and protective over the female dog and protective over me

[BravePotato]

So unusual for lurchers to behave like this.

Hope he/she settles down.

[BravePotato]

What cross is she?

[WonderIfThingsWillChange]

Not 100% sure of cross, some said whippet/greyhound but his features are more collie/whippet or possibly a bull lurcher. He's always been so fab with other dogs, when he was younger he would get over excited in play and sometimes nip to get dogs to chase him (we could see him getting to this point and rein him in) but this feels different and unpredictable. I've been fostering dogs since march (no foster dogs for 8 weeks and no plans for more) and wonder if this has been what's affected his behaviour. Others have said it could be due to reaching adolescence. I feel numb about it all, would hate to think something I've tried to so to help other dogs has impacted negatively on my lovely boy. I've only fostered 3 dogs in total, one of these we adopted and they get on brilliantly and play so well, share bed etc, I just feed them separately as he once snapped over food

[GobblersKnob]

Haven't got any advice, but wouldn't say it was that uncommon in lurcher's judging by the constant threads on reactiveness on the various sighthounds forums I am on.

One of mine is a nightmare, and the other is now starting to copy him you need eyes in the back of your head.

[SpicyBear]

It's no more unusual in a lurcher than in any other type of dog.

How long have you had him and what age was he when you adopted him?

[WonderIfThingsWillChange]

I've had him 13 months and he was 6 months old when I had him and I was his 4th home.

[nuttymutttie]

I would second getting a vet check - if there are no physical reasons then unfortunately this is quite a common situation.

Your dog may not like having dog interactions (just like some people are not so outgoing nothing wrong just the way they are). He has probably been politely giving off calming signals to the other more pushy dogs which have been ignored. This is where the "he just wants to play dogs" have an awful lot to answer for.

Over time he has realised that they are still hassling him so he has gone from politely asking to be left alone to shouting at them. From his point of view this is more effective and is probably working at getting rid of the unwanted dogs.

I would muzzle train for your peace of mind but I would also work hard at minimizing his dog interactions. Bring his stress levels right back down and then watch him carefully. Does he lick his lips, or turn his head, try to sniff, walk in an arch when approaching other dogs. This may be very very quick and it may happen when dogs are a long way in the distance. This is the time to move away from the other dogs.

Let him get his confidence back by reassuring him that he does not need to interact with other dogs for a while then slowly introduce back with dogs that he has happily meet before but to be honest he may just be happier with you and not need to be with other dogs

[SpicyBear]

nutty is a proper expert and has covered what I was going to say but much better! Great advice.

So I would just chip in that it is worth seeing if you can identify if there are any identifying features in the dogs he has a problem with. Is it the way the approach him for example, or is it one sex in particular? This is not a solution but it will help you avoid the dogs that are most likely to cause a problem.

Also, you and DH need to be prepared to become your boy's protectors in these scenarios. He is not a nasty dog as you know, and you can help him by not allowing interactions that make him uncomfortable. Sometimes that might mean being quite forceful with other owners.

[WonderIfThingsWillChange]

Thank you for this helpful advice. In terms of the 3 dogs, all 3 dogs have been black, 2 male, 1 female. 2 of these dogs were elderly and had tumours (one I was fostering and the other is my neighbours dog). I'm not sure about the other dog as he was wandering about without an owner. He loves chasing a frisbee and I try and choose places and times of day I'm less likely to meet lots of people and if I've got the frisbee and another dog his coming I can distract him with this and change direction or pop back on the less until they have passed. I have just ordered one of those yellow bandanas in the hope that people may put their dogs on lead when approaching us as I'm really worried that an off lead dog bouncing on him while he's on lead may be a trigger.

Thinking back, a few weeks after we adopted him he was attacked on a walk by 2 whippets ( the lady owned 3 and was mortified). He also had the stray dog that he went for and then the dog turned on him. I was trying to read the number on the collar to contact the owners. The 3rd time was even more recently when I walked with DH and we spotted 2 dogs so put ours on lead. The owner approached and kept her collies of lead, one of her dogs became aggressive with both of mine. Perhaps we need to do a better job of protecting him from others and create more space even if that may mean we appear rude and anti social to others!