He is 8, dp and I have had him since a puppy. I now have a one year old with quadraplegic cerebral palsy. My life is very stressful. My dog, a labradar, is great in every way apart from he regularly goes for other dogs. I cannot take him on lead walks around the neighbourhood, or in fact anywhere on the lead as this exacerbates his agression. I have to haul him off to a huge common where he can go off lead and avoid other dogs. He does not stalk dogs, but will attack if they get too close, also if he's on a lead will go ballistic if he sees another dog.
I have done EVERYTHING to stop this behaviour. I even became a dog walker for a couple of years to try to socialise him. He actually loves dogs he knows, and he loved coming dog walking with me once he knew the other dogs. But the behaviour with strange dogs never stopped. I did everything two "emminent" dog psychologists told me to - but no joy. His problem is fear aggression - he is scared of dogs he doesn't know so attacks defensively. He has never hurt another dog, but it sounds awful, frightens everyone who's around, is intensley embarrassing and has pulled my son over in pushchair a couple of times. I dread taking him out and I cannot hold on to him if he kicks off on the lead.
I have a lot of experience of dogs and I know this problem is genetic, there is nothing anyone can do about it. He was from a rescue home as part of a litter from a Welsh puppy farm.
I'm fed up, I can't take him anywhere, when I do, I'm a bag of nerves. It's become a real problem and is restricting my life more than it already is (which is a lot if you have a child with sn).
He's an absolutely lovely dog otherwise, never barks, is beautiful and loves people (as long as they're not shouty bouncy toddlers who scare him).
I'm on the verge of asking the vet to come and put him to sleep. I feel absolutely awful. Guilty. A failure.