Hoping someone might be able to help. We have recently got a new dog, a four year old whippet, and he suffers from, I think, fear aggression. The trouble is, he's not totally consistent, and so I'm not entirely sure what his triggers are.
Not sure whether he will slowly settle, given a lot of patience and consistency ( he had quite a lot of disruption before coming to us, although he wasn't abused at all) or whether he will need more hard core therapy with a professional.
His aggression is not too extreme. Mostly growling, barking and possibly running up to a dog and snapping at it (not actual biting, just noise and nipping). But obviously the outcome depends on the other dog's reaction. (and their owner's reaction, obviously.)
I have been putting him on the lead if meeting a strange dog, as you don't know what will happen, but friends have been happy for him to meet their dogs and kind of work things out between themselves, and nothing bad has happened! Although he often seems to want to assert himself at the beginning, before settling into a more companionly walk. One friend's terrier, who is feisty, did scratch him a little bit, but this put him in his place and they were then fine.
I don't want to keep putting him on the lead all the time, as he is then more stressed, but I need to be responsible, so not sure what to do.
Aggression is only towards dogs, never people, so am not worried about him hurting a person.
He is also very into chasing a ball, even ignoring a rabbit if a ball is waved in his face.
He is our second whippet. Our first sadly died, but was a different personality altogether - a bit cheeky with other dogs, but always in a playful sense, never aggressive or fearful.
Thanks for reading this long post!