Aggression to men/strangers/small children

[DogTiredAgain]

My rescue dog is soppy and lovable with us, but she shows nervous aggression in the house to strangers and outside to men and small children (if they are making a noise). Behavioural advice has not worked. I'm worried she will actually bit someone one day. I don't know what to do anymore. It wasn't supposed to be like this

What do you mean by behavioural advice? From whom?

Yes. Need more info as to who gave you the advice, what it was, how long you did it for...etc. How long you've had the dog. Any more info really.

My spaniel is dog aggressive through fear aggression. He doesn't bite, but lunges and makes awful noises. I have managed to desensitise him after getting help from a behaviourist and a lot of work. It took time, but now I can walk him past another approaching on lead dog (with me between them) and he trusts that I will deal with it. When we've passed, he gets a ton of 'good boy!'s and a treat. He now looks for the treat as soon as he clocks another dog, and I know his threshold and respect it. My behaviourist explained to me that a nervous, reactive dog will always have a threshold, and although you can do a lot to improve things, you may never entirely 'fix' the fear. Not sure if any of this is relevant with human fear aggression, though, so it might be best to get professional advice.

We have a fear aggressive little dog. We've spent literally thousands of $ on dog trainers and I agree with the other posters. For me, my biggest responsibility is to protect him from himself.

So, we crate him in a quiet part of the house when guests come over and then bring him out, on leash, later. We ask guests to completely ignore him so he can just settle. We give him lots of positive attention and treats as he does so.

Outside, I tend to walk on quieter trails where we see the same people each day. They know to just ignore him and, when we stop and talk, we always pass each other first as our trainer worked out that was how he was most comfortable.

He's much, much better now but it's taken a LOT of work and patience. I was told fear aggression is one of the hardest behaviours to work with. If he'd been a big dog, I'm not sure I could have coped with it so well, if I'm entirely honest.