Fear aggressive dogs.

[MarcoPoloCX]

One of neighbours have a dog which she said is fear aggressive. I have not asked her why it is muzzled. But every time when she sees a dog nearby she pulls the dog away. I have never seen it off lead. The dog doesn't really socialise with other dogs. I'm just wondering if this is just perpetuating the situation. No socialisation and walking away from other dogs. Her reason for not mixing with other dogs is it's never been dog friendly.

I have a fear aggressive dog (only aggressive towards other dogs, and only if other dog approaches and persists). She goes off lead but keeps herself to herself as she doesn't like other dogs. Would never start a fight for the hell of it, she's very timid. As mentioned, if another dog approaches her she'll tolerate them depending on dog (large dogs she tends to warn off straight away) then swiftly warn them off. No changing her, as she is older she's set in her ways. Perhaps your neighbour just knows her dog.

Sorry, meant to say, perhaps she knows her dog and knows the outcome won't be great if the dog is left to defend itself. Some fear aggressive dogs approach other dogs and 'start on them' (I once had a dog who did), perhaps she's trying to avoid this.

My dog is muzzled, never off lead and I move away when I see dogs coming.

It's taken me 9 months to get to the point where he can pass a dog across the road...if it doesn't do anything, that's about 3 times closer than when we started by the way.

If I allowed him to socialise with other dogs, well firstly it sets his training back because it pushes over the threshold of where he is comfortable and he gets to practise the aggressive behaviour instead of staying at a distance that works for him and rewarding him for not reacting.

Secondly - it's just not a nice experience, he goes for their throat and being a 40kg Rottweiler he's capable of pinning them down and hurting them even without being able to bite, which means I have to wrestle with an agitated, lunging, snapping dog who will then jump at me because I'm stopping him getting to the other dog.

The opinion of his behavioural specialist (and I agree) is that his problems took too long to sort out and are too severe to ever expect him to mix with other dogs...we're only aiming for being able to pass them.

Tabulah how old is your dog? Is he like this with all dogs or just some?

My rottie is absolutely fine with some dogs but hates all black Labradors (apart from one that we met every day on a walk and joked they were bf and gf so maybe it's in memory of her) and some dogs if bigger or for other reasons I simply can't work out.

My old 12 stone Dogue De Bordeaux was dominate/fear aggressive and was always on a lead. If I saw another dog coming he's lead would get shorter and he'd be walked past them quickly before he had a chance so get dominate and aggressive and with people he avoided he didn't know.
My male 13 stone cane Corso was muzzled and on a lead due to aggression and would be walked in a field and would of been marched the opposite direction as even seeing from a distance would make him go absolutely nuts and he'd still do damage with a muzzle on. Everyone knows their dog best.

He's 2...he was like that with all dogs yes, but he has a couple of health issues that cause him pain and it took a while to get the right combination of painkillers.

So while that was going on, what he's learned is that dogs hurt him.

So not much use for anyone else usually.

I have a fear aggressive spaniel. I've been working with him for two years now and we've gone from 90% of the time reacting negatively, to 70% of the time being able to cope with very brief passing/interaction. Dealing with a reactive dog has had me on my knees, so I won't ever criticise how someone else manages it. My dog lunged, snapped, barked and tried to pin at his worst. I can totally understand muzzling and avoiding. I certainly try to avoid.

We've previously had and currently have reactive dogs (a term I prefer to "fear aggressive").

With our current reactive dog, we've spent the best part of two years in solid work to ensure he can now walk nicely on lead past other on lead dogs - that's been huge progress for him.

However, wherever it's possible on walks, I still make sure he's given plenty of space, and this often involves taking avoiding action when other dog owners approach.

Many dogs need space for many reasons - bitch on heat, recovering from illness or operation, new rescue dog, dog in training, reactive, elderly, blind, deaf etc...

If you see a dog owner taking avoiding action, please respect this and don't be the "He's only being friendly" owner whose off lead dog goes bounding over, kicks off WW3 and then gets offended at a less than warm reception.

That's my mum. She has a reasonably soft labradoodle. She's never had to experience idiots thinking her dog should be muzzled just because of it's breed and then those people feeling even more correct because your dog has reacted to them or even because her dog reacted to their dog just being there. Her dog wanders off and she doesn't pay much attention (She's the same with my DD which is why she's not allowed sole care, labradoodles have better recall than DDs) and she's always shouting 'don't worry, she's friendly' as she races to catch up.

Yeah the don't worry she's friendly and the, oh he's never done that before (as their dog wanders over and bites mine while they call them inefectually) owners are why my dog is as bad as he is with other dogs.

He went within a week from an over friendly bouncy dog to suddenly and with only very subtle warning signals reacting to strange people, traffic and dogs. I took him for a check up (he was already seeing a behaviourist for the over friendliness) and had to wait for a referral to a specialist...then it took a while to find painkillers that worked.

I could limit how much traffic he saw, I could control whether he met people or not...but apparently muzzling your dog, keeping him on lead and telling people that he does not like other dogs isn't enough to make people keep their dogs away.

So now traffic is not a huge issue, walking past people is fine and I've been able to slowly introduce people in my house, he's even ok with strange vets examining him as long as he's heavily bribed and they don't stroke him (don't ask me why examining is fine but stroking isn't, those are his rules, lol) but dogs...he is getting slowly better all the time, but it will be years if ever before I won't have to manage him heavily when I see another dog coming towards us.

Our border terrier cross is unpredictable and therefore we keep her on the lead whenever other dogs are about. Luckily we have a choice of quiet walks where she can run free. BUT I hate having to be constantly vigilant, looking out for dogs, especially stressful when puppies bound up and invade her space. It is a strain but otherwise she is a darling pet.

Our dog is a bit of a tricky customer, very excited in a slightly anxious way upon meeting other dogs. Probably just poorly socialised as a puppy. She is happy to say a quick nervous hello to off lead dogs and move on, but if she is prevented from greeting a dog (if they are on the lead, for example) she barks. So if we see an on lead dog she gets leashed and taken off the path or marched on asap, usually barking. It's annoying and a bit faffy but it's the best we can do while working on her. In a home setting she sometimes gets on very happily with dogs but with others if they pester her and don't get the message her behaviours escalate and I worry she will bite. I'd love a chilled out dog, but dogs are actually quite complicated, it turns out!