Dog's frustration aggression if someone walks in front

[BumNipper]

We have two dogs - both lurcher x Malinois, one male and one female. We've had them 6 years and this has only just started happening.

The boy is relatively nervous but also gets VERY excited if we all go for a walk as a family. However, in this circumstance only, he wants to go in front and has recently (the last month) started nipping my partner on the bum if my partner walks in front. Yesterday, my daughter scooted in front and my dog "attacked" our other dog, (let's call it more telling off/taking his frustration out - she wasn't hurt, but it wasn't playful) which has never happened before.

We don't often go out for dog walks as a family due to different shift patterns and we nearly always walk them individually due to their size. When he's on his own he's a completely different dog - calm, sniffing, walking to heel - it seems like a nervous excitement type thing - you can see he's thinking "Yippee we're all going out on a mission together!". I think he always thinks we're going somewhere exciting when we're all out together too, which to be fair is usually the case - if we're together it's because it's a much longer walk or if it's to the local dog paddock.

Any tips for how to nip this in the bud as it were? I don't want him to nip our daughter if she goes out in front!

Is the male castrated? I am assuming not as he is nervous...

How much exercise and mental stimulation does he get? Very often, lack of one or the other, can manifest in undesirable behaviours. And as, even a mongrel mix, Malinois...your dogs needs are really high.

Does the lurcher side of him contain collie, by any chance? It sounds like frustration, potentially mixed with herding instinct too.

As he has Malinois in him, I would be inclined to speak to a professional about this rather than trying to deal with it yourself. Malinois are so intelligent and high-energy that you could easily get it wrong.

Not castrated, no - precisely due to nervousness and aggression towards other uncastrated males. We do about 2h of walking total - 30 mins in the morning, 1h lunch and 30 mins late afternoon, then 5 mins outside for a wee before bed. He LOVES his ball and we play fetch games on long lead for this. Due to nerves, he can only be let off lead in a dog paddock, and we do this about once a month min (try to do it every other weekend). His sister is off lead a lot (when we're not all together) as we're out in the country and she's not a liability with other dogs, she has no behavioural problems other than rolling in poo when she knows she shouldn't 😂.

No collie as far as we know, although I guess Mals are shepherds originally so have a herding instinct, but this feels much more like frustration!

Thanks for the suggestion of a Mal-specific trainer. You're right, he's a really, really clever boy and very sensitive so want to get this right before it becomes something long term.

Unfulfilled herding instinct often looks like frustration, so I do wonder if that's part of it.

And you're welcome! I'd also wonder about whether high energy ball chasing is necessarily a good idea all the time - could you encourage calming games instead?

Good point - he has a kong to chew at home to calm him, although at home his lurcher side comes out and prefers lounging around, so doesn't often bother with it. Mal on the streets, lurcher in the sheets!

Hmm not sure how to fulfil his herding instinct short of buying a herd of sheep - any tips?

Think you may need a behaviourist to help unpick exactly what is going on in order to tackle it. An easy solution to avoid any damage from the nips in the meantime time is to muzzle but do take the time to muzzle train so they are relaxed wearing it, there was quite a lot of videos for how to do this with the recent XL bully ban. https://www.themuzzleshop.com/

My lurcher on seeing a cat which just casually saunters about out of reach rather than quickly disappearing out of sight would occasionally take frustration out at not being able to go chase it on nearest thing nipping at lead/ my thigh /other dog as had completely overflowed her bucket and wasn't thinking. Thankfully that was a fairly easy trigger to manage and i altered how I delt with it, she wasn't actually an aggressive dog but I did muzzle her when I had multiple dogs to walk or other people walked her.

Join the Belgian Malinois UK group on Facebook, there are lots of helpful, knowledgeable owners (and trainers!) in that group.

He is muzzle trained already due to his aggressive behaviour with uncastrated males, but we only use the muzzle when in areas where we're likely to come across other dogs. But good shout, I'll use it when we're all out together to prevent my other dog or my daughter getting hurt. DP can take a nip on the bum every now and again! (Joke 😂).

Sadly his bucket is very small, I think the excitement of all going out on an adventure all together makes it overflow and the frustration (whether herding or not being in front - I'll have to work on this with a behaviourist!) seems to tip him over. I'm wondering whether he's also frustrated at being on the lead when we're all together, as the most time we spend all together is the dog paddock so I wonder if he's expecting to be let off?!

Funnily enough, he CBA with cats - his thing is squirrels!

Not on Facebook unfortunately! Sounds good though! I'll contact our old trainer to see if she has any tips on who to go to, or even just some basic tips for now. She's on a big holiday at the mo sadly, so can't help!

I can recommend a trainer I’ve used, can I PM you? 🙂

No prob! I'm based in the South West of England

Hmm not sure how to fulfil his herding instinct short of buying a herd of sheep - any tips?

This is where I think it'd be useful to speak to a Mali expert, because they could teach you the best techniques that will work for that particular breed iyswim.

But if he's at all food motivated, you could try scent work on walks - it won't fulfil his desire to herd but it's a good way to keep them calm and use their brains, and best of all, it doesn't involve other dogs!

Gosh you've reminded me that I used to do this with him actually (before DD came along) - I'd take our girl on her walk first, drop tasty things on the way and then take him out along the same route - forgotten that! Great tip, thanks!

No problem! Our beagle can sometimes be reactive to other dogs so I often "treat hunt" with him on walks - it distracts him but also tires him out so he's generally much calmer afterwards too.

Jeez Louise
Lurcher x Malinois

You are not kidding

We had a Lurcher with some border collie in (RSPCA) and she needed hours, many miles and brain work to keep her happy.
Malinois are Bitey anyway- add in prey drive from a “Lurcher “ ( Mongrel) - that isn’t a dog I’d want unless absolutely able to spend hours a day on training and exercise.

Haha well I'm very much happy with our two, who are almost 7yo now so we've had them a long time. They're generally great except for this recent development! (And the dog aggression from our boy, but with the help of a trainer he's a million times better). But I agree, not a mix for the faint hearted that's for sure 😉

I think your issue is a combination of not enough exercise and not enough mental stimulation tbh.

On lead walking for a Malinios and only once every other week (max) off lead to run around is nowhere near enough. Two hours on lead is not comparable to what he realistically needs - which is two hour a day off lead + hours of mental stimulation.

I think you need to pay for private agility classes or similar, help work of his energy and use his mind at the same time.

Mals are bred to bite. You might find some well-controlled tug games help him to get that out of his system.

(Edited to add: but I'd do that under the guidance of someone with experience in the protection sports.)

I have a high-drive gundog breed, and if one mine doesn't get a decent outlet, within a fortnight she turns from jolly, confident and delightful into jolly, confident and a stroppy cow.

Sadly true, we used to do a lot more with him before our daughter was born (e.g. the finding game on walks), and go to the secure paddock more. He was off lead a lot too until his hormones kicked in and he wanted to attack other males. I'll look into the agility classes, assuming there's no risk of him being around unknown dogs? Will definitely book us into the paddock more often! He's not displaying other boredom behaviours, when at home he just wants to snooze and cuddle, cuddle a bit more then snooze. Just this recent nipping thing, so it's a sign things aren't quite right for him!

We do tug games BTW - he's OK with it, but prefers to take it and shred it or (due to his love of fetch) he often just drops it to try and get me to throw it 😂With my daughter being only 2, I prefer the ball games as she can join in, tug of war is a bit rough, and actually he doesn't touch anything she's holding even if it's a dog toy (unless thrown!).

@BumNipper - ah it’s a nightmare when they end up nervous-reactive and you’ve done everything right!! I had two dogs - same litter - raised in the same way and one turned out like this. Another high energy breed. It’s so hard!

But there are definitely trainers who do private agility classes! It’s really good for dogs that ‘need a job’, so definitely one to consider for yours. They’re not cheap (£40PH near me) but so worth it.

Give it a few weeks of more freedom off leash in a field etc and trying the classes and if that’s not solving it, perhaps nip him to the vets for a once over. At his age he’s in the prime of his life (but also heading towards doggy pensioner territory) so always best to be sure.

I’m still waiting for the obligatory picture though! 😁