moon Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 Jax is now 5 months and whenever I take him out to walk or dog park he gets extremely aggressive towards other dogs ! He turns into a really mean dog and now I am not sure i will be able to attend agility classes due to his behavior. He had never shown such aggression before , this is something now...any advice? HELP Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teresaserrano Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 Exactly what does he do? Could you describe the circumstances and behaviour with as many details as possible? As if you where describing a scene from a movie where you had to write down every litlle thing that hapened? Also, what's his routine like? What tipe of training does he get? How does he behave in the house? What does he like? And dislikes? Where did he come from? How did he behave before this started? He's a young dog and at that age it's not common to see true agression. But it's very dificultto near impossible to give advice about something like this over the net, especially with as litlle details as you gave. In order for one to be able to have a minimal clear picture of what is hapenning, we need to get to know the dog, which means you have to tell us about him in every aspect, not only agression related stuff. Dogs are complex creatures, and things spill from one area of behaviour to the next. Everything is connected. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moon Posted September 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 When I walked jax into the training center office, another dog (bulldog) entered and was calm dog..however jax went into a frenzy of rage where I could not control his anger or pulling of the leash...he wanted to kill this dog! He turned into a wolf like creature! then there was the incident outside my backyard...there is a Boxer whom Jax has been around however this dog barks at him like crazy..last night he was not on a leash entering into house and this boxer was out in his lead barking at Jax...Jax ran over to him ..snarling showing his teeth nashing them like crazy!! but knowing just how close enough to get and not actually biting the other dog.. How will I ever be able to introduce Jax to other dogs if he behaves as such!? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CMP Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 At this age, he has started to see himself as part of the bigger world - and *many* dogs find this new awareness, with all of the stimulation it brings, to be very frightening and overwhelming. Dogs at this age can exhibit all sorts of unusual behaviour related to anxiety and the most important thing to remember is that it is *anxiety based* and not based in some personality defect or lack of character (generally speaking, there *are* mean dogs of course). The vacuum the 3 month old puppy used to ride around on, barking in glee, is now a frightening noise monster that makes her hide under the nearest chair. The dog she played happily with last week now makes her roll on her back, all legs in the air, peeing on herself. The cat she thought was a fun, albeit aloof, toy last month is now a target of nearly cruel, endless attention - the dogs she tried to run up to and meet when she was still short snouted are now clearly all a threat of some kind and must be scared off (because they scare her). Instead of treating it like aggression (and without knowing enough as stated above) maybe you could treat it like what it probably is - fear and anxiety. It is amazing what compassionate understanding versus frustrated anger can do to help a dog through these rough times. It is very likely he is frightened - the world seems too big of a sudden - and the safest way to deal with that is keep the world away ... and a dog only has one method of doing that at this age. YMMV of course Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
moon Posted September 24, 2014 Author Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 I absolutely agree its a fear ! just not sure how to combat this ? Jax has been around a bigger dog where he has went onto his back , legs up with submission... He will also behave towards people with some aggression.... hope it is something that will pass.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
teresaserrano Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 It sounds as if you need direct guidance in helping your pup overcome his fears. Do you do some kind of training with him? It seems like you would benefit a lot from someone directly working with you and the pup. Is there someone in your area you could go to? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Camden's Mom Posted September 24, 2014 Report Share Posted September 24, 2014 I simply wanted to add that, if this is a rather sudden change in behavior, Jax might also be going through a fear period. Fear periods do pass, but what happens during them can leave a lasting impression. For now I'd try not to expose him to more then he is comfortable with until you have a solid game plan for how to deal with this new reactivity to other dogs and people. The more he has a chance to practice these behaviors (like fence fighting with he boxer... who BTW shouldn't be allowed to just sit and bark at Jax, either) the more ingrained they will be. I wish I could offer more, but like others have said it's hard to determine exactly what's going on with so little detail. It does sound rooted in fear and anxiety, though, based on the info you've given so far. My best guess is that counter conditioning and desensitizing him to the things that get him wound up would be a good place to start... ETA: This is not terribly unusually behavior for a pup Jax's age. My boy went through a similar stage with people, charging and rushing at them like a little demon. The key for me was, once I was aware of the problem, to prevent it from ever happening again and formulating a training plan moving forward. Jax is still a very young dog, don't lose hope!! It takes patience, training and consistency to work through a behavior like this but it can be done!! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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