When dealing with dog-to-dog aggression, it is important to listen to our dog.
There are many reasons why a dog may act aggressively toward another.
- He may be afraid.
- He may be stressed because his space is being violated.
- He may feel the need to dominate.
- He may be protective of us.
- He may be very curious.
- He may just be over-excited.
Sometimes, what we perceive to be aggression may be the result of hyper energy, eagerness, or natural inquisitiveness. Therefore, in dog-to-dog aggression cases, it is important to understand what our dog is feeling, and what he is trying to say.
When my dog meets a new dog, I observe both of them carefully. As soon as my dog starts to get stressed, I step in and interrupt before the situation escalates.
For dog aggression issues, it is best to take a dog’s age, health, temperament, and preferences into account, while coming up with appropriate solutions.
1. Be Calm and Decisive
Dogs are very sensitive to what their human is feeling. My dog picks up on my emotions and reflects them, except with much more intensity. Sometimes, I am not even conscious of feeling nervous or stressed, but my dog notices it and starts to act up. Once I consciously calm myself down, his behavior also improves.
A common mistake when meeting other dogs is to tense up, and get fearful of what our dog may do. If we are afraid, our dog will pick up on that fearful energy, and that will likely trigger an aggressive reaction.
Be careful not to put undue or continuous tension on the leash. Also, do not pull the dog straight back, as that will likely cause a lunge forward response. To remove my dog, I pull him to the side and quickly walk him past the other dog.
2. Teach Our Dog Avoidance
When I see another dog, I usually just ignore him and move along.
I have found that avoidance is most effective when I avert my eyes from both dog, as well as owner. I keep my eyes forward, and keep walking at a natural pace. In this way, my dog learns that when we see other dogs, we avoid rather than confront.
Be careful not to crowd our dog while walking. If he feels trapped between us and the other dog, he may think he has no choice but to react aggressively. Do not stand still while trying to tug our dog away. Move away, and he will come along with us. At the same time, we are creating space so that he will not feel trapped.
I do not let my dog obsess or stare intensely at other dogs. Sometimes, my Shiba Inu will drop into a stalking-down-position, stare, and wait for the other dog to pass. Some people think that he is such a good boy for doing a Down, when other dogs are coming toward him, but he is actually just waiting to pounce.
Do not allow this bad behavior, do not let our dog practice it, do not even let him think about it. Just move him along, and ignore. If the other dog is somehow blocking us (e.g. if the owner is unable to control his dog), then walk away in a different direction. Do not stare the other dog down and do not confront him, either through posture or by physically engaging him.
Challenging unknown dogs is a good way to get bitten.
3. Create Space or Block the Other Dog
We can do this by moving across the road or into a driveway, and waiting for the other dog to pass.
We may also move our dog behind a barrier, for example a car. If there are no barriers available, we can try blocking the dog’s view with our body.
By doing this, we avoid a head-on, more confrontational passing.
I have tried all of these blocking techniques, but what works best for me is to create space, and quickly move past the other dog. Whenever I wait for the other dog to pass, my Shiba uses that time to start obsessing.
Dog treats and trying to get his attention do not work at this point, because the other dog is too close, and Shiba Sephy is no longer listening. The advantage of walking Sephy briskly past the other dog, is that he has less time to stare. In addition, he cannot fully obsess, because he must partly focus on walking.
However, using barriers and blocking may work better for a fearful dog.
Some trainers suggest turning and walking away when we see another dog, rather than passing him or waiting for him to pass.
There are two problems with this method:
- If we turn away, the other dog will be following us. This may cause some dogs to keep looking back, to make sure that the follower is not a threat. I have tried this, and indeed my Shiba keeps looking back.
- If we keep turning away, we may meet other dogs and get boxed in; especially if there are many dogs in our neighborhood.
4. Create Neutral Experiences
I try to create as many neutral dog-to-dog meeting experiences as possible. If every time my dog sees another dog, we just pass by and nothing interesting happens, it will become a non-event.
Being consistent with neutral greetings will build our dog’s confidence. Through repetition, we are teaching him how to behave (just avoid and move along), and how not to behave (get over-excited, frustrated, lunge, and pull). He will be more calm because he is not waiting in anticipation of a highly charged encounter, either for play or for confrontation.
I try to set my dog up for success, and do not let him practice aggressive behaviors when meeting other dogs. The more he practices, the more aggressive he will be.
If my dog becomes agitated during a walk, I try to end the outing as soon as possible. Once in this mode, his adrenaline levels will be high for a fair duration, and he will likely react aggressively to all the dogs that we meet. In this state, he will no longer be capable of learning, and will only be practicing dog aggressive behaviors.
5. Protect our Dog
I usually keep my dog away from people and dogs with weak energy (e.g. fearful, excited, or frustrated energy). In addition, I also try to keep other dogs and owners from coming into my dog’s space. I say a quick ‘hi’ to the people I meet, and move on.
If people with weak energy stop and want to meet my dog, I ask them nicely to please move on, because my dog is easily excitable.
It is fine and good to let a dog meet people with calm energy, but make sure to let them know how to best meet our dog. In particular, turn away when he jumps, no quick movements, and no petting from above.
6. Keep Greetings Short and Sweet
While greeting another dog, we want to positively interrupt our dog every so often, and get him to refocus on us. Do this as many times as necessary, so that our dog does not get over-excited, and lose control of himself.
Whenever my dog is meeting a new dog, I interrupt him after a very short duration (2-3 seconds). I quickly move or jog away from the other dog, while giving the positive interrupt command, e.g. Hey, hey. Initially, I may have to lightly tug at my dog while moving away. I make sure to treat him well for moving toward me on a loose leash.
If our dog is too obsessed to move away and is strongly standing his ground, then we have waited too long to initiate the interrupt. Positive interrupts are also useful for dealing with human greetings, and getting our dog away from a dirty or unsuitable area.
The key to successful positive interrupts is to catch a dog early, before he starts to obsess on another dog or object.
7. Be Aware of Aggressive Triggers
Some dogs, for example Spitz-type dogs, have a natural look that may appear dominant (ears up, hair out, tail up). This dominant look may instigate other dogs to respond in kind, and start posturing as well. Conflicts may occur, and if neither dog is willing to back down, this may lead to a dog fight.
If I am unsure about a dog greeting, I just move on. Better to be safe than sorry.
8. Desensitize our Dog to Other Dogs
The problem with dog-to-dog aggression issues, is that in regular situations the “other dog” stimulus is too strong, and environment is too unstructured for any learning to occur. Often, our dog overloads quickly and becomes reactive, because the other dog is too close, is staring, is hyper, or is charging toward us.
In the desensitization process, we do training in a quiet, enclosed environment, and start with a very weak version of the problem stimulus. In terms of reactivity toward other dogs, we can use distance to weaken its effect.
In this way, we also weaken the strength of our dog’s reaction, so that he will be calm enough to listen and learn. This is necessary, to create opportunities where we can begin to teach our dog to be calm and relaxed, while in the presence of another dog.
I did quite a lot of dog-to-dog desensitization sessions with Sephy, when he was young, at our local SPCA. The trainers there had many balanced, friendly dogs, that we could do training with.
First, the trainer would engage the other dog in training exercises, so that he stays in a fixed position, and is not focused on Sephy (i.e., no eye-contact). Both dogs are on-leash.
I take Sephy a far distance away, far enough away that he is still calm and able to listen to me. Then, I get his attention by calling his name. If he looks at me, I praise, and treat him for behaving well. Sometimes, I also ask him to do very simple commands, e.g. Sit.
I let Sephy sit and watch the other dog as long as he is calm, and willing to give me his attention when I ask for it. Once we are both comfortable with this, I move one step toward the other dog and repeat the Focus and Sit exercises above.
Do not move too close to the other dog, too quickly. If we move forward too fast, our dog may become reactive, and will no longer be able to give us his attention. At this point, I no-mark Sephy (uh-oh) and move back a few steps. Once we are far enough away, I try to get his attention again. When he gives it to me, I stop, praise, and treat.
Note – for desensitization to be successful, we want to keep our dog below his instinct threshold as much as possible.
I always try to make sessions short, fun, and rewarding. This helps our dog associate other dogs with being calm, and with positive experiences. I make sure to stop before my dog shows any obsessive behavior, and long before he becomes aggressive. Once a dog becomes reactive or aggressive, it is usually best to end the session soon after.
As we make progress, we can slowly increase the strength of the problem stimulus. For example, we may allow the target dog to start moving around, or we may allow him to play with his handler.
The desensitization process can be long and difficult. Dogs with lower instinct thresholds (the point at which they lose control and switch to instinct) will be harder to desensitize. However, consistent practice will also help to raise this threshold.
What to Expect from Dog-to-Dog Aggression Training
Do not expect too much, too quickly, from our dog. Make sure to treat and praise him very well, if he voluntarily engages in avoidance maneuvers, when there are other dogs around. This includes looking away from the direction of the other dog, smelling and exploring the environment, or looking at us for direction.
Initially, treat and praise even small avoidance moves, for example looking away for just 1 second. If a dog will not accept treats from us, then he is too far gone and it is best to lead him away. Treats are only effective for shaping behavior when our dog is still thinking, and not operating on instinct.
If we keep practicing desensitization exercises, and teach our dog how to behave with other dogs, he will improve. As he matures, he will become more confident, be less dog aggressive, and be more comfortable around new experiences.
For aggression issues between two family dogs, here is more on how I help my dogs get along.
Have a rescue corgi, 6 months now, may be 3-4 years old, has notched ears so has been in fights in the pass. After trying many techniques listed, am now using a WATER SPRITZ BOTTLE. A miracle after attempting to lunge at another approaching dog, a spray stopped the action and she now looks to see if I have the bottle in my hand and stops immediately or looses interest.Whether she had been sprayed in the past, don’t know . Do know she dislikes water in her face and walking her is a pleasure now, although I will create distance between dogs as we have only been using the spritz bottle 2 weeks.
I have an Queensland heeler mix that i adopted a few months ago, she loves people but just the sight of another dog raises her fur and she is very mean and aggressive with other dogs even puppies in neutral areas, plus she doesnt like horses either, what should i do?
I did dog-to-dog desensitization exercises with my Shiba Inu. Desensitization and counter-conditioning was helpful in terms of teaching him to be more calm around other dogs, and to build his confidence. I talk more about this at the end of the article.
My general strategy is to maximize positive experiences with other dogs, and minimize negative encounters. I do this by using distance, barriers, staying calm and planning out my own response. I make sure to start small (e.g. shorter but more frequent walks, in quieter environments with few dogs) and to go at a pace that my dog is comfortable with. In this way, our walks will be successful, and with each success, my dog will gain more confidence.
Consulting with a good professional trainer can also be helpful.
http://www.apdt.com/pet-owners/choosing-a-trainer/
Hi,
I just discovered your articles and I find them very very useful. I have a mixed breed dog that is 8 years old and have brought to live with me recently. However, in 4 days he has been attacked twice by 2 smaller dogs without a leash. We just met them, all of a sudden, and as I am not sure with myself and not leader of the pack I stopped and the first dog, without any warning, just attacked him. Today, I stopped again thinking they will sniff each other but I saw the other dog become rigid and he attacked. My dog was very nervous after this, barking and growling. What can I do to prevent such attacks? In my country stupid people walk small dogs without a leash and muzzle and they attack. My dog likes to mark his territory. Thank you!
Yeah, off-leash neighborhood dogs is a difficult issue because it is more of a people issue rather than a dog issue. To truly fix it, we need to influence people behavior and that is much more difficult to do, especially without enforcement of leash laws by the authorities.
I currently carry an air-horn with me. At the very least, it would get the attention of the people around if there should be any trouble.
Here is a discussion of loose neighborhood dogs.
I have a 6 month old Gsd and he sometimes jumps up and bites my clothes while I’m walking an also jumps at snaps at me. What should I do.
Some of my experiences with jumping and biting with my dogs-
http://shibashake.com/dog/how-i-trained-my-husky-puppy#bite-training
http://shibashake.com/dog/puppy-biting-tips-solutions
Consulting with a good professional trainer can also be helpful-
http://www.apdt.co.uk/dog-owners/choosing-a-trainer
we just recently adopted 2 shiba’s. A 4 year old male and his half-sister which is almost 3 years old. Our 4 year old male gets extremely stress when he sees comes into close distances with other dogs. Part of it seems he is trying to defend his sister but his sister has very little dog aggression. Our male dog has a mean bark and wants to attack instantly. We were had the vet and while sitting there, he had a strong growl and bark and would constantly show his teeth. Also, if walking and he sees another dog he will jump around constantly to free himself from his leash to catch the other dog. If I to pet him and calm him of the situation he will whine and try to slip himself out of his leash. Please help with any advise to teach this old dog some new tricks.
How does the male react to other dogs when the sister is not there? Is he very friendly or still somewhat wary?
My Shiba, Sephy, is also very protective of our Husky Shania. When a friendly new dog comes to visit, I first let Shania meet the new dog and make sure that they are getting along fine. If everything is going well, I get someone else to supervise Shania and the new dog. Meanwhile, I bring out Sephy on-leash, and we go a far distance away from the two dogs. For enough away that Sephy is able to stay calm.
I do some focus commands with Sephy and simple obedience. I reward him well for working with me. If everything is good, we move one step close to the other dogs and I repeat.
I also did a lot of dog-to-dog desensitization exercises with Sephy (without Shania there). That helps him to generally be more comfortable around other dogs.
During training, I walk Sephy and Shania separately. This is important because I want to maximize calm and successful walks while minimizing bad encounters with other dogs. The more Sephy practiced his reactive behavior, the more reactive he became. I talk more about what I do during walks in the article above.
Is there anyway that aroma therapy of some sort could help in making dog-to-dog encounter easier?
It did not really help in Sephy’s case because he was too highly charged, and aroma is not a strong enough counter stimulus (for him). Desensitization exercises using distance, in a controlled environment, worked best for us. Perhaps adding aroma could help during distance desensitization, but it did not seem necessary in our situation.
I imagine it also depends on the type of dog. Scent hounds, for example, are more attuned to smells.
Hi there,
Our shiba inu turned 2 yrs old back in June, and ever since then, he’s started becoming leash aggressive towards other dogs. 50% of the dogs we meet on our walks he’ll take a bite at, where it’s to the point that I avoid most encounters.
However, he still seems to love playing with other dogs and definitely wants to go meet them, so I feel a bit bad for avoiding these social situations.
Off leash, he’s perfectly fine and plays with most other dogs etc.. He’s also good with people as well, since we socialized him a lot growing up. We still go to dog parks and shiba meet-ups pretty often and he’s great there.
Any advice for another shiba owner? I’m hoping it’s more of a phase that he’ll grow out of, but who knows? Your comment on sensing owner tension might be adding to the aggression as well, so I’ll keep that in mind.
Thanks!
Will
Desensitization exercises helped with my Shiba. It really made a big difference for us to do exercises in a controlled environment because a lot of the dogs that we meet during our walks are reactive as well, so it is difficult to do training in such a situation. Also, the more negative encounters Sephy had, the more reactive he became, so I always try my best to not only maximize good encounters, but also to minimize bad ones.
I know what you mean with feeling bad, because Sephy also really likes playing with other dogs. However, bad encounters can really set back his behavior and cause him to learn bad habits. In the long run, it worked out much better (in our case) when there was more structure, and when I am careful about only letting him meet dogs that I know he will be successful with.
I have 3 dogs, a 12 yo male Golden Retriever (Bos), an 8 yo female Pug (Cera) and a 1 yo make miniature Dachshund (Max). The two older dogs have been spayed and neutered. Max has not been neutered. We have had all our dogs from weeks old. We noticed before we got Max that Cera would on occasion nip at Bos’ ears and he would just take it & yelp until we would get after her to leave him alone. Now that we have Max, Cera doesn’t seem to bother Bos as much but instead when Max runs to our front door and barks, Cera will attack at him and Max defends himself so the two dogs fight and we need to step in and break them apart. None of the dogs have ever been aggressive to the people, only to each other. I know there must be a reason why it’s happening, I’m not sure what to do.
My vet has mentioned jealously, since Cera has always been the dominate dog and now she has another who will not cower down like Bos does.
I should also mention that we have 2 cats. Both cats cane to us as siblings only 6wks old. Max has always pestered the cats, sometimes barking at them. Could Cera be acting out after Max because of how he acts with the cats? I didn’t think this could be the issue, since Cera will sometimes follow Max & join him in chasing after them.
Do you have any suggestions? I need to do something soon before this gets further out of control.
What triggers Max to run to the front door and bark? Is it because there are dogs and people passing outside? How do both dogs react to people and other dogs during walks? What is their daily routine like?
Could it be similar to this?
http://shibashake.com/dog/dog-to-dog-aggression/comment-page-3#comment-114412
Hey, i would like some advice. I have four dogs and two cats the four dogs i have had for 3 years + and they have always gotten along but recently my bulldog mix has been aggressive and jumping on my yellow lab mix and my Sheppard mix and this morning jumped on one of the cats. I dont know what to do he is a great dog older but very loyal and protective of my family. Can you help?
What were the dogs doing before the jumping behavior? Were there any resources (food/toys) around? Has anything changed recently in the dogs’ routine and environment? Did anything occur during their outside walks? Sometimes, aggression can also be the result of some physical issue. For example, a sick dog or a dog that is beginning to lose his hearing may become more protective of his personal space because he feels more vulnerable.
When my dog starts to act differently, I first rule out physical issues. I do a vet visit if necessary.
Once I rule that out, I observe him very closely to see what are the triggers that cause his behavior change (e.g. another dog getting close to him when he is working on a chew toy, another dog getting close to him while he is sleeping, play getting too rough, other dogs barking outside, dogs coming onto the property, etc.). There can be many reasons why a dog shows aggression, so I start by trying to identify triggers and similarities between each occurrence.
Once I identify the source of the behavior change, then I can take steps to redirect and retrain my dog.
Consulting with a professional trainer can also be helpful as it brings in a fresh pair of trained eyes, who can observe the dogs and observe the jumping behavior as it occurs.
http://www.apdt.com/pet-owners/choosing-a-trainer/
HI, I wonder if you had any advice for us as we are in a terrible position currently. We have 2 Staffordhsire bull terriers, Saffron, female, who is almost 9 and we have had since she was 12 weeks old and Diesel, almost 5 who we have had since he was 12 weeks old also. The 2 dogs have grown together. They eat together, sleep together and play with each other beautifully and they have always been like this. Yesterday, we let them in the garden and within 10 seconds, heard awful growling and aggresive dog noises, we ran out and Diesel had Saffron by her neck and we struggled to get him off of her. She needed a number of stitches in a large tear and spent some time at the Vets. She has not been back to the house yet and is staying with our sister who will look after her. Diesel has been very quiet since the incident and it is clear he knows something is not quite right. This happened once before about 3 weeks ago also and we are terrirfied that it will happen again, to the point where we currently do not want to put them back together at all, which will mean re-homing Diesel which we really do not want to do, if we can help it. A point to note is, our next door neighbour has always had one dog, but recently got another and they bark through the fence (6ft fence, they cannot see the neighbours dogs) at our dgos, which I believe does agitate Diesel somewhat – he has never been brilliant with other dogs. Our neighbour confirmed that their new dog was in the garden at the time of the attack. Any advice for us? Is there hope for Diesel and do you think a pet behavioural specialist may be able to assist here? Please help 🙁
It could be barrier frustration combined with redirected aggression. One of my neighbors has two Labs and they are pretty reactive toward outside dogs and noises. Whenever anybody passes by their sidewalk, they would start banging at the gate and then one of the dogs would turn on the other one out of frustration.
http://www.vetstreet.com/our-pet-experts/how-do-i-manage-my-dogs-barrier-frustration
Does Diesel charge at the fence? Does he bark back at the neighbor’s dogs? Does his behavior change when the neighbor’s dogs start barking? What is Diesel’s routine like? How does he react to other neighborhood dogs during walks?
Dog behavior is very context dependent, so it is not possible to say what is triggering the behavior without meeting the dogs and seeing things firsthand.
I think getting help from a qualified behavior specialist is a good idea. It can be a challenge to find a good one though. The dog training area is not well regulated, and anybody can claim to be a trainer or behaviorist. The APDT has some good resources on how to find a trainer/behaviorist.
http://www.apdt.com/pet-owners/choosing-a-trainer/
What I did to find a trainer for my dogs.