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.
my dog is pretty old but has attacked other dogs since my son was born what do I do?????????
Thank you for your wonderful page – I wonder if you had any insight from your boy when he turned a year. We have our little shiba boy who will be 1 year in June and he is getting more “special” than usual. Grumpier and less gregarious which happened shortly after we neutered him. He does have a husky X sister who lives with us and was well socialized between doggy day care and a selection of good dogs, as well as puppy school and couple of visits with a behaviourist just to help me brush up on some skills after puppy school…
I have heard this is common with the shibas to get a bit grumpy around a year old and wondered if you shared this experience? Any insight on how to get over the hump would be great too!
Hi ShibaShake-
I love your blog and really admire your approach to dog training. I don’t live in your area, but am wondering if you are willing to weigh in on an issue I’m having?
I have a male Swiss Shepherd (also known as Berger Blanc Suisse) who is almost three. He has been leash reactive for a while, but is otherwise very well socialized, neutered, and has never had an issue while off-leash. Suddenly, in the last three weeks or so, he has gotten into several tussles at the dog park. In each case, no one was hurt. But as they happened very quickly it wasn’t immediately apparent what triggered it, or if my dog initiated. In the most recent case, I chatted with the dog owner afterward and discovered that it was her 5-year-old dog’s first “fight” ever, indicating my dog probably initiated. I have not been able to discern any trigger or pattern whatsoever. Is this just adolescence? Do we need to avoid the dog park? I read your advice about a similar situation, and am going to try recalling him often and keeping him calm, but I am admittedly alarmed and concerned about managing this situation well. Do you have any other suggestions or could you direct me to a good resource?
Very grateful for any thoughts you may have!
Following as this is also part of my question from my comment above. I have a shiba who is going to be a year and I have noticed an increase in some of that type of behaviour with no real chnages in anything….maybe I am not catching it quickly enough or its super subtle……
my dog is hyper and does a lot of demand barking, which I am working on, but my concern here is that there is a man with a small dog at the park where I walk my dog and I try my very best to avoid him, but at times I cannot avoid him. My dog who is bigger, he has a small dog, starts lunging and barking and is hard to control. I recognize my dog may be mirroring my emotions, as this man will not speak, stares at me, I fear he is a strange or dangerous person, and my dog is picking up on this. But although I have changed my times that I go to the park, as I mentioned he sometimes is still there. As I have to walk my dog b4 going to work and can only vary my walking times not all that much, want some advice on how to control my dog in these situations. I have read extensively about the focus command, but if he sees this person and dog and they are so far away I can barely see them, my dog starts going nuts and how can I control this when there are only so many exits to the park and he is at that point beyond control.
Hallo
I have a American Stafford shire and she is startinge to become aggressive towards my other smaller dogs and bytting them.
I am not shoor what to do, do you have any advice.
Hello. I have a doberman lab mix, she is very big and we got her from the pound. She was listed as “not suitable for kids/dogs” but we decided get her anyways, i have 2 other siblings in the house. She is wonderful, she playful and all! but we encounted a problem while having her. She has major dog aggression. And for some reason she just randomly starts barking a a person for no reason, i mean in a doberman/ guard dog thats a good quality to hhave i guess but. we want her to be a family dog. She is so nice to family and freinds and everyone who we let in our house. But seriously, the sight of a dog will get her AGGROVATED asf. We found out that she is slightley better with puppies. When we first got her, she always wanted to run out of the door. And one day she did. She even attacked a cocker spaniel when she got out, we cant afford training, and we want to keep her. Ive looked everywhere but her aggression just cant stop. We dont have 2 dogs so we cant practice. All i want for her is to be able to let her off leash and play outside without the possibility of her attacking a random dog.. Please helP!
I’ve got a blue Merle border collie, and she gets quite overprotected with balls and sticks. In the park, if another dog was to go too close to her when she has a ball or stick, she would straight off get aggressive. She is slightly unsure with people, but dogs are the main problem. With anything that she needs to share or if a dog gets too close she immediately attacks. We really don’t know how it got to this. The worst bit is that just today she went to a stranger for some cuddles and the strangers dog approached them and my dog just got aggressive… she is now being overprotective with people…
I tried finding something close to this experience but everything is not exactly what I’ve been looking for… do you have any tips??
My Shiba doesn’t really give any warning when she’s around big dogs. Last time she was near a big dog was a german shepherd and immediately lunged and started going for the poor dogs neck. I know for a fact she is scared but I don’t have much experience with dogs that are that afraid. My boyfriend gives me a hard time about giving up to easily. She has ran away before and has cause me enough grief that I can’t handle. My boyfriend hasn’t been helpful with getting her to get use to other dogs. Their family has a big dog and there was an altercation where their dog gave her a massive hematoma. I want my Shiba to have a happy life. I feel like I don’t have the necessary experience to handle a dog that’s dog aggressive towards larger dogs. I’m very small and I’m scared to get hurt if my dog gets into another altercation with another big dog. It really saddens me because she came from a shelter and from what I can speculate the previous owner had no idea what they were doing and neglected to socialize her at a young age. I grew up with dogs and cats that were both people friendly and dog/cat friendly. (all of which came from the shelter). I feel like a horrible person and a terrible owner because of what she’s been through. I’d like to get her rehomed to someone that has a better understanding and experience with her dog aggression. She is very playful and does the cutest howl when she demand play time. She knows when to go to her crate. She also knows how to sit and lay down however I’ve tried getting her to sit when she’s within sight of another big dog but she instantly will bolt given the chance.
I have a 3 year old Australian Shepard. She attacks my lab when they are in the yard if they hear or see another dog or person. The lab can become over excited at times. I am working with my Aussie. But the Lab doesn’t seem to be responding to any training. My wife wants to get rid of the Aussie if she bites again. I am very attached to my Aussie.
Hello, I really hope you can offer some advice. I have a four year old collie cross bitch who is very unpredictable. She senses dogs that are vulnerable or submissive and wants to attack them. It is a difficult situation as she needs lots of exercise so keeping her permanently on a lead is not an option. She has never shown any aggression to people or children and apart from situations when she sees a weaker dog is really lovable but this is a problem I can’t always predict.
hey!
I have a black German Shepard. He’s about 1,5 years old and really sweet for our family and our other dog and cats, but he has one problem. When we go for a walk in the park not far form our house and he sees another dog he will bark very aggressively and pull on his leash. we’ve had two bite incidents already. We don’t know where he got this behavior from and it’s very unpredictable. When he was still a puppy we did not isolate him from other dogs or something, he was very social and liked to play.
Somedays he’s very nice to other dogs but that can change in an instant. We’re at the end of our rope.
Do you have any advice for us?
I took my puppy from a dog foster home about a year ago. I love him to bits; he has a great personality, and I feel that he loves our family so much. BUT he barks and whines A LOT… So, leaving home is always a challenge for us. My husband and I were thinking about taking him to ‘doggy school’, but then again, it’s extremely expensive, and the nearest ‘doggy school’ is far away from us. Maybe you have some advice? THANK YOU!!!!
I would really appreciate your help. I have a 6 year old german shepherd lab mix who weighs about 50 lbs. My partner and I rescued him when he was older (4 years old) and he is probably the most amazing dog I have ever met – he’s sweet, smart, and loves to travel all over with us. Unfortunately he has massive aggression problems with other dogs – we picked him up at a shelter near the Mexico border and we believe he may have been trained in dog fights due to his outrageous behavior around other dogs. He is completely fine around humans – he has never barked at, growled at or come close to nipping anyone – even little kids that have pulled his ears and tail HARD – in fact around humans he is usually the best behaved dog in the group. Which brings me to another point – he is perfectly fine with dogs we introduce into the house as long as we slowly introduce them on leash and let them get to know one another. The aggression comes out when we take him on walks, runs, and hikes. In general we run around 3 or 4 miles with him every other day and go on 10-12 mile hikes on the weekends but his aggression has gotten so bad that we have completely changed our routine to accommodate him so we won’t run in to other dogs – now we run at 9pm with headlamps so we don’t run in to other people and we can only hike on trails we know we won’t see any other people because if there is another dog off leash there is a 99.99% chance our dog will try and rip its head off if it approaches us – it doesn’t matter if the other dog is aggressive or not, whether its male of female, young or old, large or small. We are very strict and always do our best to avoid other dogs and we NEVER EVER let him off leash – if we even spot another dog we will run off trail and get as far away as we can until the dog has passed. Unfortunately due to other dogs being off leash (very common in our area) he has gotten into around 3 fights in which the other dog had to go to the vet to get stitches. We are completely at our wits end. From now on we will be muzzle training him so that he will have his muzzle on 100% of the time we are outside the house because if he has another incident we will have to put him down. He is completely unmotivated by food if he can even smell another dog (it could still be a mile away from us) which makes reward training extremely difficult – his favorite thing in the world is going on runs and its the only thing that will motivate him. PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE HELP this dog means the world to me and I love him like family!!!
We have a shepherd mix that we took in after finding him on the streets. He is about 2 years and we had him neutered. We have had him for about a year now and he does fine with our other dog but he is definitely the alpha male. Last month he bolted out of our house into the neighbors yard and attacked their smaller dog causing enough damage that required surgery. Last week on a walk he again bolted after another smaller dog on a leash (my dog was at the time not on a leash-my bad). The attack again caused enough damage that required surgery.
I have a now 2 year old male Rottweiler that I helped birth and have had in my home with my 2 other dogs since he was 8 weeks old. My 2 other dogs are lab/retriever mixes(1 male 1 fem) who are not aggressive at all and very sweet, they all used to get along together really good. Up until recently all has been fine, but now the Rottweiler is attacking my 2 other dogs. They both submit to him but he continues to attack them. They all walk together almost every single day, get plenty of attention and have a fairly large area to have space from each other and play. I have had a trainer try and help me but the attacks only seem to be getting worse. The Rottweiler is also aggressive with other dogs that he has known his whole life that use to be his play buddies. I just don’t know what to do anymore.
Hello i’m not sure if this is still a active post or if you will see this at all but I could use some advice. I have a female 1 and a half years old Pitbull named Chanel. The first few months of her life I would take her on nature walks and we would encounter other dogs. She was young so she was alittle scared and timid but she would eventually warm up. When she was around 6 months I moved in with my boyfriend and our other Pitbull terrier Cairo. They are the best of friends but since I now lived in a more city area she would not see other dogs as much. Chanel quickly became a very aggressive dog towards other dogs and then she started to become aggressive towards any people that are walking up to the house or anyone she can see walking or jogging around. She is my baby and I raised her since she was a week old so I hate to see her so mean. You talk about avoiding other dogs and not paying attention to them but Chanel can spot a dog that’s at the end of the street far far far from us. She loses her mind. She sees dogs a lot of times before I do. She lunges, barks and snarls, all her hair on her back stands up and she is ready to kill. She learned how to escape her collar when she is on walks and wants to attack, so I had to resort to a choker collar. She has gotten more and more aggressive and honestly I don’t know why. She has attacked our neighbors blind sweet dog already and has come close to more attacks way to many times. Sometimes I take her to my parents home when I need a “baby sitter” for a few hours. Chanel has attacked the fence cutting her lips and face up trying to get to the dog on the other side. Recently she finally broke a hole in the fence and managed to stick her head through. Trying her hardest to attack the dogs, she got her head stuck and cut her face up from trying so hard. Luckily the owner of the other dogs has been caring for animals her whole life and has her dogs trained a bit better so they come when they are called. Today for the first time ever Chanel bit me and broke skin. She was trying hard to attack a dog she saw and I have no choice ever but to pull her back normally she will walk with me when I pull but this time she jumped around and lock-jawed on my leg. I proceeded to attempt to drag her away because if she tries hard enough she can escape the choker collar as well. I just don’t know where I went wrong and what to do at this point, she’s my baby and I can’t stand seeing her transform into a devil. Please help.