# Aggression with other dogs



## Summer-roo! (Sep 8, 2011)

Hi everyone, I'm new and have a question about my beautiful dog Summer who is a year old next week.

She is aggressive towards some dogs when we are out. For example, today when out walking we met another dog. Both dogs were off-lead, both had balls. The other person made a fuss of Summer whilst I petted her dog. The other owner had thrown Summers ball for her, I did the same for the other dog, but Summer retrieved that one too. She brought it back and I took it off her. The other dog approached me again and Summer turned on it, as if to fight it off.

Is this to do with ball possession? Or even me?

She was socialised well as a pup, taken to two lots of training classes, and I find it upsetting (and embarrassing) when she snaps like this. How do I address this?


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## Joanne & Asia (Jul 23, 2007)

We have had this issue starting when Asia was about 18 months old. It does seem to be a possesive thing. Our trainer said we were not the pack leaders so we put her through more obedience trainig and used the Nothing in Life is Free method( you can google it to find out more). It did help but did not stop the problem entirely as she is fine with other dogs when I am not around and only exhibits the behaviour when she is close to me. She is awesome with people and has never shown any aggression. I am sure I am sending out some signal to her and she senses my anxiety and not sure how to resove that. She is now almost 7 years old and we have learned to avoid dog parks as she gets nervous around too many dogs and when we are out walking she is fine to say hi to dogs as long as it is quick and we keep moving. I empathize with you as it is frustrating and embarrasing. I hope things improve for you.


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## momtoMax (Apr 21, 2009)

If you really feel that she is agressive to other dogs, you shouldn't have her off leash anywhere where other dogs may be. You want to work through this but you have to set her up for success and protect other people's dogs from behavior that you find worrisome enough to post about. Lots of people will have great advice for you - mine is that no more off leash time. Imagine if a dog attacked Summer off leash and you found out that the owner knew his dog had agressive tendencies, how would you feel about that?


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## Jige (Mar 17, 2011)

It sounds like she is reactive to other dogs getting your attention. If you have someone that will help you out you can work on this. You need to have her sit and honor the other dog retrieving its ball and bringing back to you. I wouldnt think that it isnt something that you can not work through. Especially if she is fine if you are doing something with the other dog.


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## GoldenSail (Dec 30, 2008)

Has she exhibited this before? Do you think it has to do with you showing affection for another dog or is she possessive of the ball? While it is unacceptable behavior it is important to realize that dogs do not understand the concept of share--they are dogs. Is she an only dog?


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## Summer-roo! (Sep 8, 2011)

momtoMax said:


> If you really feel that she is agressive to other dogs, you shouldn't have her off leash anywhere where other dogs may be. You want to work through this but you have to set her up for success and protect other people's dogs from behavior that you find worrisome enough to post about. Lots of people will have great advice for you - mine is that no more off leash time. Imagine if a dog attacked Summer off leash and you found out that the owner knew his dog had agressive tendencies, how would you feel about that?


Thanks but I feel I should clarify. She is not aggressive to other dogs off leash - she was fine at dog training for example. It's only been when we use a ball for exercise. She has been warned by other dogs when going for their ball, and to me I accepted it as part of her needing to understand other dogs boundaries and their body language. However I just don't want her to be like that herself!

For now I have stopped using the ball and she is absolutely fine; in fact she had a great time the last two walks playing with a spaniel and then another goldie. Having done some research it seems the ball is a high value item for her, so it's the most precious thing in the world for the first 30mins or so of the walk. So rather than give her that stress of keeping it to herself and warning off other dogs I've dispensed with it altogether and it's been far more enjoyable for both of us. We've also refocused back onto obedience, in particular recall this week, which has really helped too. Get's her focus back onto me rather than the ball.


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## Summer-roo! (Sep 8, 2011)

GoldenSail said:


> Has she exhibited this before? Do you think it has to do with you showing affection for another dog or is she possessive of the ball? While it is unacceptable behavior it is important to realize that dogs do not understand the concept of share--they are dogs. Is she an only dog?


 Yes she is an only dog. 

I saw some other dogs and owners walking together at the park and the collie they had was ball possessive and warned off the other dogs. Luckily as the owners are all friends they were kind of relaxed about it so I understand your point that dogs don't share.


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