[DaddyDinner]

I've had my dog, Rowen, for about three years. I got her from a shelter when she was 4 months old. She's a 55 pound 'pit' mix of some sort. I think she's part great dane. She looks less like a pit than many pit mixes I've seen, but she definitely has some in her.

Anyway, for the first year I had her, I was unemployed and living in Naples Florida - the lamest place on earth - so I had nothing to do but take her to the local dog park. I took her every day. She loved going. When she was there she exhibited absolutely no aggressive tendencies. Other dogs would growl at her, bark at her, take toys away from her, and she wouldn't mind at all. It was like she was completely oblivious to the various dominance games all the other dogs were involved in. She just loved to play. Sometimes fights would break out, and Rowen would excitedly gallop towards them, thinking it was another form of playing. There were dogs that frequented the park that only Rowen was able to play with because only she would tolerate their roughness or barking.

Eventually, she did end up getting into a fight with another dog. It had bitten on to her neck and wouldn't let go. Somehow the other dog got flipped around, and twisted Rowen's skin in the process. This hurt her, so she went into snarl mode. It only lasted a couple seconds and as soon as it was over, she was back to her happy-go-lucky self. The other dog wouldn't snap out of attack mode, and had to leave the park. But, not before trying to attack Rowen again and even one of the other dog's own siblings. Rowen didn't respond to the second attack with any sort of aggression. No dogs were hurt.

When I moved away from Naples, I stopped going to the dog park every day, but still went pretty frequently. Rowen did get in a few more fights. But, it was always because another dog attacked her. When I say fight, I really just mean a snarling match. It was always with dogs that had no business being at the park. Once, an off-leash dog ran up to us in the woods and started snarling at her. That resulted in a snarling match.

When we moved again, I still took her to the dog park. But, at the new dog park the fights seemed to happen more frequently. The first couple were when some mean little dogs attacked her just for being too close to them. However, more and more it became hard to tell why the fights were happening or which dogs were causing them. I probably should have stopped going earlier, but after going to the dog park literally hundreds of times it was hard for me to accept that she could have an aggression problem. After the skirmishes she would always go back to normal immediately and continue playing with the dogs she had just been fighting with as though nothing had happened. She never hurt another dog or got hurt herself.

But, everything came to a head when we got a puppy, Freya. The reason we got Freya was to provide a companion for Rowen to play with. Rowen always seemed pretty depressed when she was inside. She's very awkward indoors. She doesn't really move around comfortably. She gets scared of harmless things. Any sort of unusual movement or sound scares her. At first, she wouldn't even cross over a wire if it were laying on the floor. She also doesn't seem to derive much comfort from her interactions with humans. She responds very timidly or awkwardly to any kind of affection. When I pet her, I get the feeling that she thinks it's some sort of examination or something. She just prefers to be left alone. Outdoors, it's very different. I still don't think she likes the affection, but I can roll her over or really do anything without her feeling threatened.

My girlfriend and I thought getting a puppy would help to lighten the mood up indoors, and it actually has helped a little. But, when we first got her, Freya, despite being a lot smaller and younger than Rowen, was extremely dominating. She wouldn't let Rowen do anything. When we first brought her home she attacked Rowen over a toy almost immediately. They get along pretty well now. When Rowen isn't feeling especially nervous, they'll play indoors. But, outside, they are able to play pretty well together.

However, seemingly coincidental with our acquisition of Freya was Rowen's complete rejection of anything but negativity and aggression towards strange dogs. She snarls at every dog we pass on the street. This started before we got Freya but wasn't as complete until Freya came around. It might just be pure coincidence. It seemed to be going in this direction before we got Freya.

The underlying mental state behind the behavior is hard to understand. Sometimes we'll see a dog on the street and Rowen will start whimpering and whining and wagging her tail like she wants to go meet the other dog or play. But, when she gets near it she'll just start snarling. Today, a little off leash dog came running up to us in the park. Everything was going fine. Freya was excited. I was petting it, saying "nice puppy." Rowen was sniffing it. The little dog was excited. Suddenly, Rowen starts snarling for no reason at all. I'm not sure even she knows why she does it.

Rowen is very obedient. She doesn't pull on the leash. She listens to everything I say. This aggression is the only behavior of hers I would change.

Can anyone shed any light on the situation?

 

[DaddyDinner]

She's been to a vet recently, but didn't have a blood test done. I'll get on that. She has always seemed very lethargic or almost depressed when she's inside. The thing is, as soon as she's outside she becomes pretty energetic, though she doesn't get as excited as she used to. She gets plenty of exercise.

1. We use a prong collar for corrections during our walks. When we take her off leash (which we haven't been doing recently) we use a shock collar for corrections. We make her do a few tricks for her breakfast and dinner. I'll give her verbal praise when she obeys a command on walks. She's never really needed that much training though. She's never really done much of anything that we didn't want her to do. We taught her to come when called when she is outside off leash by using the shock collar. When she exhibits the aggressive behavior towards other dogs I'll correct her with the prong collar and the utterance of "Hey!"

2. Yes, but when they are alone, Freya is in her crate, while Rowen freely roams around the apartment.

3. It's hard to say for sure, but things did seem to start escalating from just random encounters to a pattern of increased fighting and aggression when we moved this last time. She definitely starting snarling at dogs on the street before we got Freya. But, I remember a few snarling matches that occurred on the street even before we moved. It's hard to pinpoint exactly when she started initiating it and when it became a problem. At first, it seemed like just a preemptive thing she was doing because she was expecting the other dog to do it to her. That started after a few run ins with mean little dogs on the street and at the park. It seemed like it was just little dogs at first that she didn't like. I think that was before we got Freya. But, it seemed like right when we got Freya that she started indiscriminately doing it without any reason.

It is possible that there's something around here that's bothering her. There's a very noisy beagle across the street that Rowen especially doesn't like. She got in a fight with it at the dog park. At the time I thought it was just an anomaly since she recognized the beagle from the neighborhood and perhaps thought it was threatening her home territory. Plus, it was really loudly barking at her.

She doesn't seem any more stressed or uncomfortable in the new place than she has in any other place though. But, she's always seemed very uncomfortable inside and very happy when she's outside. The aggression is the only thing I can tell that is new.

4. I definitely wouldn't call her a feisty dog. She's very mellow and a little distant. She also doesn't seem to be interested in dominating other dogs. She's never once put up any resistance against Freya's dominant behavior. She will get a little aggressive with Freya if she thinks Freya has crossed the line, but she'll let Freya take her toys without seeming to care.

I do think it's an anxiety problem that has developed due to various negative interactions with other strange dogs. I don't think it's in her nature because of more than 2 years of nothing but positivity towards other dogs. She used to just love other dogs.

5. Yeah, I've grown to dislike the dog park. The one in Naples was great because it was just the same few regulars all the time. It was also clean. I think I've accepted that we shouldn't go anymore.

Occasionally I'll take them out separately. She doesn't seem to be that much more comfortable without Freya. She doesn't seem too uncomfortable with Freya either. They'll wrestle over sticks and chase each other. She's not really afraid of Freya at all. They'll even wrestle a bit inside and it seems completely normal. Freya sometimes seems to be offended by Rowen's insubordination during play, but Rowen never seems to really notice. Never has Rowen led me to believe that she cares one way or the other about the whole dog social hierarchy thing. It's like Rowen doesn't really care enough to put up a fight or be bothered by Freya's domination attempts, but doesn't acknowledge Freya's dominance at all.

For instance, if Rowen is chewing a toy that Freya wants, Freya will start running around Rowen and barking. Rowen will just keep on chewing without even acknowledging Freya. But, eventually Freya will just take the chew toy, and Rowen will just let her and go find another toy. But, if Rowen felt like playing, she'd have no problem going and taking her toy back to try and initiate play.

Rowen has a chair that she spends a lot of time on. Freya doesn't really sit on it that often. I don't know if she considers it hers or not.

Thanks for the links. I'll look over them. I'm definitely going to keep them on a leash until I feel completely safe. When she's off leash she does seem to be less aggressive though. The thing is. She plays very rough too, especially when it's both her and her sister. This causes some dogs to exhibit a little aggression in defence, which I think Rowen interprets as pure threat which causes her to "attack." But, yeah, I'll be keeping her on leash.

 

[DaddyDinner]

The first part sounds good. I'll stop trying to correct her aggressiveness. I was only halfheartedly doing it because it didn't even seem to register when I did it. One thing we tried was for either me or my girlfriend to approach a strange dog before Rowen had a chance to meet it and let her see us pet the dog so she could see it wasn't a threat. Sometimes we'd do it with Freya. Rowen would start whimpering and wagging her tail like she wanted to play but then as soon as she got a chance to meet the other dog she would start snarling. That's why I'm not even sure there even is any underlying reason. It's like she just smells a smell and goes nuts like she doesn't even know what's going on.

As for the second part, we only started using corrections of any sort when we started wanting her to be able to be offleash, which was well after she stopped misbehaving indoors. We've never used either the prong or the shock collar indoors. Regrettably I did yell at her a few times when we first got her and she had had an accident. I wasn't yelling in anger. I was just doing what I thought I should do to get her to stop. But, I stopped that within a week of getting her. She's always been nervous inside. She was a stray before we adopted her. She very well may have spent the first 4 months of her life outdoors. She was akward and nervous indoors from the very first day I brought her home. There was always the outdoor/indoor thing with her. Especially when she was a puppy, she was like a different dog when she'd get outside.

 

[DaddyDinner]

Well, I had this giant response typed up. Unfortunately, I deleted it by hitting the Reply to Thread button rather than the Post Quick Reply button.

Thanks for the advice. I will follow it.

However, I disagree with your story. Rowen was never the least bit shy or timid at the dog park. Upon entering the park she will excitedly run full speed to the nearest or biggest pack of dogs and immediately join in whatever they are doing. She get's excited just hearing the words "dog park." In Naples, she had the reputation of being the most fun-loving dog there with the ability to get all the other dogs excited to play.

Also, I think she's become somewhat more comfortable indoors since we got Freya.

I know the type of dog you're thinking of and I don't think Rowen is one of them. If I had to describe her using metal illness terms I'd say she's more autistic than anxious. That's not to say that it isn't anxiety that's causing the aggression or that it wasn't the dog park that caused it to surface. But, in general, she's not one of those super shy timid dogs.

At the dog park, a really shy dog will usually stake out it's own safe zone, normally by its owner. It'll wait around there, nervously watching the other dogs play. Then, if the other dogs get too close it will lash out. Rowen, on the other hand, will run around, almost frolicking, picking up sticks, chasing other dogs, wrestling, sometimes she'll just wander off and explore. She was especially good one on one with really rough dogs because she would tolerate extremely rough play without getting upset.