What to do when your dog is only aggressive with CERTAIN dogs (lab, terriers)

[Avalon08]

My Westie Casey (18 mos., neutered male) has been going to dog parks for almost a year. He was previously the nicest dog ... never even growled at another dog ... well, maybe only if a bigger dog was trying to get his treat. I was more worried about OTHER dogs being aggressive, but never Casey.

I now have added Comet (5 mos., female Westie) to the mix. They both go to the park ... Comet is a cutie with a lot of personality, always willing to play, even with the bigger dogs. Comet follows Casey when he runs off to explore, but often he's doing his thing and she's doing hers.

Casey has shown some aggressiveness with a few dogs now -- a German short-haired pointer (male), a GOLDEN (!), and today a 9-mo.-old Lab (female) puppy. His aggressiveness usually consists of snarling and barking at the dogs til they run away, but today he looked like he was attacking that Lab on its ear. The poor Lab lay right down ... not like she was threatening -- I didn't get what prompted him to do that to her. And it's always the same dogs ... EVERY time the pointer comes in, Casey gets snarly. The majority of dogs, Casey is friendly to and either plays with or ignores. Somehow these particular dogs get

First we thought maybe he was protecting Comet, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Dogs can be playing rough with Comet, and Casey doesn't seem to care...he's off doing his own thing. His aggressiveness with these dogs starts before they've even interacted with Comet. It does seem coincidental that his new aggressiveness started at the time she joined us at the park though.

I don't want to stop taking him, or have to take them when the park's empty, but I don't know how to handle this. Today I poked Casey with my cane (lightly) to get him to back off the Lab. Not sure that this type of instinctual behavior, with certain dogs, from a Westie, can be resolved through training though. Comet so far has been a sweetie, but then again, so was Casey at her age.

Sorry for the long post, but if anyone has any thoughts, let me know.

[Ringo1]

Oh gosh. I hope you get this straightened out. I have a Westie that was fine until he was about ... two years old - then started getting aggressive with other dogs; mostly other males. He got jumped a few times when he was a puppy . . . so not sure if that's how it all got started or what.

Also, there are several Westies around town and their owners all say the same thing.

BUT, there are two that I see at the dog park - a male and female - that are just happily playing with the other dogs so I don't know.

Good luck. I've given up on taking Ringo to the dog park; I hope you can figure out what's going on with Casey. The sooner you can stop the behavior; the better off you'll be.

[Avalon08]

Yes, the Westie I had back in the 80's got aggressive (with visitors) at about 18 mos. too....I just thought it was because I didn't train her properly. Now I really am thinking this is why you don't see too many Westies out at the parks...they are terriers, after all.

All the advice I've seen on the Internet is not really practical for my situation.

Casey's not on a leash, no leash-jerking isn't an option -- nor do I want him on a leash when the other dogs are approaching him off-leash.

Training him on how to approach other dogs isn't really relevant, because he's not aggressive with ALL dogs; just certain dogs. All the dogs run up to each other and sniff/greet/play, and *usually* it's fine. And it's not like Casey just has to "get to know" the other dog -- he has been snarly at the German pointer every time he's seen him. He's been snarly at this particular Golden two times, yet there's another Golden he plays happily with. It's not a breed-specific thing.

I would love to have Cesar Millan here to read into the dogs' behavior...

[Thursday007]

Did this all start when you got the new puppy? If so, he may be doing it to protect his territory from more intruders - a jealousy thing if you will. I have several dogs and when I brought home a puppy they wanted nothing to do with it. When I adopted one of my fosters, my best dog, the one that the others wanted nothing to do with, who was the reason I started fostering because she was so good with them, suddenly turned aggressive with them. She got along with the new dog and they were immediatel playmates which is why I adopted him. but she suddenly developed issues with the new foster dogs including killing one of them which was a total shock because she was the perfect dog and well trained to do anything I told her and she was so good with the fosters before hand. No one knows for sure why she started acting like this.

With fostering dogs, for some reason, I couldn't bring long-haired dogs in the house because my own dogs will snarl and attack them. It's the wierdest thing. They just do not like long haired dogs.

I wish I had answers for you, but all I can say is you aren't alone with this dilema.

[groar]

i have this problem sadie as well. every once in a while, she just doesn't like a dog. she's gotten into one full fledged fight and there have been a few scary moments. but this is out of hundreds of interactions.

i'd recommend that you learn to spot trouble before it happens - look for your dog staring at or staying face to face with a dog for too long while greeting (they should pause brieflly, if at all, at the face before moving to da butt), stiffness in his body (even a stiffly wagging tail). look around for common factors that might be causing his aggression - the other dog's body language, where they are in relation to you or his lil sister. i'd recommend checking out the books "calming signals" by turid rugaas and "for the love of a dog" by patricia mcconnell to learn about canine body language.

work on a "this way" command where you get your dog to walk in the direction you're walking. this is useful in a lot of contexts (quit sniffing and let's get on with our walk, stop pulling after that cat). start out luring him with a treat, with absolutely no distractions and work your way up to doing it when he's greeting other dogs, even friendly ones. as he's greeting, repeatedly distract him away from the dog, reward him (it doesn't have to always be with food, as food rewards in a dog park are not a good idea), and then let him go back. this is very effective at relieving tension. eventually you will only have to do it when you see that there's trouble brewing. you are going to have to be right there to react FAST though, so you'll have to stay fairly close to him whenever he's at the dog park, and really pay attention to him (everyone should do this, really).

hopefully, eventually he learns that when he meets a dog who rubs him the wrong way, if he goes to you something good will happen. he may not - you may have to just manage the problem from now on. but you never know.