# Sudden aggression from 11 month old puppy



## mtstchloe (Jan 8, 2017)

I have an 11 month old male Border Terrier who has always been boisterous but never aggressive towards other dogs. On walks, he is off lead 90% of the time and friendly towards all other dogs - tail wagging, only wanting to play or happy to walk on.

Two weeks ago, he was approached in the park whilst off lead by a German Shepherd puppy who was younger than him but larger than him. Instead of his normal behaviour, he dropped a tennis ball he had in his mouth and lunged at the dog. Being young, the German Shepherd was very submissive and did not try to fight back. It took 20 seconds or so of the GS running away from my dog, with my dog chasing and snarling to separate them. I was completely in shock, having never seen any kind of even low-level aggression from him before. Afterwards, we thought it may have been him being possessive about the tennis ball, or over my sister's dog who was with us on the walk, and this may have triggered the behaviour, with my dog possibly thinking he was being defensive.

Since then we have not allowed him tennis balls near other dogs and we have had no problems. His behaviour has been friendly to every dog, big or small, young or old, since. Today I took him out and he met a very young puppy, smaller than him and maybe 3 months old. He is usually very friendly with puppies. Immediately upon making contact with the puppy he again lunged at her and, when the owner picked her up and I went to grab his collar, he began jumping up towards her to get to her. I don't see this as defensive and certainly was an attack since he continually wanted to go back to her despite her being no threat.

I took him home immediately and am lost as for what to do to stop this infrequent but unpredictable behaviour. He has not been neutered yet due to advice we received on younger neutering encouraging fear based aggression, which I wanted to avoid. Little did I know that 2 months later he would display aggression twice within a month regardless. I know that his testosterone is peaking around 10-11 months and that this will tail off, but I am worried that this kind of behaviour could be permanent. For now he will not be allowed off lead around other dogs. Can anybody advise whether this is something they know of, and whether this is reversible or permanent behaviour?


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## Lurcherlad (Jan 5, 2013)

Stick him in a harness and use a flexi or long line so he can't approach other dogs and tell owners to give him space, so he doesn't practise this unwanted behaviour.

Maybe ask your vet to refer you to a good behaviourist who uses positive, reward based training.

He sounds a bit insecure and anxious around other dogs. Keep him far enough away so he doesn't react and then you can praise/treat him, so he learns to relax around other dogs.

Look at positively.com for some tips and advice.

What area are you roughly - someone might be able to recommend a trainer.


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## Vicki G (Jul 18, 2016)

I had a similar situation with Cassie which started when she was 6 months old. She suddenly took a dislike to small dogs (not all, just some). I did get a behaviourist in to assess her but typically, her behaviour had improved by the time he visited. He said it was important to keep letting her meet all kinds of dogs but to just be very vigilant and ready to step in to deal with any tricky situations (she always wears a harness so it's easy to pull her away). We also had to work on her recall which was good but not perfect. We have to call her back when she's playing with other dogs, reward her, then send her back to play so she doesn't think coming back to us means the end of play.

I sympathise, I was horrified when Cassie first went for another dog. It was hard to enjoy walks after that, worrying whenever we saw a potential "victim". It didn't happen often though so we soon relaxed and walkies are great fun now. Good luck!


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## Mateo (Jan 13, 2017)

mtstchloe said:


> I have an 11 month old male Border Terrier who has always been boisterous but never aggressive towards other dogs. On walks, he is off lead 90% of the time and friendly towards all other dogs - tail wagging, only wanting to play or happy to walk on.
> 
> Two weeks ago, he was approached in the park whilst off lead by a German Shepherd puppy who was younger than him but larger than him. Instead of his normal behaviour, he dropped a tennis ball he had in his mouth and lunged at the dog. Being young, the German Shepherd was very submissive and did not try to fight back. It took 20 seconds or so of the GS running away from my dog, with my dog chasing and snarling to separate them. I was completely in shock, having never seen any kind of even low-level aggression from him before. Afterwards, we thought it may have been him being possessive about the tennis ball, or over my sister's dog who was with us on the walk, and this may have triggered the behaviour, with my dog possibly thinking he was being defensive.
> 
> ...


It would be wise to neuter your dog


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## Mateo (Jan 13, 2017)

Hi, I often see this behaviour in adolescent dogs and if you don't neuter you need to crack the whip regarding training.
Both of my dogs an Amstaff male (intact)
And Staffordshire Bull Terrier female (intact)
Both have gone through an aggressive stage during puppy puberty. 
I found that using pheromone collars and getting a referral to an appropriate training class that focused on both handling and re enforcement of basic puppy manners and reliable recall helped no end during this stage of development.
The pheromone collars for dogs I used where Adaptil and they really do help.


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## frantic (Jan 14, 2017)

mtstchloe said:


> I have an 11 month old male Border Terrier who has always been boisterous but never aggressive towards other dogs. On walks, he is off lead 90% of the time and friendly towards all other dogs - tail wagging, only wanting to play or happy to walk on.
> 
> Two weeks ago, he was approached in the park whilst off lead by a German Shepherd puppy who was younger than him but larger than him. Instead of his normal behaviour, he dropped a tennis ball he had in his mouth and lunged at the dog. Being young, the German Shepherd was very submissive and did not try to fight back. It took 20 seconds or so of the GS running away from my dog, with my dog chasing and snarling to separate them. I was completely in shock, having never seen any kind of even low-level aggression from him before. Afterwards, we thought it may have been him being possessive about the tennis ball, or over my sister's dog who was with us on the walk, and this may have triggered the behaviour, with my dog possibly thinking he was being defensive.
> 
> ...


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## smokeybear (Oct 19, 2011)

Mateo said:


> It would be wise to neuter your dog


Neutering has zero effect on resource guarding


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## smokeybear (Oct 19, 2011)

mtstchloe said:


> I have an 11 month old male Border Terrier who has always been boisterous but never aggressive towards other dogs. On walks, he is off lead 90% of the time and friendly towards all other dogs - tail wagging, only wanting to play or happy to walk on.
> 
> Two weeks ago, he was approached in the park whilst off lead by a German Shepherd puppy who was younger than him but larger than him. Instead of his normal behaviour, he dropped a tennis ball he had in his mouth and lunged at the dog. Being young, the German Shepherd was very submissive and did not try to fight back. It took 20 seconds or so of the GS running away from my dog, with my dog chasing and snarling to separate them. I was completely in shock, having never seen any kind of even low-level aggression from him before. Afterwards, we thought it may have been him being possessive about the tennis ball, or over my sister's dog who was with us on the walk, and this may have triggered the behaviour, with my dog possibly thinking he was being defensive.
> 
> ...


I would not overreact, resource guarding from humans and other dogs is perfectly normal but not very acceptable.

There is no need to be shocked, ALL animals behave aggressively from time to time ranging from slamming a phone down, giving someone the finger to applying a chainsaw to body parts.

I think on the spectrum your dog is somewhere around the finger mark............... 

You may benefit from some 1:1 with a trainer where do you live perhaps we can recommend someone?


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## frantic (Jan 14, 2017)

I had same problem, Alfie met a hyper active staffy puppy(very bouncy)- he was about 4-6 months and for a few months after he was very wary/stroke a little snappy with Puppies. Now 6 i try and put him on a lead nr bouncy dogs and supervise,him if all goes well i let him off.
However if your dogs is small and has a puppy experience with a bigger dog, then all bigger dogs are potentially a problem, just pop on lead and supervise.
I get angry when dogs come hairying over the fields and getting in my dogs faces,with no responsible owners around.
cos then we have to protects the dogs we brought out,plus fight off other dog.
Remember if your dog goes back on the lead ,you have more control,


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## frantic (Jan 14, 2017)

um. Some people say Neuter the dog, but that isn't the going to stop the problem.
If we experience something upsetting we have to try and work out a cause (Not get bit chopped off.
Alfie grew out of it just take time and keep at it introduce to others dogs, its trial and error


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