Aggressive Female Border Collie (Puppy, under 9 months)

by Sera
(Canada)

My family purchased Echo when she was 8 weeks old, and most of the time she is an absolute delight to be around. However, around 6 months of age, she started showing some worrying behaviours. The first instance was when we invited my mothers sister over for the weekend. Echo had been lying down when my aunt reached over to pet her, and without warning she snapped at her arm. She didn't break the skin, but she did nip her. This wasn't the first time she had met my aunt, and she hadn't ever behaved like that around her before. We began noticing from that point on that Echo had a tendency to stare very intently at any guests we would bring inside our home—especially women. A similar instance occurred with me, where Echo was lying down, and I began petting her. She seemed to be enjoying it, she even rolled over to show me her belly which I read as permission to pet. But when I reached toward her to pet her again, she snapped at my wrist and gave me a small nip. Apparently she has since snapped at my father and my sister. Most of the time, she acts very playful and friendly toward us, so we've all been very confused by her actions. In the past few months since then, she has been very good to everybody in my family, but she's still very wary of strangers, especially when they're inside our house.
Aside from aggression towards people, she has also demonstrated dog on dog aggression. As early as 3 months old. We introduced her to a boxer puppy that was around her age when she was 3 months old (we were really hoping they would hit it off together). And although the boxer was submissive, and seemingly only wanted to play with Echo, Echo kept charging at her and snapping. We separated them and assumed that they just weren't a good match. We introduced Echo instead to our neighbours 3 year old dog and they got along very well. We assumed that bit of aggressive behaviour with the puppy was a one off. Unfortunately we were incorrect, she has (not every time, but more often than not) snapped at and initiated an aggressive confrontation with dogs she has met while on lead. More recently, while playing ball off leash, she ran at an elderly couple who were walking their miniature schnauzers. She sniffed noses with one, and then picked it up and actually shook it back and forth. If it had been a smaller dog she could have seriously injured it. We are at a complete loss as to what to do. Obviously we have resolved ourselves to always keeping her on a lead so as to prevent such a thing from happening again (which makes it difficult to exercise her).
I wish she at least gave us warning? She doesn't growl, she doesn't bare her teeth, her behaviour feels sporadic or random. Suggestions are desperately needed.

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Apr 25, 2020
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How To Stop Dog Aggression
by: Online Dog Trainer

How To Stop Dog Aggression

If you want to understand how to stop dog aggression let me start by asking you two rhetorical questions!

Firstly do YOU start the aggression with your dog simply joining in?
Secondly does your dog listen to you just before it behaves the way it does when you try show it another way to behave?
The answer will of course be the following:

At the point your dog starts to become aggressive he is taking no notice at all of you.

He is making his own decisions and will not listen to you if you try to show him a different way to behave. What he is doing is simply too important to him and is the right thing to do. Dog aggression is nearly always done in order to protect, their pack and their own lives.

Firstly there is of course a whole range of different types of aggression from dominant to fearful and everything in between. Then there is aggression that occurs the whole time and other aggression, which is very erratic, and random depending on a number of differing factors. We could also look at what your dog is aggressive towards; it could be people, animals, other dogs or objects.

The way to stop dog aggression however is very much the same, or at least the cause of the problem is the same. Your dog thinks that it is the pack leader, becomes fearful and attacks to protect, you and himself. Dominant dogs will be more proactive, often attacking when they still have the option of running away, fearful dogs will only attack if they have no place to run. All the other factors pale into insignificance compared to this.

The most important concept to grasp if you want to understand how to stop dog aggression is that your dog must first look to you as the pack leader in the home. (This is the easiest place to convince him you are the decision maker.) Only then can you convince him that you are the pack leader on the walk. There are some fantastic video sites now that show you exactly how to become the pack leader.

Once you have convinced your dog that you are the pack leader outside then upon reaching the point where he usually is aggressive you will find that he will actually start to take notice of how you are behaving! If you aren’t then your dog will probably continue to ignore what you are doing at this point forever.

Just remember, dogs are pack animals and they follow the pack leader.

One of the best examples of a professional dog trainer putting this all into practice is The Online Dog Trainer. The site has live videos of this method being demonstrated and explains exactly how to stop dog aggression by simply convincing your dog that you are the pack leader.

CLICK HERE:

The Online Dog Trainer.

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