Aggressive to other dogs

[Selinalouisa]

Our black Labrador is 1 and a half now. We have no problems other than being aggressive to other dogs. He’s never met any dogs as we have no friends or family with dogs only the one time I took him to a doggy day care and he was fine. But since then he has been attacked by another dog (didn’t result in any injuries). From a puppy when we walked him on the lead other dogs would always bark at him or snap when he went to sniff them. Which i think is the two reasons for not liking dogs anymore, I think he’s just scared which results in aggression as his tail doesn’t wag anymore and sometimes he will shake before snapping. I don’t know how to get over his fear/aggression of dogs when we don’t know anyone with a dog willing to help. I’ve had a look for dog trainers but cannot find any good ones in my area. Any advice?

 

[JoanneF]

See if this helps. But please come back with any questions you have.

Dog Reactivity

 

[Selinalouisa]

Thank-you this really helped!

 

[Tinytom]

Has he been neutered

 

[JacksDad]

Our black Labrador is 1 and a half now.

Handsome fellow.

But since then he has been attacked by another dog (didn’t result in any injuries).

One time can be all it takes.

take a look at the link Joannef provided. it's a good starting point.

Really take the points about keeping the distance your dog needs in order to NOT react. A common misconception I often address is thinking the dog needs to be reacting then learning to shift gears so to speak. NOPE. Done right we NEVER work out of the reaction, we work up to the reaction point. If we do our job right then when we push that previous "line" were the reaction would have happened, it doesn't and we continue to move forward. The goal is always to train that the dog doesn't need to react, not train stopping a reaction in progress.

IF you do have a situation where he does react, it is better to just get out of that situation vs trying to do some sort of "training" to get get "control". Just go for distance....LOTS of it. let your dog calm down, regroup. try again later.

Try again later might mean a couple days and that is all right. breaks are important. In the beginning about 50% of the time I suggest someone only train their dog every other day for this. on the days off, go some place that has the least chance of seeing another dog. Breaks are important.

outcome. I do want to disagree with the link a touch on this. There is no way to know the actual end result of your helping your dog over come this. odds are, you won't end up with a social butterfly. And I would encourage you NOT try and go there. BUT there is no reason to think you can't achieve a dog that can go on walks without reacting to other dogs just being there, looking at him, passing him.

here is an example. dog was not a social butterfly, like would never be. BUT could handle other dogs being near and passing. this was one of our last sessions, it was Lacrosse try outs at the park so SUPER busy. LOTS of people and dogs.

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCNodl_UMuuPW0qlcTPGO2Tg

 

[JoanneF]

@JacksDad thank you for these helpful points - I'd like to amend the post I wrote regarding the outcome but also, with your agreement, to include this -

The goal is always to train that the dog doesn't need to react, not train stopping a reaction in progress.

 

[JacksDad]

@JacksDad thank you for these helpful points - I'd like to amend the post I wrote regarding the outcome but also, with your agreement, to include this -

By all means.

on the outcomes. I think I know what you were going for, but as worded it is kind of discouraging. It is tricky balancing the encouraging of reasonable hope and chance of improvement with creating a misunderstanding of what is possible or inadvertently encouraging unrealistic goals/exceptions.