My 16 month old male dalmation was a happy, contented, well rounded puppy up until about 4 months ago. He used to love meeting other dogs on walks and would play for hours, however since June / July he has started exhibiting very aggressive behaviour when he meets others dogs on walks. We have been controlling the situation by putting him on a lead as soon as we see another dog in the distance and changing our direction etc, but it all came to a head the other day and he pulled me over! I felt soo embarrassed, and it has somewhat knocked my confidence when I am out on my own with him. We have now had him castrated, which we had been planning to do for a while, but has anybody got any tips on what we should do next? We felt we did all the right things bringing him up - puppy classes, socialisation with appropriate dogs etc, junior obedience training and feel at a loss! Jane P.S. All family dogs that he was brought up with he still is friendly with.

what do you mean by aggressive behaviour? Unfortunately putting him on a lead everytime you see another dog could actually make him worse. Castration isnt necessarily the answer either but we need more info on exactly what behaviour he is exhibiting so we can assist (hopefully)

Well - if he is left off the lead he either approaches the dog and plays or sniffs the dog and tries to attack it (including dogs he previously has played with when younger and both dogs and bitches). If we put him on the lead (which we have got into the habit of since this has started) he goes absolutely mad, usually ending up with me or my husband holding him while he barks / snarls / growls in an upright (standing on his back legs) position. People are often frightened by his behaviour. Sometimes at first we let him approach a dog while on the lead (if he is behaving calmly) and they may sniff for a few seconds and then he'll go mad. When he was younger I used to leave him off the lead to greet/mix with all other dogs, so it's a pity we've got into this situation of having to put him on the lead due to this unpredictable behaviour. About 80-90% of all dog meetings on walks end up with an aggressive response from him, whether when the dog is 20 feet away and he is on the lead or after sniffing/greeting for 30 seconds or so. P.S. Fine with people/cats/family dogs who he has known since a puppy (inc. dogs and bitches). Any ideas?? Jane

Welcome to the forum Jane :-)

Have you muzzled him Jane ? I know that this is not the *cure* (and personally, I hate the things) but if he is as bad as you say he is then it is only a matter of time before he does some damage. :-( In this day and age you really can not afford to take chances with him. Are you taking him to any sort of obedience class? How old was he when you got him? Please don't think that you are alone with this problem. I know several male Dalmations who behave in this manner. You do not say how long ago that he was castrated, but it could take up to 9 months before you see any results.If at all !! Fingers crossed !

Sorry, for all the questions but it would help to get a better picture :-)

Leigh

Hi Jane,

Sorry to hear about your and your Dalmation's problem. If he was castrated very recently it might be worth your asking your vet for the injection that works as a chemical castration (Sometimes Dobes in rescue are given a double dose when castrated). This should help reduce the testosterone that is going though his body - sorry I cannot remember the name of it at the moment

Leigh's suggestion of a muzzle is a good one as then you and he are both protected.

Does he like toys or food? When you have him on the lead with other dogs around try to keep his attention on you rather than the other dogs. Praise him lavishly (or feed him) all the time his attention is on you rather than the other dogs.

An exercise which might help you get this started is watch - hold food in front of your face and try to get him to look into your eyes, as soon as he does say "WATCH, goooodd boy, good to WATCH. If he is the sort of dog who won't look at your eyes praise him for looking at your face. Practice this when you are quiet at home, then in the garden and then with distractions. You should be able to get him to watch you for some minutes if you persist with this and can use it to distract him from other dogs - you must make yourself more interesting to him than they are.

Do you go to training classes with him - these can be very helpful in socialising and re-socialising or maybe take him to a dog show where there are 100's of dogs - sensory overload! Sometimes aggressive/over-excitable dogs are so overwhelmed at the numbers of dogs around them that you can do quite a bit of work with them.

Let us know how you get on with him
Good Luck
Christine

Hi there,

My goodness this sounds exaclty like the problem that we had with our GSD. The advice that I was given (which worked) was to keep his lead on him on the whole walk and every so often make him sit. This will help to keep his attention. If a dog approaches don't pull on the lead and change direction, just make the dog sit and stay. Then when he sits quietly give loads of treats and fuss.

Good Luck, Naomi

Thanks everybody for your suggestions.
Here's some answers to your questions:-
He went to training from 11 weeks to 8 months.
We had him from 9 weeks.
We only had him castrated last week after the pulling over incident - I know this sounds like a knee-jerk reaction but are previous dog trainer/behaviourist told us when he was six months old that we would be advised to get him castrated and we had been talking it over for months. Thanks for injection tip - I hadn't heard about it.
We havn't muzzled him yet - though I think we will.
He likes food, however, I was trying to distract him with some very smelly liver treats during the incident when he pulled me over - probably because I didn't have a good hold as I was trying to juggle with treats at the same time!!
We took him to dog agility at 11.5 months and he started to growl/aggressively bark at other dogs in the class if he made eye contact - I hasten to say I didn't go back as other people in class complained.
We took him to a dog show in early Summer - just to what was going on and he did the same as above.
I'm afraid to take him back to dog training with a class because of the fuss he makes, although I am going to contact the dog trainer to see if he will do some one-to-one sessions.

I think thats all. Thanks again everyone - you are all really supportive.
Jane

OK if eye contact is a problem putting a head collar on him so you can break the eye contact before he gets out of hand has been known to work. Basically when he tries to outstare another dog gently pull his head so the eye contact is broken and reward him for looking away (when he is calm of course!). Best of luck and keep us posted.

Progress?

We took him to the beach yesterday (where there is always loads of dogs). He met five other dogs, while he was on the lead (taking no chances), and he was as quiet as a mouse. We did concentrate on keeping his attention on other things, like games he already knows etc, but one came right up and sniffed him etc and he was fine. Do you think this is a combination of the castration two weeks ago and the game playing - or a fluke?

I'll keep the forum posted with any other progress.

Jane

Well done Jane :-)

I would say that it probably has more to do with the fact that you are more relaxed ! Actually having something else to concentrate on playing/sidetracking him, rather than worrying about his reaction will have made a difference :-) He would have picked up on your *fear* and reacted accordingly. Now your not worrying so much about the other dogs, because you are busy with him. He senses this and is responding to you :D

Keep at it, you'll get there in the end.

Leigh

Leigh's right, the minute you relax more they do. I had a similar problem with my bitch, problem not completely solved but definately making good progress. I tried taking her to classes when the problem started but to be honest it was too much for her. I spoke to a friend who knows a lot about my breed and training and she said something to me that made so much sense;

"if a 3 year old child was really frightened of the dark would you make her go to bed and turn the lights out? no you would put a lamp on and gradually get her used to the dark instead of making her face her fear full on"

I keep my bitch on a lead with a headcollar, the minute I see another dog coming towards me I say "this way" and walk in the opposite direction. By doing this I'm making the decision to walk somewhere else and she no longer has to decide whether she needs to be aggressive or not. She's not aggressive with all dogs either. Sometimes as we're walking the other way she will be looking back at the other dog, I find she now looks at me as well and decides well if mum's not worried why should I be. I had her off the lead this weekend and she ran into a growly GWP, I stayed calm and just shouted "this way" she immediately followed me and we walked off in a different direction, I then praised her and gave her a treat. I'm also working on her recall, she was always pretty good but now I'm looking for excellence and I find that helps too.

Hope that is of some help, my fingers are aching from typing ;-) Keep us posted.

I have to agree with Claire on this, I had the same problem with my GSD after he was attacked several times, I found the key was a perfect recall in any situation.
I can now relax safe in the knowledge that if we do meet another dog he will always come back and if the other dog follows I am in charge of the situation as he is close to me, and as Leigh so rightly says, the more relaxed you become the less upset the dog gets. Now if I could only get my other 2 to do the same, but then they are fine with other dogs so it's not so much of a problem. Ingrid