Hello, everybody I have not been on here in ages as till now my lovely Border terrier has been a fantastically behaved dog, but at the grand old age of 6 years old, she has suddenly started being unreliable around puppies. Generally she greets all dogs happily and in a friendly way although she has no longer got any interest in playing or running about with them(age I suppose) but if we see a puppy (smaller than my dog) she literally goes for it, its the same reaction she has when she see's a squirrel or a rabbit, do you think she thinks the puppies are something to be chased. If i see a puppy coming our way I avoid, but it really puts me on edge every time i walk her now as everybody seems to be getting new dogs at the moment round our way. I would really appreciate any help, thanks.

If it's suddenly started, your first port of call should be the vet.  Not just a general check over but bloods too, including a full thyroid panel (antibodies, T4 AND T3 at a minimum, no matter what the vet says all are necessary).

Puppies are very unpredictable and quick and silly, a lot of dogs don't like them but it's the suddenness that's raising a red medical flag to me, as is the disinterest in other dogs where she was playing before, if I read your post right - she could be worried about pain or just not feeling up to interacting.

Has she had any incidents that might have hurt her recently, even just a little knock?  Sometimes dogs can have skeletal misalignments that a vet might miss but a chiropractor could pick up on which would cause pain and help the situation once sorted.

Would be surprised if a 6 year old was too old to play and think she may need a check up, could be joint pain and some NSAID may well sort the problem.

Thanks for the advice, I hadn't really considered there could be anything medically wrong with her. She seems fine and loves her walks, the only thing we had noticed in the last few months was a slightly strange smell that we can't work out what it is, maybe a vet checkup is in order !

Could be anal glands?

Just an update and request for more advice please! We took our BT to the vets and she didn't have an anal gland infection but he said sometimes as dogs get older they dont empty the anal glands properly when they 'go', so we need to increase her fibre (bran or cooked veg) and actually it seems to have sorted the smell out which is good!.

Right next problem, we are still having some issues with her behavior with smaller dogs and puppies. Today we were walking in the park and we had just arrived a group of 4 dogs were already saying hello to eachother, they all approached my dog and she was ok with the labs and bigger dogs but as soon as a little one came over (in a friendly way) she just went for it, grabbing scruff of neck etc. I quickly put her on the lead and that was walk over, I was shaking its so upsetting when your dog does that. This is the 1st time in months we have had any problems, but it really upset me, any thoughts on what i should or can do, apart from just avoiding any dogs we see??? Thanks all x

I would think that the group of dogs raised her stress levels - she might be ok with bigger dogs but a group of them approaching her is going to be intimidating for most dogs (I don't allow mine to do it to any dog of any size for that reason, unless we know the other dog very well); then throw in the little dog which you know already she is reactive too (and which to her, is likely to be a lot less intimidating than the big dogs) and it'll be too much, and she'll react badly.  That's what I think might have happened, anyway; impossible to say for certain without seeing her, of course.

You need to work on her little dog issues - have a look at BAT training by Grisha Stewart, that'll help teach her that she has other options than reaction (and that you will respond in a rewarding way to her signals).  You also need to make little dogs themselves a positive thing - pair them with food, if she likes her treats; every time she sees one at a distance, shovel her full of food :-P  I find pairing the two methods together quite effective - I've done it with my oldie, initially just the food at a distance then bringing in the BAT once she was starting to look at me for a treat.  Tia's first reaction when she first got here - particularly with little dogs (easier targets for her) - was to bomb straight in, loom over them in a very bullying, threatening way, and if they reacted, nip or pin them.

This morning, she started to approach a small spaniel who she and I both know is very submissive (her favourite type to bully, before), got within about 6ft, and stopped in her tracks when the spaniel gave her a calming signal - she then gave a lovely lip lick and head turn, and walked away back to me.  This is all because she's learned that giving proper signals and moving away both get rewarded with either distance or food (or both, for a very good one).  She's relaxed no end.

Importantly at this stage for you, is not to let her interact with little dogs unless it's totally under control and managed (i.e. a controlled setup), so she never has the chance to react - set her up for success.  The BAT book is on Amazon and elsewhere, it goes through everything very clearly including how to go about sorting both artificial setups and real life situations.  Plenty of vids on youtube to demonstrate it too.

Thanks for your great reply, it does make perfect sense that it would have been too much for her walking into a big group of dogs like that, I did think about turning around when I saw them and in hindsight should have done.
I will have a look at the BAT training you mention, sounds good.
I would like to have her be around smaller dogs in a positive way, as you suggest in a controlled setting, unfortunately we don't know any small dogs, all big ones! I was thinking of taking her to a dog training class to socialize her a bit more, one that deals with dogs with issues!
I will start with having a look on amazon though for the BAT training book, thanks again.

A class could be very useful with the BAT because the other dogs will be on lead and under control - I used one to great advantage when I had Soli.  Doesn't necessarily need to be one that deals actively with dogs with issues, but if you can find one that works outside (plenty of room to work her far enough away that she's not reacting) and is happy for you to just do your own thing, it could be very useful indeed.