We have an 18 mth old weimaraner. He has been well socialised with both people and other dogs and attends obedience training. He would often approach other dogs as a pup but would frequently be attacked (this began when he was about 18 weeks old) He didn't ever retaliate, until he was approx 7 mths following a nasty attack by another dog. Since then he has became increasingly aggressive & it has now got to the point where he rarely gets on with other dogs & although we have him on the lead he still displays aggressive behaviour. He is extremely placid apart from this and when we initally spoke to other weimaraner owners we were advised not to neuter him as he would calm down by 18 mths - 2 yrs, however this does not appear to be happening. Would really appreciate some advice on this.

It might be worthwhile having him assessed by a behaviourist because if he is suffering from fear aggression, neutering him can make the problem worse. Is it just male dogs he has a problem with or is it bitches too? It may be worthwhile discussing the use of Tardak with your vet - it is commonly known as 'chemical castration' and can mimic the effects of castration so that you can see if neutering would be of benefit in your case. If it turns out that castration would help your boy, you will also have to use behaviour modification techniques in conjuction with it.

It can be any dog, sometimes he gets on really well with dogs, both unneutered & neutered and bitches but other times its often as if he will go for them before they have chance to go for him.  He can initally be a little aggressibe to bitches on occasions but once he is aware its a bitch he tends to be ok, it just seems to take him a while to feel settled with other dogs. He is fine with small dogs & will try and play with them but if they bark/growl thats it, he runs away! He also tends to be funny with certain breeds, particularly those who have attacked him in the past. 

Hi Bronson 1 the sad thing is i dont feel it has anything to do with him being entire, it's the fact he's been attacked so many times that he's anxious the poor sod of other dogs.  Have you ever socialised him in training classes, if you ever do go make sure you only let him mingle with dogs that are well behaved with no aggression so you can unwrap the anticipatated behaviour he has learned to other dogs reactions towards him.

Susan

We think it is partly due to other dogs but we do think some of his behaviour is dominance as he won't bite dogs but will just try and pin them to the ground in order to become top dog, we do try and avoid this situation as we've been told that the less fights he gets into the better. He did get on with a lot of the dogs in the obedience classes as he has known them since being a puppy. We have recently started gundog training where he does get on with some of the dogs but to begin with he is very nervous and it takes him some time to settle down.

I agree with the advice that the other posters  have given you, i dont think its related to him being entire either, i think it is down to his bad experiances he has had with other dogs.
I would contact a member of the APDT & get advice from them, let them assess him & give you a modification plan to work through.
Interestingly .... how do you "deal" with him when he responds to other dogs in this manner ?
I certainly wouldnt be adding fuel to this fire by telling him off & unfortuately some "old time gun dog trainers" ( not ALL of them but some of them sorry if this offends) are quite harsh with this kind of behavior & being harsh will deffinately make it worse !
Hope this helps a little :-)

You must remember too that Weimeraners can be very dog dominant too, especially the males, without the experiences he's had poor dog :( 

"when we initally spoke to other weimaraner owners we were advised not to neuter him as he would calm down by 18 mths - 2 yrs"

I don't know who told you this but weimaraners don't do calming down!  If you're not going to breed fr4om him, which with his aggression you shouldn't, then you should get him castrated.  His behaviour is more likely to be a product of the attack but having him castrated can only improve the situation.

Hi bronson1
hope things improve if you do have him castrated - as you will have gathered people's experiences are varied. Personally it made no difference to our dog. Being xbreed we were advised it was the responsible thing to do & hoped his dominant, aggressive behaviour would lessen. He was 1yr old when we got him, hadn't been well socialised with other dogs & even after castration it took a long long time to break the patterns he had established. You couldn't fault him with people - absolutely the softest dog you could ever meet but unpredicatable with dogs/bitches - he wasn't fussy. Hope things work out for you
Regards

We haven't spoken to any people yet who have said that their dog's behaviour changed following castration. 

I agree with Emma. However, if you really want to solve your dog's behaviour, then the best thing to do is to ask your vet to refer you to a qualified dog behaviourist, who will be able to help and show you what to do to stop your dog's aggression towards other dogs.

Castration will not stop him being aggressive to other dogs on its own. It will just make him less reactive, so you need to get to the core of the problem and tackle that.

Cheers,
Patty

I have a 19 month old dobermann and I had a similar problem, he was actually attacked at 7 months old by a long haired retriever.  After this he always stuck up for himself.  The problem was as he reached 14 months old, he started this dominance thing with boy dogs, trying to mount them and if they objected he would get aggressive, but if they ignored him and started to play he would play.  This happened about 4 times and I spoke to quite a few people and they all said have him neutered.  I had him neutered about 4 weeks ago, and I am glad that I did.  He has now met a few male dogs and so far all seems fine, his approach to them seems different.  My friend had a male weimeraner and he is now 13, he has only calmed down over the last 2 years.

Hi I have heard this with Weimaraners several times over.
Males can tend to be like this if they have had a bad experience.

I would suggest before you go for castration, and I am not against
castration, that you could try some sydrate. Its a homeopathic
remedy which was recommended to me by a friend years ago as she
swore that is cured her male Weimaraner, that was sizeing up to other
males.  A lot of other people I know have some success with it too.
It is available from canine natural chemists.  It is homeopathic so it
wont do any harm if it does not do any good if you know what I mean.
So give that a whirl, and if you get no joy with it, then try a behaviourist.
Sometimes owners need to learn how to handle the dogs in these situations
also your dog may need to go back into some training with the dog.
Rachel

I'd be very careful if trying the Tardac route... a friend with a young male bullmastiff had terrible problems with aggression in her dog after he was prescribed this.
He's fine now and will even break up scrapping dogs, due to her hard work and understanding of behaviour/training :)

Not saying this happens often, but I'd personally never risk it after listening to her story.

Lindsay
x

Whats sydrate ?  I've never heard of it nor can I find it on the web.

Castration can help on its own but it would be better if it was married up with some training.

I had a similar problem with my weimaraner bitch who had been attacked so many times that she just took it upon herself to get in there first.  I sorted the problem by keeping her away from all dogs for about 4 months and then slowly reintroduced her to dogs that I knew were friendly and I did this from a distance, slowly decreasing that distance.  The idea was that the longer she went without having a bad experience with another dog then the more the memory faded.  It has worked to the extent that now she will only have a scuffle with another dog if either that dog starts it first, or, it is a dominant bitch like herself.

Phew, I don't know what to say about this:

"He would often approach other dogs as a pup but would frequently be attacked (this began when he was about 18 weeks old) "

Why did you let him approach other dogs as a pup?

Why did you even walk anywhere where there are unknown dogs off lead?

Why did you allow this to happen 'frequently'?

Why did you allow it to happen from as early as 18 wks?

Sorry, you've made your bed....

Maybe next time you'll be more careful about where you walk and which dogs you expose yours to.

I go to great lengths to avoid ANY unknown dogs when I walk.  It is perfectly possible to do so, it just requires a bit more effort.  Certainly, I would have picked them up at 18 wks, if a strange dog had appeared on the scene.  Sorry, this kind of thing makes me a bit mad.

Considering you didn't know what to say, onetwothree, you found quite a lot in the end :)
Hindsight is a wonderful thing.
Unfortunately we're not all programmed to get things right all the time.

Hi Claire
I am not sure if I can put the link on this site, its a UK based homeopathic site that sells it.  Sydrate.

I am told it really works, but so far have not used it on my own Weimaraners.

If you type into google, sydrate, homeopathic remedy, it does come up.

Rachel

Hi Guest,

I am afraid I am with onetwothree on this one.  Although castration can be the answer to many dogs aggression to other dogs, I think in this case, it is "I'm going to get in first before I'm attacked!" It is a learnt behaviour to him being attacked over and over again.  This is what you will have to sort out first, you need to take him to some training classes or behaviour therapist to try and sort his head out.  Believe it or not, it is not a normal thing for your dog to be attacked by others, you need to protect your dog from any aggressors most owners are responsible, if he approaches a dog on a lead call him back, it is on a lead for a reason.

I'm afraid it is a case of the Bullied becoming the Bully.

I wish you luck in re-socialising him, it is worth the effort to do it, so that he can be a happy, unafraid dog.