Murphy, (17 month old springer spaniel,) came to us at 11 months in march. When we got him we were told that he was ok with other dogs, a little pushy but a few telling offs from other dogs would probably cure that. He did tend to follow other dogs persistently sniffing, but once the fin of that wore off he just started greeting politely with quick nose to nose sniffs and that was it. We had a problem with other entire male dogs coming up to him and having a go for no reason, and in August he was castrated to help stop that (and becuase it needed to be done anyway.) Shortly after that he became quite aggressive towards other dogs. He had always been senstitive if other dogs barked as he went past he looked very scared and would whine to get away. He started to lunge and grumble at passing dogs when on the lead and if off lead he would sometimes chase or have a short go. No dog has ever been injured, its just a lot of noise. He started to get better recently and i found that he was happier greeting dogs off lead as he can get away if he feels pushed. However today i saw a completely different side to him. He actually pinned a ckcs to the ground, in 5 seconds flat. Not even a noise. We were just walking past. He had had a little grumble at a poodle before, but then had nicely met 2 labs and so i didn't think there was a problem. (Now i know better) i was trying to distract him with the ball, but the dog approached him anyway. the dog was fine, but murphy is a big strong boy and could do a lot of damage to a little dog, so murphy was on lead after that. Trouble is other dogs kept approaching us. SO i distracted him with a treat on the nose. I am now wondering if he is scared at all or just a bully trying to dominate. It tends to be entire males most of the time.
He is fine with my dogs, plays nicely and isn't top dog. At training class he is no problem around the other dogs and can walk with friend's dogs very nicely off lead. (Some entire males too, both small dogs and big dogs.) It just seems to be aproaching dogs out on a walk. He does have quite a high prey drive, and chases birds, squirrels, rabbits, pheasants, cats etc (oh and shadows!) So i wonder whether this is a part of it too. I am hoping to see a behaviourist shortly but i'm still waiting for her to get back to me with a time. Is there anything that can be done with a dog that is a bully?

Hi - obviously this is just an opinion based on what you've written here and, having not seen the dog, I can't say for sure if I'm reading things right, but this is how I would see this, given just the info you've given:

Once there was a little spaniel called Murphy.  Murphy's early months are unknown and perhaps he had bad experiences with other dogs, perhaps not - since you didn't get him till 11 mnths we can't know.  When you got him, you noticed he was "pushy" with other dogs (Can you elaborate?  In a "wanting to play" way or in an aggressive way?).  I'm reading it as "wanting to play".  However, since he was over-enthusiastic and didn't read the other dog's signals to back off, he got told off quite a bit.  This was then followed by other entire males coming up to him and having a go at him.

So Murphy at this stage is feeling very insecure and a bit of a victim already.  Then you have him castrated and you remove a major source of testosterone, which makes dogs feel confident.  By castrating him you make Murphy feel even less confident.  To the point where he feels he has to anticipate attacks and defend himself against them, even before they've happened. 

So, my reading of Murphy would be fear aggression, due to early experiences, genetics, but possibly the catalyst, the last straw, was his castration.  This is one of the reason I wish castration wasn't the first thing everyone does, whenever they have any kind of aggression problem.  You have to identify the cause of the aggression, because if it is fear aggression, often castration is not a good idea.  Or at least it should be tried with Tardak first.

I think you have to work on re-building his confidence with other dogs.  If you see a behaviourist, please make sure they are recommended by your vet and are members of the APBC.

Murphy was a rescue dog and i had to agree to get him castrated when i took him on. THe only reason the rescue didn't was that they preferred the dog to mature first as they found it affected the coat too much beforehand. Murphy came from ireland where he spend his first 10 months living out in the garden and taken for a walk once a week at weekends. After he was taken in by the irish springer spaniel rescue he lived in a foster home and i think lived with a few dogs. He came over with 3 otehr dogs in the van. He was ony pushy in the respct that all he wanted to do was sniff their backside. He never really asked to play, never was aggressive and never mounted the otehr dogs. It literlally was just obsessive sniffing. However it wasn't theses dogs that were telling him off excessively. It was random male dogs that approached him and just started growling before they even got into sniffing distance. Once a dog just ran up to murphy and started growling before murphy had even seen him. Once the sniffing subsided all he did was polite sniff nose to nose, circle and then walk on. He's not really over enthusiastic in that respect.
I knew that castration may have that affect, but i had no choice as i had signed a contract and had no intention of breeding from him anyway. WHat choice did i have? Murphy would have started fighting back if he was continually picked on whilst still entire anyway as his confidence was being pushed to the limit. Strangely enough when we first got him he was wary of people and that hasn't changed in any way since castration. He  is only just starting to aproach people himself, surely the drop in testosterone would affect all behaviour?

i think ti does sound liek a lack of socilisation with other dogs which has lead to fear agression. the fact that he was very up frount about entering another dogs persoanl space and sniffing there intimate areas with out greeting first suggests that he was not socilised around dogs as a pup and so may not knwo how to behave around other dogs.

dogs liek this may well give off the impression of being aggresive and foprcefull to other more sensertive dogs and so these dogs are likely to warn with a growl. of course as your dog did nto understand the warnign signs and carried on he was then put in a position where after numerous warnigns the dog then started to get aggresive with him. this in turn knocking your dogs confidence because i doubt he understands what he was doing wrong.

so now he is in a situation where he feels the only way to be safe is to get the upperhand on the situation from the word go, in fear of his life.

it can be very hard to have an unsocilised dog , and walking them out in public where you are going to meet alot of other dogs.

you will occasionally encounter dogs that tolerate your dogs excessive sniffing and in fact may not even be fased by him at all, and so it that instance your dog may appear to have been sorted. and behave confidently around other dogs. but these dogs are are and ussualy he will meet dogs that do mind and it is unsafe to let him go near these dogs and dofr these dogs to get near him.

in an ideal world you would of been able to work him with older, good natured and paitent dogs who would teach your dog how to be a dog in a low avasive way. and in time your dog would of learned to listen to the warnign growls of other dogs and understood what was asked of him.

however whats done is done, and i think the dog behaviourist will be a big help. wjile it would be a bad idea not to take him out in the company of any dogs what so ever. i think it would be important to take him out on his lead all the time to quite areas where he is less likely to have a confrountation with other dogs. and maybe you coudl explain the saituation to other dog owners and maybe you will find dogs that are paitent engouth to teach your dog. but it will be a long process.

Lucyandmeg

I dont think your problem can be solved by remote over the internet.  A lot of what you describe can happen with a normal teenager and some of it doesnt.  Dont blame your self go to your vet and get yourself refered to someone who can analyse his behaviour that your insurance will cover.  I hope it all goes okay.

Have you considered testosterone replacement to see if that makes a difference?

my dog was well socialised with other dogs from 12 weeks but he always got very excited and wanted to charge in and sniff dogs to death and run round excitedly trying to get other dogs to play. as he got older and bigger this became a problem an i got a few "looks". he still wants to meet every dog but as there is also a lack of confidence about him i dont let him, in case he is impolite. It frustrated me for ages not to be able to walk round the park chatting to other dog owners but then I realised we dont have to physically meet every dog we see and I am working hard on recall to keep him away from strange dogs. For me lots of training is the answer, as i cant change his personality. Now hes coming up to 3 its getting easier as he is more focussed on me and less on other dogs. Good luck, its only a small part of the whole having a dog thing, I bet hes great in every other way!

Morgan, yes he is. Hes so affectionate, and really switched on when it comes to training, agility is getting better and he is even doing quite well with general obedience etc. SO given his past (We know he was beaten) i think hes done so well.
Jeangenie, i haven't heard of testosterone replacement. WHat is involved in this?

Hi, Lucyandmeg.

I agree with Morgan.  Our rescue GSD (castrated) had/has similar behaviour patterns although now much reduced. I found the key was a *very* strong recall.  He will still occasionally try and dominate other males but only small, submissive ones - he's a big wuss - or dogs with no 'manners' towards us.  (There's lots of growling and slobber but never an actual bite, although the whole display looks fearsome to the uninitiated.) However he's easily stopped by a firm 'Leave it!' and 'Come by' (heel).

Don't panic - I sometimes think we get a bit over-anxious about behaviours in rescue dogs that wouldn't really bother us in dogs we'd reared from pups, but that may just be me!  As you get to know and trust each other more I'm sure things will work out. Good luck and well done for rescuing - it does you credit.

This is interesting, as my dog keeps getting bitten by other male dogs, normally neutered, so i was thinking of getting him done after speaking to a lady who had the same problems, i do realise he is a little ott sometimes but more often than not there is no warning form the other dog. Thought i had the solution but as someone mentioned it can make a dog insecure removing his manhood not sure what to do for the best. I know how you feel i am always a little worried when out on walks that tyler is going to retaliate one day.