I have two male dogs, a small four year old border collie cross and a large nine month old German Shepherd. The two dogs get along fine and there are no problems with people, however, if the German Shepherd see's another dog he goes mad, barking and pulling on the lead towards the new dog.

I cannot explain this behaviour as he is otherwise an intelligent, loving and wel behaved dog, however, this has taken the joy out of walking him.

When he barks etc, his heckles do not go up and his tail is wagging, however, if he does get close enough, he attempts to nip the strange dog on the flank and otherwise seems aggressive.

He has been neutered and is walked for two hours a day, but nothing that I try seems to deter his attitude towards strange dogs. The older dog is unpahsed by any of this and is friendly with all, however, the German Shepherd does seem transfixed by the actions of my collie and follows him/ watches him whatever he does.

Can anyone help? He is a great dog and I am worried that he will hurt another dog given the chance and I want to prevent harm coming to him or another dog.

Hi GJO,
Your 9 month old is trying to visit, but also wanting to establish some type of dominance order. There's all sorts of reasons for it, but the behavior comes down to not being acceptable or wanted by you.

Have you tried using a Halti style head harness at all? My small dog, Chienne, had the same trouble as your dog. She'd want to visit, but then she'd snap if they got too close. (passive agressive wishy washiness :rolleyes: ).

Anyway, using the head harness, I was able to keep her face towards me while we were walking by or another dog coming over to sniff her and our other dog. She didn't like the "Stand" and take it order that I gave her, but she learned that snapping is not acceptable.

Now she's much better, even when she's only on her regular collar. She'll moan, but no longer the high pitch crazy barking and out of control self that I had been dealing with for her first 4 years of life ;)

I like the fact that the dog looks at you when you want it too. You keep track of where the mouth and eyes are. Looking away (for a dog) defuses tense situations. Just remember, if you try this to be very gentle. It is direct pressure and does not require much strength to use use it. Chienne being only about 18 pounds, I just use fingertips and not the hand/arm leverage that I needed on a regular leash.
good luck with your puppy :)
toodles

Hi GJO,

I have two male dogs also, one is a rescue GSD X, and he is like this when out street walking and only then. If he's on his lead at any other time he's fine. Anyway, to help with him I bought a Gentle Leader, which means I have control of the sharp end, and he can't lunge forwards, as he's on a very short lead too. I walk past the dog approaching without saying anything, and depending on his reaction, he gets praised - or not!!! He tends to look backwards too as the other dog is retreating, so having the Leader on means I can keep him moving forwards. Sometimes I encourage him by saying 'walk on'. He is slowly improving, but I know it will take time, and I hope to dispense with the Leader eventually.
Off lead he's really friendly, and obedient, but easily scared (was scared by a duck last week!) so I think his grumbling, barking etc is a way of coping with his fear and I'm trying to give him confidence by being confident too.
Hope this makes sense, and maybe helps a bit!
sas