I posted a topic on here several weeks ago about my dog being attacked whilst at training classes.  It all happened on the same evening, he was doing the down stay absolutely brilliantly when the dog next to him just attacked him for no reason...he was moved next to another dog and blow me when he done his recall he was attacked again...now unfortunately this has had a profound affect on Kody.
Kody is a 16 month old GSD, who has the most fab temperament, but he has NEVER forgotten these incidences and consequently will not come when doing a recall he just sits rooted to the spot, with his ears down looking round all the time, also doing a sendaway, he starts off like a rocket and then realises there are other dogs around and stops midway, looking around sheepishly.  I have now taken him to different training classes, he seems much more relaxed, BUT we still have this problem.  In all other ways he is a confident, friendly dog and has never shown aggression in any way, he is always off the lead at our local park and never goes up to other dogs as he is too interested in his ball, however last week whilst out playing with his ball I threw it and it landed near a little cocker spaniel  Kody ran to get it and the little spaniel must have thought he was going for him as it turned and attacked kody and bit him right in the corner of his eye, another fraction it would have been his actual eyeball.  The owner was extremely apologetic and offered to pay for any vets bills etc, (Fortunately not needed), now this does not seem to have affected Kody....Thank goodness...he will work like a dream when we are out, recalls, stays, sendaways etc., it is only at training classes when dogs are in close proximity...He is a bright little thing and I would really love to do obedience with him...but how do I overcome these problems, last night at training the trainer suggested a "fun recall". he held the lead and I ran
away to the other side of the ring, the idea was when he let go of the lead Kody would come charging at me........ER NO....Kody was desperate to get to me, but his fear of the other dogs might attacking him was stronger, eventually he did but with the trainer still holding the lead otherwise Kody would still be there !!!!
I have thought a long lead on and pulling him towards me might help, it is so frustrating to think a few months ago he was brilliant and now I have to start all over again.   Any suggestions would be appreciated

Unfortunatly I had similar with my Rottie x GSD when she was at dog training and she now shows fear aggression when she sees dogs she doesn't know approaching.  If they are friendly when they get to us she is fine with them and plays happily, however one growl from them or nip and she now defends herself.
I left the club in the end as I saw the aggression and fear growing in her.
I take her to agility now in a large field where all dogs are on the lead under control except for the one working on the equipment.  I can then keep her safely away from any dogs that might show aggression and let her mingle with the real softys to try and give her positive experiences.
I hope your trainers can help you and find a way of training all the dogs together without yours getting attacked.  Believe you me you don't want a big dog with fear aggression.

Poor Kody! & poor you, having so much hard work undone.
Who do you know with a really nice, submissive dog who would play with Kody & get his confidence back up?
Perhaps if you were able to supervise 1 on 1 playtime with a dog who could become a chum, Kody would learn that not everyone's a Baddy?
Very good luck & really hope he gets his confidence back up again soon.

Thanks for your replies..Kody does have a friend who he plays with all the time..the thing is Kody does not lack confidence at all in any other situation..just in training classes, if I didnt want to pursue his obedience I wouldnt bother taking him training as he works excellent for me, but obviously he will need to come in contact with other dogs.  A few weeks ago I entered him in a companion dog show, where he won first prize in most handsome dog, and also best condition, he was absolutely wonderful in the ring, not bothered by other dogs one iota, but obviously didnt have to do a recal ..Ha Ha !!!

Very well done, he is obviously quite a speciman and looks as though he is going to do very well in the future.

Can I just ask, why did the trainer allow such a thing to happen?  Surely the trainer must know all about dog behaviour, testosterone, big dog (syndrome) who are prime for defensive attacks from other dogs, for just basically being bigger. :-(

I would honestly have a word with the trainer, who obviously knows this has affected him, and a suggestion I have is for the class mates who are likely to go for him, to have handler and dog turn their backs on Kody, so that he feels no intimadtion from them at all, and can continue with his recall etc and training without hinderance, he needs to feel safe and the trainer needs to go overboard to help with this, we don't want a dog of good temperament to be turned aggressive or have fear issues. He is not going to get over this without help, and this is a good way to help him, he is still in the company of other dogs, but will feel no intimidation if their backs are turned to him.

So Sorry to hear this!! What a shame!! I Can only say that I agree with Carrington 100%

Thanks Carrington for your reply..The dog in question who attacked Kody in his down stay was fairly new to the class and has aggression issues big time...It was muzzled for a short time and now no longer wears one..the trainer (whom I have known for years) is excellent but I think personally is better with problem dogs and this particular dog has improved...what I dont agree with is that he says my dog has to get over it and is using this as a crutch..he just says work through it. I dont agree so as I mentioned I am going elsewhere, where they do seem a lot more sympathetic to the problem, the only thing is with this new class is not only are there the dogs in the class there are other people with their dogs sitting around the hall, who arrive early waiting for the next session, in theory this shouldnt be a problem and my boy has to get over it, but how is the big question. By the way in the original classes they are all GSD so basically all the same size

I understand exactly what you describe because my GSD is a bit the same, in class he will come on a recall but very slowly and watching his back all the time, and if we have to to a sendaway past other dogs hes very shaky, other wize he is fantastic at all these excersizes. I few months ago he didnt even want to go in the hall(a few dogs have had an attemt to get at him barking and showing teeth in the past) i stopped going for a while and then decided to still go but less ofton, i make sure i let him keep his distance from the dogs he worried about and that he meets nice dogs as ofton as possible. he is a big wuss basically and its so important and ongoing to stop it developing into anything else. generally he loves the company of dogs but not when in an enclosed area.

Ok, I'm going to give you a totally whacky, ultra whacky idea here.  You will either laugh your head off, or it may help.

I understand your dog completely, and have to say if I were him, I would act exactly the same, he has twice been set on for just doing his recall etc, and now has a real fear of actually running in-between or towards other dogs, lets face it, who would want to take that chance.

It is now no longer one or two dogs to contend with from the old class but a whole new ballgame.

Personally I would ask if the new dogs coming in for the next lesson could wait outside, it is not just distracting to the dogs training but the owners too, so is totally unfair, and of course is adding stress to your GSD and hightening his fear of being set on again.

He seems to be calm and ok outside of the class which is great, the problem is being in an enclosed space and surrounded by other potential attackers, which unfortunately is how he sees the other dogs there at the moment.

So as we can not remove the 2 dogs that attacked him, (due to the fact he is in a different class now) what we need to do is focus your GSD on yourself and the trainer and not on the surrounding dogs.

What would have been a fantastic idea would have been the horse blinkers, (you know the type that traffic horses wear to focus them just ahead and not on surrounding traffic, to keep them calm and focussed) alas I can't find anything like that for dogs.

So wait for it.................. here's my second idea. Eye shields or dog sunglasses, it would darken the room and leave him to focus on your voice, just pop them on before recall or any exercise where he has to cross a distance, once he has crossed this void a few times confidently, without any further attacks, then remove the eye shields, glasses and hopefully he has overcome his immediate fear, he may still be a little apprehensive, but it will feel better each time he does it.

Have you finished laughing :-D  But seriously I think it may actually work.  You just need to build up his confidence again.

I ain't laughing Carrington - personally I think it has all the makings of a good method of over coming this problem :) :) :)

Sometimes we have to be very inventive and think totally out of the box with our furry friends and it sounds like a workable plan to me :)

but then I'm nuts too :D :D :D

:-D Thanks Terri *blowing kisses* I'm prepared for the backlash of WHAT! or the giggles, but it might work.

Well I am laughing but still it is a brilliant idea....Hope the other dogs dont find him a laughing stock LOL.  Where can you get these doggie sunglasses anything is worth a try

Hi, you can get them from the Internet delivered in a couple of days, just go to your search and type in dog sunglasses, or dog eye shields and loads of companies will come up, or give your local pet stores a ring and see which sells them.

Would you get back to us and let me (especially) know how he gets on, I have my fingers, legs, arms and toes crossed that it will work for him. Logically it should help.

P.S. It's not the dogs, it's the people, you will have to gag them all, and tell them it is a very important experiment.;-)

P.P.S. Try not to get the brightly coloured ones or yourself and the class will spend the whole lesson rolling on the floor laughing. :-D

Um ... if you were frightened of spiders would you like to be in a room full of spiders and then have your vision reduced and your best friend disappear across the room?  Particularly if you had a highly developed sense of smell and could smell them all over the place.  Or if you were sure there was an intruder in your house and then uh-oh the lights go out and you can hardly see anything any more but you know that there's someone somewhere ...

I think he needs to see the other dogs, from wherever he feels safe, for as long as it takes for him to start believing it's ok.  And during this time, it also has to be totally safe for him in a training class - can you guarantee that it won't happen again?  Can he trust you 100% never to let him get in that situation again?  Probably not, if the trainer allows aggressive dogs into the class situation.

As he is such a confident dog in all other contexts, I think his potential for recovery is good but looking at it from his point of view, it's going to take a lot of good experiences to convince him.

Very best wishes for his rehab! :-)

Yes, I understand what you are saying and put in that context it seems a strange idea.

But, he isn't actually afraid of other dogs in the way you are refering to the spiders, and if it were a burgular his eyes would quickly adjust to the light to chase one off. He is fine with dogs outside the class, and relaxed outside of the class, it is the confined space with no escape from a potential threat that is frightenening him.  He is so focused on that he can not move to recall. The idea is if the shades suddenly make the room appear different, he can still see quite clearly, (we have all worn shades and know you can still see perfectly well) and still see his owner, but he will be thrown, and the idea then is that he will focus on his owner and not the surrounding dogs, hence listen to the commands and want to move towards a reassuring voice.

He needs to have the chance to walk or run across this space without attack and then build on that with the shades then off.

I am not afraid of men in any context other than when they are unknown to me and in my house in the middle of the night.  I would argue that there is a fear element to this - he is afraid of other dogs in one specific context.

Your suggestion is also based on the assumption that being thrown, he will focus on his owner, rather than revert to instinctive, fear based behaviour such as freezing.

I agree that if you can get him to walk across the space once, then you will be able to get him to do it again but it's just my opinion that stressing the dog out with a change of vision isn't the way I would go.

And of course the loss of vision may only INCREASE stress rather than decrease it.

I am not a fan of "gadgets" myself and believe there are better ways to progress this, however it is difficult to correctly identify exactly WHAT is going on via the ether and would recommend that you go and have some 1:1 training with a sensitive, experienced, skilled and knowledgeable dog trainer; these are usually found by word of mouth.

Quite frankly your dog does not sound at all comfortable in the environment in which you describe so I would change the environment.  Not all dogs work well in Village Hall scenarios for a number of reasons and there is no reason to persist when there is very good tuition out there for "real life".

Also forgot to say that if dogs went for him without the sunglasses, I think you may find that your dog plus shades may be too much for previously unworried dogs................  Just a thought!

Good Luck!

Thanks Tohme,  Training has always been on a large field, in fact it is our local field where Kody goes for recreation so it is one of his favourite places....the new training venue is in a large village hall, so if anything I would have thought he would feel even more uncomfortable, but as yet all the dogs he has met there have been friendly (fingers crossed) the annoying thing is it is just 2 dogs in particular,  He has also been doing search and rescue training this was going absolutely wonderful but unfortunately one of the dogs in question also does it and again Kody feels restricted...he used to off like a bomb when told to "find" now it is more like a damp squib if the other dog is there....sooooo frustrating. Once he gets into for instance the woods away from the other dogs eyes he is absolutely fine and works wonderful always finding the article or person.  I am just wondering that now he is 16 months is this the true character coming through i.e. a wimp (over confident as a puppy) and I am so worried that I will not be able to change him

I am no expert at all, but how about this dog you mentioned that Kody was great friends with? Could his owner perhaps take him to your club for a few weeks and get the pair of them to try recalls together, so Kody was sitting next to a dog he knows and trusts?