firned recently took on a "boxador" 4 and a 1/2 year old castrated male (teddy). Was castrated at 2 as was apparenty really boustious, however made no diffrence and still acts liek a pup. he gets very excited about everything. was in a family home for 4 years of his life and grew up with children, then things went wrong for him and so he eventually ended up at a rescue lookign for a home. he is very good with other dogs, and has bonded well with the family. however he hates strangers!

friend was walking him to the local petshop the other day as she knwos the man well, been going there with her yougner dog. decided to take teddy with her as she has been walkign the dogs seperatly to get teddy used to walkign with her. the petshop owner came over to my friend and seeing teddy went to stroke him and out of no where he lunged at the mans face, and was growling and snorting. there was no warning, nothing.
friend managed to calm teddy down, he did not make contact with the man . man said he probably startled teddy as he did make a sudden hand movement towards him.

then today while out walkign him 2 lads walked past one went to stroke teddy:rolleyes: and before he coudl get his hand near, teddy lunged towards the lad. again there was no warnign, no growling warnign signs he just went straight in there. friend managed to stop teddy making contact however she is now very concerned abotu what is going on.

he does not appear to be scared of people. in fact he is a very in yor face dog always tryign to jump up and look you in the face, and he activley will pull towards strangers to see them.

i told her a muzzle is goign to be needed asap. as he is going to end up biteing someone. she dosnt want to send him back to rescue, and wants to work things thougth with him. where does she start?

She starts at the vet with a thorough examination and then if all is found to be well a referall to a good behaviourist.

If I was walking down the street and some bloke or woman suddenly reached out and tried to touch me on the head or started walking straight towards me hand out-stretched, my likely response as would most peoples be, to say "get lost"(maybe not those words :-) or try backing away.  People you don't know just wouldn't dream of doing that to someone they didn't know, unless they weren't in control of their mental faculties. It makes me so cross that people don't give dogs the same respect with regards to their personal space.  My Dobe does not like people she doesn't know coming at her hand out stretched or randoms passers by, often runners trying to touch her head - and if she dare to tell them this by way of barking then she gets called aggressive or unfriendly, neither of which is true.

It sounds like his response was a bit more dramatic than just a bark to say please back off, but I'm sure that's all he was trying to communicate.  Your friend needs to ask people to ignore him - not make eye contact and not sticking their hands out to him, if he wants to come and sniff them then great. A muzzle until she gets to know him better is a good idea.  Can she get some friends to meet her out on a walk mid walk, have them stashed up with some yummy treats and when they meet up the friend/who will be a stranger to the dog can practise the ignoring routine  while dropoing some yummy morsels on the floor, if he is comfortable with this then the person could offer a treat from the hand but still with out making contact. It is important though that if he does lunge or bark not to give the treat so he doesn't think he is being rewarded for that behaviour.  The more people she can practise this with (one at a time) the more strangers he will come to associate with good things.   Your friend may need help with this from someone experienced.

Karen

he had a vet check and was assessed befor my friend got him. he has grown up round babies and very small children.
she is goign to have a word with the rescue and see if they know anythign else about his past to try and shed some light on the situation.

he is only liek this when he is on a lead, she got him last friday and up till yesterday was taking him to her local dog park and he was off lead and there where no problems in fact he met all her usual dog walkign friends and he was good as gold, was having hugs and loved the attention. tail wagging and all excited to be round people. he is a people dog. the 2 occasions happened when she was street walking and so he was on a lead at her side. im wondering weather he has had some sort of trumatic experience while on his lead with strangers teasing him ect.

He doesn't have to have a had a traumatic experience on the lead for him to not like people he doesn't know trying to approach him while he is on lead.  This is quite a common problem, dogs that are fine with other dogs and people off lead act differently on lead - this is because they are trapped whilst on lead and if they wanted to get away they can't, they don't have the option of flight so often get defensive instead!

Karen

I wouldn't be looking for traumatic experiences either. My dog, whose life has been about as trauma free as a dog's life could be is also wary of strangers coming towards him, hands outretched to pat him on the head. He's doesn't growl or snap but will walk backwards if he feels cornered. If people kneel down at his level and just greet him without hands being waved around then he's quick to greet them happily.

Your friend's dog may well have felt trapped by the attention he was receiving and responded in the only way he knows. If your friend has only had him since Friday then everyone in his new life is a relative stranger to him it's probably no surprise that he's behaved rather unexpectedly because, as yet, I doubt he's built up a confident bond with your friend either. It might well be that he'd benefit from some quiet time to settle in for a few more days rather than be plunged into a hectic round of out and about!

Sorry if this is going to sound harsh but I think the organisation that your friend took this dog from have some responsibility here.  Did they properly assess this dog before re-homing him?  It's one thing to take on a dog that you know can show aggression towards strangers, it's another to find out after you've got it!  Hopefully, the rescue organisation will provide advice and full support - in the form of a behaviourist should it prove necessary.

Yes, dogs are very stressed by being re-homed and he doesn't have that confident bond yet - it must be a difficult time for him.  On the other hand, he has reacted in an extremely defensive way to these strangers and if he did respond "in the only way he knows" then knowledge and experience will be required to teach him another way.

Good luck with getting to the bottom of it. :-)

yes he was assessed and vet checked before she took him on. he was not in the rescue for a long time , and before them he was in a family home since he was 6 week old to 4 years old when he went to the rescue.

all we knows really is that he was only ever walked by a man and the same man his whole life. he was apparently protective of the children, was like a nanny to them. He showed no signs of sggresion wehen he was assessed, and got on well with firends dog when she took him to meet him. 

it just seems to have gome about since he came to live with friend. he is very loyal, and very gentle with the family.

that is whats makes it even more shocking becasu eit was tottaly out of his character.

>he was apparently protective of the children<

Do you know what form that protection took?  I would prefer to protect the children myself, it's too much responsibility for the dog.

I do hear what you say about him being loyal and gentle with the family and good with other dogs but it doesn't mean he will be ok when approached by strangers out walking - the problem "trigger" can be narrow.   My dog is steady around horses, cows, sheep and poultry but potentially hysterical about pigs - my fault, I wasn't able to get her accustomed to them as a puppy, there are none around here.

Aggression is one of several possible responses to a situation and certainly part of a dog's character - the potential is always there.  As it is in humans - few people go their whole life without getting frightened and angry but it would be a problem if it was over an everyday situation.

ok found out more info. apparently teddy was never socilised with other dogs or people. he only saw his family his whole life, and was walked on a lead early in the mornign or late at night so to never meet other dogs.

on the few occasions he did meet people he woudl stand in frount of the children and growl.

his owners had not taken him out at all for months before he was sent to the rescue and instead he was chaine dup in the back yard, where the local children would torment him by banging the fence to make him bark.

he grew up in a rough part of manchester, and the family used him to protect them against the yobs, rather than to protect him from them.

after months of being dumped in the yard, he lost a lot of condition, he had been in the house with the family from the time he was a 6 week old pup up till the age of 4 years old, then suddenly chucked out, the family had appeared to get fed up of him whineing to go out, or for attention.

in the end a neighbour reported the family to the rspca, and the dog was removed from them. the family where pretty upfrount about it all, and where said to be releived the dog was removed from them.

he did not do well in the kennels as all, becasue he was surrounded by dogs and strangers and continued to drop more weight. however in the short time there he began to trust the staff, and really needed a family home.

he never showed any aggresive tendancies, however he was never street walked while at the shelter. he was walked out in the place they use for exercise, with other dogs, and with strange people and he was fine, classed as very loving and loyal.

friend had no problems with him taking him up to the dog fields and letting him off to play, he loved it, met strangers no problem, in fact to watch him you would never of guessed his past.

so she had no reason to suspect his behaviour woudl change when she took him for a walk on the street.

Being on a lead walking through a town is an entirely different thing to being off lead and meeting people in a field - I'm never more at ease than when walking through a muddy field, try and get me to go shopping in town centre on a Saturday and it's an entirely differnet matter!  You can't assume a dog will be comfortable in one situation just because it is comfortable in a completely different situation - especially when they are rescues and have in this case, had a bit of a hard time of things.  She needs to approach each situation with precaution and as if it might be the first time, to gauge how he might react - they don't know each other yet and need to take time to make him feel confident and comfortable.  I would advise she finds a local class (reward based) to help with training and socialisation and get some help from someone experienced with dogs.

Karen