My 18 month old Patterdale Terrier bitch (who is small at just 11 inches tall and weighs just 5 kgs) displays bullying behaviour towards any dog she meets who is smaller, weaker, younger, or more submissive than she is.  She is as bad off the lead with small dogs as she is on.  Whilst she hasn't hurt another dog yet, she makes such savage snarling noises when it happens that I am convinced it could turn nasty if allowed to escalate.

She was spayed in November - halfway between her first and second season - and has been noticeably worse since then, although she had a few moments before she was spayed.

She has been attacked, totally unprovoked, by a jack russell terrier herself, when she was on the lead but he wasn't - but again, she was aggressive with other small dogs BEFORE that happened.  With larger dogs she is fine - easily intimidated really.  She greets large dogs submissively, but won't hesitate to shout defensively if she feels crowded or spooked.  Otherwise she plays nicely with big dogs - she works with four much bigger dogs every day. 

I used to walk her everywhere off the lead - she has a great recall and always stays close to me - but since she has started habitually zoning in on small dogs to attack them, I daren't let her off at all.  We walk everywhere with her on a flexi now, and whilst I allow her to greet larger dogs, I don't let her near any smaller ones and warn approaching owners that she is not friendly. :(

I have contacted 2 behaviourists, neither of whom bothered to reply.  I have tried to enrol her in classes, but was told I couldn't attend as she is "dog aggressive", and that I would have to pay a £300 consultation fee for their behaviourist (who didn't reply to my email).

The last straw was when she was off lead a couple of weeks back and playing happily with a little cockerpoo - when a border terrier appeared on the horizon (a local dog I know who is very submissive), she raced straight over and attacked him before I could get her back on the lead.  My stupid fault, I know.

Any ideas?  I haven't taken her to the vet, is there any mileage in doing so?

Many thanks
Susie

My terrier x is exactly the same & her behaviour changed when she was spayed. Before the op she was actually a 'little tart' & would play & tease anything on 4 legs. Now, I always put her on the lead, unless I know that she will be ok. There are a few dogs which she adores, but most she detests! I hope someone will come along & recommend a decent training club which won't rip you off with any expensive consultation fees!

Hiya,

That training club sounds like it's best avoided any way!  Is she able to concentrate around small or any dogs at all or is she too focussed on them?  If she can focus on you at all then it would be worth persevering with trying to find a class that has low numbers and is reward based.  If she's too focussed on other dogs than it may be worth getting a one to one with someone first so they can assess her and give you some techniques to work with until she is a bit more relaxed and then go on to a class. A lot of good behaviourists will want a vet check done first to rule out any medical problems and yes there is mileage in having her checked over, it would be worth getting bloods done to check overall health as well as manipulation of joints etc to make sure she isn't in any pain.

Was she always like this if not roughly what age did her behaviour change?  What age did she have her first season and did she have a phantom pregnancy?  When you say she's ok with larger dogs, is she ok in that she wants to interact/play and enjoys their company or is it just that she doesn't go for them in the same way that she does with smaller dogs.  It may be that she's fearful of other dogs and has enough confidence to get in there first and be defensive with smaller dogs but is just too intimidated by bigger dogs to react in the same way, often dogs that appear to be bullies can be scared and insecure. 

Karen

Hi there

I completely agree.  The training club is best to be avoided!  Sometimes terriers do have the "little dog in a big body" attitude and it may just be that she is a bully and knows the dogs she can get away with it with.  I would look for a small class which concentrates on rewards based training.  Sometimes the onset of this type of behaviour can be mistaken for it happening following speying but it is generally when the dog is reaching maturity that these types of behaviours manifest themselves. 

You could always get her interested in a squeaky toy by playing with her with it in the house and putting it away, only bringing it out when you play with her.  Once she's suitably interested in it you can take it out with you on her walks.  Best to try a small squeaky ball for this as it can readily be put into your pocket.  Whenever you see her showing attention to another dog, squeak the toy and bring it out to play with her.  Pop her on the lead until the "offending" dog has passed.

Sometimes it is more a case of "managing" this type of behaviour so that you stop it before it even begins.  The squeaky toy works wonders for terriers.

Good luck
Kingdom

Thanks everyone!

Karen - no she hasn't always been like this.  As a puppy she was mostly terrified of all dogs, having been overwhelmed by the size and clumsiness of the puppies at puppy class.  We did have another adult patterdale bitch in our house when Nellie was a pup - we've moved away from there now - and she played very roughly with her.  Otherwise she was very nervous of any dogs that approached, until the day a 13 week old lab bowled over to her in the park - she went absolutely mad at him, kocked him over and stood on his little chest snarling at him.  She was a very bad-tempered puppy!

She had one or two incidents where she got a bit stroppy with other dogs, and she flattened a jack russell once, but otherwise there didn't seem to be a pattern.

She had her first season at exactly a year old, and was sweetness and light with all dogs during her season, haha.  She was spayed three months later, and the week after she had her stitches out she was lovely - she waggled up to all dogs and wanted to play, regardless of size.  I thought we'd struck gold in having her spayed!

And then suddenly - she would have been 16 months old - she just turned nasty.  She bullied one small dog after the other, knocking over some poor little dog minding his own business on his lead once, until I felt unable to take the risk of letting her greet any (where she had been unpredictable before, now she was guaranteed to be horrid).

At the same time, her other training went out of the window (her recall became unreliable, she barked at strangers in the street or ran towards them barking if off the lead, and she chased some ponies about half a mile across dartmoor :(), so I agree that it could be more likely to be her adolescence, rather than the spay as such.

With bigger dogs, yes she is nervous at first, but is usually the first to diffuse her own fear by instigating a game.  She always gets them to chase her, and will play for ages quite happily.  She can, however, lose her rag if the other dog gets too rough.

I have seen her play or greet nicely a couple of elderly small dogs - there is an ancient JRT and a king charles around here, she plays with one and is nice to the other.  But she used to play witha  pair of Westies, now I can't trust her not to attack them.

I've had some success with "desensitisation" to other dogs she spies on the lead in the distance/across the road etc - she went through a spell of barking and lunging like crazy, but I have stopped that by offering her loads of treats to distract as we pass.  She is much better now and rarely barks unless already wound up about something else.

Its not so much the presence of the dog thats a problem, I can distarct her reasonably easily - but if its in range, its small and she thinks she will win, she will blatantly go straight into attack.  If there is a bigger dog a distance away, she is interested and might lunge, but if it comes in for a sniff she behaves in a very submissive way.  I'd say she was definitely intimidated and very insecure/fearful.

Hiya,

It definitely sounds like she's reacting out of fear and dogs that seem like bullies or try to get in there first often are.  People often don't think dogs like this can be really scared because they see the dog taking off at a distance to go and put itself in the situation it is scared off and be aggressive to the other dog.  It's the get it before it gets me attitude.  There will likely be an element of learned behavioour in there aswell as it works, it keeps the dogs away so it's really important to do as you are doing and stop her practising this behaviourby keeping her on a lead or long line.

It sounds like there is a chance that when she came into season that the hormones gave her that extra bit of confidence and she learned to relax a bit with other dogs then after things had settled post spaying she lost her confidence again which can unfortunately happen when spaying nervous dogs.

It's going to be really important to start to change the way she feels about other dogs and you may well be best getting some professional advice for that as even for experienced people it can be hard to see things exactly as they are when it's your own dog.  While toys and food are a good way of distracting her and managing the problem it's not actually going to change the way she feels and she needs to learn to associate the things she loves with other dogs.

So for example, if you see a dog coming over the other side of the road but a distance away, as soon as she spots it but before she is very allert or worked up, say 'good' or anyhitng to mark it and give her a treat.  Then if she looks back at the other dog again and is relaxed reward her again.  The idea is to reward her when she see's a dog enough distance away that she is below her reaction threshold so that you can reward calm behaviour and she can make a clear association with other dogs and rewards.  If she's all wound up to start with then giving food or toys could actually reward the behaviour  or she may just not beable to learn anything which is why it's a good idea to have someone there to show you of timing and techniques for when dogs are closer than she can cope with and will therefore react. 

Try avoiding putting her in situations where she will react, so for the time being try avoiding getting too close so that you can spend a bit of time building up that positive association.  Now that the weather is getting a bit better and nights are getting lighter it might be an idea to see if you can find an outdoor training class with small numbers so that she can have the space outdoors to work far enough away that you can reward calm behaviour without having to use distraction techniques.  That way she can get used to dogs in a controlled environment.  It will also help get back some for her basic obedience and give you a little more control when out and about.

Something I also find useful with nervous or over excited dogs is teaching a hand touch, so theaching them to touch your hand with their nose.  It just gives them something to do and seems to help get them to refocus on you.  Make sure it is well understood and generalised to lots of situations before thinking of trying it with a dog in view.

She just sounds bit scare and confused and unable to deal with certain situations to me but of course it's very difficult to say for sure without seeing her.  She's very young and I'm sure with some help you'll make big improvements, just make sure it's someone who uses reward based methods and doesn't want to punish the reacting as that just ends to supress behaviour rather than deal with the underlying cause.

Good luck :-) 

Thank you Karen.....that is a really useful and heartening post!  Will keep you posted on how we get on, I've had a recommendation for a trainer locally too....fingers crossed!

Thanks again, I really approciate your help and advice.

Susie :)