Hi there everyone,

Its been so long since I was last on. I'll give a quick recap. Harvey was diagnosed with OCD in both shoulders during the summer and received surgery. He wasnt allowed much excercise as you can imagine, but he was lead walked reguarly to regain strength in his joints. He has recovered really well and is now able to have a llittle free time in the nearby field,which he loves :)

Now we are experiencing different problems and I need some advice, and this is the best place for it. Harvey is becoming a bit of a bully, I dont want to say he is a problem dog because he is my baby!

He has always had the sweetest nature and still does but he is starting to think he is top dog in the street and is challenging other males. He is becoming a bit too aggressive, this is a new thing, he wasnt like this a couple of weeks ago. I was wondering if its his age, he'll be one next week.

We have an appointment with the vet on Friday afternoon as I am also concered with his weight. He eats like a horse but it doesnt seem to be going anywhere, I have seen on here that other people have had similiar experiences with there Danes and keeping their weight on. But I want the vet to check the the weight issue and the behaviour arent related to an underlying cause.

Does anyone have any advice.

Kat

Hi Kat, ive pm`d you :)

Are you sure it's aggression he is showing ? One of my breeds(GSD)often has aggression diagnosed because they bark at other dogs when young, when in fact it's not aggression at all but an invitation to join & interact.

Is he growling, snarling or getting his hackles up or barking & trying to get to the other dogs ? If it's the later then joining a training club rather than a behaviourist & one to one is the route to go. My friends young Dane bitch barks at my puppy BC as an invitation to wrestle & trying to drag her to where he is to initiate play.

Hi Moonmaiden

I know what your saying but its not that. I'll tell you about a recent incident. We were walking along the road, the same road we always walk. Harvey was on his lead and the very end house has 2 westies, Harvey sees them everyday and the westies always run to the fence and bark at us. Harvey always stops looks down to them wagging his tail and then we walk on. However, this time, the westies did their usual bark routine and Harvey went nuts, hackles up, teeth out, growling and the most frightening part, he was trying to jump their fence to get to the westies. I was able to control the situation and get him to walk on but I must admit, I got a fright as I didnt see it coming.

Another time we were walking along and Harvey started growling, barking and trying to pull across the road towards a stray dog. Again his hackles were up but what happened next was weird. The stray dog ran towards Harvey barking and growling, and Harvey immediately sat on his bum and just looked straight at me. He was frightened. The stray just went away and that was that.

I dont know what to make of it.

Kat

Sounds as if he could be getting fed up of the Westies barking at him?  Lets face it, he tried the friendly reaction and they still barked at him, maybe he's trying a different approach?   Why does the owner allow them to bark like this anyway?  If my dogs behaved like that I'd get them in, it doesn't help your own dogs if they are working themselves into a frenzy by barking at dogs thru a fence, and it certainly can cause problems with dogs going past  ;)

Is he having any socialisation with easy going friendly dogs?  If not maybe he needs it, especially if he's unsure of how to react to dogs he meets.

Hi Dill

Harvey socialises with plenty of other dogs but the problem is, he is starting to behave this way with them too. Thats whats difficult to understand. Dogs he has known all his life and has played with.

The westies always bark...at everything.. but it has always been somewhat amusing to harvey...until recently.

Could it be that he is trying to exert his dominance over these other dogs?

Kat