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Hi all

Some of you may know Molly my lurcher cross and Pebble my staffie x. We have been in training classes with them both and Molly has passed her bronze Good Citizen

But, we are still having a little problem with Pebble. There are no problems between her and Molly at all, but she can sometimes be a bit aggresive with strange dogs as some of you may have seen

Most of the time she is great with other dogs on the field, she runs, she plays and when she's had enough she will come back to us and just usually hang around for treats But sometimes she will for no reason, (not that I can see) will turn on them, more like handbags at dawn rather than wanting to go in for the kill. I have tried to look for body language and we thought we had sussed out that she like to be the "first", first one to sniff, first one to initiate play etc, but thats not always the case.

There is no rhyme or reason we can see for her behavouir, like breed specific or black dogs. Sometimes she will do her handbag thing straight off with dogs she's played with in the past and vice versa, some dogs she's had a problem with she gets on with them like they're best buds, we just can't work it out

Any one got any adivce? We don't want to muzzle her if we can help it, we can go out for weeks on end without any problems. Could it be a dominance thing? Is she taking advantage of a weaker dog?

Would be grateful for any tips and advice

Steph

It's a bit difficult to say what the prob might be, without watching her to see what's going on.

Lizz's staffie tends to be a bit stroppy with other dogs ... she naturally assumes she's above the entire dog population of the world, & doesn't take it well if they're not submissive (which is why her & Barkley don't get on). She used to be fine with other dogs, but a couple of other dogs had a go at her, so now she's unreliable, & there's no telling which dogs she won't like, other than puppies, which she always likes!
I don't really know what the solution is, I think Gill or Nicky are your best sources of info on this one. Lizz just manages Holly's behaviour, by not letting her socialise with other dogs, so she can't go to the coffee mornings for instance, but she'd be ok in a class, on a lead - she can't go off lead outside anyway, as her recall's non-existant!!

Sorry can't be of any more help

Hi Steph,

There's always a reason, however subtle it might be. Given the fact it is very intermittant it may be difficult to get to the bottom of, is she spayed? If this is something you really want to tackle then I wold say the most appropriate way forward might be to have a behaviour consultation. I would hate to give you advice on here, it not be correct and risk making things worse.

Gill

Hi Steph

I have the same problem and I am going to a class tonight with Gill to try sort this problem I will let you know after a few classes how I am getting on. Sarah