My 17mths old pup is very sociable and friendly and loves greeting and playing with other dogs on our daily walks in the park. He has never growled or barked at another dog, even when they have reacted or been aggressive to him. And if he goes over to say hello and a dog barks at him/tells him to go away he runs away/back to me for reassurance and leaves them alone. He sees several dogs every walk and plays with dogs he knows and newcomers. However over the past 2 weeks we’ve had 3 incidents where he has met another young male pup and started growling at it and barking, even though they are being friendly or have done nothing to provoke him. The first happened when he was off lead and he was playing with another dog when a pup came over and he leapt on it and pinned it to the ground growling. The other 2 times have been whilst both he and the other dog was on lead, and were just passing/stopped to say hello. And instead of being his usual friendly self his hackles have risen, he’s started growling and then barked until led away. All these dogs were strangers to him, but today he did this to a pup he met once before and was friendly with, yet today he decided he didn’t like it. Then we walked around the corner and met one of the regular dogs and he was perfectly fine with it. In between incidents he is his usual self, so I’m unsure what is causing this behaviour. Is this just dominance due to age and hormones? As in the past few months he’s also started trying to mount a couple of his usual male play mates, and is very interested in female dogs. Or is he becoming aggressive? I’m not sure what to think or do, and want to be able to trust him on walks as I’ve always loved how friendly and relaxed he is. Any advice would be great.
If he's intact yes he is interested in female dogs. Regarding the other issue I can only add my experience with my lab -- some dogs he's playful with, some he totally ignores, and others he acts like he wants to bite their ear off. Dogs sniff for information and what registers in that lemon size brain can be tell them it's okay or I really don't like what I'm sensing off the dog. It's tough to know when to engage or not so I try to just keep on walking.
I know what you mean, it’s just weird as he’s always been friendly and never aggressive. I realised yesterday that this started after he was playing with 2 of his friends in the park and another male pup came up and kept chasing him off barking - he put up with it for several minutes but in the end had enough, growled back and warned him off. Yesterday we bumped into another pup while mine was on lead, this one ran over and was very excitable too, my dog growled and I realised he was just anxious. So I walked him past, but then myself and the other dog’s owner introduced them more gradually and he was fine. I’m hoping with more practice he’ll settle down again and be less ‘on alert’ when new dogs approach.
