Hi, wondering if anyone can give advice / help I have a 2 year old fox Labrador. Always been very keen on other dogs, playful, at times overexcited, heckles always go up but wagging tail and loves chasing around with them, but never been dominant. Has recently been aggressive towards friend’s french bulldog- growled, heckles up all way down back and bit him on back - no mark. Both dogs were on leads at the time. Then the other day responded aggressively towards a Labrador puppy at the vets when owner carried puppy over to sniff hello. I’m now feeling anxious about him being off lead and whether he’ll respond aggressively towards other bulldogs / squashy nose dogs / puppies. Any ideas?
Some ideas and questions. Who is male? Who is neutered and who is not? Sometimes neutered males do not like intact males. How old were the other dogs? Leashes could be a factor, they disrupt body language. They can make one dog, or both, feel trapped. Some then react defensively, pre-emptively. Or they show fear which triggers a reaction in some other dogs. If the dogs are friendly on leash then the leashes can get all tangled up and be a pain. A real pain, tangled leashes can hurt your dog and you. Yikes, I do not allow sniffing other dogs at the Vet's. I have no idea why the other dog is there and what disease it might have. I can't believe the Lab puppy owner carried the pup but then brought it to sniff your strange dog anyway. The very fact the pup was carried might have been the key as well, made the pup look different. What did your boy actually do that was aggressive with the pup? Controlling some of these situations might help prevent another occurrence. If they don't then I suggest you ask a trainer or behaviourist to observe or consult. Observation by a knowledgeable observer really helps as the nuances of dog body language, yours and the other dog's, can tell you a lot. We here can't see them. Good luck. Please post any other clues you can think of.
Wagging tails do not always translate to friendly in dog language. Can mean excited, unsure or alert. In my experience, hackles up is usually not a sign of friendly behavior, though it may just be the initial feeling each other out.
Raised hackles are a sihn that a dig us aroysed. The arousal can be through excitement, fear or aggression. A wagging tail can mean many things depending upon the angle of the tail and speed of the wag. Then there is how rge erars are held, the mouth, the eyes. All indicate how a dog is feeling in any given situation. As @Snowshoe says the lead incident can be complicated by the dogs being on lead irrespective of their sex and whether neutered or not. The incident at the vet may well be due to the strange position of the puppy being held high to meet and greet with another dog.
