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Today My son took my dog to the off leash park where she went all aggressive on another dog. This is my mellow puppy. The other dog owner started hitting Lucy to get her off of her own pup. Don’t blame her.

My son got in the middle and yanked Lucy off. She bit my son and broke the skin.

She has been becoming more aggressive towards other dogs but I don’t know why. And always on leash until this. She is a cuddle bug in the house.

I would appreciate all wisdom.

[This message edited by Tallgirl at 12:15 AM, Monday, April 25th]

If it is a definitive change in behavior it might not be a bad idea to have her checked out by a vet.

My sibling had a dog that became aggressive due to a health issue.

I'm sorry that happened. I'm sure it is very concerning whatever the cause.

One of our dogs is very dog reactive. She has to be kept in strong boundaries and has to now who has her is in the one in control not her. She plays with other dogs, usually smaller, but any her size or larger she feels the need to put them in her place. I've had dogs my entire life and she's by far the most dominate one. This was getting worse and worse after she was a year old. She was kicked out of doggie day care after a couple of months. We sent her to a trainer for a week which taught her and us some boundaries and ways to control her urges. You really do have to have her looking at you and allowing you to control the situation not jumping in herself. I was taught to grab the dogs rear legs and pull them backwards, preferable while the other person pulls there's away also. That allows you to disengage the dogs without getting bit.

How old is she and is she spayed?

My daughter has a dog she rescued that was cool until she got home from her spay, and since then has been dog aggressive. She also had some pretty bad anxiety issues so started on Prozac, and it has helped her tremendously. She is cool around my old lab they can even share the same couch, and just ignore each other. She still gets weird when my 3yr old lab gets in her space, but has gotten better recently. We are all spending a week together soon, so we are hoping this will help. We do a lot of side by side leash walking, and try not to be reactive with them, unless she gets super focused on him, then we know she is going to cycle up.

I would recommend a vet evaluation for health issues. If that rules out any physical issues then I would hire a behaviorist. Not just a trainer.

Lucy is spayed since 8 months. She is now just over 3. She was a rescue, I have had her for 2.5 yrs.

I asked about her age and if she was spayed because my boy (15 months) recently started being dog aggressive, especially when on leash. Started in doggy daycare. Evidently he's a teenager now and decided he wants to assert his dominance. He's a German Shepherd so not surprised, but he's been in daycare since he was 5 months old. Anyway, we are going to work with a behaviorist and send him to "boarding school" for 14 days for some more intensive behavior modification. We had him neutered a month ago, but the only thing (so far) that improved was him marking everything outside.

My boy is also great with people - no aggression whatsoever. Just dogs. And prey driven so of course he chases squirrels, birds, ducks, etc.

Given Lucy's age, I agree with the poster who suggested a medical workup to rule out any issues.

Oh, and she was probably in a frenzy when your son broke them up and did not intentionally bite him.

I just wanted to say my old lab is 13 and her name is Lucy. She does not have any aggressive behaviors at all, but she has a low tolerance for nonsense now that she is an old lady.
So when my sisters doodles get in her face she will move her face away from them, and just walk away, but if they continue to harass, she will growl. Never has nipped, but I warn my sister I have no guarantees.
She also has gone after the dog across the street when she has wandered over. I have also warned the neighbors that I have no guarantees with her.

My point is this, until you figure out what the issue is, she should not be being allowed off leash around others. Especially if a larger dog. They can do tremendous damage in a few seconds when they go into attack mode.

Good luck.

Tallgirl, sorry to hear about the incident with your pup. I can relate and have no solutions but can tell you the adaptations we use to accommodate our very sweet but very fearful male golden doodle. He was a star pupil in obedience training and ignored all the other dogs, but they used training treats and he is food obsessed. When he was about one year old we took him to the dog park and he was terrified, hid under the picnic table and cowered. If other dogs tried to interact, he got aggressive, but in a scared way. It took us a while to figure out he was a people dog, not a dog dog. It has taken me a while to figure out a lot of things about him, mostly that he is the best dog ever unless there is another dog or a stranger about. He cannot play properly with other dogs because he starts to fight at the first sign of aggression from them, specifically if they approach from behind or try to dominate him by putting their head on his back. He always comes out growling, snarling and snapping. It's scary. He can't seem to tell rough and tumble dog play from aggression, so he has no filter. So we don't let him be around other dogs. He did have one playmate, a same breed female, but he was just too rough and stupid around her, and they both crashed into everyone and everything. Doodles can be goofy and clueless too!

We have had issues with strangers in public because he is a gorgeous teddy bear that people want to touch, and he has snapped and growled when approached from the back, regardless of sex or age. We have to be careful around kids, because of his fear issues. He had a terrible incident on leash with three college girls who were petting him and surrounded him and got in his face in a noisy environment and he came out snarling and snapping and scared them terribly. I make sure no more than one person pets him at once and we always tell people to be cautious until he is comfortable. Once he knows a person he is great around them, loving and very chill.

We adore this dog, but have had to learn to adapt when in public to ensure he doesn't hurt someone or himself. Now that he is old, he has fallen and hurt himself twice when other unleashed dogs come at him on our property. He is a big boy but a terrible wuss.

My bestie works at a very large and busy doggie day care and is the doggie whisperer. Some dogs are just good at playing and being pack dogs and some just don't play well with others. In that second group, some are afraid and anxious and some are just assholes. Some learn to get along with the group and the those that can't have to be segregated from the masses to keep trouble at bay. My dog is not an alpha in the slightest, so his aggression is not to establish rank but to escape from a stressful situation. Females can have alpha issues too, but I'm hoping yours was just overwhelmed and reacting from fear, not a serious behavioral issue.

My last thought on dog parks is that by us, there were too many people socializing and ignoring their dogs and some of those dogs were the assholes and were pretty scary. I hope you find the right spot and the happy place for your pup. Hope she mellows as she matures. Good luck.

I agree that a vet workup would be a good idea given that she's an adult with a sudden behavior change. There are lots of possible explanations for this. Could be anything from that other dog being a jerk to her being stressed by something in her environment right then or a medical issue causing her pain.

Did any of the behavior change start with a change in her environment? One of my dogs went through quite a bit of stress when I left my XWH and moved him to another home. He has an anxiety disorder, so this was expected, but most dogs do take time to adjust to new circumstances and can develop some behavioral issues while adjusting.