Recent aggression with puppies, Please HELP!

apeterson555

My almost 4 yr old male dog has just recently (the last year) started getting really aggressive with younger dogs, 12 mo or younger. He will approach tail wagging smell them and then out of nowhere will growl (like he is attacking them) and attempt to move them to their backs, very scary for everyone. He has never bit another dog and none of the dogs were ever injured. My question is does anyone know why he would be doing this now and ways to stop it.

Yesterday was the last straw, we were at the dog park and my sister brought her new puppy who he had never met. I thought a neutral place like the dog park would be a good place to introduce them and he lashed out at her. Again didn’t bit or scratch her just growled and went for the neck.

My dog is very socialized and very well behaved he loves kids and other dogs, he's a mutt and weighs about 90 lbs we were told bull mastiff, chocolate lab and German wirehaired. We have been going to the dog park since he was 4 mo. old. We also recently got a new dog in March who was 6 mo. old at the time and they get along great.

Sorry for the long post, any help/ advice/ experience with this would be greatly appreciated!

formerlyGDaisy09

Dog parks are over stimulating places, not a great place for a dog that seems to be having issues with agression. Have you had your dog checked by a vet? maybe there is something that is causing him pain that makes him reactive to bouncy puppies trying to play with him.

Have you tried a walk with your sister's puppy? bring lots of treats and go someplace without a lot of other things going on.  start out walking with your dogs on opposite sides of the path (find a wide path if you can.  you and your sister should walk on the inside and keep your dogs on short leads on the outside.  for a while ignore eachother, focus on the dogs, do some training exercises, give lots of treats.  then shift closer together and if things go well try moving one dog to the inside  (so it goes dog, person, dog, person) and repeat the training and treating.   

It may take several days at it, but you need to help your dog make positive associations with the other dogs around

ShellD13

We just covered this in puppy class - our trainer highly recommended the Parallel walking that GDaisy describes.  Then once the dogs are walking near each other you can also start walking in small circles with the dogs on the outside of the circles to get them closer to each other but to prevent their leashes from getting tangled in the event that either of them shows aggression.