Whippet

Thanks everyone I am looking into some behaviourists now and see what happens... will let you know how it goes

Hi poodlefan, thanks for your reply. We are in Melbourne. I guess I see what you are saying, so you think that we should not worry about his behaviour unless he bites another dog or human as it is just a warning? Still, it's not so easy to accept whether it results in blood being drawn or not, we'd prefer it didn't get to that. Our other whippet has never shown any signs of being "annoyed" with other dogs, so I guess they just have different personalities. We will look for a trainer, he has been to obedience training, but think he needs something one on one.

Hi, we have a 1 and a half year old female desexed whippet that we have had since she was 10 weeks old. Last year we adopted a 2 year old male whippet who was not desexed when we got him, but who is desexed now. Half a year on we have noticed a few times that the male has had a go at our female and a friends dog, growling and using aggressive body language, the first time our female yelped as though she was hurt for what seemed like ages after the incident, though we are fairly sure she wasn't maybe just scared, but they were right back playing with each other afterward. On this occasion the male stole a chew treat off the female. The second time the male wanted some attention off my fiance while the female was sitting on my fiances lap, we did not see what happened but the male growled and did the same aggressive posturing. Straight after the incident, after the male had been yelled at and removed from the chair by my fiance, our female got up and ran straight to the male seemingly to see if he was okay. Another time while walking with a friends puppy chocolate lab off lead he did the same thing, again we did not see what happened so have no idea what provoked it. The puppy yelped a lot, but we are fairly sure she wasn't bitten. He seemed to make a lot of noise, towered over her and pinned her to the ground which must have just scared her... understandably! While these seem like small spats at the moment we are concerned that they will escalate into a full on fight and do not want him to hurt another dog or child. We have often wondered if he had some incident at his previous home that is causing him to be provoked in certain situations. He was brought up by a breeder of Mini Pinchers before we adopted him and he was underweight when we got him. We don't know much about the previous owner other than they were neglecting him and gave him up. For a long time after we got him he always had his head down, never wagged his tail, but he now is very happy and generally gets along very well with the female whippet and other dogs. Other than these incidences, he is otherwise an extremely placid dog. Does anyone have any idea what could cause this aggression, is it jealousy or is it something else? Any suggestions on how to curb this behavior would be greatly appreciated. Sorry for the essay length question!