Mean Marley

[OhMarley]

Well ever since Marley was desexed he's turned into a little b*****d! I doubt it had anything to do with being desexed more just a coincidence...

He has always been happy go lucky mad Marley. OBSESSED with other dogs, always ready to play...

However this change in behaviour is very undesirable and has left us embarrassed on more then one occasion. Each time its been a puppy not an adult dog that has unknowingly upset him and each time his reaction has been the same, he starts growling ferociously and stands over the other dog in a very dominating manor.... !!!!

Why would he suddenly start bullying other dogs?!?! And the puppies aren’t always little the latest incident was at the vet clinic today and it was a 6month old Samoyed puppy...

I don’t know how to stop him from doing this or why he would do it in the first place....

Any help would be appreciated!!

Here are his statistics:

Marley is just over 1 years old, Male, Cavalier King Charles Spaniel. He was desexed about a month ago. Well socialised with all size dogs and animals! Never shown any aggression, been attacked or had any other bad experiences! Always loved playing with dogs of all sized, colours, sex, age etc!!

[cavNrott]

What obedience training has Marley had?

It sounds like he thinks he's in charge and should make the decisions. Time to get him into training and show him that the leader makes all decisions and he's not it.

[Reddii]

I've got a similar situation with my boy. An 18 month old BC. It's always younger dogs (not necessarily smaller), always when they upset him by getting in his face and they always come off second best - never any damage physically, but he is so strong and so quick it's frightening when it happens.

I know it's not a lack of leadership/training/pack order thing - I am clearly the leader (we do a LOT of training in agility, obedience, frisbee and flyball) and I can call him out of any situation he has managed to get involved in.....but it is almost as though he has not learned to give appropriate warning signals that another dog is invading his sapce - he just goes into his 'upset' mode. We are working hard with him and he is realising that the rule is that you now come to me if something is bothering you and all will be OK.

I put it down to him getting jumped all over by bigger dogs a couple of times when he was a young pup (before I knew any better).

It's difficult balancing act between keeping him away from other non-working dogs (working dogs he understands and tolerates) and slowly allowing him interaction on our terms.

We are working with a behaviourist who is very reassuring and feels it is part of his adolesence, but something we need to keep a check on and keep working towards solving lest it escalate.

Good luck with your boy.

Cheers.

Tony

[poodlefan]

Congratulations, you are the proud owner of an adolescent alpha wanna be. Kind of like a 14 year old boy really. Like all bullies, he's picking the dogs he thinks he can dominate and swaggering around. True alphas are far too cool to bluster when a look is usually enough.

I had one of these but in a worse form - Darcy was a granny basher. He'd pick the oldest frailest bitches and subject them to a tirade of snapping and growling. You can imagine how that went over with the bitches owners.

The excellent advice I received was to prevent these situations occuring by preventing the targets of his bullying from getting that close and to watch for signs of escalating aggression, which thankfully never came.

If it happens remove him from the situation post haste but prevention will certainly be better for him and the youngsters he wants to bully. If you think its escalating, call in a professional.

I'd be keeping other dogs out of his face for now.

Edited April 28, 2008 by poodlefan

[Reddii]

Congratulations, you are the proud owner of an adolescent alpha wanna be. Kind of like a 14 year old boy really. Like all bullies, he's picking the dogs he thinks he can dominate and swaggering around. True alphas are far too cool to bluster when a look is usually enough.

I had one of these but in a worse form - Darcy was a granny basher. He'd pick the oldest frailest bitches and subject them to a tirade of snapping and growling. You can imagine how that went over with the bitches owners.

The excellent advice I received was to prevent these situations occuring by preventing the targets of his bullying from getting that close and to watch for signs of escalating aggression, which thankfully never came.

If it happens remove him from the situation post haste but prevention will certainly be better for him and the youngsters he wants to bully. If you think its escalating, call in a professional.

I'd be keeping other dogs out of his face for now.

Exactly what our person has told us.