Different Behaviour Away From Obedience Classes

[4 Paws]

One of gsd's who's nearly 6 years old has been attending obedience for some of this year and going quite well.She is very friendly to other dogs at training,generally giving them big face licks when she meets them,no sign of aggression at all but I've noticed while we are out walking at home when we come across another dog her breathing increases and if she gets close enough she'll give them a sniff and than snap at them,no barking or growling,baring teeth or anything.

Anyone have any ideas why the different behaviour would occur away from the training grounds?.A month or so ago at the beach she snapped at a dog that got in her face as well.I am dumbfounded as she is so friendly at training..We've also recently started at agility so I'm at bit worried about her behaviour now

[BJean]

Anyone have any ideas why the different behaviour would occur away from the training grounds?.A month or so ago at the beach she snapped at a dog that got in her face as well.I am dumbfounded as she is so friendly at training..We've also recently started at agility so I'm at bit worried about her behaviour now

If she goes to the same training ground with more or less the same dogs

then she is familair with the dogs at training and associates sharing the training ground with other dogs.

In a different environment with strange dogs, she may be not that confident with other dogs. Maybe she is only okay with what she knows / can predict and needs to work on what she perceives as being familiar ie the norm

[BrunoBella]

It sounds similar to Bellas fear aggression which she got from being attacked as a puppy. I took her to steve from K9 Force nearly two years ago and he helped me cure it.

I think, you need one on one guidance with a good behaviourist to work out how to fix this. It's not hard to fix once you know what's going on.

Have fun

[4 Paws]

Even the 1st week we went to classes she had no problems with any dogs so that has me dumbfounded,all the dogs were unfamiliar to her

[Cosmolo]

Its possible that because there were so many dogs together that you were inadvertently flooding- such an intense situation that the dog felt she could not react (as she couldn't control the situation) and explored other behaviours that have then become specific to that environment. Prior learning around the streets may also have an impact- bad or stresful experiences reinforce the same behaviour each time.