Herding and aggression

Hello. I posted back in April about 2 year old my border collie/lab mix Sage. I rescued her from the pound in January. She was fine for a few months of her honeymoon period, then started chasing, snapping, stalking,nipping and grabbing strange dogs we met off leash. Then she started developing interdog leash aggression when we kept her on leash. No aggression towards humans, no chasing kids, bicycles, etc. She is pretty shy and nervous around strange dogs and we think she has a combination of fear aggression and herding control issues. Anyway, we have kept her on leash for several months, really working hard on positive reinforcement of appropriate behavior, desensitizing and counterconditioning her with hotdogs when she is behaving appropriately in the presence of other dogs, distracting her with "look at me" and giving her commands, etc. She has done great and the leash aggression is minimal now. My question is this, she was doing so well we tried her off leash again with a dog she was friendly with but used to do some of the chasing bullying stuff with. She started right back in with chasing her, grabbing her neck and growling, nipping, etc. Didn't hurt the dog, who was trying to play but getting intimidated. Any suggestions on how to modify this instinct? I know she will always have this urge, the guidance I have gotten has been to keep up with the obedience and recall and keep her focused on us when she is trying to bully other dogs. I guess, though, I want her to play and be friendly with other dogs. She does have some dog friends and plays very normally with them, so she can do it, but some dogs she just acts like they are sheep and wants to control them I guess. Any thoughts on how to teach her this is rude and to guide her to more normal play?

You're doing a wonderful job so far. It would help if you could find a positive reinforcement trainer in your area with access to a good, friendly, stolid dog that you could work with. Your girl just needs to learn some doggy manners, and you can't rely on other dogs to teach her. So you can do just what human parents do when their child can't behave with others!

Again, you need a good, unflappable dog to work with (I've met a number of labradors that would be perfect). If the other dog is reactive to Sage's pushiness, it will encourage her behavior. So see if you can't find another dog that could pretty much care less about her. There are more of them out there than you think! Introduce them on-leash, keeping consistent with the work you've done up to this point. When Sage is behaving well on-leash, go ahead and let the other dog off. (In a safe, fenced area, of course.) Continue insisting on good behavior from Sage. When she's pretty well under control, let her off as well. The second she displays any bad manners toward the other dog, go to her and clip her lead on again, and walk her over into a corner. She's in time-out for 3 minutes. Don't speak to her or look at her, just let her sit and watch the other dog having fun without her. Then let her go. Again, go get her as soon as she does anything impolite and give another time out. It will probably take a few play sessions for Sage to catch on to what you're doing, but she will. This is a great way to teach dog/dog manners.

Okay, I will try that. The only thing is she usually doesn't do it with unflappable dogs that ignore her. Really confident dogs, often male, she plays with quite normally. Dogs that react negatively or aggressively to her, she gets scared. Dogs that get intimidated by her, run away, etc, and strange dogs she has never met, those are the ones she does this behavior with. We have worked on and off with a trainer and they have brought three dogs over, she didn't do the behavior with any of the three. The one she did this with yesterday may be our best bet, she is a lab and has a very understanding owner who would work with us. This dog doesn't like the behavior but doesn't aggress back, either tries to get away or ignore her, so we can give her time outs when she demonstates it. Unless you think it would be reinforcing to allow her access to this dog? .

It sounds like that dog will work out well. All I can add is to make sure that this other dog doesn't have a negative experience. Make sure that you remove your girl before the other dog gets uncomfortable. You want to help your dog, but not to the point of hurting the other one!

Sage is doing well again with most on leash aggression. We're trying to go more slowly and gradually. On the rude off leash bullying I followed advice and found several confident male dogs she can play with, and she is great with these dogs, when she gets rude they just put her in her place and then they play again. But will this generalize to the dogs she bullies? She nipped and bullied another dog today while playing. It seems if I can get her to walk calmly and introduce her nicely she will play better, although still often rude. But if the dog is in motion when they meet, it's a disaster. Also, when I time her out for rudeness, how do I get to her quick enough for her to know what she is being timed out for?