Nervous, possible fear aggression

Hi everyone, I'm currently training my 4 year old rescue lurcher who used to love to play with other dogs but since being jumped on by a friendly but over eager Labrador 6 months ago, has become snappy with very bouncy dogs who approach her.

I've used distraction techniques such as recalling her & playing with her when I see a bouncy dog in the distance & she's happy to come back but last week she went over to play with a dog she knows & is happy to play with, but he was with another dog that she didn't know. Suddenly, without apparent provocation, she bit the unknown dog on the hind quarters! I instantly recalled her & she came back without further fuss, but she had drawn blood from the other dog. The owners were very understanding but I'm a little at a loss as how to proceed with her training.

Any comments, ideas would be welcome.

Get the book, Click to Calm, by Emma Parsons. That is a superb book which should help a lot. Whatever you do, don't use punishment in the presence of other dogs. You'll be going through a desensatization/counter conditioning process which can take some time and diligence. You'll need some willing helpers with practice dogs and you'll need some space....so you can start out with distance between you. You want to set up the environement so your dog can succeed at small increments just below her reactivity threshold.

Anyhow, that's in a very small nutshell. I highly recommend getting that book asap and in the meantime avoiding close proximatey to unknown dogs.

Also, have your dog checked over by a Vet there could be an underlying health issue which is making your dog more protective. A dog that has joint issues etc will be more protective of themselves for fear of being hurt by an overly active bouncy dog.

Since the dog is a rescue you don't know much about the background. Dogs usually pick up nervous aggression from the dam who imprints them from birth till they leave the nest. This is hard to eradicate since it's in the dog's genetic makeup. A mentally sound dog will get over another dog going for him almost immediately and learn that he doesn't have to fear all other dogs. We see so many in training classes and you can always tell the ones that were born this way from the ones that only had a bad experience. But I would try the book and hopefully get get some sound advice on how to help the dog overcome this.

My aussie-girl (RIP) had fear-aggression all of her life. It was something imprinted on her as she was a puppy mill dog, but we gave her all the love we could. There wasn't much changing her from charging strangers or other dogs that came to our house or in our car if we stopped for gas (we stopped taking her to the gas station unless it was a long trip and took her out of the car). We had to put her in another room whenever guests came. She was okay out and about on walks or stores, with other people and dogs, though.