Looks to Attack

I have a bull terrier mix - Chela - who use to be the world's most friendly dog. She loved people and animals alike and was in heaven when we went to the park and she could run and play with other dogs. Lately though our trips to the park have become days of terror for me because Chela will actively look to attack other dogs.

Sometimes she will run straight up to a dog, get in their face, and attack. Obviously this leaves the other dog no choice but to respond. Other times she will be playing with dogs and then suddenly display the above mentioned behaviour. Obviously she cannot be trusted off-leash.

How do I deal with this? Chela needs time to run, but I no longer trust her off-leash. I also don't want this to develop into a more common behaviour (for now it is not a consistent behaviour but the uncertainty of it makes it even more scary).

As I said, she use to be a go-lucky, super friendly girl towards everyone. What do you think changed? How do I work with her to rid her of this response?

Thanks for the help.

dixie

How old is she? Do you know of dog aggression is a normal thing for her breed, it is for most of the bully breeds, but I don't want to generalize. I'll see if I can find out myself but if you know that'd be great.
What is her body language when she goes to attack another dog? Is her tail wagging or straight up barely wagging or tucked under? Does she bark before going after the other dog or does she remain quiet?
How well was she socialized with other dogs and has she had any bad experiences with other dogs, like being attacked herself?

My first guess would be perhaps now that she is maturing some breed tendancies may be at play and may be at the root of this sudden appearance of this behaviour. Like you mentioned, she should not be allowed offleash around other dogs.

In the meantime there is plenty of great training which doesnt rely on punishment which you can use to start altering her behaviour on-leash. I would strongly recomend looking up Leslie McDevit's "Control Unleashed" or Emma Parsons "Click to Calm". Both are full of games to play to help change your dog's reaction to the sight of other dogs on walks. (Which like you said, it may not be happening right now, but it's not a stretch for it to begin to occur, especially if another dog rushes up to her).

The one game you can start pronto requires your pup to have some past clicker experince. Not much, but enough to understand click means awsome stuff is coming. The look at that game actually rewards a dog who reacts strongly to other things, for looking at the thing that sets off the reaction.
By doing this it actually interuptts the typical look-stare-growl-bark-lunge-all out hell cycle which typically takes place when a reactive dog see's the thing that sets it off.

Lastly, a great alternative to dog parks that allows your dog to run fully is the use of 60-70 foot line. Use common sense and reel her in immediately if you see another dog, so that you do have control over her. This allows you to play frizbee and not worry about running out of line. ( I learned this the hard way when I used a 30 foot flexi to play frizbee with my boy- BAD IDEA)

Ultimately it will be your call if your pup should go back to offleash parks, perhaps small play dates at someones back yard (if available) with any dogs your pup has consistently gotten along with would be fine. Overall though I do think you should consider that some dogs will never be appropriate for an offleash situation with other unknown dogs.

Best of Luck
Kayla

Some of the worst DA I've experience has been in BTs, though as we all know, any Bully Breed can have DA pop up.

It sounds like she is just going to be a DA dog. Though it is nice to have offleash time, you now need to find fields that are not frequented by other dogs (or find times when the fields are free) and use a long line just in case. Frankly my dogs JUST got a fence a month ago, and have never been allowed offleash in public anyway, so it is very possible to exercise and keep a dog without letting it offleash. You can exercise her physically by walking or running her, but exercising her mentally will exhaust her just the same (through training, interactive toys, etc). Plus the training will help you to be able to control her behaviors, and that is definitely key to work on right now while the DA is still new.

I agree. Please stop taking her to the dog park. It is not fair to the other dogs that go there that might be on the receiving end should she decide to attack.

There is no shame in having a dog that is not a good dog park dog. One of my dogs does well at the park and one does not--we just work around it.

until you get a handle on the DA, you need to get a muzzle & a break stick (& learn how to use it).