Hi there! just looking for some support/ advice. I have a neutered male 15 month old Border terrier. we acquired him from an amazing supportive caring breeder when he was 14 weeks old. he is mine and my parters only dog and we do not have children. right from the beginning it was my mission to do everything in my power to give him the best start and to help mold his personality into being a great dog. We did all the "right things" researching dog positive training techniques, enrolling him in obedience, we are always firm with emphasis on rewarding the positive and diverting attention from the negative. my partner takes him to his office on the days I work, he is almost always with one of us, with the exception of a couple hours here or there. we take him to a great doggy daycare where he gets along with the other dogs if we take longer than four hours, we feed him a high quality diet, right from the start we socialized him daily with all kinds of dogs and people, he was always so playful and confident. so how come out of the blue he has randomly become dog aggressive!? I am horrified. he suddenly has become a bully and I feel like I cannot predict what he is going to do any longer. sometimes he ignores dogs completely, sometimes he wants to play, and sometimes he fully attacks (to my human eyes) for no reason totally friendly dogs. the only consistency I can find is that they are often younger than him and bigger. He has attacked a Rhodesian ridgeback, a vizsla, german shepherd, boarder collie. It is so embarrassing, I feel like I look like a terrible dog owner, but I am not! luckily he has never picked on a dog smaller than himself, and he has never drawn blood or ripped out fur. Is he just being a terrier? is there nothing I can do? He always played scrappy, and I know its in his nature, but this is definitely not just rough play, it is full on attack mode. now I wont even take him to dog parks out of fear. I feel like I have failed...
I would stay away from dog parks, he doesn’t need to interact with unknown dogs. Start training him to ignore other dogs, at first keep enough distance from them so that he doesn’t get worked up. Make yourself more interesting than the other dogs, by distracting him with a toy/titbit or get him to play when you see another dog coming (hopefully before he does)
I know I am about 3 years late posting reply, I live in uk with 13 month border terrier, who is lovely indoors loves grandson aged 3. Comes when called in the garden. Plays with other family dogs even ones he sees rarely. Will run off if door or gate left open for split second and not come back for hour or two, live in small village and I can see him running across roads in and out off people's gardens, he just blanks me and will even run past just out off reach. Up to about a month ago he would play with other dogs in the woods where we walk chasing and being chased. But now if the other dog does not want to play he sounds very aggressive and will not leave them alone and is very hard to catch just runs round and round upsetting everyone , a man tried to kick him the other day because he was frightening his spaniel.our main walk a day lasts about 45 to 55 mins and he is running the whole time.
Does he like playing with squeaky toys? If so, the quickest way to get him back is to get him really hooked on playing fetch with them. When he bolts, squeak the toy, get him to a safe area and play with him as a reward. You also need to train yourselves and visitors that the gate has to be kept shut at all times. That way, he can't bolt out
