It's not you, it's me... no wait... It's you

Many things make me sad. But nothing truly crushes me more than telling someone their dog has begun to show aggressive behavior to other dogs and can no longer come to daycare.  I take that back-- one thing does crush me more... telling someone that for a second time.  Why does this happen? Multiple reasons actually-- and far too many that I am not qualified to detail here.  But the most frequent cause is most typically your dog simply reached maturity and with maturity comes their true temperament.  What I mean by dog aggressive is that a dog is not in control of their behavior in a group setting of multiple dogs-- this means places like daycare or the dog park.  Where it's possible you may live in a multi-dog home and everyone knows their place and gets along-- I guarantee that somewhere along the way you saw an inkling of your dog's behavior. 

Dogs are dogs and they don't sit down and necessarily weigh out the consequences of their behavior.  So of course there will be snits and little spats, this is normal-- just as the snits and spats you might have had with a sibling or best friend growing up.  But the important thing is that it is controllable.  When some dogs reach maturity and can not deal with chaotic environments they are NOT in control or capable of drawing that line and a simple "NO" can morph into a flat out dog fight.

Daycares and dog parks represent chaos-- no matter how well run, no matter how well staffed or policed, it is a chaotic environment.  Many dogs simply cannot manage this level of chaos and it can come out in aggressive or severe anxiety reactions.  Let's face it, many humans cannot handle chaotic environments and steer clear.  And sadly, still many humans cannot handle this level of chaos but continue to put themselves into this type of environment which doesn't end well for anyone.  If you have one dog who shows this behavior and a second dog who does not, it's pretty critical to not just cut off the second dog from any form of social activity. When you do this, you can alter a dog's social ability dramatically.  It crushed me initially when my oldest starting showing signs of dog aggression.  We always knew she was a dominant female, but as she matured this became a very heavy issue both at home and obviously at daycare.  I worked some heavy behavioral plans, but to no avail-- she would never be "safe" to have at daycare again.  Initially I was heartbroken, but the thing I refused to do was to isolate her and stop socializing my other dogs.

The most critical thing we ever did was maintain a severely high level of obedience and compliance and ACKNOWLEDGED that group activity outside the home and her siblings would never be a viable option. But we go out, we do things, we don't isolate.  The second bigger portion of acknowledging her behavior style was to not isolate the other dogs in our home.  I understand the feeling of "failure" and the feeling that you won't ever feel comfortable taking your dog out-- but committing everyone to a life of solitude is not the answer.  I can promise you further heartache and frustration.  I'm not trying be the one to say "I told you so" either-- I never truly derive that much pleasure out of that.  But it is never, ever, ever, too late to start over.