odd aggressive behaviour

twisteddiamond

twisteddiamond

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sorry its a long one, wine and chocs if you get to the bottom

when walking my two today, i met a chap who was walking a boxer, he was coming towards us with it off the lead. both of mine were on leads and kizzy as soon as she caught sight of the boxer went into attack mode, crawling along on her belly,
boxer dog came bounding over to say hello with its owner shouting after it 'its ok hes really friendly' and me telling him to call it back and put it on a lead
cue me with kizzy trying to tear the boxer limb from limb, swinging at the end of her lead with me trying to pull her back and chaos having a fit of the screaming habdabs and trying to hightail in the other direction, and the stupid man didnt even grab his dog he just kept walking
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the rest of the walk she was fine, walked past other dogs without any bother and she has never done it before

so why do you think she chose this dog to have a go at?
i was wondering if she could sense chaos was afraid and decided to act on it?
 
Has she ever had a problem with a boxer before? Like one being over-exhuberant towards her before?

Dogs send each other vibes and body language which can sometimes seem imperceptible to us and yes, she might have picked up something from Chaos or the other dog.

She also probably picked up on any apprehension you may have had when the boxer approached (not blaming you, it is easily done!) and that may have made her initial submission into fear or defensive-based aggression over both yourself and Chaos.

Glad she showed no ill effects afterwards and a pity the man didn't recall and leash his dog or at least apologise or check you were OK, but sadly I see this kind of thing a lot.

It will be interesting to see if she reacts like this to other boxers or just this one in particular - do you know anyone with a boxer that you could buddy up with for a while, or are you happy that this is an isolated incident?
 
Some dogs do makes others dogs go on the defence, they may give off a threatening/dominant vibe....it did not help that the ignorant fella jsut let his dog waltz on over to you
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and your dog displayed the type of reaction a dog would more commonly display when restrained by a lead and being approached randomly by an off lead dog.
Then obs it can be hightened by the owners response, which cannot be helped at times, esp when u panick and cannot control the approaching dog and u have more than one to hold onto.

Funnily enough out of the 3 million dogs I deal with a week
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it's the female boxer that will also get the backs of the other dogs up, even the most friendly dogs will growl and display aggressive behaviour towards her, and her body language is very dominant towards the other dogs, I can literally pile them all in the doggy van and u will not hear a peep, from the ddb x pittx staff or the dobi or the small female boxer or any of my ten, but as soon as holly the boxer gets in, it's like all hells broke loose, growling , snarling.

All dogs will also avoid bodily or eye contact with my akita, even though she is pretty laid back, I think they can sense her dominance from her stance and body language.
She is a bit like me
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It is actually very interesting to watch the rescue dogs interact with oneanother and their change in behaviour towards certain dogs when say 20 or so of them are out together.

Suppose u could relate....if some random freak started making their way over to u in what u may percieve as a threatening manor
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there was an incident when she was about 5 or 6 months old when a guy set his two GSDs and boxer on her when my mam and i had her out for a walk but she has never showed any sign of aggression towards any boxers we have met since, she has always been fine with dogs she meets even if she hasnt met them before

she maybe she picked it up from me
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i havent seen the chap before, hopefully i wont see him again

i dont know anyone with a boxer to buddy up with hopefully its just a one off
 
TD, don't feel guilty, it is so easily done, nobody knows that more than me - it took me a long time to be able to relax, loose my hold on the lead, breathe deep and think 'no big deal, it is just another dog' and keep walking.

It is a double edged sword - dogs get on so much better when leads are not involved, but in public places with strange people and dogs, it can be too much of a risk to let some dogs run around off-lead.
 
Also obs just to add to all the other advice maybe take a distraction with u as a back up for these situations, it may also help u stay calm and keep a little focused it u are busy get your treat ready rather than focusing on he on coming dog.
Don't forget this is a dogs way of defense to growl and bark and make themselves seem more threatening to the threat which can be as already exhuberated when restrained.
 
A lot of dogs have trouble 'reading' a boxer or other similar breeds with that shaped face and usually very little tail. That with combined with her being on lead and the boxer being off lead was probably enough to worry your girl. Also a lot of times what people consider is their dog being friendly is in fact rude behaviour in the dog world. My Teasel who is used to police other dogs in offlead socialisation classes will tell off another dog for approaching her in a rude manner.

I would work on keeping her attention on you when another dog approaches, teach her to focus on you using treats/toy so that you can both relax around other dogs.
 
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sorry its a long one, wine and chocs if you get to the bottom




You do realise CC actaully does want that wine ^^^^^ and thats why she read it all and answered
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TM, that's an interesting point, I was wondering if it was anything to do with the boxer's appearance but didn't want to sound silly
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The first time my boy saw a dalmatian he totally freaked out, which I understood, he was used to seeing loads of dogs that all looked the same, then all of a sudden this mad spotty thing that must have looked like an alien.

JRTs always always seem to set my two off - they can be incredibly gobby and goading!

Agree about the distraction thing - and take something out of the ordinary, not her normal food, something special like chicken or cheese.
You can also be like me and sing or talk in a ridiculous playful voice (yes, we look and sound like a three-ring-circus when we approach
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)

ETA Pass the wine please. Cayla, SHUT UP!!!!
 
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sorry its a long one, wine and chocs if you get to the bottom




You do realise CC actaully does want that wine ^^^^^ and thats why she read it all and answered
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that made me lol chaos is now looking at me suspiciously because i woke him up
 
i have a boxer. he's the nicest, friendliest dog EVER.

sadly, ALL other dogs HATE him. i think they get confused by his body-wagging and over friendliness. they take it as aggression when he wraps him front legs around them and tries to 'box' them...

even friend's dogs who they say 'my dog is really submissive/she'd never hurt a fly' etc etc.... even those dogs try to rip him from limb to limb.

the only dogs that he can play with properly are other boxers

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[ QUOTE ]
TM, that's an interesting point, I was wondering if it was anything to do with the boxer's appearance but didn't want to sound silly
blush.gif

The first time my boy saw a dalmatian he totally freaked out, which I understood, he was used to seeing loads of dogs that all looked the same, then all of a sudden this mad spotty thing that must have looked like an alien.

JRTs always always seem to set my two off - they can be incredibly gobby and goading!

Agree about the distraction thing - and take something out of the ordinary, not her normal food, something special like chicken or cheese.
You can also be like me and sing or talk in a ridiculous playful voice (yes, we look and sound like a three-ring-circus when we approach
tongue.gif
)

ETA Pass the wine please. Cayla, SHUT UP!!!!

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If a Boxer then also is a dark brindle and have a docked tail, it isn't easy for other dogs to read their body language, either in the face, on the body or the tail. I remember hearing Anders Hallgren describing a meeting between an adult GSD and a dark brindle, about 10 month old, Boxer with a docked tail.

The GSD was allowed out of the car at the dog club when a full of fun young Boxer gets lose and sees somebody to say "Hello! Hello! Hello!" to = runs at full speed straight towards the GSD. The GSD froze and stared at this dark mass of a dog coming towards him, unable to see if it was an attack or a "no-manners yet" youngster. Finally only a few metres away the Boxer realised the GSD was ready to defend himself, which made the Boxer freeze into a stop, only that he still almost slided all the way into the GSD.

Once he had stopped sliding, the GSD carefully started to look really close on the Boxer to decide how he should proceed with the situation and it was not until he spotted that the Boxer had raised the fur in front of his little tail stump, showing that he now was scared of this dominant GSD, that the GSD relaxed and made a playful invitation.




About what you say about the first Dalmatian meeting,
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now when I live in a neighbourhood with more other dog owners than what I did before, I have realised that now when I have puppies, I tend to look for breeds that I want my dogs to meet and have hurried to try and intercept f.ex. a (fully coated) Pomeranian, French Bulldog and Greyhound etc. to ask if my puppy could say "hello".

When I'm taking them to dog shows as puppies, it has always been equally important for me to go around and allow my puppy to see the dogs in everything from the Dalmatian ring to the Chow Chow ring, as it is with actually showing them for a judge.


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Yellow Dog doesn't like boxers either. There are a lot of them round here that are aggressive tho
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but even before we moved here he was always wary of them. I just assumed it was because they looked strange
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and make funny breathing noises
 
Don't laugh but while researching French Bull Dogs I read that any breed with the short nose (forget proper term) sometimes freak out other dogs......
 
It is true as far as I know and it is not only because of that it might sound a little when they breathe, it has mostly to do with their eyes being so close to the nose. So when a dog wants to smell towards their nose, it is more likely that they feel as if the dog with the short muzzle is staring at them = challenging them.


Add to that, many breed standards doesn't allow the colour variations/shadings in the face in the way a lot of wolfs have, which helps making their face language more easily readable by others.
 
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A lot of dogs have trouble 'reading' a boxer or other similar breeds with that shaped face and usually very little tail. That with combined with her being on lead and the boxer being off lead was probably enough to worry your girl. Also a lot of times what people consider is their dog being friendly is in fact rude behaviour in the dog world. My Teasel who is used to police other dogs in offlead socialisation classes will tell off another dog for approaching her in a rude manner.

I would work on keeping her attention on you when another dog approaches, teach her to focus on you using treats/toy so that you can both relax around other dogs.

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I ws going to suggest this. My old GSD had a fab temperament but was always defensive with boxers and rotties. I am convinced it was because she wasn't able to read their body language due to the lack of tail.
 
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Don't laugh but while researching French Bull Dogs I read that any breed with the short nose (forget proper term) sometimes freak out other dogs......

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I've heard that as well, which is funny as I can honestly say I've never had an issue with Stella. Unlike most Boxers and Bostons, however, she takes her time when greeting other dogs and that probably works well in her favour.

The first time Stella met a Chinese Crested she barked and growled very aggressively. I think the isolated bits of spiky hair reminded her of heckles.
 
My malamute is sometimes like this. Apparently on a malamute forum I went on it's not uncommon. Her problem started when she was attacked by a small dark dog. Now she has issues with some small dogs (though not all - not quite sure what her criteria is) but whenever I see a small dog I put her lead on. I think some dogs just have an inbuilt objection to certain other dogs.
 
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