Sometime aggressive Cocker Spaniel

[jojostonie]

Hi

My dog George is an english cocker spaniel who is normally very well behaved, he is absolutely amazing with children and adults. He is very good with other dogs too apart from a couple of dogs who live in my street. One is a very large black lab and other is another cocker spaniel. He goes absolutely nuts if he even catches a hint of their smell and if he sees them he goes for them (they are not owned by the same person). He has never bitten them but only because we have managed to get him away from them. The large black lab can definitely look after himself but I am worried about the cocker spaniel because I think George has the potential to do some damage to him. I have no idea why he dislikes these two so much because as I said he is very good with lots of other dogs. It means that I can never let him off the lead in the fields that I live near just in case I bump into these two dogs - he also does not listen to me at all when he sees them and yet other times he always listens to me and comes when called etc. As both of these dogs are pure black I wondered if it was the solid colour that maybe upset him but I bumped into someone the other day who had a black dog and he didn't react. Both of these dogs are male so again wondered if that was the problem (both have been done).

Any pointers would be greatly appreciated!
Txs
Jo

[Ari_RR]

The large black lab can definitely look after himself but I am worried about the cocker spaniel because I think George has the potential to do some damage to him.

If George gets to them and really attacks either one of them - there will be no winners... That the lab can potentially hurt George while the cocker seems that he can't - this is in my opinion irrelevant, and doesn't change the fact that you can't let them run into each other off leash.

My extra-large boy and a (smaller size) neighbor's dog hated each other. Once the neighbor's dog got loose and attacked mine, and ended up with a late night rush to the emergency vet and a few weeks of rehab before he could even walk again... And this total hatred towards each other continued for almost 2 years until neighbors moved out.

What we did was trying to reach an agreement with the neighbors on timing and places of being outside, to ensure that they never meet, and if they do - it's on leash with humans aware and ready to turn around at the sight of the other. So, for example when neighbors went on vacation and had a dog sitter, they let us know in advance, so everyone was always aware... They almost never ran into each other since the initial fight, but on the very few occasions that they did - they were just as ready to rip each other apart. By the way, once the neighbor's dog got loose again while we were on a walk, and didn't hesitate for a second to attack again (I was able to keep them apart this time long enough for the neighbor to run over and grab him, but it just shows that once dogs hate each other, there may not be a way to change their minds)

While you may never figure out why George hates those 2 so much - this is only interesting theoretically. In practice, most likely his attitude towards those dogs will not change, which means that you will have to keep managing the environment in order to keep your boy (and those other dogs) safe.

[Nettle]

There's nothing any of us can do to get a dog to like dogs it doesn't like. Same with us - nobody can make us like people we don't care for.

So - as Ari says - either negotiate with the other dog owners to find out when they walk and walk at different times, or walk somewhere different.

Sometimes the answers aren't ideal, but then circumstances often aren't either.