8mo old GSD F suddenly aggressive towards her friends

[ramblerambler]

She's a sweet girl and the neighbors dogs all go to the same park. They are all well behaved and Koa has always been friendly. The neighbors know her as the friendly big dog.

A small mutt, Ollie, 3 year old male, likes to be chased by Koa a little bit then gets tired and doesn't want to play anymore.

Koa jogged a 5k with me at 7 am, and was back in her crate at 10am. I was back home by 3pm and let her out. She needed to run, so I took her and her ball and off we went to the park.

When we first got there, she opened by chasing Ollie. She bit Ollie. My dog has a soft mouth. She bit him DEEP. Not to be dramatic but Ollie has two puncture wounds on his knee where she got him with the side of her mouth. Blood was not running, but she sliced him to where I could see the tissues were beet colored.

She's never done that before. In fact, Ollie's mom and another dog mom said she was playing and got carried away.

But later, she lunged aggressively at an old dog's face, McCunney, who is 11 and a large mix breed.
McCunney, and Ollie have been her friends for a long time. They're both male.

The last time (2 days agol there was a female lab. Luna. she licked her nose. It was sweet. Then she chased her and later bit at her face.

Wtf is going on? Why is she turning on her friends?

 

[raeh]

@ramblerambler She’s grown out of the dog park. Very common, especially around this age. Dog parks aka doggy mosh pits are not suitable for all dogs, and many dogs lose their patience with the high-energy moshing and wind up fighting.

 

[ramblerambler]

@raeh This makes sense. Koa likes to wrestle and play rough. This chasing stuff must be boring. There's an aussie a few houses down who also likes to wrestle and play ruff. They are a match

 

[fancyface]

@ramblerambler It could be the age, but my first suggestion is a vet visit.

A drastic change in behavior should ALWAYS be a vet visit to check for a physical cause.

You say that you and your dog ran a 5k earlier. That's awesome!

Your pup could be sore, or have hurt itself though. Animals are really good at masking pain. Even if it's not injury, a lot of dogs will do what is asked of them when they probably shouldn't. Walk on burning hot pavement? If you request it, plenty of dogs will push through the pain. Run on pavement even if it's grinding their nails too short? But they are having so much fun! It's easy to ignore, until it isn't.

My dog suddenly got irritated with dogs she was previously fine with. Monday she was her happy self, Tuesday she was like a different dog. Off to the vet we went. She was in pain. She acted completely fine at home and walking, but she WAS in pain. Once we treated her poor foot ( it was a cut in a place hidden by her paw pad. There was no blood, no change in her gait, and she had no issue with me touching her hurt foot ) she was back to her normal self. When animals are in pain they can be less tolerant to other animals.

It truly may be that your dog is no longer suited to playing at the dog park ( plenty dogs are not, including my own ) but please get your pup checked to make sure there isn't a physical cause for the drastic change in behavior!

 

[izzy1728]

@ramblerambler We’re having very similar situations. Our 8 month old female (unspayed) has been attacking our 2 year old neutered male this past week! We think it’s a combo of her teenager age, hormones (she just finished her first heat), and her breed. We’ve been doing crate-gate swap throughout the day and training our girl on better manners. It’s hard work! Let me know what works for yours!

 

[ramblerambler]

@izzy1728 Oh wow, good luck! I'm getting a shock collar so I can correct at a distance. She's a skittish dog, and has never tried aggression on to see if it fits. She doesn't know the rules for something she's never known.

 

[izzy1728]

@ramblerambler I’ve heard mixed reviews on shock/e collars. We used it briefly for one of our dogs for barking, but we never shocked him but only used the chirp sound to give him an audible snap. It worked!

 

[ali055]

@ramblerambler

Luna. she licked her nose. It was sweet. Then she chased her and later bit at her face.

If someone licked my nose i might bite their face too, i would assume this is poor manners and improper socialisation but couldn't say for sure without seeing the interaction

You should go to the vet before anything to rule out medical causes and pain and also assess what your dog's like in a neutral environment indirectly other around dogs rather than close contact

I've had perfectly social dogs wake up and decide they don't like other dog's at around that 7-10 month mark, its not particularly uncommon within certain breeds. This is why proper socialisation is important, they don't NEED to play with other dogs if you teach them dog's are neutral and you meet their needs yourself. A dog that hates dogs should still be capable of tuning them out and working with you, same for a dog obsessed dog

Lastly despite what anyone tells you, I wouldn't be jogging 5ks with such a young dog, growth plates haven't fused yet.

 

[ramblerambler]

@ali055 Thank you for that. She met luna, and in their meeting my dog licked lunas face. Then they parted. Luna play bowed, and Koa chased. Tails wagging. Later, she bit at the air near lunas face and chased her. Luna had her tail tucked.

 

[ali055]

@ramblerambler Oh, then shes probably growing intolerant of dog play or she's in pain and reacting to that

Regardless theres better ways to excersise a dog than dog play, personally mine don't have any "dog friends", maybe some we walk together with and ignore/follow around, but no crazy playmates. Even the risk of injury to reward ratio alone makes it not worth it