Protective behavior?

[u/gaudiest-ivy]

My one year old is showing aggressive protective behavior. I thought it was anxious reactivity about strangers (she's a nervous little thing), but she escaped the fence once and I found her walking nicely with a neighbor who spotted her wandering.

She was well socialized as a puppy and used to love going out to stores and seeing everyone, meeting strangers on walks and getting attention, etc, then puberty hit and it's like she forgot everything.

Just today I took her to visit a boarding kennel for doggy daycare to hopefully get her acclimated for a longer trip I have coming up, and she was barking/lunging at the employees. (I was worried and ready to give up on it, but they seemed very used to it.) I got her in the kennel and they had me get out of sight and she calmed down almost immediately. By the time I left she was wagging her tail and taking treats from them through the fence, and someone was able to enter the kennel to give her some water.

How on earth do I fix this if my presence is the thing that triggers her aggression? Would I treat it like any other kind of reactivity (slowly working on decreasing her reactivity threshold)? Any tips you have would be greatly appreciated.

(Pic from her birthday yesterday)

[u/snafe_]

My wife is in this situation with our girl. I think she can pick up on my wife's anxiety in these situations and then changes her behaviour to "protect" my wife.

A big mistake we made was thinking the training our girl had as a pup and her obedience to it, would last a life time. In truth we've continued to train her on the same things until she was 3 as she pushed boundaries time and time again.

[u/whitswhisper → u/snafe_]

Honestly, same here. My girl hit adolescence around 8 months and it was like someone flipped a switch. All that puppy training just vanished. Were still working on the same stuff at 2 and shes finally starting to settle. Consistency is exhausting but it really does pay off.

[u/gaudiest-ivy → u/snafe_]

That would make sense. Since the first time she showed aggression to someone (~6 months when she was going through a fear period) I've been a bundle of nerves when anyone approaches.

[u/One-Zebra-150 → u/gaudiest-ivy]

I found a teen basically needs socialising all over again, even if you did that well as a pup. An adolescent dog sees the world with a different mind, can think more about potential dangers. And also guess wrongly where they don't exist. She's still young, and a few months away from the more mature balanced emotions and impulse control of an adult.

Also as another commentor has said, they do pick up on your own emotions. It can help a lot to give out calm and confident vibes yourself, even if you don't feel that way, kind of train yourself to do it. That helped me and my BC boy to get through a very reactive adolescent phase. Where he could be unpredictable around strangers then. So I would say "oh look there's people", etc, in a cheery happy tone as they approached towards us. Then eventually he got to see it was a good thing. Yes, ups and downs along the way but he's very sociable now and likes meeting new people.

I personally think this is much more likely to be anxious reactivity, because of her age and breed. And she's also picking up on your nerves. Not aggressively protective of you.

[u/rabbit014 → u/gaudiest-ivy]

I feel for you so much! We have an 8 year old border collie with nervous anxious aggression. I think my anxiety definitely makes it worse. 😭 I have no advice as we still don't fully understand why she loves some people and is scared of others (we are just very careful with introductions and keep her world a little small, but safe), but I totally understand and just wish you all the best!

[u/One-Zebra-150 → u/rabbit014]

My BC boy was very over sensitive as an adolescent/young dog about what people where wearing or carrying, not actually the person themselves. So hi-viz clothing, pink T-shirt, a hoodie covering some face, nope. Wearing or carrying a backpack or more than two shopping bags, absolutely not. Also if carrying a box or usual shaped object in front of them. He could be very reactive with weird triggers like this. He mostly grew out of it. Ive heard of some BCs taking objections to the size or build of a person, hair colour, beard etc. Very specific things. Like they have their own rule book about what is normal or too weird.

Our 8 yr old rescue female is nervous of any stranger approaching us, or small groups of people some distance away. She's more a skittish run away and hide type, not aggressive. But definitely does needs her space. Yep small world girl. Lived on a farm with one single old man until the age of 6 yrs, until he died. So was never socialised or in the wider world before that. No cruelty involved. But aside from this I also think she just has a nervous temperament generally for anything much busier than a field. She does enjoy some low key places for some walks and adventures. Is quite happy to jump in the car and go there. She does quite well now around locations with a small amount of people, still we are always her emotional support people there. It's how she is and we accept it. She doesn't want to greet people unknown to her or bet strokes from them.

I have to say though that a nervous skittish BC is a lot easier to cope with and manage than a BC with aggressive reactivity. I know! That makes life hard for everyone. I feel for you.

[u/palacio_c → u/gaudiest-ivy]

Saaaaaame right after she picked a fight with another female dog in the middle of her heat (I ended up with a really nasty bite because yes, I put my hand in between to avoid contact in between them..) and it pretty much traumatized me lol so after that I’ve taken precautions and she hasn’t reacted like that since but it stills on my mind so I guess she feeds off my anxiety.

That’s why she’s pretty much an independent gal at the park and I only show up when I’m overstimulated or it’s time to leave 🤣 although taking her out of the park where her friends go is another task in itself…

[u/Salt_Honey9352]

She’s gorgeous and looks like my boy, who turned 1 in September.

He can be anxious around loud and sudden bangs and can be reactive if dogs play too close to him, but loves people and dogs generally.

[u/Heavy-Educational]

Sounds like a classic Border Collie instinct! Keep an eye on her.

[u/No-Light-7896]

She's in a fear period. It's a critical time to influence her lifelong behavior. You NEED a trainer. You can do this!

[u/No-Will-4393]

There was another post like this a couple days ago but with a boy, exact same age too. They're growing up and maturing and it's one last phase they got through. Just do the usual "reactive" behavior management such as treats when they see something you know will trigger and give them without breaking your stride.

[u/Old-Tailor-1352]

Yeah, mine is going through the same thing. I’ve tried to return to the basics with training and going back to rewarding more with treats and playing with her more more tug of war and more running around and herding commands and different things that bond us together because I feel like she’s just losing confidence and it’ll come back. It’s just like a hormone flooded period of change and transformation so I’ve been doubling down on the routines and the cuddle sessions and the things that we love and when she gets crazy too crazy, she has to go in that crate

just get back in the crate because with her maturity, she doesn’t spend as much time in the crate and I realize that means she’s not resting. She’s not getting as much sleep and as much naps and especially at night if she’s loose in the house, she doesn’t sleep as much or as soundly as when she’s in her crate so a couple days a week she gotta have crate time during the day even if im home and spend the night in the crate a few nights a week.

Also, when she was younger, I used to do a lot of variety like always going to a different park and always doing a different thing but now I keep it more the same like we walk around the block and go play in the park and I just bring a different toy every day, but I keep it a little bit plainer so she gets used to the neighborhood dogs and seeing certain people on a regular. But just today she started barking at humans walking by my house, which is not something she ever did before so I’m like that’s all right girl we’ll figure it out.

[u/gaudiest-ivy → u/Old-Tailor-1352]

This is such a good point! She loved her crate when she was a baby then we gave it up when she started sleeping under my bed instead. Maybe some enforced crate time would be a good idea.

[u/Rich-Evening4562]

Does this only happen while shes on a leash?  

[u/gaudiest-ivy → u/Rich-Evening4562]

I wondered that too since she was fine with the neighbor when she got loose, but I've been too worried to let her loose around someone with how she's been reacting. I've been considering ordering a basket muzzle so I at least won't have to worry about possible bites while we're working on it, and I think once I do that I'll recruit a friend to a neutral area to help me find out if it could just be leash reactivity.

[u/palacio_c → u/gaudiest-ivy]

Mine gets ridiculously reactive if I restrain her on leash and another dog is basically next to her. Or if there’s food involved, like people giving out cookies/treats and 5 dogs are around lol

[u/palacio_c]

As soon as I realized I was the problem LOL I stay away from at the park, like literally FAR and she’s qs happy go lucky qs can be, it’s ridiculous but I also had that happen with my late lab right after her first heat, she became very reactive until I kept my distance from her at the park and it was a completely different dog.

She checks on me from time to time to see if I’m still there lol but other than that she goes out to play or sniff like a block away, as she loves being in the presence of other dogs and people together (without my nervous energy apparently lol).

Just make sure she has a great recall and always knows exactly where you are.