aggresion

Question
Hi, i have a 5 month old lab, he has always shown certain forms of aggresion from when he came to us. when he does not get his way he growls and barks at us, even playing with his toys he will growl at it and bite it and shake it around. he tries to take advantage of my mother most of the time by jumping on her, and growling at her. we used to take him to the park to play with other dogs, he loves to play with them, running around and jumping and nipping at them, i called a behaviourist who said that the park was the problem because he is playing aggresively with other dogs and he was coming home and playing with us the same way. He told me to stop him from meeting other dogs. i dont know what to do, my dog loves to play with other dogs, he is always wagging his tail and running around with them., please help

Answer
Hi Saahil,

To me, this is a great example of why and when an in home evaluation is appropriate. Not a phone call assessment. It could be something and it could be nothing. But without actually seeing it, it's not correct to generalize on the phone or in an e-mail.

My suggestion would be to split the difference and take him to a group class so he can learn control around other dogs and some manners at the same time.

Observe an ongoing class first to make sure that it is not just a dog park with leashes. In other words, is there structure to the class and focus on specific cues? Is the class size appropriate to the staff conducting it-I like 8 teams? Are they using positive methods? Food luring, clicker = good signs. 5 months old pups all wearing prong collars = not so good. Most importantly do dog and owner appear to be enjoying the class and actually learning something?