Obcessive Behavior

Question
My 1.5 year old female boxer has developed a behavior at the dog park of circling smaller dogs and taunting them and yapping incessantly at them.   This has become an obcession to her and she has even done it to a lady that had  such a dog.   It is never angry, but it does have an agressive feel to it.   It is getting worse and worse.  I want to break this behavior, so you have suggestions?  Thank you.

Answer
Hi Chad,

This may be normal Boxer behavior, an invitation to play, but not all dogs will react to it as such.  Start with teaching her a solid recall so that if she does start that behavior, you can call her away.  You may need to keep her on-leash for meeting smaller dogs, and avoid the dog park, until her recall is consistent.  Don't call her to you and immediately leave the situation - that will teach her that coming to you is a Bad Thing, the end of play.  Instead, call her to you, have her do a few "Doggie Push-Ups" (a cycle of sit-down-stand-down-sit, random numbers and order) or some other trick, and then send her back out.  If she goes back to circling and yapping, call her again and do a short sit-stay or down-stay (one to two minutes), then send her back out.  If she does it a third time, then it's time to leave the park.  She'll soon learn that "circling and yapping" means the fun ends.  

Here are some articles about teaching a recall:
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002/recall.htm
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002b/recall.htm
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2002b/magicrecall.htm

You can also work on teaching her "Leave It", which will discourage her from approaching the small dogs at all:
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001/leaveit.htm
http://www.clickersolutions.com/articles/2001b/leaveit.htm

Good luck!