Dalmatian

Question
I have a 1 year old Dalmatian male and most times when out a walk with him he shows bad aggression to other dogs (particularly males), when taken a walk with other dogs though he is fine and often wants to play with them. i have tried to not tense up when another dog approaches but it makes no difference. i'm not sure how i can stop him doing this or why he does it, it's so sad when he's great with all people, cats and kids. any suggestions would be great.

Answer
Hi Gregor,

This is an instance where I know as a dog trainer it would be *very* important to see the behaviour in order to evaluate what's really going on with your dog and offer any comments or suggestions.  I don't feel it would be wise to give you advice on something you're currently labelling as "bad aggression" without having seen it myself and evaluated it.  I don't know where you're located, but I would suggest that you hire a trainer with a good amount of behaviour experience to evaluate what's going on with your Dalmation and who uses positive and constructional shaping techniques, and work with that person to help you with your dog.  Sometimes what owners think is aggression is not aggression at all; and sometimes what owners think is not aggression, is, well, aggression!  Again, it's a call I can't make based on a short description alone, and thus can't comment further.

So, my suggestion is to work with a good, qualified (as in: college educated in an animal related or psychology field) trainer with lots of hands-on behaviour experience working with dogs.

Best of luck!

Madeline, Volunteer at AllExperts
www.ny-njDogTrainer.com