Max and Mike

Question
Hello,
I have two dogs, Max and Mike,they're brothers. They are lab/pointer mixes. I have had them for about 5 months and they are about a year and a half old, neutered. They get along great, they eat together, sleep together they even fetch the same ball. Max is mister "happy go lucky", he gets along with everybody, he never meets a stranger, human or dog, it doesn't matter... Mike is very sweet, with people, he gives lots of kisses and LOVES to play fetch he's never met a human stranger. Max is his BEST friend.

(awful guard dogs, they would lick a burglar to death)

Recently, we took Max and Mike over to my fiancee's parents to meet their two labradors. Max, as I said before is perfectly fine with them but Mike is another story. All he wanted to do was go after the other dogs. He was drooling, growling, shaking all over. He was really freaking out. It kind of shocked me because we had taken them both to pet smart once before and he got along fine with the other pets there.

It is because pet smart is "neutral" ground?
Maybe because my fiancee's parents house is their dog's territory?
What can we do to fix the problem and what do you think  could be causing it?


Thanks so much,
Rachele


Answer
Hello Rachele,

It sounds like two things going on with Mike. First, it appears that he's the dominant dog and despite your experience with Pet Smart, he hasn't really been socialized to interact with other dogs. Secondly, at 1 and 1/2 years old, little Mikey is now on the cusp of manhood and ready to protect his pack.

The solution would be to work on socializing Mike before he gets older and more set in his ways. Arrange dates with your  dogs and the labs on neutral ground where you can all walk your dogs together. Go slowly, and introduce Mike to different dogs.

Finally, as pack leader, you control all behavior. Brush up on your Alpha behavior and make very clear through appropriate corrections that you are in charge of pack protection and that Mike's aggression will not be tolerated.

Good Luck!

Sandy