BEHAVIOUR

SCARED OF BIG DOGS

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Q Our small Cockerpoo is nearly four years old. She has always been very friendly towards people, but a little more wary around other dogs. Recently, however, she has started to show aggression towards bigger dogs, even though they do not appear to be threatening in any way. This is not like her, and we cannot think of any specific incident that might have triggered the behaviour. What should we do?

Mary Martin, Cumbria.

Little dogs will sometimes use aggression to get larger dogs to move away.

Tamsin says: Firstly, if your dog is showing aggression I would suggest trying to avoid her seeing or being in close proximity to bigger dogs for the time being, and instead reward her for relaxed behaviour from a distance. For some reason she is finding being near to bigger dogs scary, and likely responding through aggressive behaviour to defend herself and get them to move away.