New member

welcome to the forum!!!
my sheltie, Ruckus used to be highly aggressive... to the point where we were all thinking about getting him put down. however after many test and a few vets we were told he had a chemical imbalance in his brain. He is on anti anxiety meds and has been doing awesome for 8 months now.
 
Thank you everyone.

I will post their pictures in the next few days.

Kobe is very friendly to us at home, very loving dog.
He is so gentle and never aggressive toward us.
Even during meal time I can put my hand in his bowl.
Always likes a cuddle, fetches ball and play chase with Bailey.

Outside our house is a different story. He is always on guard.
He lunges at other dogs when they are too close so I always keep our distance. Once a dog approached us and Kobe when ballistic and I blocked him with my leg. He ripped my jeans but fortunately only scratched my leg.
I don't think he realised he bit me. He panicked.
When he is anxious around other dogs he won't even accept treats.
Once I met a lady in a park that used to breed Shelties and she said she has never seen a Sheltie as aggressive as Kobe.:(
Somehow Kobe was very friendly to her Sheltie.

I wish I knew what happened to him in the first 8 months of his life.

I read a lot of books and talked to Sheltie breeders before we got him. Aggressive Sheltie was the last thing we worried about. We were concerned about getting a dog that was too timid.
One big mistake we did was to get a dog without seeing it and the parents in person. We took their words as they are a reputable breeder 3000 miles away from where we live. We emphasizied that a good temperament and good health were the most important things. Colour and size were not important.

From the first time I took him out I knew he was not well behave. I called the breeder and they said give him time to adjust. Also having him sterilized should help so Kobe had it 2 weeks later but didn't help. I am still not sure if they knew about his behaviour issues. Being a show dog amongst many others that they had, Kobe wouldn't have been walked in a park. They simply wouldn't have time.

I would have returned him straight away if I knew that it was going to be this difficult to change him. Now he is part of the family we couldn't let him go.

We live in hope.
 
We are glad that you joined! There are a lot of great people here with great information and training ideas. Hopefully someone will be able to give you some good advice for Kobe.
 
Hi Kobe

And welcome - there are lots of people here with great advice and many of us have dealt with similar issues.

I have a little female who I was told was extremely aggressive by a behaviourist. It turned out that it was fear - not outright aggession, so the initial recommendations given to me to deal with aggression made her worse. When I worked on the fear rather than focusing on the aggression, thats when I saw good results.

If you do a search on shy or timid on the forum you will come up with some good threads - but you might also want to start a new thread. I have seen and heard of other shelties fearful or anxious shelties so you arent alone. And I have found Tully has improved as she has gotten older.

With show dogs, sometimes they are not widely socialised outside their own pack or breed (even tho they may live with a lot of other dogs). On the positive side it may be just a matter of teaching him to accept dogs outside the pack. In the meantime have you tried walking him like he is 'working' in the ring he may slip into working mode and be more focused.

Good luck. We would love to see pics of both your dogs
 
Hi Caro,

Like Tully, Kobe also has fear-aggression issues not outright aggression.
It is obvious to me.
I think he is fearful that he will be attacked so he tries to attack first.

I'll start reading other people experiences.

Thank you.
 
Welcome, Kobe.

My 18 mo old male also comes across as being aggressive from time to time, particularly when he is on lead and a strange dog (to him) passes close by.

For example, at obedience class last night a pit bull came to the class for the first time. Snap focused beautifully on me during class, but as I was loading him into the car afterwards, the pit bull was walked behind us to its car. It was dark and I didn't anticipate the other dog. The lunging, posturing, and barking that came out of Snap was an embarrassment.

Yet it's pretty clear that when my dog is off lead at the beach, that he always defers to other dogs, curls his body around in a friendly gesture, etc.
 
 
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