My Husky is aggressive towards small dogs

C
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Hi everyone!

I’m having a bit of a problem with Svenn, my 2-year-old Husky. He’s always been lovely and playful with people. He’s never shown any signs of aggression towards them, whether they're adults or children, no matter the situation.

With other dogs around his own size, let’s just say he can be a bit selective. He gets on well with all females. With males, he’s sometimes aggressive (more on the offensive in my opinion, he just growls a bit), sometimes playful, or more rarely, he’s just not interested in a greeting.

The problem, however, is small dogs.

When I come across one, whether it’s on a lead or not, Svenn becomes uncontrollable. He growls really loudly and looks like he wants to kill them. He HATES small dogs.

Last time, he spotted a small dog while my girlfriend was holding him on his lead. He ran so fast and with so much power that she couldn't hold onto him, and because of the tension, she ended up dropping the lead. My dog then attacked the small dog very violently, even though the little one hadn't even barked. It ended up with injuries and puncture wounds all over its body and had to go to the vet for observation.

I think this behaviour is partly explained by the fact that he’s had quite a lot of trouble with small dogs since he was a puppy. He’s been attacked four times by yappy little dogs.

These reactions are still very worrying though, and I wouldn’t want my dog to become ultra-aggressive and antisocial with other dogs just because of a few bad encounters.

I’m going to book an appointment with a behaviourist and I’ve already started putting a muzzle on him while we wait to address this bad behaviour.

In the meantime, does anyone have any advice or things I could look into to find a solution to my problem? Has anyone else been in this situation and how did they resolve the issue?

Thanks in advance for your replies! :)

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    • Sky
    sky Icon representing the flag French
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    (2/2)

    Just to give an example, as it seems quite relevant: back when I was in Belgium, a colleague of mine had the "red vehicle curse" (true story). Every time he owned a red car or motorbike, he ended up in an accident. Since he loved red vehicles, he had plenty of time to "perfect" his curse...

    (Personally, I’ve had the "earphone curse" since secondary school: I can never get them to last, it drives me absolutely mad! X'D)

    Does that mean all red vehicles are going to cause accidents? That we should ban red cars and motorbikes for the safety of everyone else on the road?

    -> No, but it's his experience, what he's lived through. It's left him feeling apprehensive about owning a red vehicle, and just because people might say to him (as they often did), "Don't be ridiculous, stop being so dramatic, it’s not the colour of the car that causes accidents, it’s the person behind the wheel," it doesn’t change the number of accidents he actually had in red vehicles, nor how he feels about them... Whether it seems rational or not, it doesn’t stop it from being real, and there’s nothing to be done about it: that’s just how it is, end of story.

    So, even if the rest of us aren't afraid of red vehicles or Huskies, that doesn't give us the right to question their experience or criticise their feelings, which are deeply personal—and presented here by @Docline as exactly that: personal.

    There are some things you just can't control...

    As for the rest, I agree: not all Huskies are small dog killers, just like they aren't all super athletic or incredibly stubborn, etc. (I "lived" with a Husky who was a total lazybones and very well-behaved... except when cats or birds were around, especially ducks! ^^')

    But you can't deny that a Husky with a high prey drive and past bad experiences with other dogs is CAPABLE of doing some real damage to a small dog if the mood takes them, and we should do our best to avoid that whenever possible... 😔

    Anyway, I'll let you get back to giving advice now and I'll carry on reading. ^^

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    Sky
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    (1/2)

    So stop with all your rubbish and delusions about Huskies.

    @Patou and @Paolotakini, I haven't finished reading through everything yet, but I think you're being really harsh and unfair here: how can you call someone's lived experience 'delusional' or 'rubbish'?! Especially you, Patou – you should understand this better than anyone, considering "everyone" does the exact same thing to you and your own experiences, whether it's with Northern breeds or Neige! How can you do to others exactly what you hate having done to you... 😐

    -> She didn't say "EVERY single Husky IN THE WHOLE WIDE WORLD without exception = general rule". What she said was "FOR ME, from MY OWN EXPERIENCE, every small dog I'VE heard of was killed by a Husky" => that doesn't mean every Husky is going to kill every small dog they see; maybe all the small-dog-killing Huskies have just moved into Docline's neighbourhood, but if that's what she's lived through, you can't just dismiss it (who are you in her life to say she's making it up or that it's not real? Were you actually there?) or judge her like that! :/

    If her experience with Huskies has been so negative that she's developed an aversion to them, even if we don't agree, her experience and feelings deserve to be respected (I don't have that experience or feeling about Huskies myself – I actually really like them – but I know these things can happen, just as they do with other dogs; it's just that for her, the percentage of those dogs being Huskies is higher than it is for us. If that's the way it is, then that's that. Simple as that).

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    Docline
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    Docline, I don’t know where this obsession with Huskies comes from... Every time a post mentions a Husky, you start rambling on with your stories....... So stop with all the nonsense and your delusions about Huskies.
    It’s funny how complete strangers feel personally attacked whenever someone mentions a trait of the dog breed they own... Personally, if someone tells someone else that Australian Shepherds have certain flaws, I don’t feel the need to lash out at them!!!
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    C
    Caroline-eg Icon representing the flag French
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    Personally, I’m going to be blunt. I reckon a lot of owners just look for excuses because it makes them feel better. When you take in a rescue off the streets, you don’t overthink things like that. My girl used to be a bit nervous—it’s getting better every day—around dogs larger than her. She doesn't bark, but up until about 6 months ago she’d have her tail between her legs; nowadays she just ignores them and stands behind Iago. Her past? The cause? I’ve no idea. Was it big dogs that were the problem? I don’t know. Did that stop me from showing her the world, training her, and socialising her? No. Even though she was attacked several times by a shepherd cross weighing about 4 or 5 stone, I didn’t just sit there blaming everyone else. Because at the end of the day, what does that change? Absolutely nothing. I decided to stop going to the dog park and just left it at that; she’s seen dogs in other settings now, her behaviour is improving every day, and she’s gaining confidence. With Iago, I knew where it came from. Repeated attacks by one dog and then another before he was a year old, over things like food and toys. So yeah, that is traumatising. But was the problem the dogs that attacked mine? No—at least not beyond the heat of the moment. The problem was me. Dogs will have bad experiences throughout their lives. Our job as owners is to know how to bounce back and make sure we don't generalise those bad experiences. I didn't know how to bounce back after those bad experiences, and that was entirely my fault. I only sorted it out two years later after a real wake-up call. I finally got a grip when someone told me, "Yeah, he’s had some bad experiences, but this behaviour is down to you"—and they weren't wrong. Until you admit that, you can't move forward. Like I said, what will the owner of a Pomeranian say when they see their dog get bitten? They’ll say it’s the fault of big dogs or Huskies, and you’ll keep telling yourselves it’s the small dogs' fault, even though it was your dog that was the aggressor. And owners of small dogs who see their pet get attacked by a bigger one will say it’s the big dog's fault. That's not how you make progress.
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    ?
    Anonymous user Icon representing the flag French
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    A small dog shouldn’t be barking at other dogs, regardless of their size. If they’ve been properly socialised and trained, the most they’ll do is give a few yaps to invite play, but that’s it. The owner needs to show the dog that they can be trusted to protect them (by stepping in, for example). Once they know that, they’ll leave the job to their owner and won’t do anything more than hide behind them if they meet a dog that scares them.
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    J
    Jazz17 Icon representing the flag French
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    Our posts crossed paths there, Leica! I was talking about how huskies' needs are often overlooked, and so on.

    It’s also true that small dogs can feel quite threatened by bigger ones and might bark because they’re expecting a bit of a scrap!

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    J
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    Leica, I think you’re absolutely right: the needs of this breed are indeed often overlooked, and that’s how we end up with accidents like this one...

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    ?
    Anonymous user Icon representing the flag French
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    I’m not generalising, but apart from two big dogs that clearly had it in for mine, all the poorly trained or even totally untrained dogs (the aggressive ones that yap non-stop but don't pose any real danger) were small dogs. Yorkies, Chihuahuas and Jack Russells.

    It’s just an observation, I’m not pointing fingers at anyone 😁

    I’ve got a Papillon myself, but she just plays with everyone, both dogs and humans.

    It’s all down to socialisation and training, and a poorly trained small dog will do less damage to others than a large one, which is why so many small dog owners can’t be bothered to train their little monsters 😏

    And then they end up with a snappy little dog that yaps all the time.

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    J
    Jazz17 Icon representing the flag French
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    I’ve read the post thoroughly and your comment doesn’t add anything to the discussion, as we don’t know the exact cause of this attack.
    Translated from French
    ?
    Anonymous user Icon representing the flag French
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    Jazz17... read the post again... you’ll notice the issue is that his ‘bloodthirsty’ husky was actually attacked by some ‘well-behaved’ little dogs....

    Translated from French

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