my 10-month-old golden doodle start having aggressive fighting with other same age dog...

[Ling]

My 10-month-old doodle is always very sweet to people. I usually take her for a walk twice a day, and go to dog parks once every two or three days. Most of the time she behaves nicely, though on some occasions she drags me to chase a squirrel, sniffs around instead of following my steps, or bites the leash. But recently I have noticed she has started to pick fights with other dogs. She likes to play with the dogs that are her age. They would play happily initially. But after a little while, she suddenly becomes dangerously aggressive to the point where I am even scared to stop her. This has happened several times. She shows submissiveness (laying down with her stomach up) when she meets older dogs. It seems the problem only happens when she plays with same age dogs. Now I am nervous to bring her to dog parks.

one more thing, she also bit my 10-year-old daughter once though it was accidental.

What should I do? any suggestion will be appreciated. thanks.

[Lynn D.]

Have you done any formal training with her? What commands does she know?

[Ling]

I am thinking of enroll her in training class now. I thought I could do it myself, but it seems I did a poor job.

she understands most of command like sit, paw, down, stay, eat. Some commands (such as come, drop it) she follows when I have a treat. she also understands and listens to me when I say "get off", "go", "run", "stop".

[F, Calla & Luca]

Yes, this is vital.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Has she been spayed?

[Ling]

yes, she has been spayed when she was 5 months old.

She had one ear infected about one month ago (and I did not realize it until last week). She was cured a week ago. But today again she behaved nastily towards a one year old dog who was playing fetch with his owner.

[Jen and Annie]

I don't know if this is the case with your dog, but I was actually concerned about my puppy because she wouldn't engage in rough play with other dogs.  Every dog I have ever had, has played very rough - and I just wonder if that is what you are seeing with your dog.  Some dogs will snarl and growl, and it really sounds like they are being mean or aggressive, but they are playing.  A few years ago, I had two dogs who's play sounded like they were killing each other every day, and they played like this all the time, to the point that I couldn't talk on the phone during their play sessions - the growling was that loud.  There was never any blood drawn, and they both actually really enjoyed playing with each other this way. 

My puppy now prefers to 'chase' or play 'keep away' as opposed to wrestling and biting, but I learned a lot about dog play styles in my last question on the forum :) . The dogs body language will be a good indicator of whether she is playing or being aggressive.  When I take Annie to the dog park, I always watch both dogs body language when they meet, because this is when I have seen true aggression - on the introduction to the other dog.  If the tail stands straight up and wags quickly - the body goes very stiff, and shortly after is usually an awful snap.  Well I take those signals as a hint, and me and Annie find another dog to meet before it escalates... Not all dogs give these signals before true aggression, but most do... I think there are dog whisperer episodes where he points out these type of body language indicators..

[Ling]

Thanks for the advice. I think she was relaxed and waged her tail not that quickly when initially meeting other dogs. Then the fighting causing both me and other owners worried and we have to stop them.

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

Tail wagging does not always indicate friendliness. A tail held high and wagging slowly and stiffly can indicate tension and impending aggression.

[Jen and Annie]

I was at petco one time and this woman's german shepherd was trying to lunge at me and my boxer, while he was barking, growling and wagging his tail, straight up in the air.  He had this exact posture, and the owner's like "he's wagging his tail - he's so happy - he just wants to say hi" - My boxer knew better and dragged me the heck outta there.

[Ling]

Thanks for sharing the story. I will monitor her body languages though it is a little bit difficult since she has long fur.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

I would say you definitely need to enroll your Doodle in an obedience training class or hire a proven trainer to work with you privately.  I really thing getting her to respect you and listen to commands is the first step.  When she becomes "dangerously aggressive" what exactly does she do...has she  bitter any other dogs?

[Ling]

Yes, I will definitely start with training session. During the fight, she try to bite/snap on other dog or crash other dogs down. They make big noises and sounds intensive. There is usually no growling, otherwise I will stop in the beginning. She seems in a winning position in more than half of cases even towards the dog a few months older than her. The times I am not worried is when other dogs are large than her (she is 60 lb now). So far I have not heard other dogs' yelp, but I am afraid one day she will either truly bite or being bitten.