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.

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

It's hard to say if this is just rough playing versus aggression (and based on this description I'd lean towards play), but if you enroll her in an obedience training program your trainer will be able to tell and advise you on exactly what body language signals you need to be aware of.  You need to be able to stop her play at any point that you feel it's becoming inappropriate, and you don't want her to think that you are afraid.  The trainer will be able to help you with that too.

[BG and Gavin]

Can you describe the accidental biting of your daughter?

[Ling]

The incident happened when both my daughter and I sat playing with her. My daughter tried to pull her head over to kiss her (might be in a twisted position). She suddenly snapped my daughter on the eyelid (thank God, her eye is fine). It left a mark now.

[BG and Gavin]

For sure I would get a trainer involved ASAP.  Your daughter's handling of the dog may have not been correct, but the bite does not sound accidental to me.  The dog purposefully snapped at her to back her off.  I think you need to be very careful here.  I would not leave the dog with your daughter unsupervised for fear a similiar thing may happen.

[Ling]

Thanks. I did keep an eye when they playing now. Ginger (my doodle) consider my daughter a lower rank in the pack. She was scared of the dog when I brought 2-month-old puppy in. Now she is fond of our dog but still shows weak when the dog bark at her.

[Adrianne Matzkin]

When my doodles play it sounds like they are killing each other. Barking, snarling, growling, wrestling as they stand on their back legs - scary picture. This is how they play. The sounds and visual who don't know them are pretty scary. I had our trainer/friend watch this play because it scared me. She watched all 3 doodles body language and confirmed they are playing. 

If that play was happening in a dog park with a dog I didn't know, I would be scared and think that they are truly fighting and could escalate to the danger zone. But since I can't see the body language, I think you were right to separate them. It could truly be play but you can't be too safe where our furkids are concerned.

I would sign her up for obedience classes where there are other dogs in the class where a professional trainer can evaluate the body language. I would make sure that before you pay for the class, they will have off leash play time where the trainer can see how she plays. This kind of class also is great for working with distractions so you can keep her focusing on you while you are out on a walk. 

[Ann Kurtzman]

My labradoodle had this type of aggressive thing happen too. He'll be 4 in March. Same type of behavior that you described. I took him to a canine behavior specialist at my local humane society. She took an hour evaluating him and watching his body language. It seems that when he encounters a male (particularly un-neutered) that is about his size or larger, he will start out playful  but he begins to get frightened and adopted the " the best defense is a good offence" approach. Scared the jeepers out of me when it was a huge American Bully that could have REALLY hurt him. She recommended Comfort Zone which is part of a pheromone therapy. THIS STUFF IS AMAZING!!!! Dudley is now wearing a pheromone collar too. When I leave the house, or there is a lot of activity (work done on house) I play special dog relaxing music that relaxes them with vibration tones of music. It has made a HUGE difference. Now the the edge is off his reactions (it takes them MUCH longer to detox from the anxiety hormones) the plan is to take him back to an organized obedience class so that it will re-enforce him paying attention to me in a controlled environment with the distraction of other dogs around.

[Ling]

Thank you so much for the advice. Now look back I believe this is the exact reason. The fearness is what Ginger got into when she played with similar dogs at her age. She was quite calm when a small dog barked at her, and always play friendly with smaller size dogs. I guess another reason is that she does not view me as a protective leader. She always sniffes around and then walks ahead of me.

I will try the Comfort Zone products. thanks again.

[Marianne *OZZY & ZOEY]

I agree with Adrianna - I have 2 doodles one is 85ls and the other is 20lbs.  They play very rough and it would seem like the small one is going to get hurt.  It is all play and I believe she is the more aggressive one (always the small ones that cause the trouble LOL)  she is grabbing onto Ozzy's ears and he runs with her hanging off of them, I have tried to stop this behavior but, they only do it with each other.  When the play with other dogs the play is not as ruff.  Thank God.  Good Luck