Advice Please: Dog Loves Humans, Dislikes Other Dogs

[Guest budgiemom]

Hi All,

 

My posts here have been minimal and infrequent, but I have learned a lot from this forum as a greyhound owner, so I'm hoping to get some insights on this issue.

 

My husband and I have had our greyhound, Jack for four years. He is eight years old. He is the most lovable, sweet dog with humans. He loves getting affection from people and is a big-time leaner. We do meet and greets for our adoption group at our local pet store on a monthly basis, and he charms so many people at those events by approaching every person that walks by in a gentle manner, and then leaning on them once they start petting him. He loves children too.

People in general absolutely love him, and he LOVES people of all sizes, ages. etc.. I really cannot stress that fact enough...he is a people-loving dog and extremely sweet and loving with every human he has ever met.

 

However...

 

He has no use for other dogs. He is our only dog. His foster mom said that he lived peaceably in his foster home with her other hounds, and I have no doubt that that's true, as when he's indoors with any other dog for an extended period of time, he seems to get over any initial annoyance he has with them and then settle in and accept that the dog is part of his pack for however long he is around them, and basically ignores the other dog (unless the dog continually bothers him by getting on his bed, taking his toys, etc...but on the rare occasion that that has happened, we have intervened with the other dog to stop doing that). The simplest way that I can think of to describe this is giving examples of his interactions with other types of dogs:

 

other greyhounds: He had consistently easygoing, fine interactions with other greys that we'd bump into for the first three years that we had him. When he'd see one, he'd seem to realize right away that they were his breed (e.g. at a very crowded fourth of July town event, he spotted one through the hundreds of people and dogs and went right to it to sniff and greet). They sniff each others' rears, and then leave each other alone, etc. Within the last year at meet-and-greets, we've met a few other greys, and he has continued to have okay interactions with most of them; but he has barked at a couple of them upon first meeting them, even though the other dog didn't appear to do anything out of the ordinary...but then he seems okay with them after that.

 

most mellow non-greys: For the first few years, he did fine with these types - they sniff each other upon meeting, then basically ignore each other as the humans talk to each other, interact with each others' dogs, or whatever ensues next. Lately, he seems to express some annoyance upon first meeting them - maybe barks or growls at them once when they first meet, but then upon spending more time with them, he does fine.

With mellow dogs that he has been familiar with for more than a couple years (e.g. my in-laws' Pomeranian that he has spent time with while being dogsat by them, a small mellow dog in the neighborhood, one neighborhood lab that is the most mellow lab I've ever known in my life and has always approached him calmly), he consistently greets them with a bum-sniff and acts totally calm and fine with them.

 

high-energy dogs: Jack does terribly with these types. As soon as he sees one anywhere in his vicinity that is just "wiggly," pulling on the leash, or playing - whether they are just walking through the neighborhood on the other side of the street, at a distance when we're in the pet store, or actually trying to approach him - he barks at them. It seems like he's trying to be the "fun police," like yelling at them to "knock it off" or correct their behavior - though I could be totally off on that assessment. For the first two years or so that we had him, he would only react like this if the dog approached him all jumpy and/or trying to sniff his face (that is a definite trigger to a growl/snap from him); at first he would try to sniff their bottom, but then when the other dog started to try to sniff his face, I'd see him freeze totally still, and soon learned that that was a warning sign that he was about to growl/snap...so we'd just avoid any approaching between Jack and high-energy dogs. But within the past couple of years, he seems to have become perturbed with a dog being jumpy, leash-pulling, playing with another dog, or generally acting in a "high-energy" manner anywhere within his sight. As soon as he sees that, he barks.

 

dogs that "bark first": Jack usually barks back at these dogs upon first meeting them, but then seems to be fine with them, as long as the other dog is fine. It's like they established some kind of understanding with each other (???). There is one particular neighborhood Labradoodle that runs out at us, barking crazily, nearly every time we walk by his house. The first time this ever happened four years ago, I pulled Jack behind me, he growled, we were freaking out, but then the Labradoodle stopped a foot from us and retreated quietly. Since learning that this was this Labradoodle's "all bark and no bite" type of habit, I don't react at all other than maybe saying "Hi Gus," and Jack just sniffs the Labradoodle when he runs out at him barking bloody murder, and then just keeps walking with me. So weird.

Another small neighborhood dog (Jack Russell mix?) does that too, but really means it (once tried to bite Jack when he got close!), and does not back down when he gets close. Jack could totally eat this little guy, so I stand in front of Jack and yell "HEY" at the little JR mix when he runs toward us and he usually retreats and we just keep walking. Every time, Jack just looks at him like "What's your deal, dude?" and really no other reaction, and we just continue walking.

 

one particular very mellow neighborhood Portuguese Water Dog: Jack FLIPS OUT whenever this dog is being walked by us. I have no idea why he hates this dog so much, but his reaction to this particular dog today is what prompted me to finally reach out here and seek advice. We've lived in this neighborhood for three years and this dog has been here since before we moved in. When they first met each other, the PWD was off-leash and approached us on our walk. Although he approached us in a calm manner, Jack growled and snapped at him. For a few years after this, Jack would bark at him whenever he was within sight, whether the PWD was being walked on-leash near us or out loose in the neighborhood walking around. The PWD learned after the first time to not approach us. Within the last year, however, Jack has begun to totally flip out beyond just barking when this dog is anywhere in his sight. He starts barking, then lunges and jumps around while barking. Today he was lunging and barking so emphatically that he was pulling my arm/body around so hard that for the first time ever, I almost felt I was losing physical control over him on the leash. The PWD reacts by just staring at Jack - doesn't bark, doesn't try to retaliate, doesn't retreat - he kinda just looks at Jack like, "Wow, you're a nut."

The only possible reason I can think of for Jack's reaction to him is that when we first moved into the neighborhood, the PWD was loose a lot, and definitely peed in our yard a few times; so maybe that made Jack territorial toward him - but that still doesn't completely make sense, as unfortunately, a lot of our neighbors let their dogs run loose, so there are probably numerous other dogs that have made their mark in our yard and Jack doesn't react quite the same way toward them if they're just walking by and not approaching, etc.

The other thing I thought of is maybe the totally unfazed reaction of the PWD is aggravating Jack.

Beyond that, I got nothin.

 

How I react:

- If the dog is approaching Jack in a high-energy way, jumping all over him, trying to sniff his face, etc., and Jack growls/snaps, I perceive that as an appropriate warning to "leave me alone" and I just pull him away/remove him from the situation. If I can prevent the interaction from happening ahead of time, I try to do so by walking him to a different area, etc...though often this still results in a bark from him toward the other dog, because as I mentioned before, he now seems to bark at high-energy dogs whether the dog is approaching him/near him or not.

 

- If the dog is acting in a high-energy manner but is not approaching Jack (e.g. if they're being walked by us and pulling on the leash, or playing/wrestling with another dog in their yard, etc.) and he starts barking at them, I give the leash a tug and say no; sometimes, he stops barking at them and continues on the walk - but sometimes he doesn't, and keeps barking and getting more and more agitated. If that's the case, I put him into a "settle hold" as taught to me in our Basic Pet class (just doing this since that what was taught to us in class, and it does seem to help him calm down/stop behavior at that moment - feel free to comment on this tactic though): I stand over him so that my legs are on either side of him, put my hands underneath him and woven together immediately behind his front legs and lift the front of his body up, while saying "settle." He stops barking immediately when I do this, and I'm able to feel his heart rate decelerate as we're in this hold. Depending upon how agitated he is, I may hold him there for just a few seconds or for longer. Today, I held him there for longer, and when I put him down, he started barking again immediately, so I put him in the hold a second, longer period of time, and he calmed down some more. When I put him back down, he didn't bark, but was definitely still looking in the direction of where the PWD had been, but I just kept moving forward and saying "with me" when I needed to (when in an unagitated state of mind, he responds to this by walking alongside me - also trained to do this in the Basic Pet class I mentioned), accompanied by a leash tug as needed.

 

- Occasionally, Jack starts doing a "stalking" type of walk when he sees a dog he historically has not liked walking by (this is very occasionally - did it yesterday when the lab across the street was being walked on the other side of the street from us; this lab is very rarely walked on the street - usually barks at us from his Invisible Fenced driveway when we walk by him, Jack barks back, and we continue on our merry way), then barks, growls, or at the very least does a weird snorting typ of sound when we walk past. When I see the stalking walk start, I tug the leash and say "with me" to try to get him to focus on walking near me vs. focusing on the dog...but it doesn't help. Like I said, the "stalking" type of walk rarely happens, but it is usually an indicator that he's going to bark or trying to lunge at the dog when we walk by it, so I try to correct it beforehand. So far nothing seems to snap him out of that, so suggestions are welcomed.

 

We took the Basic Pet class two years ago when we noticed his difficulty with other dogs starting to increase. We thought maybe the socialization with other dogs would help. It was pretty funny, because most of the other dogs in the class were recent graduates of the Puppy Kindergarten level class, and Jack was six at the time and wouldn't even sit on command. :-) He did learn to sit, stay, down, "with me," and come in this class, so it was really worth doing. And although he was very snippy with the other dogs in the first two classes, he did fine with them after that.

 

My thought is, maybe I should have a dog behaviorist/trainer come do a private session with us in our neighborhood. I could maybe try to arrange something with the PWD's owner so that they could walk him by us, or something, so that the trainer could see the behavior and try things, etc. The pattern I see is that Jack's difficulty has increased the longer that he has been an "only dog" and the older he has gotten, so I'm not sure if it makes sense to try to improve the behavior by increasing exposure, or just to avoid those situations altogether. I work with a lot of behaviorally-challenged kids, so I'm always thinking about this stuff in terms of Antecedent-Behavior-Consequence...do I modify the antecedent so that we decrease the chances of provoking this behavior, or do we change the consequences? I'd rather do the latter, as it's not realistic that we won't continue to bump into other dogs, and I don't want to have him be a "hermit" because he loves people so much...and where there are people, there are often dogs. I want him to be able to cope with life, basically! :-)

 

The other pattern I see is that Jack's behavior toward the PWD has been a step beyond his behavior toward other dogs over the years, and I don't want his behavior toward ALL dogs to eventually get like it is with the PWD now.

 

Okay, I just read this over and realized that it's insanely long - so I'm really sorry for that! I find it really tricky to put dog behavior into words, it's just so complex, and just wanted to make sure I gave all of the info I could.

Hopefully somebody made it through all this verbal diarrhea and can give some type of insight.

 

Thanks so much!!!

Edited July 20, 2012 by budgiemom

[NeylasMom]

I'm going to be completely honest and admit that I stopped reading around "high energy" dogs as I think I have the idea. I suspect that over the years, he's had greetings with these particular dogs that have been negative and he's starting to generalize/become more reactive as a result. Basically, high energy can easily translate into rude. Add in improper leash handling by the humans and there's a lot of potential for leash greetings to go wrong.

 

Ideal greeting is a brief nose to nose sniff, followed by each moving to the back end. As they do this, they tend to circle slowly, then it's over. Greetings shouldn't be prolonged. Unfortunately what happens is owners tend to hold the leashes short, meaning the nose to nose greeting is prolonged. Add in an excitable dog who starts jumping up in the other dogs face or climbing on him, or leashes that get tangled as they try to move to the next stage of the greeting and you have the potential for disaster.

 

This is exactly what happened with Zuri. We now limit leash greetings ONLY to the VERY FEW dogs that are clearly calm and VERY well socialized and only when I know I can let them meet one on one and not tangle up the leashes. The greeting is allowed to go on for a few seconds only, then I call him away (I cannot pull as he has associated me pulling on the leash with scary dog greetings and will react) and then he is immediately rewarding with lots of yummy treats. Any other time, we just move aside and I feed treats as the dogs go past (depending on whether he seems really eager to meet the other dog, because he always is to some extent, I may ask him to sit stay as they go by.

 

The simple solution - stop doing the greetings for the time being unless you are absolutely sure it will go well and otherwise keep him at a distance where you know he won't react (especially with the one particular dog) and feed a stream of tasty treats (use human food, not dog treats) until the dog is out of sight/he's no longer paying attention to it. It's a simple exercise that teaches him to associate other dogs with good things (food) and will thereby change his feelings about the other dogs.

 

I hope that helps.

[Guest budgiemom]

Thanks, Neylasmom. I will try the treat thing and preventing the interactions that have a high likelihood of going negative.

Edited July 20, 2012 by budgiemom

[NeylasMom]

Oh, skimming over your other comments, I just want to add 2 things. One, I would not use any corrections, especially leash corrections. Your right that when he reacts to a dog jumping all over him, it's proper to do so. He's saying in the way dogs talk "I don't like that, please stop" (a less nice way would be to just bite them ). The barking at a distance is the same thing - I'm concerned you might be rude if we meet so please don't come over here. The problem is, if you correct him, you're adding more unpleasantness to an already unpleasant for him situation (when I see other dogs, bad things happen). He may also anticipate it (feel slight tension on the lead as you notice the dog) so you could be contributing to his anxiety.

 

Second, if you're willing to work with a behaviorist I think that's always a great idea. I would actually recommend you look for a reactive dog class taught with positive methods in your area first because then you get to work in real life situations with other dogs, but a private trainer would also be very helpful. Just look for a positive trainer - I recommend the IIABC site, which has a searchable by location database to find someone in your area with good understanding of dog behavior and interview the trainer over the phone first to be sure you're comfortable iwth his/her methods. Good luck.

[Brandiandwe]

I now have two reactive hounds and I've been working with treats. As soon as we see another dog, treats. If they give me any attention, treat. This only works as long as they stay under threshold, but having treats seems to work to keep them in a calmer place. It's slowly improving. Good luck.

[Guest budgiemom]

Neylasmom - I'm actually relieved to hear you suggest that I no longer use the leash-tug to correct behavior, as I never felt it actually worked with Jack anyway - but my husband insists it does work with him, even though I'm the one who does most of the dog-walking (I think he watched too much Dog Whisperer!). So it was great to be able to read your post to him so he could see that someone else also believes it's not the way to go with a greyhound.Thanks!

 

Brandiandwe - Thanks for sharing your experience/suggestions too!

Edited July 21, 2012 by budgiemom

[NeylasMom]

Neylasmom - I'm actually relieved to hear you suggest that I no longer use the leash-tug to correct behavior, as I never felt it actually worked with Jack anyway - but my husband insists it does work with him, even though I'm the one who does most of the dog-walking (I think he watched too much Dog Whisperer!). So it was great to be able to read your post to him so he could see that someone else also believes it's not the way to go with a greyhound.Thanks!

 

Brandiandwe - Thanks for sharing your experience/suggestions too!

Oh good. If it will help, give him my "credentials" so he doesn't think I'm just some weirdo on an internet forum. I'm not a dog trainer by profession, but I have gone through Pat Miller's intensive 3-day reactive dog class with my (now ex) boyfriend's reactive dog, I've taken Suzanne Clothier's seminar on working with fearful and reactive dogs, and took Emma Parson's seminar on how to teach a reactive dog class (along with tons of reading, obedience classes, other dog training seminars, working with aggressive fosters, etc.). By the way, highly recommend Emma Parson's book, Click to Calm. Doesn't sound like your pup's reactivity is severe enough to need everything in it, but it's a great guide for working with a reactive dog.

[christinepi]

My situation is very similar. I do the same thing as Brandiandwe, and yes, it only works when below threshold, so I start treating when Tracker has spotted another dog off in the distance, but is yet too far away for him to get worked up. I can often avert escalation with this, which is an improvement, but I don't see too much permanent change, meaning that without treats he'd go back to barking and pulling on the leash towards the "offender". But hey, it works with treats, so I'll keep doing that.

[NeylasMom]

The ideal distance for treating is when the dog is able to divide his attention between you and the other dog. Any closer and the dog will go over threshold, making learning impossible. Farther away and he won't associate the food with the dog. If the dog at the moment is more stimulating (barking, jumping, playing for instance, or of a breed or body type you know tends to set your dog off) you'll need to increase the distance (I also suggest in situations like this where it might be a bit more challenging for your dog to stay below threshold to not give just one treat at a time, but to feed a constant stream of food until the dog is out of sight). If you keep at it, his attitude will change, but yes, you'll always want to have treats on hand to reward periodically for good behavior.

[Guest Sunset123]

My dog is like this, too.

 

She loves greyhounds, greyhound mixes, and other sighthounds (even Italian Greyhounds). Large mellow dogs are fine. Medium-sized mellow dogs are usually fine.

 

Anything wiggly, bouncy, yippy, or (oddly enough) curly-haired: not okay! A dog is running around in a park or having too much fun: not okay!

 

Sometimes there will be a dog that I think *should* be fine, that she just decides is not tolerable. Maybe just some dog body-language thing that I'm not picking up on.

 

Last week I brought her to a dog park for the first time (our first mixed-breed off-leash experience), and there were about 8 dogs there, just walking around sniffing each other. Every dog was okay except for one punky husky puppy. Arrisa was okay with the puppy when the puppy was just walking and sniffing, but as soon as the puppy started running and waving that fluffy tail, Arrisa went into a combination of stalking mode and fun-police mode: I don't think she could decide whether she was dog or prey. I had to keep pulling her away from the puppy just in case, though.

[Guest Arielle]

I don't really have any advice, but something similar to this has been happening to me with my Ari. Ari likes other dogs and is normally fine with both on and off-leash greetings; the only time she has snapped at other dogs is if they have jumped on her or else growled or snapped at her first. I didn't get Ari from an adoption group and so don't really know anyone else with greyhounds; in fact, until a few weeks ago Ari had never seen another greyhound since I adopted her almost a year ago. About three weeks ago we were walking in a new area and just happened to encounter a woman walking three greyhounds. I thought that Ari would be ecstatic to see them and so we crossed the street to meet them. Two of them she greeted enthusiastically with a wagging tail.... and then the third one, a big black male with a gray face, she sniffed once and then started barking and lunging at him. He was doing absolutely nothing to warrant this behavior from her, and she has never reacted to another dog like that without being provoked first.

 

Today, we were at PetSmart, and it just so happened that a greyhound rescue group from the next town over was there to promote greyhound adoption. I brought Ari over to meet the other greys, and she was completely fine and happy to see them.... until all the sudden, the woman with the three greyhounds, including the big black male, showed up. Once again, Ari immediately lunged for the black dog growling and snapping for apparently no reason. I was pretty embarrassed and got a a lot of tsks tsks as I hurried away. For the rest of our time at the pet store, she was noticeably agitated and growled at several other dogs when they tried to approach us, which she never does.

 

Not sure if she didn't like him because he was so much bigger than her (even though she has been around plenty of big dogs before) or if she just got a bad vibe from him. Dogs can be very baffling.....

[Guest budgiemom]

Thanks so much for all of the replies, everyone. It's great to hear that others have experienced this too!

 

I don't really have any advice, but something similar to this has been happening to me with my Ari. Ari likes other dogs and is normally fine with both on and off-leash greetings; the only time she has snapped at other dogs is if they have jumped on her or else growled or snapped at her first. I didn't get Ari from an adoption group and so don't really know anyone else with greyhounds; in fact, until a few weeks ago Ari had never seen another greyhound since I adopted her almost a year ago. About three weeks ago we were walking in a new area and just happened to encounter a woman walking three greyhounds. I thought that Ari would be ecstatic to see them and so we crossed the street to meet them. Two of them she greeted enthusiastically with a wagging tail.... and then the third one, a big black male with a gray face, she sniffed once and then started barking and lunging at him. He was doing absolutely nothing to warrant this behavior from her, and she has never reacted to another dog like that without being provoked first.

 

Today, we were at PetSmart, and it just so happened that a greyhound rescue group from the next town over was there to promote greyhound adoption. I brought Ari over to meet the other greys, and she was completely fine and happy to see them.... until all the sudden, the woman with the three greyhounds, including the big black male, showed up. Once again, Ari immediately lunged for the black dog growling and snapping for apparently no reason. I was pretty embarrassed and got a a lot of tsks tsks as I hurried away. For the rest of our time at the pet store, she was noticeably agitated and growled at several other dogs when they tried to approach us, which she never does.

 

Not sure if she didn't like him because he was so much bigger than her (even though she has been around plenty of big dogs before) or if she just got a bad vibe from him. Dogs can be very baffling.....

 

This is really interesting that she has a specific dog that she doesn't like too. This is what I wonder about the Portuguese Water Dog in our neighborhood that I mentioned...there must be something about him that Jack doesn't like, but I can't for the life of me figure out what it is, because he doesn't fit the profile of the other dogs that Jack consistently has problems with, and he never does anything observable to provoke him...just his mere presence provokes Jack. Weird.

 

I also feel that embarrassed feeling when Jack growls/snaps at dogs that are trying to meet him. I'm actually considering ending our volunteering at Meet and Greets, because it probably doesn't do wonders for the breed/greyhound adoption when people see him reacting to dogs like that. It's such a 180 from his demeanor around people and kids. Then again, I also wish people would be more respectful before they let their dogs just run right over to Jack without checking with me first (in one case, someone let a leashed cat go right up to him that I couldn't see because it was behind our table, and the cat scratched Jack on the face!).

[Guest LindsaySF]

Not liking the hyper dogs, being the fun police, that's pretty common Greyhound behavior. Some Greys also don't like dogs that get in their face, it's considered rude doggy manners. The hard part is getting the humans on the other end of those "rude" dogs to understand it too.

 

As for why Jack hates the PWD, my guess would be two things. If his interactions with him sometimes occur when Jack is on-leash and PWD is off-leash, that automatically makes the on-leash dog very defensive. And if their first meeting was the PWD sort of rushing you, it could be that. The second reason would likely be the PWD's reaction. The PWD does not back off, he doesn't "obey" Jack's barking, he just stares. Staring is pretty confrontational in the dog world. I bet if the PWD backed off when Jack barked, or even if he hung around without staring, no eye contact, Jack wouldn't have such an issue.

 

My boy Charlie has issues with other dogs, and his stem from insecurity really. Not allowing him to stare down other dogs, and praising good behavior and positive interaction, has really helped. Definitely redirect the staring and "stalking" that Jack does, that will lead to nothing good. But I wouldn't correct him or do anything negative, as then he'll associate the other dog with something negative. I'd redirect with a happy voice, a treat, a gentle leash tug. I think the more you can get Jack out and about with other dogs in a positive way, the better. If you can walk with a calm, confident dog, all the better. Would PWD's owner consider taking a walk with you? A side by side walk with PWD would be very different than just confronting him head on when Jack feels 'trapped' by his leash. Side by side vs head on makes a huge difference.

 

Good luck!

 

 

 

~Lindsay~

Edited July 23, 2012 by LindsaySF

[Guest Giselle]

I gave this a cursory skim-through because I'm short on time, but, OP, how are you progressing?

 

I have several thoughts. No much time to elaborate on them, but some quick thoughts:

- ANY form of uncontrolled arousal is unwanted behavior. This means: staring, growling, barking, excited jumping, pulling. All of these things seem trivial, but arousal and aggression are on the same spectrum. So, any arousal can exacerbate aggressive tendencies, and you must stop all forms of uncontrolled arousal. It takes a lot of work, but, if you want FAST results, this is the route you'd take. This means, instead of letting your dog start staring, you'd immediately redirect his attention and ensure that he never gets uncontrollably aroused in the home or outside on walks. For example, Ivy is not allowed to bark at the front door, she is not allowed to stare any anything on walks (except for my eyes ), she is not allowed to jump excitedly when I return home, etc. It's a strict protocol, but this is what you'd do if you want fast and consistent results.

- To stop uncontrolled arousal, you need to teach the dog alternative behaviors. For example: 1) Instead of jumping on me when I come home, the dog must back up and do a prolonged Down-Stay until I give her the release cue. 2) Instead of staring at a dog on our walks, I ask my dog to give me eye contact and we do a lot of fun heeling exercises (quick turns, circles, figure 8's, repeated Sit's, etc.) 3) Instead of barking at strangers at the front door, the dog has to do a prolonged Down-stay and give focus to me before I release her to sniff the person.

- To address the specific issue of dog-dog reactivity: Follow the same principles above. Stop arousal before it starts. Redirect attention to you and play lots of fun games to keep his/her focus on you. AVOID dog-dog contact. No more sniffing other dogs unless 1) your dog can give you 100% focus 2) you can verbally release him to sniff and 3) you can recall him back to you with at least 90% reliability.

- This means: When you see loose dogs, do whatever you can to block them from approaching your dog. No uncontrolled meetings allowed - ever.

 

You may or may not follow my advice to a T, but, if you do, the results should be fast and consistent. Instead of improvement in a matter of months, you should see improvement within days or weeks. It also depends a lot on your technique and skill level, so a professional trainer or qualified behaviorist is an excellent idea. PM me for more detailed info, videos, etc. Good luck!

[Guest dblgreys]

I have 2 Greyhounds. My husband an I adopted them about a month ago. They are brother and sister who are 2 years old. Our girl does great. Or boy on the other hand is proving to be more difficult. He does not want to listen we have a hard time getting him to pay attention (Even with treats) he doesn't seem all that interested in anything (treats or Toys) and doesn't care to play. The only things we can find that he is interested in is feeding time, trying to chase the cats and rabbits that run around the neighborhood (Which we do not let him do) and our daily walks. Recently he met 2 very small dogs ( cat size) He was fine wagging his tail and non aggressive. So I thought I would introduce him to my mother's dog who is a springer spaniel. That went badly he got extremely aggressive and the spaniel didn't do anything to deserve it. everyone is fine but I got the crap scared out of me and so did the spaniel. We do a lot of family oriented things and I would love to take both my dogs there. My sister also has 2 coon hounds a black and tan and a walker who are rather large dogs which he has not met. My sister and I are very close. I would like to see all the dogs in my family get along. He has also recently started getting agressive with his sister for no reason. I am thinking maybe muzzles for our greys are the way to go. Any other sugestions would be appreciated. If we have to we will just have to leave them at home but I would like to be able to take them everywhere I can and now I am afraid to take him anywhere except for our walks around town but even then I am nervous of how he will react when he sees a dog in the distance since the incident with the spaniel.(he is already working hard in trying to slip his collar and lead so he can give chase.)