Very strange aggression

[KickReturn]

Nearing the end of a walk, my two year old male greyhound and I met up with my neighbour and her senior female cocker spaniel. The dogs greeted and we walked the last two blocks together. The dogs have met many times. The spaniel was on a flexi lead and was a few feet ahead and off to one side, just trotting along. My greyhound was at my heel. Suddenly my greyhound lunged toward the spaniel barking very aggressively.

Could this be frustration at wanting to engage and not getting there? If so, why not whining or a less intense bark? He just seemed so aggressive.

I gave a very severe correction and the he was immediately responsive – cooled down real fast. When we arrived at our homes and stopped to chat, he just stood around in typical greyhound fashion and even avoided the spaniel a bit when the owner brought it closer to him.

He did something similar previously. He lunged at another dog but was stopped before he could get out a bark and I didn’t think much of it – thought maybe he wanted to play.

I have also seen similar aggressive behaviour but only in response to large nervous and reactive dogs. He has had zero reaction to small dogs regardless of their behaviour. They can absolutely savage him and he just wants to sniff them.

I should note that my greyhound is very eager to meet every dog he sees and has run and played with every imaginable type of dog from wolfhounds to chihuahuas and has had no incidents.

Any ideas?

 

Edited December 13, 2019 by KickReturn
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[greysmom]

I would say it's probablyt less about their size and more about a behavior he finds frustrating or anxiety-inducing.  Was the cocker bouncing around and having a fun time like cockers do?  Or making noises?  Even loud tag jingling may be a flash point to a dog who is a "fun police" sort of dog.  I know my dogs will react to a sudden flurry of tag sounds from one of the others in another part of the yard (particularly if they are out of sight of each other).  What was happening specifically right before the incident occurred??

Just throwing some ideas out there.  You may need to get a behaviorist to walk with you to get to the bottom of this.

[KickReturn]

Thanks for the reply. The cocker is a senior. Just ambling along in a straight line. No noise, no playful movement, and these are dogs that know each other and had been walking together for around 15 minutes at that point. That's why this is so strange. And my dog has never shown any sort of fun police behaviours. His general disposition is that he tends to mirror whatever other dogs are doing. Matches play with play, calm with calm, etc.

 

[greysmom]

Then I think a behaviorist who can personally observe your dog is going to be your best bet.  We can sit around and guess about causes forever, but without seeing the before/during/after we probably won't get it right.