fear/aggression?

[malamutesasha]

I have a 10-week-old Alaskan Malamute female and we've had about three or four trips to the dog park. She is around 19lbs. The dog park is divided into a "small dog" section and a "large dog" section. She enjoys the smaller dogs and is very inquisitive and playful, but whenever the big dogs on the other side of the chain-link fence approach the fence quickly or bark, she gets extremely frightened and hauls away from the fence and dives under the nearest park bench and is afraid to come out. If the larger dogs are quiet, and approach the fence slowly, she will gradually get a little closer to them. Today, she approached three well-mannered, interested greyhounds but she started growling, and the closer she got, the louder she growled.

Once, when she encountered a bigger dog without a fence separating them, she yelped loudly, snapped, and ran.

I spoke with the breeder I got her from about this. I said I was surprised Sasha was so afraid of big dogs, considering her father was HUGE, but the breeder wasn't surprised. She said it was BECAUSE the father did not want anything to do with his puppies, and so he would growl and chase them off when they tried playing with him.

What is the best way to break her of her fear? As we all know, fear in puppies can manifest into aggression in maturity, and this particular breed is known for aggression toward other dogs if not extremely well socialized by about twelve weeks of age. I want to socialize her to be well-mannered, trustworty, and to have fun in a dog park with dogs that may seem big now, but will probably be much smaller than she will be when she grows up. How can I socialize her during her most impressionable learning period if she is so frightened by the bigger dogs?

 

[tyefly]

I think taking her to as many different places as you can.....let her get use to everything in the world..... Even though she is freighten now she may get more use to differnent things and gain more confidence....... Some times its just there personality..... some dogs are dominate and others are ....you wont know for awhile.... My huskys certainly had there scared times .... my girl dog Ketah is the dominate one and very out going she will explore anything....while Juno my male..... is not....he is more reserved and stands back and watch ketah..... except for birds..... I am training them both on the treadmill and ketah was no problem from day one and Juno is really scared..... so I only put him on it for a minute or so with lots of praise..... and I have to hold his belly...... Ketah will jump in the back of the truck and Juno still wants me to pick him up and help him....these guy are 10 months old........ so just keep encourage the good behavior ........

 

[mrose_s]

I wouldn't recomend the dog park for socialisation reasons, there are too many people that think because dogs are allowed off leash, that its a great place to take their untrained dogs. I've heard to many scary story's of people bringing their agressive dogs to the park and others havng their dogs btten/,auled or even killed by them.

Also, not all your pups vaccinations can be up to date yet, so I'd be keeping her away from places that dogs frquent untill she is completley covered (I think after her 12 week vacs) or she could contrat something.

For socialiation, I would be enrolling in some puppy pre school classes. Its a good place3 for puppies to socialise in a controlled environment with an instructor on hand to keep an eye on things. After that maybe continue with some basic obediuance lessons or whatever.