My male golden is 1 and as of yet has not been neutered. My reasons for this are we were waiting until he was fully grown as recommended by our vet and we have several reputable breeders interested in possibly using him as a stud. He has decent blood lines and is a good looking dog if I do say so myself. I plan on getting a full exam to make sure he has nothing wrong IF we did consider letting him breed. Anyway this leads me to my problem.

He has a lot of doggie friends he plays with regularly. Among them are an intact male Vizsla, female golden also not fixed and a female golden who is spayed. Never any issues. We have 2 mini female spayed doxies and no problems there. My sister has 2 female Pitt bulls. The one is a bit aggressive and the other is not at all. The spayed female is the aggressive one the non fixed female is mellow.

Last night for no reason I could make out he jumped the more aggressive spayed female and attacked her! Very scary. My husband pulled him off. No damage except a scratch above the Pitts eye. I cannot comprehend why my teddy bear golden is behaving this way?

A few minutes after this her more aggressive Pitt attacked and shook my 9 pound doxie. I thought she would be dead but we got her out of the Pitts mouth fast.

Any thoughts on what's going on here? Should I have him neutered? Would that even help? My husband thinks he's being protective as the Pitt kept jumping on me. (It wasn't being mean but left bloody scratches down my back) 2 minutes after this is when the fight broke out.

He's our beloved family pet and I don't know what to do.

Please don't judge me about possibly breeding him. The breeders we got him from are highly reputable and wanted us to consider it as his temperament was so loving and kind and his looks were nice. If he's going to be aggressive we obviously are not going to allow him to breed.

Any advice or help is much appreciated and needed.

What lines is your boy from?

Maybe he sensed the aggression in her and decided she needed to be put in her place? Lol I don't know. You may have missed something or there may have been an unseen circumstance. It is unlikely that there is not a reason behind it.

I would be cautious in allowing him to be around or be influenced by an aggressive dog. If the Pitt is causing him stress or being aggressive towards him he may feel the need to defend himself. I personally would avoid these encounters. Aggression in not usually an observe and learn behavior but something that comes about out of the dog feeling like he needs to.

Was this incident at your house or the Pitt owner's? Was the Pitt behaving in a way that threatened your Golden or his "territory" I definitely would not allow a dog (the Pitt) around your animals if she is going to cause a problem. Her attacking your small dog is awful!

I personally would not worry too much about it unless it happens again BUT I WOULD take measures to ensure that it doesn't. If this Pitt is the only dog he has had a problem with AND she is causing issues with your small dog I would have to say that they shouldn't be allowed to be together. You don't want to create/allow a reoccurring situation where your pup feels threatened (or however he is feeling around this dog).

__________________

I just read the part about the Pitt jumping on you. That, to me, if your boy considers you "one of his" would be cause for him to act out at the Pitt. I believe that was the cause for his aggression towards her. I know many dogs that have a great temperament but when their area, people or themselves are threatened, they act on it.

I think this was likely an isolated incident and I wouldn't be concerned with your boy's behavior as much as the behavior of the Pitt. I would not allow my dogs around her anymore, period.

I don't think the fact that he is intact is an issue. I think the other dog is the one with the issue. Your dog was likely tired of the Pitt's behavior.

__________________

This isn't really the best of advice for a person who is considering breeding their dog. When deciding whether or not to breed as concerns structure or temperament, it all comes down to what is considered "correct" for a golden. In response to a dog jumping on you in play (correct me if I'm wrong, but that was the impression that I got), I would not expect a golden with the correct temperament to respond by lashing out at the dog minutes later. This may not have been the trigger for your dog, it's impossible to say, but outside of dire threat to your dog or yourself I can't think of any reason a golden who is going to pass on his genes should attack another dog. A golden will defend himself in a snarly situation (I've seen it once in 7 years with my boy... the other dog was trying to drown him) but not go on the offensive like that.

The statements you make about breeding your boy and the reasons for doing so (both according to you and attributed to his breeder) raise a lot of warning flags for me. That he is from "decent blood lines," "good looking," and "loving and kind" are not reasons to breed a dog. Those are qualities all goldens should have. They do not distinguish him in any way. There's no mention about plans to compete with your boy in any venue (conformation, obedience, agility, field work, etc). There's no mention of clearances (which I assure you go far beyond a "full exam." They are, in fact, multiple exams by multiple board certified specialists). There's no mention of mentoring. I am not judging you but just sending my hope that you will think long and hard about this decision and peruse the vast amount of information on this forum concerning what actually constitutes a "reputable breeder."

Julie, Jersey and Oz

__________________
Disclaimer: The views and opinions expressed in this post are those of the author and do not reflect the official policy or position of any family members or of Ambika Golden Retrievers.

Thanks for your concern about breeding for the wrong reasons. I didn't disclose all the reasons we have for breeding my dog because that wasn't a main issue in my post. I only gave a couple reasons. I'm aware of all the clearances needed and I can assure you IF he was ever bred he would have everything needed. I do not take breeding lightly at all. I just didn't want to write an entire book on my dog. Please don't take this as me being nasty I mean to only explain myself. I would love to get into agility. I'm going to start on that goal spring.

The dog jumping and drawing blood on my back was not being nasty. I however was yelling as it was intense pain. I had blood dripping down a 7 inch scratch and holes in my shirt. Simbas been around other dogs who have jumped on my with no reaction. I probably over reacted in hind sight.

We are never allowing the dogs around these Pitts again. Her aggressive Pitt has attacked and drawn blood several times on the other Pitt. She's also food/water aggressive. We had a family situation which required me to stay at her home. Will not happen again.

The other female Pitt is due to go in heat for the first time at any time. Could that be a factor? Im honestly lost as to how to handle this. Forget ever possibly breeding him I just want to make sure my beloved family member hasn't lost his marbles.

you speak of his separation anxiety in another thread--sounds like your boy may be insecure. After this episode, I would set up playdates with appropriate dogs to ensure your boy sees that no all dogs are "bad" nor is there a need to protect humans, just be sure to take precautions in the event your golden reacts negatively. Obedience classes and agility would be great starts in building his confidence, but as Jersey's Mom alluded to above, it doesn't sound like a temperament that needs to be passed along. I too would hope these "reputable" breeders are looking for a stud that has proven himself in some way other than being another pretty golden.

I am glad to hear this :-) Regardless of whether you are thinking of breeding him or not I think you understand what a dog should be in order to be bred (This is part of the reason you were concerned if I am not mistaken). I wanted to address the aggression. Whether or not you breed him is up to you and your breeder's analysis. I wish you luck.

__________________

Hi, it's equally possible that this was an isolated instance AND that he's found his manhood and is testing it out. He probably is NOT aggressive but protective, but he's putting you on notice so now you need to watch him carefully.

My Tucker was and is an overall submissive goofball but when he turned about 9 months two things happened--other dogs (mostly neutered males but not only them) started picking on him relentlessly, and he discovered he could stand up for himself. Only problem wih the latter was that he never had before and he went too far with it when dogs would not back off.

My guess is that the aggressive pit was bugging him in some way, he told it to back off and it didn't, and he decided to escalate it. Dogs have so many signals they give each other that we don't see.

At any rate, now you know he IS capable of launching into battle and you need to figure out his triggers. He is a dog and dogs do fight. I think labeling him aggressive at this point is too soon. I wouldnt put him and the alpha pit together without watching them closely.

Pls pardon typos... Am on cellphone!

__________________
Kathleen, mom to one human, age 17, three canines, and a bunch of fish.

I was not addressing her desire to breed him as much as my concern for the situation she put him in my being around aggressive dog. I do, however, think she (as well as anyone wanting to breed) should carefully consider their dog for the right reasons, of course.

__________________