Hi,

I live in Cheshire and have had a 4 year old Border Terrier called Oscar for about 4 weeks. He's settled in OK and a few habits that he has we have eliminated, however, he has never been socialised and whenever he comes near any other dog he goes into the attack which looks like it is through fear.

I went to our local dog training classes and had about 3 hours of instruction, the other dogs were French Bull Mastiffs and a Husky, all more advanced in their training. Despite the dogs being so big and could flatten him quite easily Oscar still had a go at them.

He also has anxiety problems when left alone and howls the place down. He has had 2 previous owners, the first of which babied him and wouldn't allow him to mix with other dogs. The second just didn't have the time and he was just taken out by children for walks.

Other problems like when out in the countryside he goes into hyperdrive, I have let him off his training lead a couple of times and he just chases everything and anything so I suspect he has never been brought up or walked in the countryside as the smells seem to overpower any recall or not bothered listening to commands.

In the house he is great, loves the kids and is very gentle especially when taking treats and doesn't snatch. He's won't sleep up stairs and sleeps on the couch even though he has a bed. As long as baby gates and doors are not closed he is fine.

In all he's an OK dog but with issues that need addressing.

Hi there!

Border Terriers are great dogs, with their little otter faces. It's great you opened your home and your heart to this little guy.

I was attracted to your post, as you say he goes into "attack" mode. People not experienced with aggression often see reactivity as aggression, just like people not experienced with reactivity see aggression as reactivity...

It sounds confusing, but it's really simple.

If you have a reactive dog, he's simply reacting to something. Although barking and growling and lunging aren't nice to look at, it can often just be a reaction. My dog is reactive to other dog. This means she's not aggressive. She lunges, and she barks, and she growls, and screams like a banshee. As soon as she's close enough, she's sniffing politely, quietly and then initiating play.

Aggression is when your dog is biting, attacking.

Is your dog trying to bite? I've had both a reactive and an aggressive dog, and it's very hard to tell the difefrence. My aggressive dog went straight into "kill it" mode whenever close enough, and my reactive dog listens to what I say (mostly - she IS still reactive!), will go after more interesting things, and is generally not being aggressive.

Have you spoken to the trainer directly? I see you DO have a trainer. I just wanted to share the reactive/aggression thing, because more often than not, reactive dogs are labelled as aggressive and muzzled which is completely unneccesary.

All Terriers will run off after everything! Just work on that recall.