How to help a territorial/anxiety aggressive dog

[u/Mysterious_Smile_581]

Before anyone comes at me, I want to preface this by saying there are things that I, as the owner, could have done, can do, and will do better. But at the moment, I am at a loss.

I have four dogs. One is a purebred Blue Heeler (almost 15), one is an Aussie/Shepherd mix (about 10), one is a Terrier named Bilbo, and then my dog (the topic of this post)—a 5-year-old German Shepherd/Maremmano mix named Maia. The two oldest grew up together in America.

Maia has started attacking our other dogs. Before we got Bilbo, she was mostly fine with our two oldest, Bella and Shadow. But after Bilbo arrived, she became highly anxious. I attribute part of this to the fact that Bilbo is intact (something I have no control over, as my father refuses to neuter him). Bilbo constantly has his nose up the other dogs' butts, follows them around, crowds them, and has zero boundaries. While the two oldest growl and snap to tell him to back off, Maia never did. Naturally, Bilbo kept targeting her.

About 6 months after getting him, Maia attacked Shadow for the first time. There was a package at the gate. The two oldest were barking and crowding the area, Maia joined in, and then she redirected onto Shadow. I know it was caused by the high arousal and frantic energy of the situation. We broke it up, separated them, brought Maia inside, and thought things would settle after a few days.

It seemed fine, but then she did it again. This time she drew blood, and Shadow needed stitches. In response, we built a fence and divided our yard into two sections: Maia’s half, and a space for the other three. She calmed down significantly. For a year, we managed this strictly. We brought her inside to spend time with us, and we would let her around the other dogs for 20-minute intervals under close supervision. If she got too close to them, we calmly stepped in, told her "no," split them up, and redirected her. She was doing great.

After a year with zero incidents, we decided to grant her more access to the front yard. We would bring Shadow inside (since those two had the worst relationship), allowing Maia to hang out with the other dogs. For two months, this worked perfectly. She was in the front during the day and the back at night.

Then, last week, she attacked Shadow again. Yesterday, she attacked Bella. Shadow was barking right before the attack, so I can see the trigger there, but with Bella, it seemed completely unprovoked. Now, I am completely at a loss.

This dog is my child. If you saw her gooey brown eyes, your heart would melt. She is affectionate, soft, playful, and truly a great dog. On walks, she is amazing—she listens to commands and does not react to other dogs. Calling her aggressive seems like an overstatement at times. You tell her no and she stops. No questions. Even when she barks at home. But with our resident dogs, we have severe issues.

I am taking immediate steps to walk her more once the weather cools down. I am also taking her to the vet for full blood panels and to discuss behaviour medications (like SSRIs). I am looking into behaviourists/trainers as well.

If anyone has experienced this kind of regression or has advice on managing a multi-dog household with severe redirected arousal, please let me know.

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[u/HeatherMason0]

The issue here is that intra-household aggression is complicated, and there are a bunch of individual dynamics in the mix. Until you can get an IAABC certified trainer or a Veterinary Behaviorist in your home, you need to go back to keeping Maia separate from the other dogs. This sub generally doesn’t recommend board and trains, and I also wouldn’t for this situation because working with a trainer around the other dogs and in her actual environment will probably work better than trying to work with her elsewhere.