help with a dog aggressive dog(mine)

[rainingcats&dogs]

hi guys
i have 4 dogs,and 13 cats,all my dogs are great with cats other dogs,kids,they have all grown up together,but my cairn gets in these moods,not all the time but he starts fights with my other dogs,and they are much bigger than him and could put a hurting on him,and when they try to walk away from him he chases them,im scared hes gonna get killed,right now hes separated from the others,i dont know what to do,hes 8,should i find him a homw without other dogs,this is so frustrating and scary,and he lived peacefully with them until about 2 weeks ago we were asleep and heard a fight in the living room,it was the cairn and my shep mix going at it,actually just the cairn he was latched on to his cheek,and my poor shpe mix was just trying to get away,vet said theres nothing wrong with him,is it just the terrier in him,i love this little guy but i will never have a terrier again,he was so hard to train,stubborn,he wants to do what he wants to do,hes yappy,high strung,hes just now starting to mellow,i like to take my dogs with me in the car,just to run errands,but i could never take him,he would get all crazy,when i would get out of the car even to just run into 7-11 not even 5 min.my seats would be chewed up and he would take a big ****,that drove me nuts
any suggestion,please
thank you

[diemonster]

Aww man, what a handful! I'm sorry I don't have any good solutions for you..though if it's the "terrier" coming out in him, I'd say your cats might be next! If he were mine, I'd have gotten rid of him long ago.. but I have 3 kids and would be nervous about him possibly injuring them (no dog is worth that risk!).

I hope some of the groomers on here can help you more.

[pamperedpups]

Edited.

[Helly]

Boy, you're in a difficult situation. But honestly, I think the vet is being too quick to just say it's the terrier thing coming out. Not at age 8. If it were just terrier, varminty behavior, you'd have seen it before now. I'd start by getting a second opinion, and ask them to pay special attention to examining his eyes. And if he's targeting one specific dog, I'd also get that dog in for a check-up. He may be sensing an illness in the other dog, and using it as an opportunity to move up in rank.

[diamienono]

I would suggest you watch Cesar. He has some great methods of fixing this. Your hand must become the "bite" to teach the dog you are the leader and there will be none of that behavior. Sorry to be all about Cesar, but it works. Go back to thinking like a dog.

[Poodlefluff]

I would try having a dog trainer come to your house and evaluate the situation, an outsider looking in may be able to see something you can't. They should be able to reccomend a solution to the problem, Most problems occur when their is a alpha dog problem, who is the alpha dog, maybe the cairn was playing referee, maybe he was scared of a vibe the other dog was giving him and decided to attack or be attacked. Who knows unless you saw it from the beginning. But a trainer can maybe see something so give it a try before giving up.

[dogma]

More Exercise!!!! And I don't mean just half an hour of ball throwing...I mean a good, probably twice to three times daily, tongue hanging to his knees, run-em-hard, type of exercise. You will probably need to do this on a bicycle...or, even with the car. (if he is likely to pull you over on a bike, use the car)

People REALLY under estimate the amount of exercise dogs need and when they don't get enough, behavior problems develop. The LAST thing I would do is confine him even more! Get him out, get him tired, get him thinking.

While Cesar is really good with his advice...the MAIN thing he stresses is MORE EXERCISE. If you pick up his book, the first chapter is about how much of a work out his dogs get...most of them get at least 6 hours a day!

So wear that puppy out and then go from there.

namaste...dogma

[diamienono]

it also could have something to do with your illness. Some dogs are more sensative than others and react in a bad way.

[toomuchfunbnme]

Sorry that your little guy is causing problems. I think that the little terrier breeds are so adorable. I would defineately give the situation another look. Even though the other dogs don't appear to be doing anything agressive, they could have actually been sending agressive signals to your little guy without anyone noticing it. I would have a dog behaviorist come into my home to observe what's happening and see if they could come up with a solution. I hope that you keep us posted as to how everything works out. Best of luck.