[Bailey13921]

Hi everyone, I’ve not been able to find a thread to help with my query, hoping for some wisdom…
Bailey greets other dogs, if we allow by laying down, then, he’s very bouncy and his tail is wagging when they come in to sniff and say hello. He has a black lab mate who he plays with weekly, they get on fine both before and after the lab was castrated. He’s played with other dogs on the beach.
BUT we’ve met two other male vizslas, one in a secure field and the other just to say hi when walking and both have been aggressive towards him after the initial hello.
Bailey wasn’t being dominant at all either time, in fact in the field he was more submissive than usual.
He also returned to the breeder when he was 6 months and his dad didn’t get on with him either.
Why are they not getting on? Bailey is 15 months now, he’s still intact. He’s 29kg, slender and tall, very tall.
we would love him to go on a viz whizz or similar pack walk but I’m worried about the aggression towards him. Is this normal and do they sort it out between them, I don’t want things to escalate.

 

[texasred]

Most people that take their dogs to Viz Whiz walks, own dogs that get along with other dogs.
I would not assume your dog is the problem. Some dogs just do not like puppy/teenage dogs.
To bad your not in my area. I’m sure Heifer would love to play with Bailey.

 

[Gabica]

when Miksa was around that age a lot of other dogs did not like him either, especially male dogs. so he got to play mostly with Bende and some very tolerant older female dogs of mostly mixed breeds. it passed, so just as @texasred mentioned, it could well be the adult males not tolerating the adolescent.

 

[Pupmum99]

I’m having the same issue at the minute - entire 15 month old male, loves other dogs but they just don’t love him. It can happen especially while they’re so hormonally charged!

 

[Bailey13921]

Thanks everyone, I feel more settled knowing it’s not likely to be my boy!
The dogs that have turned on him have been around his age, we met with one of his brothers, off lead in a secure field, I was really hopeful it could be a regular meet but nope, not yet any way!

 

[texasred]

I normally try to keep the dogs moving, if they are out with a new dog, or even a dog that they don’t see often. They might do a quick greeting, and then send mine off to run. This way they are around each other, but not on top of each other. It gives them time to familiarized with the other dog at a distance. During the run they might do a quick sniff, and then continue running.

 

[PhilipL]

You've been unlucky, I have very rarely encountered aggressive Vizslas towards my intact male Rafa, however there is one local intact male Vizsla who is quite a bit older who just will not tolerate my 4 year old boy, he growls at him and approaches aggressively every time they meet. We have to avoid him. Rafa gets on well with very
many other dogs, but he has been bitten twice by intact male dogs, not Vizslas.

 

[Dan_A]

Does this only happen when on leash? Ellie misbehaves when she and/or the other dog is on a leash. It is a work in progress.

 

[Hbomb]

My boy is 18months and we have had the same issue with him.

he greets other dogs in exactly the same way as your boy.

He is intact. It is usually other young males that seem to take a dislike to him.

They will be ok for a couple of minutes sniffing but the body language is usually stiff and then the male will try to mount him.

I usually move him on quickly if I spot the stiff body language, as on a couple of occasions the male has been aggressive.

he isn’t overly keen on boisterous young boy dogs himself now (even though he is one!) so if I spot a dog that I think he may have a negative interaction with I call him back and leash him and tell the owner he’s not particularly friendly.

It would be great if this stopped happening when he gets a bit older and the hormones settle.

 

[Bob Engelhardt]

It's his balls. It happens a lot - spontaneous aggression by a neutered male towards an intact one. Where the neutered male is otherwise friendly. We have a neighbor with a 9 yo intact male & he has some scars to show for it. It doesn't happen all the time, but it's so distinct that it's hard to deny.

 

[Maddy and Ivy]

Hi everyone, I’ve not been able to find a thread to help with my query, hoping for some wisdom…
Bailey greets other dogs, if we allow by laying down, then, he’s very bouncy and his tail is wagging when they come in to sniff and say hello. He has a black lab mate who he plays with weekly, they get on fine both before and after the lab was castrated. He’s played with other dogs on the beach.
BUT we’ve met two other male vizslas, one in a secure field and the other just to say hi when walking and both have been aggressive towards him after the initial hello.
Bailey wasn’t being dominant at all either time, in fact in the field he was more submissive than usual.
He also returned to the breeder when he was 6 months and his dad didn’t get on with him either.
Why are they not getting on? Bailey is 15 months now, he’s still intact. He’s 29kg, slender and tall, very tall.
we would love him to go on a viz whizz or similar pack walk but I’m worried about the aggression towards him. Is this normal and do they sort it out between them, I don’t want things to escalate.

Hi! My female Vizsla is 15 months old now. She had plenty of dog friends and almost never had any issues up until about 13 months. She was attacked once by a small dog at 7 months but she actually bounced back from that very easily and it seemed not to effect her too badly and she was able to play with lots of dogs and be around lots of dogs also in a more calm environment. Like you and your boy, my Ivy has recently started to be hated by quite a lot of dogs. About a month ago I thought she was doing absolutely nothing wrong, I thought she was being very submissive and laying down when other dogs approached, she looked as though she was making herself as small as possible for them to feel comfortable to approach. Now doing some research and based on how she acts off lead I know that in fact she is actually a very dominant dog. Ivy will make eye contact constantly, she does this with her friends and with new dogs approaching. Dogs who don’t know her will automatically not trust her and think she is being threatening and I think it’s all down to the state like eye contact. Now Ivy doesn’t do it out of aggression, she does it because she was under socialised up until 6 months AND she’s going through a power struggle stage in her adolescence stage. But even though she’s not doing it out of aggression and doesn’t show any other signs of aggression, dogs perceive it as a threatening behaviour or they see her as a dog they’re not sure about. Knowing this and pairing it with the way she will go very quickly towards them to smell them can make the other dog suddenly become fearful because they don’t trust this new dog staring them down suddenly bouncing towards them to say hi. This can mean that the other dog will automatically growl or become aggressive towards her. Ivy’s issue is that she reacts to it because she doesn’t understand that they don’t want to fight either. It’s usually miscommunication in the dogs themselves and given time to actually get used to each other slowly and to understand neither wants to fight is what’s needed but that can be a BIG ask of the other owner when they don’t understand why the dogs sound like they could have a full blown dog fight. I feel like maybe there may be some signs to look out for with your boy to establish whether he is presenting some stand-off behaviour towards other dogs without him maybe even knowing it. Some dogs just give a lot of eye contact and from what I’ve seen Vizsla’s can give plenty of eye contact so some dogs or a lot of dogs don’t trust them initially and it can lead to aggression. That’s all I could say from what I’ve seen and read but like you, I’m always looking for more info to explain more or to explain it better in order to try to help our dogs out. I’m sorry I can’t give any advice really but thought I’d message anyways.. good luck! You’re doing great!