As anyone who knows me knows, we rescued Barley from a rescue group almost 6 months ago and my vet says he between 1 and 2 years old. He was in bad shape when we got him from the rescue and they couldn't tell me anything about him except that they pulled him from a high kill shelter somewhere in the south.
Barley showed me the second day that I had him how aggressive he is towards other dogs that are not in my house. We were out walking (he was leashed) and he jumped onto a full grown German Shepard's head attacking it. Lucky it was a gentle giant and no one got injured.
I have two other dogs, a large male Great Pyrenees and a female toy poodle. Barley is great with them. My father came down to visit from out of state and brought his male pom, Bo. Barley and Bo were great together from day one. They played and shared toys without incident. But Bo is very confident and thinks he owns whatever land he's walking on
Well, today I took a mommy and Barley trip to two pet stores. At one of them a gentleman had his year old teeny tiny chihuahua on the floor trying to greet Barley. So I let Barley have enough leash to go sniff without being pulled back any, but Barley instantly bites the poor little thing on the nose (no sniffing at all, just straight to bite). Luckily, no skin damage at all to the little one, but his feels were hurt. I felt so bad for him.
I've had many people say that it's just a Yorkie thing. Is that so? Do many of you have doggy bullies? I was told by an animal control officer that the more I take him out around other dogs the better behaved he will be, but it's been six months and he's still so mean. I just don't get it. The other dogs will wag their tails and approach him, but he goes right to bite everytime.
Should I give up on taking him around other dogs and just know that in my house he's ok, but once out on walks or to the petstore he's holly terror?
It saddens me to not take him, but it scares me that he may hurt another doggie who just wants to be friends.
What would you do?