Hi guys I was hoping for some guidance on this weird thing that's been going on. My 1.7 yo yellow lab is by all means a very gentle, nice, and sociable dog. I take him to the park every weekend and in general he plays really well. He generally always loves to be the more submissive dog, rolling on his back, letting other dogs kind of wrangle him. he's not possessive of toys and will drop his toys for other dogs as soon as another dog shows interest in them, he tolerates other dogs being aggressive or standoffish towards him and doesn't engage in aggression in return. all this to say he's generally a really good boy with other dogs.
However, when we are the park there is sometimes there is an elderly little male dog present. The owner has two dogs, a big dog and a little dog so she just brings the little dog into the big dog area to have them both in the same place. My dog is obsessed with this elderly little dog. He will follow this little dog incessantly and when other dogs approach the little dog or my dog when the little dog is around my dog goes full on aggressive; growling, snarling, snapping at other dogs. He isn't aggressive towards the little dog at all (other than following him around and trying to lick his butt incessantly) and when the little dog isn't around my dog has no problem playing nicely with these same dogs. So why is my boy having such a behavior change which this little dog around?
lots of people have said that it seems like he is trying to protect the little dog because it is so small. does that make sense? Is there any way to train out this behavior?
note: he's not neutered yet and I understand that may be the issue. we do plan to have him neutered we just have not been in a rush since, other than this weirdly specific aggression, his behavior is stellar.
submitted by /u/SHjohn1
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