Castration /dominant/ agressive cocker - thoughts

[o11y]

I have a four year old working cocker. Great dog works really well and with reading topics on here and videos/ books im extremely proud of my efforts training him.

I am however having problems with him and other dogs, hes always been overly interested with other dogs but with training he will largely ignore them. He had a negative expereince with a bull dog off the lead owner no where near about 6 months ago but at the time he seemed fine. Recently last 3 / 4 months he has been more interested again in them and now even showning some signs of agression towards them (however not in a working enviornment only in social places mainly walking past others on leads). Obviously this isnt ideal and is making things stressful for my partner when she has him and I working my day shift.

Was after general advice as to what I should do ... and if castration (chemical or physical) would help?

Any advice would be really appreciated

Thanks for your time

[munstyman]

Obviously this isnt ideal and is making things stressful for my partner when she has him and I working my day shift.

Is this `offensive ' aggression or `defensive' aggression? I ask because the line above indicates he may be being defensive of your partner ( because she is exhibiting anxiety on `meeting other dogs' .)
Whilst there is a few cases where `castration' can reduce `aggressive' behaviors. I would always advocate behavior training, with a good canine behaviorist who will see the dog first hand with you and put in place a tailor made program for you and the dog to follow. ( Treat the cause not the symptom )
Distraction/ reward training for specific `meet and greet encounters is another option but needs to be consistent, as can avoiding head on encounters by taking the initiative and taking a wide arc around the oncoming dog. ( Being defensive of your dog rather than putting the dog in a defensive position for you ).
You do need to be proactive with `aggression' and not reactive as it can become habit forming as a learned behavior quite quickly.

[Naj]

Couldn’t have put it better.

Beware of those who advocate punishment as a ‘solution’, that simply suppresses the problem without changing the underlying emotion.

[o11y]

Thanks for the responses really appreciate it. I have since done some research and spoke to a trainer / behaviourist who i think will be a great fit training me and the dog starting with an assesment and sessions from tuesday. Hopefully they will guide us on the issue and he will return him back to normal ready for the upcoming season.

thanks again