My 13 month-old corgi suddenly became reactive to intact males, did I miss something?
Hey everyone,
So let me introduce my 13-month-old corgi, who's an absolute sweetheart. He's playful, cuddly, and obedient. He does really well both in the city and in the countryside, he's pretty curious, and of course, like any good corgi, he loves to eat. The problem is that for a few months now (three months exactly), he's become extremely reactive toward intact (uncastrated) dogs. Even though he isn't neutered himself, he's always super playful with females and neutered males to the point where he won't even react if he gets picked on. But whenever he meets an intact male, he kicks off almost instantly and completely loosing it.
My wife and I take care of him every day, and I know he's never had a bad experience, he's never been attacked anywhere, even though he sometimes ran into unfriendly dogs, in which case he'd just walk away and never look for a fight. On top of that, he grew up with two neighborhood dogs he sees daily, a Shiba and a corgi, both intact males all well behaves. While he's never had an issue with the other corgi, he does get into fights with the Shiba every now and then, seemingly out of nowhere.
It's really striking because he's always been so gentle, and this sudden ultra-dominant shift toward other males happened literally overnight. These days I don't really dare walk him off-leash anymore, and I avoid parks where he might run into other loose dogs, because I know he'd start a fight instantly.
I imagine the logical next step is to neuter him, but I'm worried I missed something in his training and that neutering won't change anything. To be honest, I still don't know what the right reaction is when he meets a dog and starts getting tense. Should I correct him firmly, reassure him, or just let them sort it out? Even at the risk of my dog's health and the other dog's?