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My dog bites other dogs at the park. Is it aggression or excitement?

Updated on September 23rd, 2025

Pet's info: Dog | Mixed Breed Medium (23 - 60lb) | Female | spayed | 60 lbs

My dog (she's a Bull arab x bull mastiff and is almost 2 years old) gets really overexcited when at the dog park and this quickly escalates to her biting other dogs really hard and she starts to growl (but she does this when she gets excited - is this another problem?) and i feel like she starts to exhibit aggressive like behavior. because of this i have stopped taking her to the dog park but i know this isn't good for her and i'm not sure about the use of muzzles in this situation.

1 Answer

Most Helpful Answer

Lindsey Edwards MVB, BSc, IVCA

Answered By Lindsey Edwards MVB, BSc, IVCA

Veterinarian

Published on December 10th, 2016

I strongly recommend you both enrol in some socialisation/obedience classes in order to form some more appropriate patterns of behavior around other dogs in a safe, supervised environment. You are right to be cautious about use of a muzzle only in this situation as although it will make things safer for the other dogs it will do nothing to retrain and improve the underlying issues
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