Possible aggression based reactive puppy?

[u/Current_Shake_4616]

I already made a post about my puppies reactivity, but today when I took her out, she acted out like she never has before. We were walking in a trail, and there was a small offleash dog running up to us. I picked her up and when the dog got closer she barked a couple times, and then did a very loud, threatening sounding growl. Whatever. We continued walking once the dog was gone, and started to head home. We have to walk by a dog park in order to get home which she is usually fine with unless a dog comes close to the fence. There were a few dogs heading into the dog park and she lost her absolute shit (growling, lunging, barking, hackles up) it did not just seem like fear to me, and this was the first ever time she exploded THAT severely. It did concern me considering she’s only around 6 months old and I have a feeling if she came in contact with any of those dogs she would’ve bit them. Even though we have made some progress, I don’t think she’s ever gonna get to the point where she can walk past another dog without reacting, especially considering what happened today. I’m so scared that this is aggression or that it’s turning into aggression, I have never dealt with an aggressive dog before. She’s worse than my german shepherd & her reactivity was severe. I don’t even know what to do anymore. Please tell me it gets better, please tell me what i’m dealing with.

[u/Monkey-Butt-316]

I’m sorry, I didn’t see your previous post. What makes you think it’s not fear based?

[u/Current_Shake_4616 → u/Monkey-Butt-316]

Well, I know it is fear based but i’m not sure if its JUST fear or if it’s also aggression. Theres no doubt it is fear but im afraid it’s gonna turn into something worse or already is. She growls, barks, lunges, and it doesn’t seem like it’s only in a fearful way. I think if she made contact with another dog she would bite. I know fear or even excitement can look like aggression but it feels very different in her case. I had a fear reactive german shepherd as well and she was nothing like this, all dogs are different of course but I think if it was just fear it would look different to what it does now. Her reactivity has also gotten progressively worse since i’ve gotten her

[u/Monkey-Butt-316 → u/Current_Shake_4616]

Sometimes the best defense is a good offense. Have you taken her to any group classes? Does she have any dog friends?

[u/Current_Shake_4616 → u/Monkey-Butt-316]

She doesn’t, and she’s never been to classes. I don’t know why she’s reactive because she’s a rescue and got her just before her socialization period ended so I wasn’t really able to do alot but I took her and still do take her everywhere possible to get tons of exposure. Her reactivity actually got progressively worse, she used to barely be reactive but there were still clear signs of it. We did try introducing her to my sisters dog since he’s friendly but he is very very hyper so he ended up trampling her and it scared the shit out of her & I think that might have made it worse. My neighbour does have a very mellow & friendly dog though so we’re planning on walking them together sometime.

[u/Monkey-Butt-316 → u/Current_Shake_4616]

Tbh this pretty much explains it - she’s under socialized but also terrified due to scary experiences with another dog.