Hi guys-
So my husky, Bane, will be 7 months old in about a week. Since about 3 months old we have been socializing him with multiple dogs. We live in a city so I take him to a dog park about every night. He has "dog park best friends" that frequent the park and play together daily. He has never shown any signs of aggression what-so-ever. He isn't even territorial with other dogs about toys/bones/treats (He let a dog take his coveted marrow bone right out of his mouth before).

At the dog park today, he randomly got aggressive with a whippet that he's played with multiple times before. He growled (which he never does-he barely ever barks or howls) and kind of charged after him and tried to bite him. My dog was totally unprovoked. The only thing I can think of is this particular whippet dog barks constantly but he was just trying to play. The altercation was thankfully split up in seconds so no one got hurt but I am now flabbergasted!

Has anyone had experiences where their really aloof, go with the flow pup suddenly turned aggressive when they started to grow into adults? I'm hoping this was just a one time thing where maybe this dog just rubbed him the wrong way somehow.

Side note-he is not yet fixed so I don't know if this is maybe a factor too?

I think it just happens. My boy Kohdi just turned 4, we know someone in the neighborhood that adopted a 3 year old male husky and first two times they were together, they were like buds, third time, out of nowhere, Kohdi lit into him, it happened so fast that I had originally thought the other husky started it but it just happened again recently and like with your pup, Kohdi is fine with EVERY dog, even dogs that have shown aggression towards him but now ...I was just left with my jaw on the floor seeing Kohdi react to him that way. And this wasn't even dogs running freely, all dogs met, in passing on their respective walks, on leashes. I watched the other husky very closely and saw nothing that could have set Kohdi off, but...I realize these are dogs and have their own unique understanding of each other that we humans may never understand so I just gotta believe that Kohdi has his reasons. I don't think Kohdi would ever bite him though, just like with yours, he may have gone after the whippet and looked like he would bite, but I'm kinda wondering if he actually would have followed through or if it was more...I dunno, a warning?

Others will chime in I'm sure, things like not being neutered could be playing a part in your pup in the sense that his senses now that he's growing and more mature are more in tune with things, but I don't know if being neutered would actually stop it from happening, my Kohdi is neutered.

My male is super dog friendly but if an unfixed female in heat is around he has issues. With yours being unfixed if there is an unfixed female in the area that is in heat it can change them. Males that are fixed later in life I've noticed can still have a reaction to females in heat so even if the Whippet is older and fixed if it was fixed later it might still have subtle reactions to a female in the area that your dog is picking up on and challenging.

On another note, huskies play really rough naturally so telling the difference between a husky that is coming into his natural husky play as he ages can be hard for some. They bite each other, they growl and sometimes bark at each other, and they try to drag each other and throw each other down by their scruffs. Other dog breeds don't understand this play sometimes and will take it a little too serious leading to a real altercation instead of the play look-a-like.

Some dogs also just don't jive, the same as people. Where these two have played together fine before, I tend to lean away from this unless the Whippet is also around the same age and getting more mature also where scent changes could be occurring. Or as I mentioned above female causing outside problems for them so they aren't thinking straight.

My Husky is very friendly, and doesn't seem to care about other dogs being aggressive towards him. In fact, if the aggressive dogs that bark and growl at him on our walk are missing, he gets upset.

We have friends that bring their dogs by our house every so often. We let the dogs run around in the backyard and play with each other. It's great fun for everyone. My dogs have always gotten along with the visiting dogs.

One day however, I was on a walk with just the Husky, and when we got back, there was a visiting doggy friend in our yard. They knew each other, and they play together in the yard regularly, but we've never had this scenario before. Rorschach freaked out at a dog being in his yard. Good friends, play together in the yard regularly, but him coming home to a dog in the yard set him off. He got VERY aggressive. I had to drag him to his kennel by the leash and separate him for awhile before he calmed down. After he calmed down, we let him out and there was no issue.

1 thing was different about the situation and my dog acted like I had never seen him act before.

Basically, it could have been anything, and the fact that he can't communicate clearly with you, it makes it very hard to figure it out. I wouldn't get worried right now, but I would watch him like a hawk for awhile. If you have the situation repeat itself, you'll want to compare the incidents to see if you can determine a common denominator.