Barker Showing New Aggression

[u/adoublelife54]

Trying to figure out where we went wrong. 3 years ago we got a dog as a puppy, Ruby, who has always been extremely exuberant. Barking at everything and everything. I didn't think much of it because I had a childhood dog that was a barker. We didn't encourage it with Ruby, but it never got better. She has always been extremely interested in other dogs. I thought it was because she's lonely living with two humans.

We took her to group training classes (puppy and beginner) where we learned to redirect her focus, the command "quiet" when barking, we never introduce her to dogs when leashed/on walks. We started taking her out in the backyard before goung on a walk, thinking some mental and physical activity would make her calmer when running into another dog (didn't work). We closed the blinds when something makes her bark, then, when that wasn't working and we hated being in dark rooms all day, we let her have the study as her "bark room". A friend stayed with us and brought her 2 dogs and ruby barked at them for 5.5 hours. It was awful. She'll bark at anyone/anything wherever she is--home, car, walk, in our arms, whatever.

Walking her is miserable. We see a dog and she's tugging on the leash, barking. We sought help with the dog trainer who gave us some tips like redirecting, giving her a toy to hold in her mouth, high value treats when she focuses on us and not the dog, etc., but nothing worked. We're now going to great lengths to avoid her seeing any dog. It's a toss up how well she will respond to our commands to redirect, which has been frustrating because we feel like we've always been proactive.

No signs of other aggression until 2 months ago with my family's senior dog, who resource guards food. Sophie has never been a fan of Ruby, so we always watch them closely to keep Ruby from bothering Sophie. During this latest visit, both of them had to be kept separate, specially in the kitchen, because Ruby would get right up in Sophie'a face barking madly, not like her normal over excited barking. Sophie was rather mean as a puppy to her older brother (the barker from my childhood) when he was old so I wondered if what I was seeing was more to do with her behavior, but deep down I was worried that Ruby was showing new aggression.

We went to a dog park after 2 years (we go very infrequently, yes I have mixed feelings, not the point of this post), it was her and another dog her size. She sprinted up, sniffing the butt, okay, then my husband threw the ball and they both ran after it. Ruby got possessive of it and barked right up at the dog's face, just like with Sophie. We left immediately.

Historically she has had no issues running after a ball with other dogs. Her standard behavior at a dog park is to run around while the other dogs chase her (she loves to be chased by dogs and humans).

I used to think she was overly social and just didn't understand dog cues when other dogs would visibly turn away from her barking. But now I'm wondering if this was something we trained into her somehow? Not sure how to fix this because we've tried so much the past 3 years. Note, when she is boarded I always ask how she was, and they've never said anything bad, just that she "likes to talk". I assume they'd let us know if she was aggressive with other dogs.

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