Fear Aggression and Clueless People...

[mcguiregirl2248]

The only time that I have to deal with a large group of dogs is when we go to the HS walk in the spring. I usually keep my girls far away from the other idiots that are there. This year there were a lot more close calls with fights from other dogs than the previous years. I do a lot of scanning to know who is around me. When we actually do the walk, I keep an eye on all of the dogs around us and if I become uncomfortable with who is by us, I stop and back off of the path and let them pass us. My girls are small compared to the majority of the idiot dogs that are taken to the walk, I'm not having to leave because one of them gets hurt from someone else's stupidity. I agree, most people are just idiots and have no idea how to read dogs at all.

 

[Chris]

None of my girls likes to be approach/rushed by a strange dog. I'll often sweep Layla up in my arms if I'm concerned.

Annie doesn't trust children and will snap, so we tell kids, "You can pet these two (Layla and Bits), but leave the little brown one alone. She bites." As soon as parents hear that, they're much more cautious. I believe in telling it like it is -- use the B-word!

 

[graydawntreader]

That annoys me, too. I don't run into it much in RL, but on the internet (not here) many people seem to be clueless about the nature and different causes of aggression...or even what aggression is! I get tired of explaining is over and over to people.
One other thing that annoys me is when I'm trying to teach Treader not to jump up on people, I ask people not to encourage him, and they say "Oh, I don't mind."

 

[Ania]

One other thing that annoys me is when I'm trying to teach Treader not to jump up on people, I ask people not to encourage him, and they say "Oh, I don't mind."

I get that too. It bothers me alot. Maia is the jumper. Sure 'you' may not care, but the next person or child might! I just don't want her to do it unless I ask her to. These people just don't get it. They look at me like I am some mean person, or unfriendly. But that is not it. I like for them to pet her, she likes it too, but when she is on the ground, that's all.

 

[k9kreationz]

I have yet to read through all of this, but as my agility trainer says, " just step between the two dogs and firmly say (to the owner), I don't want your dog near mine". lol. She's very assertive. I'm sure most of us would feel bad doing something like that, but honestly, even if we're training, our trainer tells us to let people know, and if they still won't listen, to BLOCK the dog. Yours, or theirs. Or even the person.

Hugs to your pup, and good luck with the training.

 

[davemize]

Annie doesn't trust children and will snap, so we tell kids, "You can pet these two (Layla and Bits), but leave the little brown one alone. She bites." As soon as parents hear that, they're much more cautious. I believe in telling it like it is -- use the B-word!

I agree, direct is best. Several years ago, I was walking in a park and saw a man in front of me with a beautiful American Bulldog. He was well behaved and quietly watched me approaching. At a distance, I asked the man if it was OK to pet his dog. "Nope, he'll rip your liver out and eat it". Needless to say, I moved on

 

[Caro]

Our biggest problems are still those big goofy labs that like to jump all over everyone!

All the dogs except one that have lunged, growled, or tried to bite Laika have been large black dogs. So she pretty much has a targeted hate for all black labs.

There must be something about black labs! We have exactly the same problem. And there seem to be a lot of black labs around. They just get too excited and squash poor Tully so as soon as she sees one she runs between my legs. We have 2 next door and Tully loves them so she licks them through the fence. But outside the yard as soon as Tully sees them she runs - poor things just dont understand.

 

[labgirl]

Labs are toooo friendly, they love everyone, they just don't get that everyone doesn't love them. I try my best to prevent Cadbury from 'rushing' dogs, doesn't always work but I am learning this is more due to me than him (I lack confidence, as my trainer explains, and this comes across when Cadbury is off lead). But I am working on it and we are making progress. Some lab owners don't think its a problem, I do and I aim to have dog that will respond to me and not run up to any dog it pleases.

However, there are also those people, as someone else mentioned, that don't get that their dogs are aggressive, and enable their behaviour to continue which then can impact on other dogs.

When I joined my Beginners class I was with four terriers. The first day I walked through the door, Cadbury had barely set down a paw and every dog set off on him led by this particular black dog.

Cadbury is thankfully very submissive - apparently this is unusual for a lab. So over time most of them were amicable with him - not the black terrier. One session we were going to be practicing socialising. All dogs were on lead and we were walking around. A cairn terrier approached Cadbury who rolled straight on his back as he is a bit scared of terriers (had his nose bitten at 4 months while he was on lead, sitting by my side, by a JRT on a flex-lead). This meeting was going OK, until the black terrier approached. She realised Cadbury was submitting and decided to attack and then suddenly another terrier appeared and joined in. Thankfully there was no biting, but they were all terrorising Cadbury. My trainer stormed over (she can be scary!). She wanted to know why the terrier owners had enabled their dogs to gang up on Cadbury when he was defenseless because he was on his back. She said they had ganged up on him because he was vulnerable and that the other owners should never have allowed them to do that. She also made it a point of saying it wasn't Cadbury's fault, which made me feel better (I always think I've done something wrong!)

We moved on to off lead recalls. The trainer took me aside and explained she was going to bring in her dog during the exercise because she knew the black terrier was liable to cause a scene. She has a Leonberger (now that's a big dog), well he was a genuine Alpha dog, aloof, confident, wonderful.

The off lead stuff begins, she introduced the dogs gradually, mostly it was OK. Cadbury tried to appease the terriers by giving them toys. Then the black terrier was introduced - well I've never seen anything like it! She raced across the ground, jumped at the Leonbergers face and bit his nose. To his credit the Leonberger ignored her completely. The black terrier kept attacking the trainer's dog. The owner just stood there.

My trainer was flabberghasted, "you do know your dog is attacking?" she asked the owner - the owner thought she was playing

Sorry for rambling, I guess that was a story I needed to get off my chest, it really bugged me at the time because these owners would allow their black terrier to come up to Cadbury in the car park prior to every training class to 'socialise' and this would result in Cadbury's nose being nipped even when he was laying on his back in submission.

I came to really hate that dog.

I hope you can help your dog - do you have a friend with a really placid, submissive dog you could work with? I'd offer Cadbury, he gets used as a stooge with fearful dogs quite often because he is so submissive, but I would have to charge you air fare

 

[Calliesmom]

The off lead stuff begins, she introduced the dogs gradually, mostly it was OK. Cadbury tried to appease the terriers by giving them toys. Then the black terrier was introduced - well I've never seen anything like it! She raced across the ground, jumped at the Leonbergers face and bit his nose. To his credit the Leonberger ignored her completely. The black terrier kept attacking the trainer's dog. The owner just stood there.

My trainer was flabberghasted, "you do know your dog is attacking?" she asked the owner - the owner thought she was playing

Sorry for rambling, I guess that was a story I needed to get off my chest, it really bugged me at the time because these owners would allow their black terrier to come up to Cadbury in the car park prior to every training class to 'socialise' and this would result in Cadbury's nose being nipped even when he was laying on his back in submission.

You really have to wonder about some people- how do they not notice that their dog is trying to eat the other dog -if they can't tell- they probably shouldn't have a dog.

 

[Caro]

It is really dangerous to try to 'socialise' an aggressive dog in this manner - it feeds in to the aggression and can result in a serious attack.

Someone from over the other side of the reserve used to 'socialise' her rescue cattle dog by bringing the dog to my and my neighbours fences and letting the dog run the fenceline snarling and jumping and trying to get at our dogs. I asked several times for her to stop it as did my neighbour. Her actions resulted in two things. Our dogs started barking at dogs going past because they now saw dogs on the other side as a threat - before that they didnt care and now its been impossible to get them to stop. But what is worse was I was walking my dogs one day and the same dog came out of nowhere and grabbed Tully by the neck and started shaking her!