Sorry this might be long!
Last week I took my 6 month puppy (and other dog) to the dog park to play and socialize a bit. I really did pick the wrong day as most of the dogs were very rambunctious. However there was a nasty dog there, looked to be some sort of akita cross (looked like an Akita but was a good 100-120lbs). We barely got 20ft into the leashfree area when that dog came flying over. Now Bud, my older dog, just took off like a bat out of hell but Maddie hunched into a submissive posture half on her side. This dog launched on her, flipped her over and grabbed her by the side of the neck. I RAN towards the dog in a huge panic but almost instantly Maddie, my puppy snapped. She made the freakiest growling/snarling noises, flipped on her back and sort of "kicked" at the dog's face with her back legs. The dog released but Maddie still lost it. She made really nasty noises, her fur was straight up from her neck to the base of her tail. She lunged at this dog teeth bared, attached onto his throat before she got shook off and proceeded to chase him a good 20 feet snapping/biting at his flanks and hind legs before stopping and trotting back to me. She was a little shook up but recovered seconds later to go play with other dogs but I've NEVER seen that type of aggression from her.
Of course the other dog's owner snapped at me and told me I shouldn't bring an aggressive dog to a public park..! The Akita creature did end up attacking another dog before the owner withdrew him from the park.
Now poor Maddie has never shown any other signs of being remotely aggressive except with strangers on our porch/knocking on the door and it's only barking/fur raising.
And to add to our luck, when I was home and took the dogs out of the car, there were some kids near my house and one had a little fat pug. The pug went mental and apparently dragged (can a pug even DRAG someone?) the kid over to Maddie. She was fine and went to greet the pug but then it went snarly, lunged and LATCHED onto her shoulder. Well she blew up again, making crazy growling/snarling noises and grabbed a hold of the pug, snapped several times (it yelped and was 'screaming') and pinned it down while nipping (I say nipping because there was no damage to the pug, I figure if she really wanted to bite there would've been blood). I managed to pull Maddie off and kick the pug away (whom tried to lunge the minute it was released) but Maddie continued to strain against the leash while barking, growling/snarling and baring her teeth. I hollared her name and she immediately stopped but I had to yell at the kids to take the pug across the street because they were still standing there.
She doesn't appear to have changed from those two experiences (in the SAME day) and I took her back to the dog park today and she was submissive and playful like usual. It just seems to blows up when she actually gets hurt.
Is there something I can do to curb this, or is this some sort of fair reaction to the two attacks? My older dog has been laid back since we got him at 6 weeks (he's 7.5 years old now) and a huge chicken so we've never encountered this issue.
Sorry for the novel!
Last week I took my 6 month puppy (and other dog) to the dog park to play and socialize a bit. I really did pick the wrong day as most of the dogs were very rambunctious. However there was a nasty dog there, looked to be some sort of akita cross (looked like an Akita but was a good 100-120lbs). We barely got 20ft into the leashfree area when that dog came flying over. Now Bud, my older dog, just took off like a bat out of hell but Maddie hunched into a submissive posture half on her side. This dog launched on her, flipped her over and grabbed her by the side of the neck. I RAN towards the dog in a huge panic but almost instantly Maddie, my puppy snapped. She made the freakiest growling/snarling noises, flipped on her back and sort of "kicked" at the dog's face with her back legs. The dog released but Maddie still lost it. She made really nasty noises, her fur was straight up from her neck to the base of her tail. She lunged at this dog teeth bared, attached onto his throat before she got shook off and proceeded to chase him a good 20 feet snapping/biting at his flanks and hind legs before stopping and trotting back to me. She was a little shook up but recovered seconds later to go play with other dogs but I've NEVER seen that type of aggression from her.
Of course the other dog's owner snapped at me and told me I shouldn't bring an aggressive dog to a public park..! The Akita creature did end up attacking another dog before the owner withdrew him from the park.
Now poor Maddie has never shown any other signs of being remotely aggressive except with strangers on our porch/knocking on the door and it's only barking/fur raising.
And to add to our luck, when I was home and took the dogs out of the car, there were some kids near my house and one had a little fat pug. The pug went mental and apparently dragged (can a pug even DRAG someone?) the kid over to Maddie. She was fine and went to greet the pug but then it went snarly, lunged and LATCHED onto her shoulder. Well she blew up again, making crazy growling/snarling noises and grabbed a hold of the pug, snapped several times (it yelped and was 'screaming') and pinned it down while nipping (I say nipping because there was no damage to the pug, I figure if she really wanted to bite there would've been blood). I managed to pull Maddie off and kick the pug away (whom tried to lunge the minute it was released) but Maddie continued to strain against the leash while barking, growling/snarling and baring her teeth. I hollared her name and she immediately stopped but I had to yell at the kids to take the pug across the street because they were still standing there.
She doesn't appear to have changed from those two experiences (in the SAME day) and I took her back to the dog park today and she was submissive and playful like usual. It just seems to blows up when she actually gets hurt.
Is there something I can do to curb this, or is this some sort of fair reaction to the two attacks? My older dog has been laid back since we got him at 6 weeks (he's 7.5 years old now) and a huge chicken so we've never encountered this issue.
Sorry for the novel!