Aggressive reactions? (long)

[MadeToFly]

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!

 

[Doberluv]

Socializing a puppy should be done in a controlled setting, where you choose the dogs your dog is to socialize with....dogs known to you that are tolerant and safe. Dog parks are completely random. You don't know what dog is going to come in there. This kind of episode can cause some dog-dog aggression issues in your dog. Are there some dogs you know that you could arrange a play group with? Your pup needs to have nothing but positive experiences from now on with all aspects of socialization. If Maddie starts getting riled up when she sees a dog, even without interacting with it, you should start a desensatizing program, a systematic practice where you keep her at a distance, feed high value treats when she sees another dog, before she gets reactive. Associate dogs with good things. Never use any corrections or other punishment if she acts up on account of other dogs.

 

[lizzybeth727]

Your dog was jumped by a dog many times her size/weight/age, and she was able to successfully get away from that dog AND manage to communicate to him to stay away from her.

Then your dog was jumped again by another dog, whom she also managed to defend herself against.

IMO, what your dog did here was fair.... she didn't start the fight, but she did manage to end it without either dog getting injured. I don't see it as "aggressiveness," but rather as dog communication.

That is, as long as your description of the incidences is completely accurate.... it's hard for us to judge exactly what happened since we couldn't actually see it.


Now, that said, it is SO NOT OK that these two incidences occured. It's very possible that these two dogs would have taught your dog that sometimes other dogs can be scary and she will need to be on the offensive. This offensive attitude on her part could lead to a dog getting hurt, or her "taking on" a dog even more offensive than she is and she could get seriously hurt.

It is up to YOU to protect her from this kind of situation. Dog parks, IMO, can be good for exercise and socialization, but too often bad experiences happen and dogs suffer from those experiences for the rest of their lives. If you don't know the dogs in the park, I'd suggest turning around and going home. Other dogs like the pug can show up at any minute, I understand, but from your description it sounds like you had several seconds' warning that the dog - who you described as "going mental" - was going to approach your dog; in those several seconds, you could have prevented the incident by getting your dogs back in the car, getting them in the house, getting them in the backyard, or even just body-blocking the dog yourself to prevent them from interracting.

I have a chihuahua, she's quite small and I know that a lot of larger dogs will either play too rough with her and hurt her, or think that she's prey and hurt her. Every time another dog approaches her, I have to react quickly to either prevent the dogs from greeting each other, or decide to wait and see how friendly the other dog will be. I consider myself somewhat of an expert on dog body language; but when I first got Luna over 5 years ago I did not trust myself and never let her interract with dogs I didn't know. I KNOW that that hyper-dilligence is what has protected her from other dangerous dogs over the years, and *knock on wood* she has never - in five years of being around strange dogs several times a week - been attacked by or needed to defend herself from other dogs.

 

[MadeToFly]

I had figured it was a defensive reaction to atleast fight back, but when I had mentioned what happened, to a friend of mine, she was shocked and said she was super aggressive now. Which is why I was a bit concerned.

I didn't have enough reaction time for the big Akita dog as I lurched forward the moment he was ontop of her but at the same time Maddie had attacked back.

The pug was a trickier situation as she's met this pug before and while it gets a bit worked up as never tried to attack her but it "went mental" (sorry, I can't find a better explanation) when about 5ft away. I park on my street and this happened inbetween my house and another, on the sidewalk. The pug/kids were in between me and the house otherwise I would've made a run for the house. It's excuses, I know, it just seemed to happen so fast I wasn't able to even "absorb" what was going on until the pug had latched itself onto Maddie and then she blew up.

I wish I had friends with other dogs for playdates but I'm at a loss for that one! A barn friend has 2 dogs she'll very occasionally take to a dog park (she prefers just a quick walk for them) but very rarely. I did make a friend at the dog park last visit, but this is the only leash-free park in the area so I don't know where else I could go because I don't feel comfortable letting either dog loose in an unfenced area no matter how large
And the dogs just on my street are ridiculous. When I was first teaching Maddie to go on walks just halfway up the block, we'd nearly get attacked atleast every time. Whether it's a dog just left on the porch who's jumped over the railing, a dog running out an open door, a loose dog, a stray, or one who's squeezed inbetween fences to come after us.. this neighbourhood is scary!

 

[Romy]

You need to protect your dog from negative encounters with aggressive dogs. You are her owner, she looks to you for her safety. When she decides she can't trust you to keep her safe anymore is when she will start reacting to them unprovoked. She shouldn't have to defend herself.

On leashed walks, carry mace or an air horn. If the dogs you regularly encounter are easily cowed, a bottle of water combined with yelling may work. If you use an air horn, make sure to desensitize her to the sound so she doesn't get freaked out by it.

My dog was attacked as a one year old because I wasn't prepared to defend him from aggressive off leash dogs while we were walking. It took several months to gain his trust back and get him to the point where he is happy to see strange dogs again. Trust me, you don't want to let these kinds of encounters keep happening. The consequences are not worth it.

I agree with the others that, as you described it, she was not being aggressive. She stood up for herself and nobody got hurt. If she keeps being put in those types of situations it's just like Dober said, she could easily learn that other dogs are to be feared and then you will have an aggression/reactivity issue.

 

[MadeToFly]

Alright, thanks guys!

I'll be on high alert from now on when we go for walks. We have a pitter up the street that routinely gets loose and is nasty, nasty, NASTY to other dogs. Now, I love pitbulls (Maddie made friends with a gorgeous, lovable pitter last week) but they are POWERFUL dogs and when they latch on they cause 10x more damage than say, a pug (IMHO!) so it makes me super nervous. This dog has killed a few neighbourhood cats over the years too. Ontop of that, it was loose a few days ago and on our porch. Maddie barked at her through the window and the dog LAUNCHED at the window. Thankfully not people aggressive but holy crap!
We also have a shepherd cross up the street as well, the owners toss him on the enclosed porch and he simply jumps off and runs at people/dogs. There's that stupid pug. A mastiff cross across the alley that also routinely squeezes through a gap between the fences and gets loose. Also dog aggressive and tries to attack the feral cats around here. Not very people friendly either (starts growling and approaching people in a weird way..sort've creeping forward. Thankfully backs off if you start hollaring/act threatening). Those are just the "regulars" Then there's the random strays that crop up every once and a while from nowhere.

My neighbourhood is ridiculously crappy, and the SPCA are just a massive failure at doing anything about it.