MuckyPug

And another question - if he's fine with dogs generally, but doesn't like the ones in his face and he does remove himself but sometimes can't (on visit, it was 3 big dogs standing over him, cornered him) and I say to the owners 'move your dogs on' and they say 'well, if you're dog can't cope you shouldn't be here', were do I stand on that. I get what they are saying, but he is being ganged up on and he's small and he feels threatened, how is he supposed to act? Gawd - I'm having more problem with Max getting bullied in the dog park than the kids getting bullied at school!!

thanks everyone. I like the saying 'common sense is really not that common'. The first time it happened, it was SO obvious that Max was trying to move away from this dog. It took a good 5 minutes before he lashed out - he just kept coming back to me, going around, backing away, etc and the owner just stood a metre away, laughing and saying 'oh, she won't hurt him'. I just don't understand why he couldn't see that Max didn't like it and call his dog off to find someone else his own size to play with (seriously, this dog was massive!). Ah well, I suppose I'll just have to play it on a day by day basis, and pick my times. Can I ask - if he is saying 'back off' but he bites another dog - we will be in big trouble, yeah?

Thanks poodlefan and persephone - my husband said the same thing, just pick my times and only take him in when there's no big dogs in there. The paddocks surrounding the park are off lead too and although they are not fenced, I think we may do our ball chasing there. My biggest worry is that if we keep repeating this, he may get nervous around all big dogs and not just the ones that get in his face (because he's fine to say hello, and go their separate ways but you don't always which dogs will do this). I didn't think of not taking his ball and the problem it could cause - thanks for that. Makes sense. Ah well, perhaps we'll stick to Pugwood and the paddocks.

sorry - double post.

Can I ask, is Max's reaction to these dogs "normal" or should he be taught to tolerate them? I'm just worried that he is the one with the problem, not them, iykwim.

Firstly, Hi. And now I need some advice. We have a just turned 2 year old pug, Max. He's a lovely dog, very placid and quite social. We take him along to Pugwood (Elsternwick Park) on a semi regular basis (we are fair weather Pugwood attendees!). He is great with the other dogs there, pugs and others, even the big dogs. He likes to chase and be chased. He has pretty good recall, will come and sit when called (once he's run his sillies out, and settles a bit which we try and do before we go so he's a bit pooped!). We have an off lead, fenced dog park very close to us which I've just discovered. We have been 3 times, and two times we have been, Max has been 'hassled' by the bigger dogs, with not a good result. When we go, he wants to chase his ball (he is ball obsessed, and will retrieve that ball no matter how many times we throw it and it's great exercise for him because we can throw it much further than the confines of our garden and because he's quite athletic and loves a good run he loves it). He will sniff the other dogs, run around but then he wanders off to do his ball thing. The first time we went, a large dog (ridgeback cross with a dane I think it was) stood over Max, playfully, but Max felt intimidated and came back to us to move away. Large dog followed and continued to stand over him, sniff him but move around and not let Max sniff him, all the time trying to get Max to "play" be jumping over him. This went on for a few minutes, Max with his tail down, trying to move away and the big dog just towering over him. Then big dog barked at Max and Max lost his temper and turned on the dog. He showed his teeth and looked so scary to me. I call Max away, but it took a few seconds for him to pull away and I sat him, put his lead on and we left. Then we went back the next day and it happened again, with 2 labs. They just got right up in his face. They sniffed, he sniffed and then when he tried to leave, they got on top of him barking and chased and he didn't like being chased by big dogs and again got his teeth out. My heart was pounding. I've never seen him "mean". And I'm so worried that if he gets cranky with these big dogs, they will turn on him and he'll come off second best for sure. Or, if he managed to latch onto one of these bigger dogs, we will get into lots of trouble and we don't want to lose him. So, what's etiquette in this situation? It's obvious that Max wants to be left alone by these big dogs, he removes himself and I always move to the far ends of the park, but they persist and their owners just watch and laugh and say "oh, mine only wants to play". Is Max just antisocial and not cut out for off lead parks? Or can I ask the owners to call their dogs away when they stand over him? It's shame, because a lot of the dogs just come up, have a sniff and then off on their way and Max does the same to them - but there's these few dogs that just want to get right in his face and he just doesn't like it and I don't know what to do