Off Lead Dog

[Alfie02]

Hi everyone !

So today I was out walking with my mother and her dog when we came across a very cute little papillion cross dog and of course it came running over ignoring the owners calls.

My mothers dog is an 11 year old desexed male maltese cross who is dog agressive (despite our best socialsation efforts, we even hired a specialist who couldnt help us). So we kept walking pulling our dog along (who was on leash and always is) while this off lead dog follwed us. We eventually stopped as the off lead dog wasnt going to give up, and to our suprise our dog liked this off leash dog and stared to play! Now here is the real suprise, when the owner finally came over, who was actually very nice (the dogs payed whilst we had a conversation with him), informed us that his dog was an entire male.

Can anyone tell me why a dog agressive dog would choose to like another dog that is entire? He never likes other dogs, im so amazed! lol.

:D

[skip]

I'm only quessing but maybe the pap x gave off all the right signals so that your dog wasn't threatened and so wasn't afraid. But the pap was also hardy enough that your dog didn't think giving him a snap or barking at him was a good idea either. Hence your dog thougth I had better just play nice.

My small girl can decide at once from a distance what dogs she is timid of and who she can boss around. Not an appealing trait really but I can understand it and I only let her meet well behaved dogs. If the dog we meet is timid or reallly full on pushy I don't let her interact. She will either be scared or have a go at the timid dog.

But she is oK with dogs that are well behaved and confident as well. I meet a breeder on our off leash beach who walks 3 lots of Swedish valhunds a lot and just recently Gemma saw them coming and bolted up to one of her dogs and jumped up to give it a big hello. My friend was really surprised as she had never seen my girl that friendly before. But it takes her a while to feel confident.

I walk on off lead beaches nearly daily. My boy likes to sniff bums, quick hello and move on. BUt the way he reacts to different sorts of dog is interesting. I have learnt what he likes and not. And sometimes I meet that dog that really switches him on, he goes into a play bow etc. straight away.

Glad for your dog that he made a friend.

[Alfie02]

Yeah he was a really nice little dog and I guess it was just good signals, I hope we run into this little guy again :D . Im just so happy that he made a new friend !

[skip]

Yes , I know it has been said on DOL that it is our need for our dogs to play as such. But I get a kick out of my dog doing burnouts with some dog in hot pursuit.

My girl only plays with a toy poodle my aunt owns but I like to visit and watch them play chasies. LIke your dog for some reason the poodle adores my somewhat dominant wild little girl. Which I find surprising as the chi x plants a foot on the toy poodle face to stop the pooodle from trying lick her to death. My aunt thinks it looks a bit wild but the poodle just keeps coming back for more so I let them rip.

Hope you meet again and the play goes on.

[Alfie02]

Its great to watch two dogs run around like wild things isnt it , it makes me happy to see dogs having so much fun, especially my mum's usually anti social dog!

[alpha bet]

You said you have tried to socialise your dog - with no success.

The fact that a little dog who you met by chance was able to make friends should give you hope that perhaps you could find a solution to your dog aggressive dog. Many dog aggressive dogs (especially little dogs) are actually lacking self confidence. Good steady dogs help to build the confidence of the nervous dog.

Perhaps you could try again - see if you could find a professional who might specialize in developing good social skills in dogs. Might really be great fun for you and your dog if you could go out and mix with others.

Best of luck.

[Alfie02]

Hi alpha bet ,

We have tried to do all the right things since he was a puppy like puppy preschool and constant socilization with people and other dogs, but with still no sucess. The sad truth is that he is from a backyard breeder. When we picked him up we were not aloud to see the mum because she was sick from a spider bite...(later on we found out she was agressive, we were sooooo dumb I know). His agression started from a puppy, with strangers and dogs (he bit someone at puppy preschool ). He has also been attacked twice by lage dogs roaming the streets when we were out for walks which did not help him in anyway.

But I definatley agree with you, today showed us that there is still hope and I hope I can use this chance to keep socilizing him gradually with more and more friendly dogs.

Thanks for the luck

[corvus]

Awww, your poor little guy. I'm amazed at the resilience of some dogs. It's great that he discovered some dogs aren't so bad! I have a big, gentle dog and a little boisterous dog. I find that often small dogs like the little guy at first and are scared of the big guy, but then the little guy charges around like an idiot and they check out the big guy and find that he's not doing anything scary and they soon gather the courage to get closer, and closer, and pretty soon they are loving on him. He ignores them until they are comfy, and he's really good about making no sudden moves and letting them come to him. Sometimes I think I should hire him out. Maybe the Pap was just the right size and sending out the right signals?

[Alfie02]

Yes Corvus you should hire him out! He sounds like a wonderful dog . Ignoring other dogs when they are unsure is such a great quality for a dog to have when meeting new dogs! Thats so true about the little dogs pairing up with the other little dogs untill they realise that hanging out with the relaxed and chilled out big guy seems like the better option .