Quinn Did Something New Today, I Was Proud

[Simply Grand]

For those who don't know Quinn is my 21 kg Australian Shepherd. She turned 1 last week.

Form the past month or two as she has matured she has become quite the peacemaker. If she hears conflict or argument between a couple of dogs (you know, the growling and posturing) she will run over and plant herself between them. She does it especially if one of my other two smaller dogs is in an uncomfortable situation but will do it at the dog park with other dogs as well.

Things have never escalated when she has done this, the other dogs seem to lose interest and move away. She has always been good at reading other dogs and has never had conflict or been pushed so while I knew she was confident, I didn't know what she would do if pushed.

Today at the park we ran into a couple who have a female dog the same age as Quinn, our two pups played regularly at the park when they were younger but we hadn't seen them in a good few months. Today they had a newer pup with them, a 7 month old male BC. He was obviously fearful in the situation and was sitting between his owner's feet. Quinn went over and sniffed him, he reacted by snarling and barking, their older girl dog then stepped in, stood between the puppy and Quinn and snapped and growled herself. Quinn stood her ground but didn't react. I then called her away and she came.

A few minutes later we ended up back beside the owner and the BC pup. He was again snarling and snapping, standing between his owner's feet. I was right next to Quinn, she was doing the same as before, standing still and watching the pup. The pup's owner and I decided to see what happened, seeing as we knew each other, we were both ready to step in and there wasn't too much size difference between the dogs. The BC pup kept barking and snapping but not making contact and after a moment of standing there Quinn lifted her paw, pushed his head and shoulders down and stood over him! She didn't make a sound, didn't open her mouth, and as soon as she did that the pup shut up, waited til she let him up then tentatively sniffed at her, and then my older little dog Saxon. And all was well :)

I've read about adult dogs doing this kind of thing with puppies to teach them manners but I didn't expect it of my just-one-year-old girl. I think I am very lucky to have her

[RubyBlue]

Hmm. Based on what you have said I'd have interpreted that differently.

Your adolescent dog got into the space of a puppy who was clearly intimidated. Continued to eyeball him (you didn't mention if she was doing any calming signals) then proceeded to flatten him. This was all despite the other dog in the puppys household also warning her to back off.

[minimax]

Your proud because your dog flattended a scared puppy and intimidated him?

to you, I guess.

[megan_]

No one here saw what happened - we don't know if the "pup" was scared, or just being obnoxious. Sometimes a stable adult dog can tell a dog to behave. Perfectly acceptable. Sometimes adult dogs can be bullies. Unless you are fairly well versed in dog interaction (most people, even those on DOL, aren't) and you actually witness the event you can't really say what happened.

Personally, if Quinn was my dog, I wouldn't have let her approach the pup in the first place. If a dog is hiding between its owners legs then I'd leave it be. Even if the initial incident had happened, I wouldn't have approached them again. Clearly the other dog was unhappy - maybe rightly so, maybe it was being a little sh*t. Either way, I wouldn't risk my dog being snapped at in this situation. Dog fights can happen in seconds and it could have been three dogs against Quinn if the pack decided to back their pup. You'd have to be very, very good at breaking up fights to deal with that one.

[Simply Grand]

I knew there would be mixed responses, which is why I posted. I appreciate the feedback and welcome more.

I do wish people could have seen the interaction as obviously that makes a big difference to interpretation.

Minimax, Quinn definitely did not 'flatten' the puppy. She calmly and gently placed her front leg over his shoulders and pressed him down, held him for maybe a second then

removed her paw. People who have seen a well adjusted adult do this to a puppy misbehaving will know what I mean.

Megan, I agree with you that it could have been a dangerous situation and is not something I would normally

do. I certainly wouldn't have done it if I didn't know the owners and their other dog quite well. I also wouldn't have done it had the puppy been younger or smaller, if there had been other dogs nearby at the time (their other dog was not nearby, Saxon came over afterwards), nor if Quinn had

shown any sign of reacting either aggressively or fearfully

towards the pup when they first saw each other.

I didn't say clearly in my first post I know but after it happened the puppy came out from the owners legs and as I said sniffed at Quinn as she sat next to me, then walked over to Saxon voluntarily and sniffed him too. I am certainly

no expert but I am confident that he was at that stage more comfortable than he had been previously when he was snapping and snarling at every dog who came near him.

As I said I do welcome comments but please know that I did think this through before I did it.

Edited November 23, 2012 by Simply Grand