Advice wanted about dog aggression.

Sorry if this is in the wrong forum,admin/mods please move it to where it should be if it is.

I was out walking with Ossie (Staffordshire Bull Terrier) this afternoon in the wooded area of our favourite walk,Ossie was on his extendable lead as always.Around the bend came two large collie X dogs.Ossie (who is not aggressive but will true to breed not back down)did his usual tail wagging and all excited jumping around,started to do the usual doggy thing.One of the other dogs was very playful sniffing and jumping with him.But the other dog seemedto become jealous and went for Ossie.My dog then went back at him, while i was trying to get him away the other dog then joined in with the other dog and it was a two on one situation with the collie x owner nowhere to be seen.

Now this is my dilemma,My first instinct was to let Ossie off of his lead to enable him to defend himself properly as i could not get him away from the situation.This is probably wrong and im sure some of you will give me a hard time over this.But rather than give me a lecture,please give constructive advice as this is the first time i have ever faced this situation.I have never had this before in twenty years of owning a dog,so i guess im lucky so far.

Anyway Ossie was not hurt fortunately and neither were the other dogs,but the owner of the dogs was on the path above the one we were on and apparently saw everything.He went mental on me saying I was out of order letting a dangerous dog off lead.When i pointed out that my dog was defending himself he said that i had a lethal weapon and that he could report me for letting Ossie off of his lead in a public place.
With this i pointed out that Any out of control dog was a dangerous dog and that he had two,well i cannot repeat the obscenities he threw at me for fear of being banned from the site.I have logged this incident on the dog warden answer phone.

So as you can see i am in a bit of a dilemma,what would you do in this situation,i am as far as im concerned being a responsible Staffie owner and not letting him off lead as per most staffie sites and literature i have read.What would you do????

aww poor you and poor ossie not a very nice thing for you two to encounter on a walk how can this man say that your dog is a danger you as an owner was giving your dog a chance to defend himself he would of done the same anyway his were of lead to start with i dont know what gets into some people these days they see a staff and firstly assume its a killing machine well thats a load of rubbish sorry i cant offer any constructive advice but can send you both loads of hugs for an upsetting walk

Letting your dog off its lead, in the eyes of the law makes you equally responsible for that attack, as the other dogs owner was not there to see your dog ON its lead to begin with, you have no case to defend otherwise.

If you ask me, I would NOT of let my dog off, especially being a Staff, I could of imagined exactly what you have said happened, happening, and my dog being blamed.
Dawn.,

Thanks Bluemerle,and Borderdawn.

Yes thinking about it afterwards Dawn i do realise what could have happened,but it all happened so quickly and the point you made about the collie's owner not being there is also a valid point.Why was he not there supervising his obviously aggressive dog?My Staff has never shown any aggression to another dog at all.But yes being a Staff,he would have got blamed.But let him off ??? Don't let him off??? he would still have got the blame if one of the other dogs were hurt.Which thankfully they wern't.

totallyagree.............but think my instant reaction wouldve been to give ossie the fight/flight option.its a really hard situation...........poor ossie n u.

There are two BCs around here who are often left to their own devices they are quite aggressive towards other dogs and humans in the sense they bark at you.

I remember when Rocky was a pup we went down near the river and spotted them but watched them from the bridge (as I'd never seen them before) which was quite a way away, when they spotted us they started to bark at us! Soon as they started towards us I quickly took Rocky home - I was doing all I can to avoid him getting into a fight so young (because I didn't want him to grow up dog-aggressive). Anyway, a few months ago at night time I took Rocky out and guess which dogs were loose?! Lol they startled me when they barked at us and came running towards us, so I shouted at them GET AWAY!! really really loud! They stopped and turned around and Rocky barked at them too! (in a 'that told ya' sortof way!)

Now if they came and started to attack Rocky I would probably keep Rocky on the lead and try to kick them away, more in a pushing away manner than a kicking football type manner and continue to shout very loudly at them. If I let Rocky off and he fought back then they would probably be more injured than a few pushes away with my foot and it would be much harder to take control of the situation if they were all off-lead.

The shouting has done the trick twice, another instance was someone left their front gardens gate open and the dog (another BC I'm afraid!) came running out when it saw us, growling! It obviously came over to protect it's territory however a really LOUD Get away did the trick - it also alarmed the dogs owner who called it back/fetched it.

So in my own experience keeping my dog on his lead and SHOUTING REALLY loudly has done the trick twice. Not only to warn off the dog but to alarm it's owners too.

Hi Stamford, what would I have done in that situation? Would I have let my dog off the lead, no certainly not.. the key is to anticipate awkward situations before they arise and take avoiding action

When out with my dog on a lead, I regard any dogs I meet that are 'off lead' as unpredictable unless I know them really well . I don't like extendable leads at all because they don't give you any control over your dog (and I don't see the point in them unless you are using them as a line to teach recall..all they do is enable your dog to walk a long way ahead of you )so rather than let my dog sniff two dogs I was not sure of I would have distracted him with a treat from my pocket so that an awkward situation could be avoided.

I can understand this situation so well. I started walking daily a staffie for someone when I was 14. Not long after, an ex-illegal-fighting staffie was off lead and charged the length of a park and attacked Levi. I was inexperienced and literally put myself between him and the other dog, my dog was on lead. Luckily the owner arrived and took him off, not before poor Levi had got a ruptered artery (I thought blood spraying verticlly was something done on films to make it look gruesome!)
Anyway, in 4 years of walking him daily, I learnt to not only predict his body language and also the body language of any dogs off-lead. My basic policy became, a dog he doesn't know, avoid if possible. But obviously I didn't run away from these dogs, I didnt want to be chased! But what I mean is, in future, if you see dogs off-lead that you don't know, especially if no owner around, turn and walk the other way. I'm not doing to say you did a bad thing by letting him off, or a good thing, you did what you could in that situation. I know exactly what its like to be in that situation.
Sorry for being so long-winded about it, just wanted you to know others have been there! Also, abuse by owners is no fun. I remember one time, I was trying to avoid a group of people and heir pack of dogs. A dog which I knew to be dog agressive was thankfully on-lead, but a few tiny dogs were not and charged at Levi. I kept walking briskly away but they chased, and when he snarled (thats all he did) I got a lot of verbal abuse saying MY dog needed to be muzzled! I just kept walking and Levi followed. Some people you willnever be able to win with. Chin up, and I hope you don't have to deal with that again.
Melanie

sadly owning a dog aggresive staffie - this is my territory.

i dont think you should have let him off - however hindsight is a wonderful thing isnt it ! I think for future - try to avoid off lead dogs unless you know them - totally easier said that done but avoiding a situation is always best.

Dawn is correct in that both owners were to blame in this situation due to eventually both dogs being off lead - however with urs starting onlead then actually you are right the other dog owner was not in control of his dogs - however he saw what he wanted to which was a staffie attacking !

i do think the main thing to remember is that a staffie can do so much more damage in a much shorter period of time than most other dogs.. and thats why I always make sure bruno doesnt get the chance.

You cant be responsible for other dogs - in future if you get this situation dont let Ossie off and try and walk awway as much as you can - and then you have more ammunition for the other dog owner - as it would be totally their fault if anything happened to their OFF lead dogs with ur ONlead dog.

know exactly where you are coming from - I get it almost every day !
dani

Totally agree with Brundog.......I also have a staffie who is not too good with other dogs....