For your own dog I guess working on excellent obedience is all-important and trying to distract the dog/break its stare etc. I often try to block my dog's view of another dog. Doesn't always work, I must admit.

I did read somewhere that if another dog is approaching aggressively, shouting, "sit" may stop them in their tracks because it is a command that is followed automatically.

I have thought long and hard about this and i really dont know what i would do, i usually have my 4 yr old with me so her safety would come first, once she was out the way i can imagine i would jump right in but who knows, it may all be a different story if it actually happened.

Sorry thats not much help but how you THINK you would react to something isnt always how it goes.

Jules
xxx

I really don't know either,Ollie is very confident with us but I have a feeling that if an aggressive dog came towards him he would be terrified so I suppose it would be up to me to protect him,I would let him off if I thought there was no other way but as I sit here I wonder if he would take flight and get lost,guess I would have to try to keep up with him and hope the other dog didn't follow,or maybe grab the other dog and put Ollies lead on it.So many thoughts.
I think my first response would be to yell at the top of my voice at the other dog in the hopes the owner was around and caught up and got hold of their dog or that it would frighten it off.
Thought last year there was a post about getting a stick and putting it in through the aggressive dogs collar and twisting it ,if it has a collar of course.One thing I do know it frightens me.Suppose we have to be in the situation to deal with it I think Jen was very brave.

Jas was attacked on one of our walks a few years back by a JRT from behind. Jas stood his ground whilst on lead. There is absolutely no way on this earth that I would have let Jas off lead, purely because of his breed and we would have got the blame for starting the fight which I was not prepared to let happen.

Unfortunately if the dog 'appears from nowhere' you won't have the time to scare it off or diffuse the situation, you just have to go with what you feel is right for your dog at the time.

Well we had it happen recently, Cassie on lead as she'd been poorly and big husky type dog off lead and uncontrollable. To be fair, I don't think it meant any harm but as it was a strange dog, not sure of that. Owner was useless and it just made a dive for Cassie pinning her down. She was yelping and I did get in between them to drag this dog off her. Instinct took over I'm afraid. She's so tiny anyway, I thought it was going to crush her. Once I got the dog off her, I picked her up and took off down the beach out of the way.
May not have been the smartest move with a big unknown dog but she's my baby and I did what I had to to protect her.

well you might think this is silly but i carry a large umberlla with me( not just for wet weather) and i have used it before when i had my gsd he was walking beside me like he always did and a another dog was running at him with his hackles up and growling he was in for fight so as silly as it was as he got close i opened the unberlla in his face well he shoon ran of making silly noises. Dont ask me why but it all i could think of was to bloke the dog as i could not make out if it was coming at me or my dog. So i always carry one with me now just in case. hope never happens again though.

My dogs are nearly always off lead, and they are extremely well socialiised as Azz says ( change bull breed to Dobermann)

Owning a bull breed, one of the last things I wanted was for him to grow up 'aggressive'. I made sure he was well socialised with other dogs when he was a pup (he has more friends than I do !!) and at the same time I wanted him to be confident (nervous aggression is not good either!).

Anyway, I read up a lot about the topic and what made the sense most to me (especially when he was a pup) is that he looks up to me as 'dad' or pack leader if you like. And who do our kids come to for protection? Us. So I see it as my job to protect him and on a few occasions I've had to do so, even though I may not have needed to.

Mine do not retaliate they either run in huge circles to convince the attacker they are wasting their time or if close in to me they look to me to stop the aggressor. Rio Had 2 male shar pei's run at her 2 days ago hackles up and snarling, I saw it coming and stepped forward did the usual bellow to " BACK OFF " and " PACK IT IN " and they stopped in their tracks after a couple more " PACK IT IN's " they high tailed it back to their gobsmacked owner. Who shouted out "Thanks " We just carried on walking with a "Whatever".
I can't say this would work for everyone, if it is alien to your nature to be so assertive the dog would probably see that, also your own dog has to trust you totally to deal with the situation, but for me it would be alien to deal with it in any other way.

I nearly always have mine out together unless I am doing specific training with just one dog, then they are usually on-lead anyway.

So if a dog was aggressive towards one of mine, I would let the big 2 off lead and depending on the situation i'd either let them handle it themselves or if fur was really flying, or one dog had a hold and wasn't letting go, i'd step in and try and get the "other" dog onto a lead and tie it up, then I would try and break the dogs up.

I know how you feel as I usually have my 3 yr old grandaughter with me so I have to make her safety a priority. It is not easy to say "I would do this or that...", until you are faced with the problem it is difficult to know how to respond. I would think that it would be an instinctual thing really, MY dogs are my concern and I wouldn't want them injured. Two of my dogs are old and frail, the damage that could be caused to them doesn't bear thinking about. I think I would hit or kick another dog to get it off mine but who knows until it happens. I hope it doesn't.

its a difficult one. With Bruno being dog aggressive I couldnt let him off as the other dog would end up being the victim and my dog would be at fault regardless of how it started.

I do have a major problem with off lead dogs running at Bruno - often probably wanting to play - but Bruno has no concept of this and just starts to growl and bark if their is a dog running at him - and he will stand his ground. I make the situation worse as I am normally trying to make sure bruno isnt going to be able to get at the dog rather than stop the confrontation from happening. It usually ends up with me tangled up in leads and Bruno trying to get at the offending dog.

The only time I have had an aggressive dog it was a yorkie of all things hanging off brunos tail - I had bruno by the head, and was trying to kick the yorkie off his tail - he was trying to turn round to reach his tail to remove offending yorkie and the yorkie owner was standing watching doing absolutely nothing - AND when I finally got the dog off bruno and had a good hold of my dog the yorkie's owner let him come back again to attack bruno.

so instinct takes over with me but I think i do the wrong thing in the first place to be honest !!