Thanks guys
I feel better - but worse that im not the only one
Its not her breed its because she is reactice and people know of the work I have been doing with her
They assume because she shouts at dogs sometimes that if any fights happen it will of course be her fault

I wish they would just understand that she hasnt ever attacked another dog - she is scared and shouting at them

It makes me so sad how little people understand dogs at all

We took on a dog aggressive dog [fear aggressive] and ended up keeping him - he just adored people. Used to amaze me the fibs people would tell when they had a dog aggressive dog just to get "rid" of it - pass it on.

It always annoyed me no end when people would let their dogs run up off lead to him despite my warnings to keep their dog back. He was always deadly silent - big powerful dog, if they came too close, he would flip them over onto their backs and stand over them, never marked them/never uttered a sound. Even on a short leash he could do it.

On the other hand there used to be a husky type dog that lived near my parents - lovely looking dog but so aggressive with other dogs, he was the terror of the whole district. The owner was totally none phased by it all, never had the dog on a leash and just let it do as it wished.

You will always come across people who just have not got a clue or who just dont care and blame everyone else.

oh my god, i dont blame you at all for being so fed up, i own a gsd who i know sometimes needs a good telling off, his recall is 99% but he is only offlead in a park/feild/beach etc where i know its safe and if he doesnt come back im away after him to collect him, if another dog tells him off i know its his own fault most owners look really surprised and just laugh when i look at him and tell him that its his own bloody fault, i never blame anyone else if my dog isnt doing as he should and i certainly do not expect any dog to submit to him

Oh, thats terrible!

I get that sometimes with jake. He is always friendly with dogs, but if a dog starts on him he will stand up for himself. He also is quite a rough player (although when he gets to know a dog he will change to suit them), so I only let him play with dogs he knows coz I know the owners understand he is just playing and their dogs are generally play the same, but are smaller. But other owners look at him or make comments like he is attacking his doggy friends!

Honey seemed to be a lot to blame before, I just ignore it, if its not only onlead and fear aggression, she has rules for off lead play too, and will not accept certain things, but will never hurt anther dog, more chase them off, one day a mastiff cross tried to mate her, I saw it happening and was just about to say she wont like that when Honey had turned around and chased the dog off barking and growling (poor boy was so shocked) the rest of the walk was fine, but now the mastiff cross and Honey are not allowed to meet, the male of the household is scared that Honey will hurt his dog but then tbh I don't see why she should allow some dog to try and mate her, she also doesn't like dogs barking in her face, or banging into her a lot, or grabbing her collar if she doesn't know them, all cases (well with banging into her accidents happen) I can understand why she gets fed up, but some other people don't see why, although there is plenty of people who are just let dogs be dogs, and are happy to allow them to sort themselves out (after a few tellings off everyone behaves around Honey anyway ). Mind you to other people she has been classed as 'dangerous and unpredicatble' although she is not a loner dog, she has friends, sometimes a reputation is a blessing, I was walking down the road a while ago, and two off lead terriers ran over the road and started biting the feet of a passing GSD, the owners laughed the other dog tried to run away from the two little ones, when they saw me coming they got their dogs on lead as my dogs are the dangerous ones if Honey's rep saves her from idiots like that, I'm allright with that

I know how much work you've put into this, and I don't think it's a case of she has to "submit" as you put it in another post, it's more about her shouting at other dogs because she's scared. I think if you put it into the human scenario, so I had to pass you on a narrow path, and because you were scared of me, you started mouthing off at me, well what would you expect me to do?? I'd probably give you a mouthful, just like other dogs do to Mia perhaps? It doesn't matter whether she runs over to them, or is on a lead when she does this, I'm sure other dogs take exception to it, who knows, they might think she's being aggressive, maybe they don't read it that's she scared of them, maybe she's trying to be as big as they are? I've only found this out from watching my own dog of late, she is absolutely fine with any dogs that greet her nicely, or come over to her, even take her ball off her, as long as they don't bark at her or snap at her then she's fine, BUT, if a dog comes over, or passes us who barks at her, she will ignore it, and if it gets in her face, then she'll have a right go at it, and who can blame her!

I think you've got to look at it from both sides here, and if she greets/plays with other dogs with her tail wagging and her body language is friendly, she doesn't bark at them, then I'm sure all will be fine. Is there no way you can actually stop her from barking at some other dogs then? Does she run over to them or does she just do it when she meets some of them?

I don't know what you've actually done to try and stop her shouting at other dogs, but one thing I do know, if she ever came over to Zena and started shouting at her, there would be fireworks for sure, and that's never a good thing is it. Maybe do what I'm doing at the moment and only let ultra friendly dogs near her, it's the safest bet for me and it seems to be working, we haven't had a punch up for weeks now, and yet we've met loads and loads of dogs on a daily basis, but all friendly ones touch wood! Good luck, it's an ongoing battle for you I suppose, same as it is with me.

helen _ I know what you are saying and I totaly agree - but this isnt the case here

They are blaming Mia because they have seen her in the past react to other dogs - none of these dogs she is barking at - I make sure and manage situations so she dosent have reactions - one or two a month is all she has now

Its just that people assume she is agressive and so if anything happens then she gets the blame

... but then it's the same for me, purely because of the breed of my dog and her size You can't win, I do know that! You'll just have to work on it somehow, so that she never, ever reacts to another dog and then they've got nothing to talk about have they! Every single gsd in my area has a bad reputation I'm afraid, some of them have earned it, but certainly never mine, but it's just something I have to live with when people blame my dog even though she hasn't done anything wrong when they do it, it's just because of other incidents with other gsd's that they blame her. I don't care about that quite honestly, I only care about making my dog the friendliest dog around, just like I've done with the other one, but it's taken 5 years to do that! Good luck with Mia, don't let the beggers get you down, let it go over your head like it does for me and one day they'll be eating their words!