Unusual approach...

We took Maisey out for a walk in a country park today.
We've only had her a Month (she's a rescue) and has some dog aggressive behaviour so she's kept on a flexi lead.

Anyway, she will hopefully be starting obedience classes soon, more in an effort to socialize in an understanding environment and prior to that she had an Hours one to one assessment with the trainer to get us started. He gave us lots of tips with catching her attention and keeping her mind off of other dogs.

Well, she did really well in the park today
When another dog approached, we called her well off the path and (mostly) kept her attention with a sit and stay and her eyes locked on the treat.
We told the approaching owners that she has some issues and they were very understanding and kept their dogs clear.
Well, all except for one who said "ah, her tails wagging, she just wants to say hello" before marching over with their dog...
Yes, her tail does wag (I'm blessed with good eyesight, thanks ,) but her hackles raise and she goes completely rigid before lunging and snarling. Which is exactly what happened and their poor little dog was quickly dragged away from the nasty, vicious rottweiler...

Anyway, a little later, a young off-lead Lab approaches, we get her to the side and in a sit with her eyes fixated on the treat and tell the owner of her problems.
The news is met with complete indifference and his dog bounces over.
I managed to hold her attention until the Lab pounced on her before she went beserk and sent the poor Lab fleeing in terror.

I looked in despair to the owner who merely shrugged and said "Ah well, he'll learn"

Yes, I guess he will learn, let's just hope it's not at his expense...

Sadly, most dog owners seem to be a bit clueless. You'll always get that, in fact we had a similar situation today. Walked my lot in a country park, Dan is on a six foot lead attached to a walking belt, as he guards when off lead. A very bouncy young male lab ran over, jumped up at me then tried to hump Dan, who turned and snapped at it (I've never seen him do that before, but I believe it was justified!) and the owner grabbed her dog and huffed at me. Hey ho, what can you do? Sadly as your girl is a Rott she'll get the blame no matter what happens. Well done for working with her though and keeping her safe from the eejits.

Do you have pics of her?

Sadly this probably won't be the last walk like this. Some people just won't listen and won't call their dogs back. Sadly, as said above, because you have a Rottie, you can get a rough deal, she's no more agressive than another dog, but because she's a Rottie it'll be perceived as more by some people.
I hope the training goes well and she soon has some positive experiences with other dogs. Anyone with a dog you know who's calm and non-reactive who you can practice walking with?

If another owner doesn't call their dog back and you know your girl is about to lunge, try stepping between them and physically blocking her.

Sounds like you are doing brilliantly by the way - thank goodness she now has you to look after her

It really does pee me off when mine are onlead and people just let their offlead dogs run over. Mine are both ok with other dogs but how do the other owners know that ? jeez.....it never ceases to amaze me.

A wagging tail does not always mean a dog is friendly, people need to observe the other body language that is going on too, sometimes it can mean the opposite.

My mum had a foster whippet with her one day on lead and this big GSD came running over and started growling at him and he got behind my mum. The GSD's owner then proceeded to lecture my mum on passing on insecurities to the dog basically saying she was to blame, cheeky moo, her dog was offlead and approached , not the other way round !!! mum just walked off feeling rather belittled by this iresponsible owners attitude, they always blame the other person when its they who are to blame.

I get this all the time with Cherry as she has to be on a flexi-lead as doesn't like unfamiliar large dogs and is partially sighted.

I warned someone to move their dog away as Cherry was not displaying good body language and they said "oh but her tail's wagging-she wants to be friends".

At that point her tail was moving stiffly from one side of her body to the other and the last thing she had on her mind was being friends with this dog!

I would have thought you would have it easier than me as Cherry is smallish and fluffy so therefore looks "cute" and approachable whereas most people wouldn't take chances with their dogs if the saw a Rottweiller on a lead being moved out of the way!

Best wishes with your training-I am sure she will improve. Cherry is so much better than she used to be.

Lol, i'm not the only one who isnt amused by other dogs coming over then!

Unfortunately, you'll always get the idiots who think everybody elses dog is as sociable as theirs and then look at you in disgust when their little darling is met with teeth and growls.

I've just come off the park where I was training all 3 of mine. I saw a little girl (maybe 6 years old) with a tiny dog on an extending lead so I casually strolled off out of her way only to find her basically following me. It was obvious she was determined her tiny dog was going to say hello, even though my dogs werent interested, so I had to tell her to keep her dog away at which point she turned round and continued in her original direction.

Just imagine if she approached the wrong dog, even an on lead one, and it led to a fight. That little girl wouldnt stand a chance defending her tiny toy breed and would be hysterical.

What? an excuse to post pictures of her? absolutely







Thanks for the comments all, sad to hear these numpties are commonplace.
I hope she does improve with training, the breed has enough bad press as it is. I fully agree that she's no more aggressive than other dogs, in fact she defends out of fear rather than attacking (in my opinion but she doesn't go off lead to find out!)

I appreciate that she may never be dog friendly, in fact one of our trainers dogs isn't and it's a highly trained police dog! (he's a retired, accredited police dog trainer)

Leanne - i just think some people are clueless tbh. I had a foster dog who was not not good with other dogs (he had been shut in a shed for most of his life, an ex racer) fine with other greyhound types but not other dogs. I used to muzzle him and keep him on a short lead at all times and people still allowed their dogs to come over and then take great delight in standing there watching me struggle with a dog twisting and lunging on the lead...grrrrr fecking idiots

Murv- shes gorgeous !

Beautiful dog Murv, lovely shiney coat & bright intelligent eyes