The Boxer Incident

As I'm sure some of you know, we had the most traumatic couple of weeks I'd ever experienced over here last year; Grayson's brain tumour sent him a bit 'Mr Hyde' and before I had to have him put to sleep, he quite literally tried to tear little Ripley to shreds.... I have a lovely scar on my arm to remind us of that...

After that, understandably, she lost all of her dog confidence. I worked really hard taking her out and trying to meet other dogs to show her that they weren't all going to hurt her.
She's come along brilliantly (especially with Rory as backup ), and while she'll still put her ears back and crouch down a little with some dogs, she doesn't go mad trying to escape anymore, and after the initial meeting she is either happy to play with them or just ignores them

Well, we went to meet my friends new boxer puppy and his adult boxer pal.
Everyone said hello on their leads and were just fine - even mad-cap Rory was being very polite and not trying to jump, just calming sniffing.
Out of nowhere, the big boxer launched herself at him, and not in a playful way! Everyone was on leads so we were easily able to get her away from him no damage done, but he was squealing in fright, which sent Ripley absolutely berserk; barking crazily and trying to get towards boxer.
I don't know if she was trying to protect Rory, or wanted to join in or whatever, but it wasn't good!

Big boxer was put inside the house (then I was told she's not good with other dogs ), and Ripley, Rory and puppy boxer stayed out to play in the garden.
Puppy boxer was very, very bouncy, but as Rory was being very quiet and subdued after being squished, he apparently didn't make a very interesting playmate, so pup focused on Ripley instead.
She did not want to play.
He'd barrel up to her and either bark in her face or sock her one with those big boxer paws. After a while of that she got a bit miffed and started curling her lip at him.
He took no notice and carried on, so she'd snap at him (no contact). Again, not bothered. Puppy thought this was a great game as now that he'd bother her she'd try to chase him away, snarling. A couple of times she pinned him on the ground and made quite a bit of noise. I'm fairly certain that if she wanted to do damage, she was more than capable of doing so.
Even so, everyone was saying how aggressive and horrible she was, which made me feel like total crap

Can anyone reassure me that maybe big boxer set her on edge and a rude puppy pushed her too far so she was just doing what any other dog would have done...? If that is the case!
Maybe, despite what everyone else there thought, that she didn't actually do anything wrong and I'm just being paranoid/overreacting

I don't know. Sorry for such a long, whiny post!

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Bless you, I think it was probably everything rolled in to 1 that made her on edge, But puppies do learn manners by being told to calm down by older dogs, I am sure that is what Ripley was doing, She had enough and told the pup so, some pups just don't listen though so keep on and on, It is awful you were made to feel bad especially after their adult dog went for little Rory Chin up, you know your girl isn't mean, I wouldn't put her in that position again though poor girl x

Ripley reacted normal for a dog being hounded by a big bone-headed puppy that didn't heed her obvious warnings.

The owners are the one's that didn't react appropriately. They should have controlled their puppy once they saw that he was being a pest and that Ripley didn't want to play and felt uncomfortable.

Dogs don't have to like all other dogs and that does not count as aggression what so ever. The people there have no idea how to read body language and simply by them bringing out their adult Boxer knowing she doesn't get on well with others proves that.

I agree totally with the above. Ripley did nothing wrong at all.

Agreed with what's been said already and I think I'd have asked the puppy owners to stop the pup. It needs to learn some manners.

Phew, thanks all -I feel a whole lot better now

I know my pair are a bit excitable at times, but at least they have good recalls and know how to 'listen' to other dogs.
That pup was nuts!

The puppy was not nuts, it was a typical BOXER puppy. They are called Boxers for a reason, that is how they play. They bounce up boisterously and "box" in play.

When you saw your dog did not enjoy boisterous play it would have been advisable to have removed her from the situation especially after the resident adult Boxer (who was most likely protecting the Boxer puppy at the time) had already unnerved one of your dogs

All puppies are kind of nuts... I wasn't saying anything bad about boxers; they just happened to be the dogs involved.

Agree with the above, I think your dog was simply telling the Bpxer pup to behave.

Do you want me to make a prediction.......... your friend will be telling you sooner or later ,that her bitch had attacked the pup.

Why on earth has she bought a puppy when she knows she has a dog aggressive dog.

Don't see how that follows

Re Original post - Dog got fed up with pup as they do. None of the humans intervened, so she tried to deal - to be expected.

One of the reasons I carry ball when walking with a friend's lab is she's latched onto the idea that my dog should play with her (he will on open ground) & is reluctant to take "no" for an answer. If he looks like he's getting fed up with her I give her something else to do.