I don't want a menace, but I don't want an inmate either!
Bruno is a 3 year old, neutered, rescued American Bulldog. I rescued him from a pound when he was roughly 9 months old, and although he had the worst case of seperation anxiety I have ever seen (4 couches, $600 stereo equipment, $400 DVD's, countless shoes, hats, pillows, lamps, you name it.) he finally got the confidence to overcome this bad behavior.
When he was about a year old, I agreed to adopt a male APBT from a friend of a friend who had fought him. (sick F%$k). After extensive behavior training, The Apbt, tyson, was at my control at all times. There were a few times when a loose dog approached us, and he would wait until the other dog showed -any- sign of aggression and then attack.
The problem that will relate to my question below:
Tyson would occassionally mount Bruno when I was not paying attention.
Unfortunately, I have since moved to Florida, and am staying with my mother until I can get on my feet. And since my mother has a dog and a cat already, and there is no way Tyson could be trusted around them, I was forced to find a good home for him. (Couple in rural area who had had a pitbull for 10 years that died of cancer, and were looking for another one).
So here I am in Florida with Bruno, who by the way, I have trained to do all the basics, and just recently have solidified his offleash heal to the point that I can walk him offleash around the the neighborhood and no distraction, even cats or dogs, will cause him to break.
My problem:
I have been taking him to a local dog park, where there is no noticable pack structure BTW, and he is occassionally mounted by a random dog on a power trip. Bruno has a very good sense of his own size, and will play very differently with a 10 lb. dog than a 100 lb. dog.
I have seen these dogs attempt to mount other dogs, a GSD comes to mind, and when the GSD growls in their direction they just turn around and go the other way. Bruno will occassionaly nip and turn on a dog trying to mount him, but more often than not, he will just stand there, like he is oblivious to it. ESPECIALLY if it is a pitbull resembling Tyson. My gut tells me Tyson (my former APBT) must have done something to him when he tried to retaliate.
If I encourage Bruno to stand his own when this is going on, he will. Otherwise he doesn't seem to care.
Its pretty ridiculous to watch a 100lb AB being mounted by an otherwise submissive golden.
I would like him to stand his ground, and if a fight were to break out I could deal with the dog and the owner. On the flip side, I don't want to encourage any aggressiveness.
Im no expert, but I would say Bruno has his fair share of prey drive, but it would take a LOT to get his defense drive to spark. He's the type of dog that will continue to "play" while being attacked by another dog. I have a feeling he would be more aggressive towards humans. I can't roughplay with him anymore because he tries to rip my clothes off! And it takes alot to get him going (pushing down on his head, or "faking punches" But, thats okay, rough playing with my dog is not a big thing for me, and since I like my clothes, I dont do this.
So experts, how do I get him to stand up for himself? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />
Theres no substitute for mans best friend.