In the mornings I walk my dog in a huge park near my house that is on the edge of large forest preserve. There is an older couple that lives across the street from the park and they have 2 mid-sized mutts and a bigger dog almost the size of my now 14 month GSD (around 85 lbs).

Since a young age my dog has socialized with these dogs and I often see them in the mornings and let them run around off leash together. It is a huge park and you can see if any people or horses are coming from a quarter of a mile away so it is safe to let him off-leash when no one is around.

I usually don't have much interaction with the owners as they are usually far away and I am doing morning training with my dog and as a reward for not breaking his down or whatever while they are around I release him and the run around and play and I call him back to me after 4 or 5 minutes.

The couple's dogs are very obedient and come when called. Anyhow, today instead of the 2 little mutts they only has 1 and another medium sized lab mix I had never seen before. I saw them so I started to walk in their vicinity and my dog wanted to go over there so I told him to leave it and when he headed toward them I called him and he came running over. All was going well and I was very pleased with my dog's off-leash responsiveness. I had never tried that with him - usually he has the long lead and a prong on when I test him with dogs in the vicinity.

So my dog was doing great and I was about to let him go play when all of the sudden the lab-mix came barrelling for my dog from about 500 feet away whailing in this hi-pitched whimper that sounded like he had just been killed. He had his teeth bared, snarling with his hackles and it was the loading screaming noise you could imagine. His tail was tucked under him and he was carrying himself in a cower even though he was running full speed. It was that oddest looking thing.

With in a blink of an eye he was right at my dog who did run at him, but just stood there looking at him perplexed. As soon as he got to my dog my dog ran right up to him and I thought there was going to be a fight, but the other dog turned around and ran off with his tail between his legs screaming like he was about to die. My dog couldn't resist the temptation to chase him and he did - ignored my recall (at first) and then the dog came back at him only to be confronted by my dog only to send him back running. Finally my dog came to me and I told him to leave it and he resisted the temptation.

The same event repeated itself when the dog came running at us again a few minutes later so I decided enough was enough and headed home - never exchanging more than a wave with the couple.

I was pleased with my dog in spite of the fact that he was too slow on the recalls I gave him because in general he was for more obedient than I thought he would be off-leash (still not good enough but way better than expected). The other reason I was happy with him was because he didn't go off on the crazy dog. He has a tendancy towards dominance with the dogs that I let him play with so I was worried this dogs crazy action would set my dog off.

Anyway, the reason why I am posting is actually about the other dog. I know I made some handler mistakes and took some risks and my dog was not 100% obedient therefore he was not obedient at all.

What I am more interested in is what was wrong with this dog? I have never seen such a neurotic display. And the signs from this display were very contradictory. A full on assault while in fearful submissive mode that ended up in total avoidance and panick at the point the dog met what he was confronting. I am thinking they just rescued this dog or something. Any thoughts on what my be going on with this dog?

Sounds like a lab to me <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/grin.gif" alt="" /> My neighbor has one that barks at the door anytime someone walks by. One day he got out, owners nowhere to be seen, he ran towards me then stopped, I thought I'd go up to the dog and make sure of the address he belonged to and take him home, he barked at me from about 30 or 40ft away, anytime I took a step towards the dog in my most friendliest way he'd take 10 steps back n bark at me. I gave up and figured he'd go home eventually.

Hmm... this sounds like one of my dogs not too long ago. I have a lab mix that I got from a rescue. At the time, I didn't realize it, but I've come to the conclusion that I was far too heavy handed dealing with him for the first year or so that I had him. On top of that, for the first year or so that we had him, he got very little socialization with people other than us. He has, what I think would probably be considered a sharp temperament (working on that). I'm the first one to admit that the way I handled him from the beginning was not what he deserved but we're making up for that these days the best we can. Anyway, when we moved, he didn't have a fenced back yard and would walk around outside the house off leash on a fairly regular basis. Well, on a few occasions, he would see a stranger outside and run up to them barking, snarling, looking fierce and afraid at the same time. He went into avoidance every time, but would frequently turn back to make another attempt at a show of force, but every time he got close, he would turn back.

I chalk it up to poor handling and socialization. But for what it's worth, we've started back at step one with him and he has done a complete 180. Just proof of how forgiving dogs can be. I still watch him like a hawk, because I don't know if any of his fear/sharpness is still there, but haven't seen any unwarranted signs of aggression/fear in the last year or so. Thanks to Ed and the helpful members of this forum. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" />

I think it has more to do with genetics than anything.
I have a gold retr. & his personality sucks as he will rush at people hair raised, barking trying to get people to back down ( which most of the time they do ) but if they don't or they rush him he will take off like a coward.



He is very dominant around other dogs & will fight if the other dog won't submit. Fortunately he is easily controlled by me.

Just isn't your friendly good-natured retr.