I don't think they always communicate limits. Once, my mixed breed was on leash walking by this gsd mix who was loose and my dog layed down to show deference. Know what this dog did? Attacked my dog- she almost lost an eye. The owners were shocked, but did nothing- I had to get a stick.
Sometimes there is not a whole lot of posturing before an attack.

PHEW! I was kind of afraid I'd get jumped on for my opinion. I'm glad I'm not the only one who thinks the little dog was just being told to watch his step from here on out. This incident speaks well of your dog, Ryan-not a pushover, but controlled enough not to kill the little punk. I would be much more concerned about the law and the chance that the owner will report the incident than about your dog's behavior. My cousin had a bad experience where her dog broke his tie, ran down the driveway, and got aggressive with another dog. The lady admitted it was partially her fault, since her dog was in my cousin's yard. But, not two hours later, the sherrif shows up to take a look at the "vicious dog." Be careful! Our dogs' reputations depend on it.

Julie... you're right, some dogs are dog-aggressive. This particular GSD is a bit quick to become aggressive with other dogs, but I've never seen him make the first move. I've seen him "defend himself" in two other circumstances (when we first got him) and in both cases, his aggression was strictly in response to dominant/aggressive behavior from another male dog.

Jenni... that is one of the things I'm worried about. My dogs are not vicious, but two of them are rescues and have their issues. The last thing I want is to have to defend those "issues" in court. The owner of the other dog was apologetic at the time and seemed to recognize that his dog was the one who started it, but let one of those ambulance chasers get a hold of him and I could have a lawsuit on my hands. People will sue over anything these days. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" />

Julie- I don't think anyone was saying that they ALWAYS give warnings-I surely wasn't. Sorry if it seemed that way. My dog when I was a kid was attacked by a great dane/dobe mix whose owners were also too stunned to react. I was 8 years old and had to get involved myself. I was just saying that in this case, that's what seemed to have happened. I also think that we, as humans, especially those of us who are not behaviorists, miss certain signs in our dog's posture, body language, etc., and are then surprised by an attack.

both dog owners are at fault. you are at fault for having your dog off leash, and the little punk's owner is at fault for letting his dog run at large.

i agree with jenni and the others that your dog handled himself very well. he was simply telling the little dog to back off and clearly had no intention of harming him--or he would have. this was not a fight; it was two dogs getting their social relations straightened out.

but an ignorant dog owner might not see it that way, nor may your community. i would go have a talk with the owner of the little dog and see if she can be persuaded to keep her gate closed so that you don't have to find another place to take your dogs.

Alice... you may be right, and from a legal perspective, you probably are. What irritates me most is that looking back at what happened, I'm quite sure that the same thing would have happened if my dogs were all leashed. If you've ever walked three dogs at once, you know that you don't have quite the control that you would when you're walking one dog. If the situation happened EXACTLY the way it did, but my dogs were all leashed, it would have been hard for anyone to say I was at fault. But I'm a responsible pet owner, and have put in the work to fully OB train my three dogs to the point that I can reliably control them with voice commands. And knowing that I have sufficient control over my dogs when they're off leash, I let them off leash in "safe" situations. And it’s the work that I’ve put in and control that I have over my dogs that makes me partially at fault here. If I were the typical pet owner with a couple of large breed, poorly trained/behaved dogs, they would have been on their leashes, and the little white dog likely would have been severely injured if not killed. End of rant.

So any other input or thoughts on the situation?

Technically, if the law requires that the dog be leashed, you were both at fault. IF your dog attacks another dog while it is one leash and under your contraoll, than its would be the dumb head little dog owners problem as his dog was outside of the law. Regardless of the outcome, you are safe if your dog is one leash and under controll. With both dogs off leash, he was reckless in containing his dog and your dogs were willingly at large. Just to be safe, I would either get some long lines or just find a dog run in the area. I use a local horse arena to run my dogs in. Its large, fenced and the indoor has heat and a roof for bad weather.

Assuming you were in an area with leash laws, both dogs/owners were at fault, but the dog who does the most damage will be the one in most trouble... I have a problem with loose dogs in the neighborhood and I've trained my male not to fight back against dogs who accost him. It took a lot of work because he was animal aggressive to begin with, but it was worth it because no matter who starts it, the one that finishes it is the one that looks really bad. From a pet perspective; if your dog is larger than most in the areas you bring him, seriously correcting for aggression towards smaller breeds might be something to consider to prevent a tragedy from happening to a stray dog. It's annoying, I know. I thought long and hard about it and came to that conclusion when my dog was younger. Not sure if it's right or wrong, but I don't have to worry about fluffy getting mauled no matter what he does.

If you walk three dogs and don't have the control you would have over one, don't walk three dogs. Especially if there are negligent owners around with aggressive little dogs. My personal perspective is, I have to take responsiblity for other peoples dogs because my dogs are bigger. It's not fair but that's the way it is.

Barbra,

How did you teach your dog not to fight against another dog that accosts him? Maybe I'm missing something here... but how would you teach him not to defend himself without you looking like a bad leader (in his eyes)? Did you set your dog up in this situation then correct him for trying to defend himself??? Or maybe you ment you've taugh him to come to you for help?? I don't understand.

Jamie

I didn't need to set him up for the corrections because wherever we went in the neighborhood there was a loose dog that came charging out when we walked by. It was a regular daily occurance. My neighborhood is bohemian to put it politely <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/smile.gif" alt="" /> I didn't really think about how I would look to the dog, I just thought of how we would look to any normal people, and what could happen to the other dog. Plus, we were dealing with two problems at once, animal aggression toward passive animals, and reactive aggression toward aggressive dogs. I would try to shoo the aggressing dog myself so my dog saw I was taking control of the situation. As for how I did it, strong corrections, exclamations and shrieks of shock and horror, then down stays in a room alone when we got home, ignoring him for the rest of the day except for berating him for what he did... all day long. Things like that. It didn't take that long for him to get it. In the midst of attacks I would take him and get him to run with me away from the dog. Usually as soon as we got out of the other dogs territory they stopped trying to attack. If there are three dogs approaching aggressively at once, he will react and try to chase them away, and I won't correct for that because three on one and it's reasonable if he attempts to drive them away. For some reason when there is more than one dog, no contact is made. I would have thought they'd be stronger in a small pack then only one. In the beginning when he started ignoring the other dogs attacks as he was supposed to, I could see his pride was injured, but thats the way it had to be. There were too many loose dogs to take chances.

I'm sure there are better more professional and skilled ways, but I didn't have a clue. I just did what came to me at the time and it worked. I could have really expedited the training if I had a prong collar back then and a little more know how <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />.