I really think I live in the worst dog neighbohood in America. I had my 9 wk old Malinois for a week and she was almost attacked by my nieghbors mut in my own front yard. Luckily my pup was on leash so I snatched her up. All he could say from across the street was "oh sorry". I am normally a calm easy-going person but something about his attitude just set me off. I told him if his dog came in my yard again he would be sorry. He says what does that mean. I said look dude I have a lot of money and a lot of hopes in that dog. Your dog is very aggressive and has growled at several kids and attacked a small dog. If he comes in my yard again I will introduce him to my APBT and he won't like it. Sure enough two weeks later my wife and three year old son are getting out of the car and I open the front door and here comes this mut running across the street making a bee line for my son. Luckily my wife grabed him and set him on the hood of my car. My female APBT was at the door with me and I let her go. My dogs are always on leash unless they are in the back yard or kennel crate. Well needless to say she rolled this dog a proceeded to shake him like a rag. When she went to rebite I pulled back with the leash and the dog ran home with his tail between his legs. I know this was wrong and I don't condone dog fighting so don't start. But my dog has a right to defend herself and whats hers. Needless to say that dog walks around my yard now. Stick, pepper spray, or APBT. Whatever works.

Just out of curiosity, where do some of you live that have such ugly neighbor(hood)s.? Big cities? We live in a small town that allegedly has a leash law, but I think we're the only ones that respect it. Our next door neighbor has a rat terrior that barks at our gsd puppy all the time. She (ours) barks back, but I've never let them come face to face, even though the rt has tried. The rt is NEVER on a leash or tethered outside. Just roams free. UGH!

Baton, the longer you have a dog, and the more meetings you have (leashed and off leash, friendly and not) and the more you learn to LOOK and observe what's going on (rather than our normal panic when our 'baby' is 'being attacked') the better you will be able to react in these situations.

Meantime, I would really really really try to either meet up with friends who have good dogs. Or attend some type of classes with leashed dogs in a controlled situation, so both you AND your pup will learn to start 'reading' dog behavior and get more used to normal and what's not.

If you and your dog meet hundreds of friendly dogs, and have one truly bad experience, your dog can take it in stride and realize it was THAT dog that is a problem. Otherwise, if the pup starts generalizing that ALL new dogs are mean and scary, you really won't be able to safely have him out in public.

Read up on those sites I posted, get the video 'Calming Signals' so you can actually see what your pups is supposed to be doing and seeing dogwise, and try to calm down a bit (I know this is hard).

Reality is, the VAST MAJORITY of dog meetings are not true fights, and you don't want it to become a 'real' fight because of you or your dogs inappropriate behaviour. If you have to 'pretend' calm and control, then pretend! And soon you will truly have it.

I just wanted to point out that you might be putting your Mal at risk by allowing your pit bull to attack other dogs. Pit bulls, by nature, tend to be very dog aggressive, and if you allow your female to behave this way, she could very well end up hurting or killing your Mal somewhere down the road.

It has happened before, with pit bull owners who thought they had done everything right as far as raising and training. One day they come home and one or more of their dogs is lying dead or seriously injured in a puddle of blood while the other is happily wagging its tail and trotting around as if nothing had happened. Be careful with your actions is all I'm saying. People like you are not doing anything positive in the way of fighting BSL by allowing your dogs to behave this way.

I take him everyday for walks and pass by the houses that have their dogs either tight out or on the kenel, and he usually ignores and does not bark, if the other dogs are calm.
I am socializing him as much as possible. He does not go crazy and bark on every dog that is on his sight, but usually only the ones that are running and looking towards him. I know that this is not appropriate either but I'm working on it.

I felt so bad when my instructor on the kindergarten class seperated him only from playing with other puppys. During the puppy play thing, whenever a puppy would come near mine I would have him sit and give him treats. My puppy never did the puppy play thing. I will start him on obedience classes in about 10 days hopefully that will help him and me some more. It would be a dream come true to see my puppy playing with another one.

I understand this. I have been around game bred pitbulls my whole life. You don't have to let a pitbull fight for it to be a danger to your other dog so nothing has changed. Second my pitbull is really not overly dog aggressive and actually pretty social unless challenged. Thats what 3 years of obedience and social work traing with my Mondio ring club gets you. However she is never allowed to run with my Mal unsupervised or off leash. She ran with my male American Bulldog and got along fine after a month of work. When dogs fight at my house everyone gets in trouble because I am Alpha not them. Also she is no stranger to fighting. She had to be seperated from her litter because she hurt several litter mates. So this proves that proper training and socailization are key with any dog especialy high drive ones. That being said you can never be too careful. I still don't completly trust her around dogs she is still a game bred pitbull.

Mod edit for language:

Ryan, even with the xx'ing out of the middle letters of the word that you used, people can still see what you wrote - please moderate use of that word here on the board, it's not acceptable.

Thanks,
Will Rambeau
Moderator

Also when my puppy was about 4 1/2 months old, I meet him with another 5 year old GSD that a friend of mine has. The older GSD seem to be a nice dog. They were both leashed. We let them close together. The friends GSD came straight at my puppy and sniffed him at his nose, my puppy was just standing and as soon as the other GSD started to back up my puppy went right for his nose to bite him. Than the older GSD started growling and my puppy started barking. We walked them for awhile together side by side they sniffed each other few times on their butts without showing any aggression. They were on leash all this time. Than as we were leaving we let them close together again and as soon as they stared on each other they both got aggressive, and tried to bite each other.

I always thought that puppies should submitt to older dogs, but he did not. What do you think, would it have been better to have had both of them unleashed, would my puppy submitt then without being hurt by the bigger dog?

Will I apologize for the language. Thanks for the clarification.

Jenn is giving you some really good advice. I just want to add, that generally, when a dog greets other dogs with their hackles raised it is because they are more fearful and unsure than flat out aggressive. The raising of the hackles is to make themselves look bigger and more threatening to the other dog. A truly aggressive dog doesn't normally bother with making himself larger, he just attacks. Of course, there is always an exception to every rule, but from observing my dogs over the years, my friends pack of huskies, and working for a time in a verterinary clinic, this usually holds true.

One of the worst things a dog owner can do when being appoached by other dogs, or people for that matter, is to tighten their grip on the leash, or start pulling the dog back. All these gestures do is confirm in the dogs mind that there is something to be concerned about. Remaining calm and not raising your voice will show your dog that you are not concerned, but are in control of the situation.