While traveling in motor home for the summer we have encountered a baazar situation that really has me stumped. Recently we were walking our 3 year old intact GSD in a campground and were approached by a 2 year old intact male Old English Sheep Dog who was walking calmly on lead. At a distance of about 10 feet away from this dog my dog began to bark ferociously and lunged with all his strength toward the dog. I was not able to hold him back as I was caught off guard and my dog jumped the sheep dog and knocked him off his feet, fortunately with no harm to him as I was then able to restrain my dog. I was dumb founded with shock as this is the third year we have traveled with our dog and there has never been any sign of this kind of behavior with any of the countless dogs we have encountered. My only thought is that there is something about the sheep dog that brought out a protective instinct that other breeds do not cause, maybe an unusual odor, appearance? Or maybe the fact that the dog was intact which is not the normal condition we run across. We are considering having our dog neutered but there is disagreement from people we talk to as to whether that would be any benefit in this situation. We have also been warned that neutering a dog can be detrimental to his health in later years due to the body's need for the testasterone.
I hope someone can help us to understand why our never before aggressive boy turned into King Kong at the sight of an overgrown stuffed toy-looking dog, and your experiences in whether neutering might reduce the chances of something similar happening again.
Nancy