I was walking with my puppy three months old today and another dog approached. My puppy and the next dog were good with each other in the first seconds and then the next dog was showing how powerful he is, pushing to my puppy, playing in an aggressive way. I was feeling bad and unprepared how to protect my puppy. I just said to the next owner to put the leash to her dog, shortened the leash of my puppy and nothing else. Had I to do something else?
Hi @Aurela It sounds as if you did the right thing. I know it's upsetting to have to be blunt with other people but you have to protect your dog. The only thing I would not have done is shorten your dog's lead. Next time feather or mime pull on the lead, when your dog notices the vibrations and turns even slightly in your direction you can briskly walk away from the other dog. Shortening the lead so that it become taut, creates a fight or flight feeling in your dog. If you wish to read more about lead technique, then there is a very good chapter in Grisha Stewart's BAT 2.0 book
I was walking my 17 week old puppy and someone with a dog just came up to use like it's their given right for their dog to come and say hello I wouldn't mind this behaviour if the other dog was friendly it started growling so I just turned us away and walked off. If you ask them are their dogs friendly they normally say yes with dogs smaller than them or they say to their dogs be nice this is a warning to walk away calmly and leave them to their dog. As this usually means the dog snaps or worse. I don't let Willow near other dogs now unless they are puppies or the other dog is wagging it's tail and looking intersted like the labradors we met while at a country park.
Yesterday out on a walk Willow was on her long flexi lead as it's not the place to let her off the lead. A person walking their dog was in front a quite away from us their dog was not on a lead and came running at my puppy and scared her she was being chased on the flexi lead I got Willow close and grabbed the other dog until the owner got it. She did apologise for scaring pup and said her dogs training goes out the window when other dogs are arround. Then it obviously should not be off the lead until it's trained properly. Thank god it wasn't vicious but mypup is small and could get hurt. Lucky it didn't do any damage as Willow still went up to other dogs on the walk home. This is not unusual behaviour in people with dogs off the lead.
Aurela, once you're in that situation, the best thing is to back away and call your pup away from the other dog, rewarding with a treat (and using that as a lure if you need to). Many pups are going to find it hard to focus on you when a distraction as high as another dog is right in front of them, though - so don't be afraid to just pick your pup up at the first sign of trouble. People often think that, if they pick their pup up in these situations, they are 'teaching' the pup that there is something to be afraid of. That's not the case - it doesn't work like that - for a dog to theorise that, it would require what we call 'theory of mind' - the ability to think about what someone else's mind is thinking and put yourself in their shoes - and even human toddlers don't develop that until about the age of 3. Dogs don't develop theory of mind - they will just be suddenly magicked away from a scary situation. So feel free to pick your puppy up for as long as she is small enough to do so. The other thing to say is that strange dogs are unknown quantities. You are playing Russian roulette if you let your puppy meet other strange dogs. You don't know how they are or will be with your puppy. Some dogs are fine with other dogs, but reactive towards puppies - which they view as weird, somehow. Some owners will say their dog is 'fine' - and then it is obviously not fine! Meanwhile every experience your puppy has during the socialisation period and even after that, during their first year, is going to be formative for their temperament and personality. So IMO it's just not worth the risk. This is one of the reasons that I like using training classes even with my own young puppies. I can observe how dogs relate to other dogs first, before I decide to approach with my pup. If I see anything which worries me, I can choose not to let my pup greet that dog and choose another instead. Off leash socialisation sessions at the end of puppy classes are invaluable if they are well supervised, for ensuring your pup has positive experiences with other puppies. I would not just go out and about, using the general public's dogs on walks as socialisation experiences for my puppies...
