Hi all, I've not posted on here for ages but this afternoon I'm so upset I really need some advice. My Lab, Ziggy, is three now and although we had all the usual worries when he was young he's settled now into a pretty chilled and happy boy. He's good off lead, his recall is good and he's pretty well trained. This afternoon when I got home from the supermarket my hubby came out to the car, on our front drive, to help with the bags. Ziggy tagged along, as he always does. He's usually pleased to see me and follows us back into the house to see if there are any treats in the shopping bag for him. Today he came over to see me and then suddenly ran really quickly up the road towards a main road, crossed the road and it sounded like he attacked a little dog that was at the top of the road with its owners. I could hear squealing. I was running up the road and screaming at him to come back. I couldn't see what was happening as I was too far away. Then I saw him running back so I grabbed his collar and headed as quickly as i could up the road to see if the little dog was ok but by the time i got there the people and dog had gone into the park. I had no lead for Ziggy so brought him home. I'm assuming that no serious damage was done or they would have stopped and waited for me to get up the road. They definitely saw me coming. I can't bare the thought that Ziggy would hurt another dog unprovoked. I don't even know why he went after this dog as it was nowhere near the house when he came out - not even in his line of sight! And also he ran across a busy main road, twice! He knows he has to stop and wait at that road. Now I'm feeling really shakey and upset that I don't know my own dog and that he's not the lovable softy that I thought he was. Does anyone have any idea what might have been going through his mind? Please help.
Well, you've no idea really what happened there so it's hard to know how to respond. Here's an example from something that happened to me this week: I was out with my Lab, when someone let their black Lab puppy run up to us from about 200 yards away. I recalled my Lab and she was focussed on me, with the Lab puppy curious and hanging out behind her. Every time my dog turned around to see the puppy (just out of interest in this dog behind her!), the puppy screamed blue murder - even though my dog was just sniffing him. This happened about 3x, every time my dog turned around. Clearly this puppy has been allowed to do this to other dogs and other dogs have attacked the pup, so the pup was terrified my dog was going to do the same thing... Which is all to say - you can't judge what happened from the volume of noise coming from the other dog, because the fear of the other dog isn't necessarily due to your dog - but to the other dog's past experiences and anticipation of what is going to happen when another dog pays them attention. Your dog might just have run, out of interest, to the other dog and wanted to sniff it - whilst the other smaller dog felt very vulnerable on the leash when this happened, and screamed... The other possible thing that happened, is your normally well-adjusted and sociable dog is actually reactive when on or near his own property, towards other dogs that he spots. In which case, don't allow him outside your house unless on leash...
