Hi don't know if anyone has any advice...........Winston is 18months and for the last few months has taken to being very fussy about which other dogs he does and doesn't socialise with. When on the lead he will often bark at another dog if it is coming towards him and pull on the lead, his tail wags but if he gets close to them he can try and jump on them and will sometimes growl, other times though he doesn't bark at all but says hello very nicely with no problems (for which he gets rewarded for).
Off the lead he will sometimes approach other dogs to sniff or play with and sometimes just ignore them but if they approach him he will again ether say a poilite hello and go on his way, play with them or growl / bark / snap / show teeth at them. I don't know if the latter response is a 'get in there first' dominance thing or if he is possessive over me or if he is just being anti social and doesn't want to play.
It does tend to be the bigger dogs he does this to so could it be a fear thing? He was socialised with other dogs as a pup, went to obeidence class for a year etc although was duffed up a little by an german shepard a few ,months ago. (I can't remember if he was like this before the duffing up or not). He meets dogs most days at the park but doesn't often go for walks with other dogs so is used to playing with us more when out and he is fine with people and is also nice to other cockers but is just unpredictable with other dogs. I don't get them impression he is looking to attack them and cause damage but he does look a vicious little thing with his teeth showing and want to try and understand what this means so any suggestions gratefully recieved.
