Guidance on Llewelyn's reaction at the park today

[rwasinski]

We were out at the park today and Blodwen and Llewelyn whilst offlead were approached by an offlead Bull Mastiff dog. We have seen this dog before at the park - he had tried to mount Blodwen then and that time I quickly moved Blodwen on (she was on lead) and went separate ways quickly.

My two were playing together and the dog ran across the length of the park. He kept sniffing at Blodwen's rear end, she always rolls on her back whenever she receives attention like this from dogs, but today she jumped back up after a few moments with a little yelp and snapped a little - and this happened a couple of times as this dog persisted.

Then the Bull Mastiff turned to Llewelyn, sniffing his behind, and would NOT leave him alone. He kept trying to mount Llewelyn, and Llewelyn was having none of it. Llewelyn jumped and ran towards him, barking every time. He didn't touch the dog but barked loudly at him. I have never seen either of my cockers behave like this before in such a defensive way. The Bull Mastiff didn't react, just waited until Llew stopped and then started trying his luck again.

His owners eventually approached and thought it was hilarious, didn't try and stop him and just said 'he's trying to play'. Meanwhile, both Blod and Llew looked increasingly stressed, tails between legs - Llew was barking, Blod just ran away, very unlike her, she normally loves a run and a play with other dogs.

I took my pups off away from this dog swiftly but I wondered whether I did the right thing in letting Llew behave like this. In one respect, I wanted Llewelyn to learn to be able to tell this dog off by himself, and in a way, felt quite proud that he stood up for himself because Blod has never done this and there have been times where I wish she had, but I also wanted to protect him from this dog and felt really angry at his owners. In another respect, felt glad this dog didnt react to Llew's barking otherwise it may have escalated into a bigger fight.

I just wish walks could be simple (and they normally are) - I would appreciate any thoughts or guidance on handling a situation like this in the future.

[Sarah1985]

Sounds perfectly normal behaviour to me. Thiss dog clearly wasnt listening to Llewelyn usual calming signals and Llewelyn got pissed off. Some dogs just cant take  a hint and will provoke a bit of a telling off from your dog. Its just you havent witnessed Lleweyns breaking point till today.

Its like if you were in a pub and someone kept coming onto you. You will prob be nice at first and give a gentle brush off but if the other person continued to pester you there would be a point where you would snap and shout at them to piss off.

I wouldnt worry too much. Avoid this dog in future. No doubt Llewelyn will revert back and if he does reward him to reassue him this is your prefered responce. (im presuming rolling over is your prefered responce)

With regard to the owner he sounds as blind to the goings on as his dog. They say dogs are like their owners..... 

[Karma]

Yup - both your dogs were perfectly entitled to react in this way.
I, too, would avoid this dog in future, though.... too many interactions with rude dogs (especially ones that don't get the message) can lead to dogs becoming less tolerant in general... you want your dogs to be able to trust that you will lead them away from unpleasant situations... 

As for the owners of the mastiff... I wonder if someone came up to them and started pinching their bums they'd be happy with the person saying "I was only being friendly"