Bad behaviour?

[dap]

Hi,   I've just come back from the park with my lovely dog following an unpleasant encounter.  Basically there were three other dogs with their owner and one of them came over to my spaniel and started sniffing him and my spaniel hates this so started growling and chased the dog away.  One of the other dogs then came after mine and so my dog naturally tried to defend himself.  The owner tried to separate them and went to kick my dog.  This owner was rather aggressive and shouted at me to put my dog on the lead or he would "kick his head in".  Needless to say we came away very quickly.  My problem is that its not the first time my spaniel has reacted in this way and I'm worried that something is wrong.  I am quite upset right now and don't know if this is normal behaviour or whether I need to be doing something differently etc etc.  My cocker spaniel is 5 years old, never aggressive with us and is very gentle with our four years old son.  He is walked once a week by a dog walker who can have up to 6 -7 other dogs with her and she has no problem him.  Any  suggestions welcome.

[Ruby Tuesday]

How awful for you.

In my opinion, your dog didn't do anything wrong. If he growled first, that was a warning, it is the way dogs tell us that they are not happy. The other dogs should have resepcted that and backed off. The problem comes when dogs don't give a warning and just attack or bite.

I can imagine how upset you are, I would be too. But I would suggest that the other owner should have been able to recall his dogs.

[JennyBee]

Brodie would do the same if a rude dog came up to sniff her and wouldn't leave when told... There is a great article called 'he just wants to say hi', which I found brilliant for understanding why Brodie first started doing this:

 http://flyingdogpress.com/content/view/42/97/

I find if I warn the owner beforehand they usually are understanding and call off their dogs, at other times I have felt like printing out that article and handing it out to those whose dogs 'just want to play'

[Ruby Tuesday]

That article is brilliant. I love the way the author puts it into a human context, it makes it so much easier to understand.

[black taz]

The second dog was obviously standing up for its pack mate, the owner should have had more control over his dogs.  Your dog which just warning the other dog off, i wouldnt worry that he is getting aggresive.

We had a similar occurence earlier in the week.  There is a particular dog (Alfie the dreadded Tibitan Terrier) where we walk regularly (recall non-existent) that insists on standing next to Taz with his head on Taz's shoulders (which i believe is a domineering stance).  Taz doesnt like it and has now started to growl at the dog, i called Taz away but the dog followed and did the same again, this time Taz gave a louder warning but the other dog carried on.  As the other dog had a harness on, i grabbed the harness and dragged the dog back to its owner - who said "you needn't have bothered, he would have come eventually"

I explained to him that yes, he might have, but in the meantime we were just there for a peaceful walk, not there to have my very placid dog have to become stressed or aggresive to a very rude, uncontrolled dog.  Then walked off quickly before he had time to respond.

[Cockertime Blues]

I don't think it's your dog's fault.  She didn't like what the other dog was doing and warned him off.  The other owner should have called his dog off at that point.

[puddsmum]

The park where I take my dogs attracts a fair number of rude dogs, the majority appear to be pale coloured lurchers & golden 'doodles - their owners are usually off somewhere in a world of their own, while their  dogs are charging around, barging into other dogs, & causing all kinds of havoc.  Consequently, Roly now has real issues with any dog that vaguely looks like a lurcher or a 'doodle, & tells them off before they do anything - if I see one about, I have to get him back on his lead before we get up close, otherwise, if he tells them off, the others think it's done something wrong, & then they all chase it off!!
There was one particular incident a couple of years ago, when my 3 were sniffing in the trees & grass, when this hugely overweight lump of a chocolate labrador hurtled towards them, barged into them, jumped about all over the place, & generally wound them up - there were the customary grumbles, then snarles & lip curling, non of which seemed to have any effect on the 'thug' , so they all had enough, & amidst much barking & growling, chased it off in the direction of it's owner, who naturally, was at quite a way off across the park!!  She didn't take well to the dogs chasing her prescious, & bellowed, 'do you want to get your dogs on a lead - you need to control them!!'  ... I pointed out to her that they wouldn't behave like that if her dog was better mannered, & didn't jump all over them ... her response was 'he's only a baby, he just wants to play, & your dogs are being horrible' ... & again I pointed out that they are entitled to react like that, if they're being jumped all over by a dog that must be as big as the three of them put together ... again, 'he's only a baby, he's only 10 months old'  ... & after several more attempts to point out her dog's behaviour was unacceptable, & she deciding my dogs were viscious, I lost my rag & the parting comment was along the lines that how were my dogs to know he was a puppy anyway, as it's so overweight - & that she was going to kill her dog by over feeding it!!     ....... ok, so maybe I shouldn't have said it, but she was really getting on my nerves by then, & it got rid of her, as she stomped off with her dog.   .... have never seen it since, so maybe others have had 'words' with her over it's behaviour!!!

[Bluebell]

I would't worry about your dogs behaviour, completely within his 'rights'  - dogs will be dogs. But unfortunately for him he took on a 'pack' - something he is unlikely to repeat 
The one thing I would be livid and upset about though, is the other owners reaction towards your dog 

[catcmartin]

last sunday we took charlie our 13y/o cocker for an early walk along the beach we were on our way back all tired but happy until a young but huge ball of muscle came bounding up to us now charlie is fine face to face but as he has back issues he does not tolerate another dog going near his rear end, he sniffed noses fine then then other dog went to his rear charlie growled to warn it off which got ignored so charlieair snapped missing the otherdog completly charlie was on lead the other offlead.We were worried the youngster would jump all over his back as that was its intention so OH picked charlie up in his arms but the youngster wasnt taking no for an answer.  It started to jump up at my OH to get at He then put the youngster on lead and walked away muttering  charlie this is when I lost the plot and stepped in between OH and the dog and i hate to admit it but ended up trying to lash out with my foot to get it away.Owner eventually gets to us he  said oh he just wants to play answer well my boy doesnt, I pointed out not very politely that his young dog looked to be a 25kg bundle of muscle while my old lad is 13kg and 13y/o. The straw that broke the camels back was his next statement "he doesnt know any better" answer "he isnt supposed to know better you stupid ****** you are supposed to teach him it is called training " He then put his dog onlead and walked away leaving us knackered and trying to calm charlie down

[Cockertime Blues]

We sometimes meet an elderly couple with a couple of friendly but very rude and boisterous flatcoats.  Genie feels threatened by them and even Alfie, my wimpy little boy, has waded in a couple of times to see them off.  I've tried 3 times to speak to this woman but she gets very agitated and her stock response is that "this is a forest and my dogs can go anywhere"  when I've asked her to put the flatties on a lead.  I've tried to tell her that her dogs still have to be under her control and that they could get injured if they upset something bigger, stronger and with more attitude than 2 little cockers.  She just thinks I'm mad.

[dap]

Thank you all for your helpful comments.  The article  http://flyingdogpress.com/content/view/42/97/ was great.  I've avoided our local park since the incident and will next time wait to see who is there before I let my boy off the lead.  He really hates having his back end sniffed and has on occasion just gone to try and bite the dogs who comes round his back!  On a positive note he was taken for a walk on Sunday off lead and met a spaniel who was quite playful and all was well thankfully.   Perhaps I need to warn other owners that my boy does not like having dogs come round the back of him in future.  I'm still reeling from the aggressive owner's reaction though especially as my four year old son was with me at the time and witnessed it all.

[JennyBee]

Yes that really was over the top, especially when it was his dog who was being rude! It is the whole back end sniffing that Brodie hates too, I usually talk to the dog (for some reason I have more success this way )  and say 'oh if you sniff there you will get a row!' and the owners tend to call off their dogs....

Some people just won't listen though, and then when the shouting starts it's all your fault . Doesn't matter that their rude dog has set back weeks of careful training to sort out issues caused by this very thing....