Slight rant/your thoughts - when dogs push your dogs too far

[Slicedpineapple]

A bit of a rant but after some reassurance, I guess.

We have a very friendly happy dog but he is sadly one of the breeds that is stereotyped by a lot of people. He will tolerate most things but doesn't like big dogs trying to climb all over him, and will tell them to go away after several warnings.

Today he said hello to a dog on our walk who is probably about 3x the size of him. We called him away but the other dog grabbed his back legs and started humping him, so he could not move. DH got him and they carried on - the bigger dog followed. Our dog told him to back off with the least friendly noises I have ever heard him make and a snap. The other dog eventually left.

30 mins later, a young but large dog appeared and greeted my dog face on, wanting to play, owners out of sight. My dog didn't look comfortable, probably because of the previous encounter, but allowed a short hello and followed us. The other dog followed but was basically running alongside my dog trying to jump on him. This continued for a few minutes (owners still out of sight) until my dog once again had to tell this dog to go away in a less friendly manner. I had to leash him so the other owners could retrieve their dog, who would not come to them.

He is very tolerant (and does like to play) so I wonder if the first dog hurt/scared him by grabbing him when humping him. Any sign of aggression is out of character for him. But I also think he was just responding to a situation and that the other owners should have reacted to their dogs behaviours much sooner.

Am I right in thinking this? Admittedly I wouldn't like to be jumped on or followed/humped! I get anxious about people thinking he is 'one of those dogs' as he is easily stereotyped. Luckily a lot of walkers recognise him and know he is friendly. We hadn't seen these dogs before, though.

It is difficult. Our dog is extremely tolerant of puppies jumping all over him/dogs trying to hump him, he’s big and strong enough to shake them off and ignore them (and wait for me to throw his ball). But I find it stressful as I worry if one ends up actually going for him he will snap back one day. But like in your case, the other owners aren’t to be seen.

We also have an acquaintance whose dog constantly snarls and snaps at him, even while he is lying snoozing- and their excuse seems to be that our dog is bigger therefore scary (even though it’s their spaniel going nuts).

The only thing I can suggest is to try to stop your dog being overly interested in other dogs on walks, as at least that may reduce the number of encounters. We had lessons with a trainer recently on channel 4 and his advice was to be the dogs main focus on walks. Although our boy is apparently so attractive he still gets lots of attention sigh.

Also, do you talk to the other dogs? I’ve recently started saying no or leave it to dogs pestering our boy and it sometimes works.

No we were paying no attention to the other dogs as we had our baby with us and wanted to be left alone.

Our dog had a quick 3 second hello with each dog and then moved on with us, his focus on walks is generally us and he isn't interested in running off to play elsewhere. But he will normally play nicely, which is why I thought the first dog (which I know is an adult and about 40kg) at have hurt him.

The other day he had a long walk and was approached by lots of dogs who he had a quick play with and came back when called, so that's why being intolerant is not really like him.

My dog is quite nervous so a lot of the time she’s on a leash unless it’s safe for her. The number of dogs who come bounding up to her then won’t leave her alone. She tries to be nice but often will give a go away growl when she’s reached her tolerance level. She honestly tries to hide behind me, if she could she would jump up and hide on me (she’s 7stone and a large breed).

Or you get some little dog on an extendi-leas bounding up, my dog trying to get away then the owner looking at me as if my dogs going to eat their dog. Dog and lead going everywhere.

I can't stand retractable leads for that reason! So dangerous when they go everywhere

Well ddog played very nicely like his normal self with 2 dogs on his AM walk so think he was unhappy about being pinned and humped yesterday in 19c heat!