Other dogs always attack my chocolate lab...

[Catherinedeneuve]

Would be very grateful if anyone had any advice. We have a chocolate lab, 11 months old, who is very gentle and biddable. He's friendly with other dogs but always goes into a submissive pose with bigger dogs to show that he is no threat. But for some reason, other dogs, whatever the breed, seem to go for him all the time. We've had 8 incidents in as many days and someone suggested it was because he hadn't been castrated yet, but my vet says this is unlikely. He wants us to wait until he is 15 months old, because he had some joint problems early on.
I'm not the sort of person to row with strangers but have had all sorts of stand-up shouting matches in my local park recently! It brings out the maternal instinct to see my dog crying and being bitten by another. It's all sizes, although little dogs are worst and time and time again I'm told, 'he/she never normally does this'. Does anyone have any thoughts or advice on this? Thanks in advance.

Water pistol works well. I used to use it on one of my dogs when he attacked the other. A sharp burst on the back leg and he'd jump off. The key thing is that the attacking dog doesn't see you shoot them with the water pistol (as they would if you went for their face); then they might start seeing you as the baddie and go for you. Instead you want them to just think 'I don't like that. Horrible things happen to me when I attack dog X'.

Will other dog owners start getting uppity if you do squirt their dogs though?

I agree that if your dog's on the lead and not bothering anyone it is bang out of order for other dogs to go for him. I have used a well-aimed wellie more than once myself.

Other people's dogs which are off the lead and attacking your dog should, in all honestly, be reported to the dog warden. Even if they don't seriously damage your dog, next time they could hurt another dog, child whatever.

See the other thread - dog owners - need to offload after upsetting incident.

that should be honesty, not honestly of course...

FWIW, my dog was once very badly attacked by another dog (off the lead) and I am so, so careful now about where I take her

we have a lab a bit older than yours: he used to do the submissive act when he was smaller but had given it up by this age, now he is very friendly and tailwagging and always goes up to other dogs to play but tends to do it by the 'invite to play' thing (going down on his front legs). he is rarely if ever attacked.
it sounds as if the problem is your lab has learned to be oversubmissive and other dogs are interpreting this as an invitation to whack him - they will dominate where they can. and of course when it keeps happening it must reinforce for him that he should be submissive to try and avoid getting duffed up. poor thing, labs are very friendly and he must be baffled as to why nobody wants to play!
perhaps a dog behaviourist could help him be more assertive? or do you know anyone with nice dogs that dont go for him that he could play with?

That could be right. My often snappy terrier was zoomed up to very assertively the other day by a border collie barking, clearly guarding the farmhouse we were passing.

The collie obviously had just the right kind of self-assertion, because my chippy terrier just looked pointedly away from him and walked off -- the dog equivalent of saying 'All is cool mate, it's your farm and I am out of here.'

Calm, respectful confidence diffuses aggression.

Ooh, sorry, hadn;t realised there were more replies here.

Thanks, Woodstock and TW. Thing is though, I can;t stress enough that it happens in all sorts of different scenarios. He doesn;t do the submissive thing every single time and really often he has literally done nothing at all when it happens. Is just having a sniff somewhere else and not even realised some savage little bugger is coming up behind him. This is what made me have daft theory that it is a smell rather than body language.

W, he does have a couple of other dogs that he plays with - other labs, as it happens!

On Friday, a massive white sort of giant terrier (sorry, not good on breeds!) looked aggressive and the owner said, 'that's him saying he wants to play' and I could sort of see it. Trouble is, my chap has had his ass kicked so often he just wanted to get away....

Meant to say that he is getting his injection tomorrow, which mimics the effect of castration. So if it WAS that (and am not thinking it is now, after reading everyone's views)I should see a difference.

OK, now look away anyone who has just eaten, or is just about to eat!
Saw QUITE the most revolting thing being done at the vets this am.

My vet says that sometimes this aggression can happen when a dog's anal glands are blocked, as it appears they were. Apparently these glands give off a smell that sort of identifies the dog and if blocked, the dog has no smell. This could, he says, have made other dogs aggressive to mine. So he, er, unblocked them. This involved squeezing his anus, which made this awful stuff squirt out.
Sorry, am almost gagging even writing this!
So we're going to see if that helps. Vet thinks castration will just make the dog more passive, as someone on here said.
Thought I would pass this on and hope I haven't made anyone vom

Oh I remember that process with my last (v large) dog.

Oh god the horror. Even the vets were green.

Yup, anal glands are pretty gross. Even grosser is when you try to empty them and your well-placed piece of tissue doesn't quite catch all the stuff... that rank fishy smell can linger for weeks!!!

Was your dog rubbing his bottom on the ground, Catherine? Sometimes they do that if their glands are blocked. Also, plenty of fibre in their diet helps the glands to function properly.

In any case, I hope this means he doesn't get beaten up anymore!

Ewwwww!!!! I think they need a new green emoticon with bulging cheeks and big eyes!

No, was no bottom/carpet interraction going on, thank the Lord. We shall see in the morning whether his newly unblocked bottom makes any difference!

I have a 3 year old black lab who is a right wuss......he was castrated at about 12 months and I put his passiveness down to that....loads of other dogs want to intimidate him / mount him etc.....and he is such a baby and runs back to mummy all the time ...Luckily, we've not had very many agressive dogs, but it has happened and I expect the owners to control their animals - as I do.

My lab is much more a people's dog than a dog's dog IYKWIM.....but, having said that, he seems to be fine with other labs

We walk ours in fields / woods where there aren't too many other dogs, he swims a lot as well.....usually jumping into the water shakes off unwanted attention!

Hope you get it sorted

Thanks LMS and Ruby.
I floated the idea to my vet today about dogs not liking dark coloured dogs, as someone mentioned here, and he said that this is possible. He's heard it anecdotally, if not in any research.

Mind you, the vet is no longer his buddy either, after what he did to him today! The dog hated having this thing done to his bum, and he hid behind my husband afterwards!

I back on to a park and there are tons of dogs around, so I guess I'm just going to have to find a solution to this....Thanks so much, everyone who has commented.

We had a tri coloured (ie black!) rough collie who used to be attacked by other dogs while simply minding his own business. He even got attacked at dog obedience! We used to say that he must wear the wrong deoderant or something. Interesting about other dogs not liking dark couloured dogs - and the anal gland thing (yep - been there!!) I always felt so sorry for him as he was the most gentle dog.
He was neutered eventually though - for medical reasons - and I don't remember him being attacked after that.

Well, so far so good. Had a great walk today and a dog that usually has a little go at him just sort of walked by. Could be complete coincidence, but here's to anal gland clearance! (Now there's a toast you don;t hear very often )

I'd report anyone who had a dog that attacked. End of story. It might not be your dog that the other dog goes for next time. It could easily be a child. Try keeping him on a flexi lead or put him on a flexi lead as soon as another dog is in sight.

Don't use an air horn as someone else mentioned. You are likely to terrify your dog for life.

Could you update me on what's happened since, I have a big pure bred black lab. And every dog in the world it seems like want to bite him, he is submissive for the most part and is getting to where he ignores them even when they try n bite him.

Could you update me on what's happened since, I have a big pure bred black lab. And every dog in the world it seems like want to bite him, he is submissive for the most part and is getting to where he ignores them even when they try n bite him.

Hi cafalline, I just posted a separate thread as I am having very similar problems with my golden lab and I'm keen to know if the anal glands worked.... Hopefully someone can help as I'm starting to get a bit stressed everytime I see another dog