Walking my dog in the usual dog field. A lady I know to nod to was walking her two labs and throwing a ball for them. My dog stole their ball. I made him drop it and took it back. We started chatting, and the dogs were chasing two balls which she was throwing. I think my dog had the ball, and snapped when one of the labs came to take it, or he tried to take the ball from the lab. Whichever way, a fight started. The other lab joined in. My dog was pinned down by both labs, but released as soon as the other owner yelled. The whole thing was over in about 5 seconds. All three dogs then waited for the ball to be thrown again. My dog would not recall, he was so fixated on the ball, and I had to put his lead on to get him away from the other dogs. The other owner apologised that her dogs had duffed up mine, and I apologised that my dog had interfered with their game. I know that this was my fault, in that I know he is ball mad and has shown aggression towards other dogs when he has a ball so I should have managed it better. Can anyone advise me on how much I need to worry about this? Should I lead my dog around other dogs from now on? Is this normal dog behaviour and to be expected? Or do I have a real problem here? I should say that he got a bit lairy with a younger collie puppy last week, and the pup retaliated and they had a bit of a barney but nothing like what just happened. Other dogs have always taken a dislike to him for some reason, but now he's starting to instigate trouble. He's 14 months old.
If you've got to the end of this anxiety driven word vomit, I applaud you