Dogs Attacking

[woopsidaisy]

Hi.
My friend has a 2 yo black working spaniel. She is a very sweet little thing. But lately she has had a few horrible experiences.
Four times in the last 2 weeks she has been attacked by other dogs. These are completely unprovoked attacks, by much bigger dogs. I witnessed one the other day.
I was in small playground with DS3, saw friend walking dog. She was off the lead, just running along side friend, sniffing in the bushes etc. I called to my friend and she came over, and we decided to "swop" places, as DS3 wanted to see her, and her doggie wanted to see me, . There is a wee gate to the playground-no dogs allowed in there.
There was a big boxer at the gate, watching it's owners in the playground. I am very nervous of dogs I don't know, so I was hovering in the background, my friend said she had seen this dog before, it was friendly. Her little dog came over and lay down-she is very meek to other dogs. The other dog looked at her and just went for her! Very aggressively. It was horrible. The owner came over and was very relaxed about it. Pulled the dog off-but didn't even put the lead on. We were all shaken and left, poor dog was shaking, but seemed unhurt.
Yesterday a big lab came over and just attacked for no reason. She was bitten on the foot by another big dog also, the previous week, and needed vet treatment.
My friend is getting afraid to go out for a walk in the park. She tried a different park and another dog went flying at her dog very viciously. My friend is afraid of being bitten as she protects her dog.
What can she do? We talked about the dog warden, but what could they do?
Is her dog giving off some signal to be attacked? Should my friend start carrying a stick? Any advice greatly appreciated.

If you came to me describing this and she was already neutered. If full examination revealed nothing I do bloods to check thyroid. I've seen several dogs who have been hypothyroid being attacked by other dogs. It should be a panel initially with anti- thyroid antibodies.

Thanks Lonecat, I'll mention it to the owner.

Definitely get the dog thoroughly checked out by the vet, as Lonecat said. If that doesn't throw up any answers, perhaps consider an appointment with a behaviourist, purely for them to observe her behaviour and communication skills and see if they can shed any light on the subject.

If you do arrange to see a behavioursit, make sure they are APBC or CAPBT accredited and that they are willing to observe the dog in the problem situation, rather than just do an office based consultation.

Unfortunately black dogs can sometimes have problems with other dogs, because they aren't able to convey the subtle communication signals that other dog can, due to them being a dark block of colour.

Is her tail docked? That could also add to the problem, as being black and having no tail she will have a double whammy when it comes to trying to give ff the right signals and will be impeded in her ability to communicate. Many dogs learn to get around this by using exaggerated signals or employing lots of more obvious calming signals, but she may need some help to learn those skills.

I don't know where you are, but these people are incredible at analysing dog to dog communication skills and working to teach dogs the skills they need.

There are some videos of their classes and work on YouTube here.