It started as a vaguely amusing observation after I'd had a few incidents with my dog being "set upon" (with quite a lot of determination) by a couple of dogs in the park to the point where the horny dogs in question had to be restrained by their respective owners. My dog hasn't seemed to mind at all (in fact he often seems completely oblivious) but sometimes, despite him not being particularly phased - it is still less than ideal.
Yesterday, for instance, my walking party actually picked up an unknown greyhound who was completely fixated on my dog. Greyhound's owners were nowhere to be seen (for about 15 minutes of walking in woods), my dog wanted to be running around madly and playing with his friend but couldn't because he was being aggressively mounted and I couldn't properly restrain lecherous stranger greyhound for fear of unknown temperament. Obviously tried lots of stern commanding, whilst trying to look at phone number on collar to reach owners but to no avail. Harassing dog ended up being with us to the carpark, where me and my dog were locked in car whilst SGH owners were waited for.
Sorry, that anecdote was a slight digression - it was probably the most extreme incident but similar happens once or twice a week. There are at least two local dogs that have to go on lead around my dog as they can't be trusted around him. So I suppose I have two questions: 1) why does this happen? I have googled and it seems to be a bit of a thing but I couldn't find an actual scientific explanation. It must be hormones of some sort but what exactly is so special about my terrible little terrier? And then, 2) does anyone have any experience of this and if so, can I expect it to wear off with age? I was finding it all quite comical (though obviously I wasn't encouraging it and was making sure to keep an eye on/ gauge my dog's reaction very closely) but yesterday has made me pause for thought and I realise now that (wrong dog, wrong owners, wrong time), this could actually all go a bit horribly wrong.
Just to allow people to envisage this properly - it's like how dogs behave with a bitch on heat. But not all dogs - only some, but with those some it does seem to be consistent.