Collie just attacked my dog are they known to be territorial?

[Honkytonky12]

Basically at a friend's house and they were dog sitting a neighbours collie. My dog is a bouncy cockerpoo both are females. My friend has a male cockerpoo so out dogs play lovely together. They did sniff and play a bit of attention to each other but were not overly amused. But then the collie wanted to play a game of fetch so my cockerpoo tried to join in the collie pinned my cockerpoo by the neck against the floor and made her cry! It seemed quite aggressive and yet she seemed a lovely dog. I am just trying to work out if it's a female thing or breed thing. My dog gets jealous and barks but she is never, ever aggressive.

It does sound like resource guarding from a collie who maybe had given a couple of body language clues that weren't picked up on by adults or other dogs. I really don't like collies around my dog because of this - mine isn't good at cues (rescue) and they can be real nippy top dogs.

I think the thing to learn from this though is that three is a crowd. A third unfamiliar dog in an unfamiliar situation is always going to be difficult. I learned this the hard way too, if your own dog isn't super switched-on it's too much 'pack' behaviour for them to decode.

Some breeds aren't dog dogs

Collies and Staffies are two that spring to mind

Obviously some like other dogs but as a generalisation they not always keen on dogs

Collies like to work / focus.

Staffies like humans.

I am biased because I love Collies and find most cockerpoos I have met quite irritating. If my Collie is irritated she tends to barge/body herd or curl a lip and doesn’t bite (breeding), it sounds like your dog was warned off.
If your dog can’t sense when it is over stepping the mark (not unusual for the breed?) you need to do it for them and be on high alert and quick to recall.

Yes like I said we had planned to go after the collie tried to mount her. Obviously she just went into play mode as soon as she saw the toy. No one expected that reaction and it frightened us all. It's hopefully a lesson for her and definitely me but it's hard when the collies owner isn't there too as they know and understand their dog best. Im hoping it was nothing more then a warning. My cockapoo has great recall but it happened too quickly. I just don't think the collie liked her to be honest.

My dog (not a collie) loves all dogs, great and small and will play happily for hours unless one tries to take his toys (or worse, his food), when he becomes very defensive.

Also, cockerpoos are notorious for being bloody annoying, unfortunately! One came running up to us recently and tried to take my dog’s ball. He was having none of it, kept putting himself between the cockerpoo and his ball but the cockerpoo wouldn’t give up and had zero recall. My dog growled and air-snapped at it and it still wouldn’t piss off so he did some VERY grumpy barking in its face and it finally got the hint. Owners were all “awww he was only playing!” 🙄🙄🙄

We know a lab who does that to our lab Who gets very over excited when she sees him. It’s a stop bouncing up at me manoeuvre. I’d not consider it aggressive in isolation. Sounds like your dog pushed the collie too far best to intervene earlier in future.

I have had experience with rough Collies and with Shelties and this is what I have found.
If the collie had been a puppy, there might have been more playfulness and tolerance.

I think unfortunately your dog shouldn’t have been round your friend’s house while they were looking after someone else’s dog.

You’ve got a collie (an aloof, sometimes snappy or neurotic breed) out of its home environment and already coping with living with another dog it’s not usually with 24/7. That’s a lot of ‘bucket-filling’ stressors right there. It’s been hot, there’s another bouncy pup with not 100% social cues, and their human is missing so they haven’t got an ally, it’s all on them to manage the situation - it’s sort of not surprising when you see it that way from the collie’s POV.

Sometimes ‘putting in your place’ is a bit aggressive but if no blood was drawn and no harm done, hopefully your friend will just heed the warning to keep the collie’s environment a bit more low-key.

Some young dogs don't read the subtle signs. In my head, I am convinced puppies are taken away from their mums too early nowadays because I've seen relentless puppies of different breeds in recent years. They simply cannot interact properly with other dogs and they can't read the signals.

Not your puppy's fault but hopefully she's learning.

One of my dogs is the most tolerant animal in the world. Always. Nothing annoys him, he either ignores or engages with other dogs but always knows how to keep the peace and bring calmness.

A cockapoo puppy managed to find the limit of my dog's equilibrium! Only happened once, I couldn't believe my eyes. And he's been fine with that particular cockapoo before and since the incident and never had any issues with any other cockapoos or other dogs.

Luckily the young dog was fast at getting out of the way, otherwise I think an ear would have gone missing.

I think Collies would rather not interact with other dogs.

Unfortunate combination by the sound of it.

My dog has been bitten 4 times now by collies each time requiring a trip to the vet. She now is reactive to them can't say I blame her! Each time she was bitten it was because she was running and she's faster then the collie anticipated so they bit her (think it spooked them)

I understand it must have been frightening for you!

I would say it was definitely a warning, and a sign that the Collie was stressed out by your dog’s presence. It’s not your dog’s fault, nor the Collie’s fault - just a mismatch of energy. Dogs can sometimes seem very aggressive to the human eye when they are communicating a boundary.

As a rule of thumb, I would not have toys around in future if there is a dog present that you don’t know well. Toys can cause fights due to resource guarding. Better to pack them away to keep your dog safe from getting into a fight.

So actually I don't think my dog was totally in the wrong for joining in play

My point is, you should have enough control over your dog to recall them away from strange dogs and their toys, though.

You didn't know this collie and still allowed your dog to bounce all over it despite numerous warnings from the collie for your dog to stay away.

You chose to keep your dog off the lead and in the house and allowed her to keep bothering this unknown dog - I'm not surprised she got herself told off.

If you know your dog is bouncy and not great at reading social cues then it's your job to step in and protect her. In this case, you didn't step in and so the collie felt she had no other option but to "step up" her response to your dogs behaviour. Nobody was protecting her either.

My dog can be super annoying and doesn't read cues
There's your answer. The collie might have over-reacted slightly, but was doing you a favour in teaching your dog some canine manners.

This is pretty much what my dog does when other dogs (usually youngsters) ignore her cues to stay away from her ball, or run rudely up to her and get in her face. She doesn't pin them, but I could imagine her doing that in a confined space. She just has words and they back up, and quite often try again with a dose of submission, and then she's very polite to them.

We have a rescue male border collie, who can be very unpredictable. He is eleven and riddled with arthritis and likes to be left alone. He doesn't like any dogs that are hyper or jump up.
However, his best friend is an enormous golden retriever. He normally doesn't like big dogs at all but this one he loves to bits. I just cannot explain it.

I could have written this about my border collie. She's become fussy about who and when she'll interact with dog wise and will snarl if approached and she's not in the mood. She'll walk past another dog fine, and if she knows them or she's in the mood will sniff and sometimes even play but it's on her terms. Like @Whattodo121 when it happens we distract her when it happens and she'll forget it. My understanding is that BC are notoriously aloof.

I tell people ''Maggie prefers humans to other dogs. Unlike her owners!'' And she does, she's great with humans, loves a fuss, and is especially good with kids (or as we call them ''human puppies.'')

I have a female collie, she has always been very playful and keen to make friends with other dogs. She is more shy and easily intimidated now at 2 by dogs she doesn't know or more than one dog at a time who wants to play. She approaches this by rolling over and letting them sniff her belly (very passive)
She is neurotic but very sweet natured. All dogs are different.

Two collie sisters attacked my dear old staffie and injured him badly. I had to take him straight to the vets for stitches. He was curled up in a ball, howling as he was attacked. I was trying to pull the collies off him whilst their owner just stood and screamed.

He used to loved playing with other dogs but, after that, had fear aggression.

From my experience of both breeds… it could just be a bit of both, cockerpoos do tend to be overly friendly and a bit in your face, making them pretty easy dogs in terms of reactiveness… they generally aren’t at all however there is always an acceptance to the rule. Border collies as others have stated tend to be working dogs and can actually be reactive to other dogs but generally not in an aggressive way but it’s bred into them to herd and work, they just aren’t usually aren’t bouncy and playful with other dogs, although they definitely can be with their owners ☺️ Just sounds like a bad pairing to be honest!

I suspect the collie was a bit overwhelmed - in a house without her owner, plus then a new dog to navigate as well, and then you add in a toy/ball - recipe for disaster. I wouldn't tar all collies with one brush! I actually think your friend was in the wrong for dogsitting one dog and then inviting your dog round as well. It'd be different if the dogs had met before with owners present, but as they hadn't, it would have been better not to.