owners of 'big' dogs, can you talk to me please

[bunnyfears]

I have an 18 month old rottweiler. she is a big smooch. she loves all other dogs and most people. her recall is 98% great.

she does 3 things that are undesirable...

1. she will bark at some passersby if she is sat in the car (waiting to leave). I can live with this

2. if a man takes her by suprise, she will bark. so for example, appearing out of the bushes, in the woods etc. I'm pretty ok with this also, because we got her for safety having encountered too many weird men out walking/intruder (me and 3 daughters)

3. she will chase after male runners and bark 😬...this is the one that is getting us into trouble. it's not aggressive but it definitely sounds aggressive if you don't really know dogs. many people are great, stop running, give her a fuss and it diffuses into nothing. but as you can imagine, some people are furious. I don't really want to keep her on a lead because 1) it happens maybe once a fortnight (haven't worked out what it is about some men that brings this response as opposed to others that she ignores or can be distracted from and 2) it's ot actually aggressive

because it's not consistent I'm at a bit of a loss

interested in other people's experiences and how they have dealt with inconsistent/occasional unwanted behaviours

May I ask you this - why does she need to be off-lead when out walking for you to feel secure?

Why can’t you keep her on the lead?
I can’t see why that would make you feel unsafe?

I really thought people here would be sensible and know about training dogs. my mistake, I will contact a professional trainer for advice. you have mostly catastrophised the situation beyond all recognition. on occasion she will bark and run at a runner...she comes back, she isn't hunting them down. I just want to stop her doing it because I understand that it can be frightening for some of those people. clearly she isn't obviously aggressive because most people will just stop and give her a smooth

This 100% and also barking at people when waiting to leave isn't good either. Think how intimidating that is to children and people who are scared of dogs. A rottweiler barking at you is not like a jack Russell doing it

For "furious" read "understandably terrified, then furious".

You're minimising throughout your posts. That needs addressing first.

what?? she isn't off lead to make me feel secure. she is off lead so she can chase her ball, play with our other dog, sniff in the undergrowth, swim in the river etc

@bunnyfears You will be making alot of people feel as unsafe as you feel from strange men by having your dog loose. Even if she only runs up to strange men, there will be women and children seeing this happen that make a quiet exit and don't come back to where they saw this happen that you don't even notice. I definitely wouldn't come back if I saw your dog loose, after being attacked by large dogs even the sight of large dogs running riot and acting boisterous makes my heart race and ruins a place that I should be able to enjoy.

A random dog bit as a child.
Of course I don't trust your dog. It's your responsibility to keep it on a lead not chasing me. Not mine.

OP there is a really simple solution - pop her on a lead. Then you feel protected, and runners aren't terrified.

People are getting frustrated because you seem to think you should be kept safe, but you can terrify others with your dog, which isn't really reasonable of you.

she's in the ruddy car

My GSD reacts when I'm scared. It's only happened twice, a man jumped out of undergrowth and flashed me when I was on my own and a man out running, very quietly ran up very close to me at night. Both occasions I was scared and I feel like she was reacting to my fear. Is yours reacting to your surprise?

You should go with your dog to an experienced trainer for advice not MN.

my gsd rescue used to try to chase runners when I first got him. He was always on lead but would pull and bark. So I’d keep a look out and as soon as someone approached got him to sit and focus on a ball or treat then give it to him as a reward once runner had gone.
It took about 6 months before I felt confident to let him off the lead but things began to improve within a few weeks.

So why do you keep going on about your security then?

This isn’t anything to do with security. You’re simply prioritising your dog playing ball over the feelings of runners, walkers etc. Shame on you.

I'm an experienced dog owner. I was very careful in selecting her. I got a female. she's fine, she's not aggressive. I just wanted to heR people's experiences of training out occasional behaviours.

ok

Easy to say then you are not barked at and chased by it.
I would be careful. It will be reported if you carry on.

thank you for sharing your experience. there have been some posts here that have addressed my question and I think the answer is to go lead-only for a protracted amount of time so she 'forgets' the behaviour. a think a previous poster called it extinction training?

Me too. I carry a spray deterrent because I am sick, sorry and tired of irresponsible dog owners who think it’s ok to let their out of control dogs ‘be friendly’.

I love dogs and have a fairly big one myself (Labrador). I know Rottweilers are mostly not aggressive but I am really scared of them and being chased by one would be terrifying!! I am a runner too and this would be my worst nightmare! I know you know your dog is fine but others don't.

I've read all of your posts now and it's obvious that you're happy to have a dog that scares people because you feel it's keeping you safe. Honestly it's owners like you who cause so many problems. I really hope that one of the people your dog is chasing ends up calling the warden and police on you for having a dangerous out of control dog. And it then gets taken off you. Let me guess, you would have had an XL bully if they weren't illegal because from your posts you're blatantly one of those kinds of owners.

I'm not sure what they would say to the dog warden, a dog barked at me and the owner put it back on its lead??

To be honest, you are "ok" with her barking when there is no need, and only draw boundaries when you think they are too blurred for her. It is you who is blurring the boundaries, not her. She should not be barking whenever and however she wants, and it is not ok to bark at people, full stop. The chasing (or whatever other unacceptable behaviours she adopts - because there will be more) is an extension of the barking. Dogs do not protect you by barking, and just because someone - man, woman or child, unexpectedly comes out from behind a tree is no good reason for her to start adopting an alert / agreession prepared state. You have to control her in all circumstances, and you aren't

ok

Jeez… great to hear you’re happy to go with the flow on undesirable points 1 and 2 🙄. If your off the lead Rottweiler ran at me while I was out for a run, I’d be furious as well as terrified. And I’d be taking a photo and informing the police. Unbelievable that you’re asking tbh but sadly not unheard of amongst dog owners who imagine everyone is as enamoured with their pet as they are.

Just to add, we are training our Labrador at the moment to not be over social as labs are prone to be. A trainer/breeder told us to just sit on a park bench watching the world go by but NOT saying hello/greeting people. Maybe you could do the same with your dog aiming particularly at passing runners - sitting close by but letting pass and not running after them!