In general is a boy dog unlikely to attack a girl dog that tells it to sod off?

[Purplturpl]

my dog seems to get some unwanted advances from boys. Always over confident and sometimes won’t take no for an answer. She does an air snap which will often get the message across but sometimes it doesn’t and they follow her and she gets annoyed and air snaps again which by this point normally works. I get worried at this point if the dog won’t leave her alone that she will increase her aggression to make her point and so I try to intervene. I tell other owner to call them and if that is ineffective I grab dog by collar and deliver them back.

I find it hugely stressful sometimes. Today this happened and it was so stressful. Family of this dog were about 50 m away shouting for it to come back and it was ignoring them. We were minding our own buisness waiting for them to call it back. We needed to get baxk to our car which meant walking past them as there was no other route. normally it’s a breed I am familiar with - labs often - and feel I know mostly how they will react. But today was a large and sturdy breed. Pure muscle. I had to grab it by collar and I was pretty scared myself but I didn’t know how to get situation under control. My dog will always listen to me and wait but their dog was just being annoying and not doing what it told. Even after I delivered dog back to them they didn’t say sorry or put it in lead

I worry that when my dog reacts the other dog could retaliate. but is this very unlikely for a boy to attack a girl? is it better if I let her just tell the dog to sod off?

Nope. Not unlikely at all. Any dog will go for any dog regardless of sex or age in the right circumstances - just because your dog is a bitch doesn’t mean other dogs won’t tell her off if she snaps at them.

What I would say is never grab a strange dog by the collar - you are seriously running the risk of being bitten, or attacked. If you must, carry a spare short lead and wrap it in a noose around the other dogs neck and drag it back that way (I carry a spare lead for exactly this reason) but never touch another dog by the collar. Even the most mild dog can and will react to strangers touching them by the collar - remember the neck is a vulnerable part of a dog.

One of mine doesn’t like her neck being touched - she’s quite arthritic and has back pain - and although she’s never shown any history of aggression and is a sweet heart, I am fairly confident if someone exerted pressure on her neck/top of her spine that she could snap.

Don’t touch other people’s dogs. After the second snap it’s time to put her on the lead and tell the other dog’s owners to do the same. If they don’t, change direction as they’re obviously irresponsible dog owners.

Speaking as the owner of a 4yo sex-obsessed mini schnauzer. People in the park use him to check if their female is over her season or about to start.
He’s under my eye constantly when he’s off lead. Two recalls and he’s on the lead back home, even with sterilized females. It’s antisocial behavior.

My dog was actually on the lead though and there was nowhere else to go. If we had turned back we would literally have had to climb the hill we had just come down. All the while they would be behind us and their dog probably running up to us.

I do get the point I should y touch other people dogs but we just don’t know what to do sometimes

Don't question your behaviour. You were being a polite respectful dog owner with a well controlled dog that was forced to take action because of ruddy selfish lazy dog owners.

People are getting worse with their dogs behaviours.

Safety wise it is best not to put hands out to unknown dogs but if I had to protect my dog I would be body blocking the other dog or putting myself between the two dogs or just keep asking the owners to get their dog over and over again until they did.

You are right it is not great for your dog to have to tell the other dogs off. She will get fed up and she will have to up the anti to make it work and she gets more hyper vigilant. This will increase her reaction and shorten the length of time before she reacts.

As you are doing it is best to be her advocate and step in to prevent her doing so. I do understand how difficult and annoying this is to have to do.

I have access to pretty remote areas to walk dogs and for that I am very grateful!

Yes I do often try to get between her and other dog . Sometimes this works, sometimes not. She actually instinctively goes behind me as she knows I try to help her. I don’t think we will go back to that area to walk for a while as I really can’t face the same again 🙁

In my experience, females telling boys off actually is less likely to escalate into a serious fight - not to say that it won't ever escalate, but as a general rule, boys do seem to be more inclined to take a telling off from female dogs than if it was a male to male interaction.

As others have said, your safety should always come first, but in this situation, where your dog isn't doing anything wrong, it's definitely better to try and put yourself between them and block/move the other dog away, using whatever means you can. The alternative is often dragging your own dog away, which puts them in a really vulnerable position.