Aggressive dog?

Nudibranch

Nudibranch

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Every morning puppy and I meet a springer spaniel, of about the same age as my dachshund. He is quite boisterous and not very well controlled by his owner. Over the last few weeks, the spaniel has started growling at my dog, and over the last few days actually straining on his lead and barking at him. My dog does a couple of small woofs back and then cowers. Anyway this morning we met the spaniel off his leash, tearing around the corner with the owner out of sight. As soon as he saw my dog on his lead, he went into an aggressive stance and his hackles rose, then he lunged at mine and attacked him, pinning him down and biting him. My dog by now was hysterical with fear, shrieking and yelping. I managed to pull him out from under the spaniel by his lead.

The owner came running round the corner looking understandably very flustered - and then said, "Oh, I was so worried, I thought he [the spaniel] was being attacked by a big dog!". I really didn't know what to say to that!

The bite hasn't broken the skin but I am wondering what to do really. The spaniel is out nearly every day, and it's not the nicest area so I suspect the owner may be like many of the parents in that they cannot believe their precious child/dog could ever put a foot wrong. I've done a lot of work socialising my pup but this seems to be making him more nervous with other dogs. I don't want to get into the whole protective owner by picking him up but equally I don't want him being attacked by out of control spaniels! Any suggestions?
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You need to tell the owner their dog is aggressive and you are reporting it to your local dog warden. Each Council should have a dog warden and he is the person to report an aggressive dog to.

Personally I would pick up a small/young dog because it is far better not to have him bitten !

When my whippets were young they did not want any aggro with other dogs, as soon as they realised there was no dog that could catch them, they became much more bold.
 
Can i ask a few questions before replying to this -

Is your dog male or female, and has he/she been spayed/neutered? And the same for the other dog involved in this who got into a scruff with your own dog?
 
I had a suspicion that your dog was neutered.
The other dog may possibly be intact, as its not unusual to hear of male intact dogs being a little aggressive toward neutered dogs. In females, it can be the opposite...one of my female collies is intact... She can be very nippy around other intact females in particular. She gets very much on her 'high horse' around them. She is definitely not aggressive though!

Are you sure this spanial is actually being aggressive?
It's quite normal for dogs to have a bit of rough and tumble if one doesn't like the other...Just like all us humans don't get along, dogs don't always get along and like each other either.
However, if your absolutely sure the dog was being aggressive, then i'd be on the phone to both the police and the dog warden!!
My youngest collie was attacked about 4 months ago. 2 massive GSD's came running out of absolutely no-where, maulted her down, one grabbed her and actually flung her accross the grass, she was limping and squeeling and i was tearing accross the field screaming. I picked her up in my arms and there was blood coming from her leg. I scooped her up and ran back to the car. I was fuming, and i mean fuming!! I spotted the dogs owners and went marching over to her.... she took the most lax approach saying "ohh my dogs would never hurt anyone" bla bla bla.....
My dog was lying in the back of my car, blood all over my back seats and shaking with fear.
The woman also had a car with her so i wrote down her reg plate, drove home and reported her to the police right away!
The police came around within an hour and took my statement...The police contacted the dog warden and the woman had both the police and the dog warden on her back....Basically the outcome is that if she is reported once more then there will be serious consequences which could mean the dogs being put down....

Anyway, sorry if that story seemed a little pointless..Just sort of wanted to share the story so you know your not alone.
If you truely believe or know that the spaniel is aggressive, report it.

My collie took weeks to recover from that incident... not so much physically... but mentally..
She was traumatised and no bluddy wonder! She is less than 15kg (a small, lightweight collie, bred for the field) and so i can't imagine the fear she must have been going through when 2 huge GSD's were mauling her! She still gets very frightened when she see's GSD's.
At flyball and agility, i have to keep her focused on me or she can sometimes become a little defensive and nippy with other dogs.... Absolutely not agressive... but this has stemmed from her attack from those GSD's. It also really hindered our sheepdog training out in the field....Her injury lost us a few weeks and even afterwards it took a while to get her back on track mentally.

I would hate to see someone elses dog go through what my girl had to suffer. Don't let that spaniel do the same to your dog! Report ot now before its to late!
 
I would definitely have a word with the owner if you can, or if you think they will be diffucult report it ... so long as you are sure the other dog is being aggressive.
My GSD X has the unfortunate habit of raising his hackles whenever he sees a new dog, which the other dogs see as intimidating, he actually runs up to them hackles raised wagging his tail and if they growled at him he would poop himself and run off!!

Also be very careful picking your dog up, this can sometimes make things worse!!
Our terriers are all pretty good with each other but if we pick up one for any reason and the others are around they see it as a prime oportunity to jump at and bite the legs of the one that it picked up!! They are fine in the house if one jumps up onto our lap its just if they are out on a walk or in the back yard!
 
Pick it up!! The law doesn't allways work quickly enough, and till it does, your dogs safety comes first.

Yes, some owners are to fussy with their dogs, not accepting that an older sensibel dog must be allowed to teach a younger dog some manners, and sometimes it can sound as if the oldie's about to eat the young one. But then you should be able to see that the oldie responds on the younger ones yelp. If the oldie still wants the younger one to calm down more, they can continue to hold them down, but without aggression.

This doesn't sound like your situation, so you should protect your dog. Picking him up, might give you new problems, with your dog getting bossy from the safe distance, but you don't want to teach him that he has to fight his battles on his own.

If you still doesn't want to pick him up, take the risk of getting bitten yourself and simply put yourself between the dogs, BEFORE the other one reaches you. Most dogs "out to get" another dog isn't interested in biting humans.
On different occasions I've gathered my dogs behind me and told both a Rottweiler and a Boxer, that they have to take ME first before they can get to my dogs! And if they've tried to circle me to get around and reach my dogs, I've stept after with my legs and, if the other dog made THE attempt to get close contact, delivered a firm shove with one leg.
But I've allmost allways more than one dog with me, and picking up two Norwegian Buhunds and one Smooth Collie at the same time, is simply not within my capacity. If I'd only had one dog to defend, I wouldn't worrie one bit about being overprotective. There's nothing stoping you from putting him down again, once you've evaluated the situation.

Though in hindsight, I realized that the Rottweiler was only after my Smooth Collie, she often did seem to send out a weird I'm-a-sitting-duck-target-signal, and that I wouldn't have needed to pick them all up, but that's easy to figure out afterwards.
And the Boxer lived in the neighbourhood, unsuitable owners maybe to blame for that something wasn't quite right mentaly, anyway, after the first time, whenever we met, she saw my dogs and started acting up, saw me and gave me a strange glare and then pretenden that my dogs had gone invisible!

from Sweden.
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It makes me so cross when people have no control over their off leash dogs. That being said, I see a huge difference when my dog is off her leash compared to on. If another dog is bouncy and coms to say hi when she's on leash, she'll snap at them to tell them to calm down. Both off leash, and the same level of bounciness is taken as a cue to run off and play together.

If I were you, I would carry a squirty bottle of water and use it on the spaniel if it's getting too close and snarly. Our dog park has a strict policy about picking small dogs up if there's a scuffle--as in, don't (!) because it only makes the dog on the ground jump up at the owner and try and bite the dog's feet/belly/owner's hands. I've seen this happen countless times.

And the heckles up thing isn't necessarily a sign of aggression. My girl often does it when she's getting ready to poop and wants to be left alone.
 
Sorry, previewed and everything, still didn't spot that I'd written Pick IT up! Sorry, I meant Pick HIM up! And please don't tell me that pretenden have some horrible meaning, I meant pretended.

Then in other hand, I don't want to think about how many spelling mistakes I've probably made, and will continue to make, without spotting them. But I'm allways picky about getting my swedish correct, so it's really annoying, to worrie about all the mistakes I must be making on a foreign language.

Then it's nice to read, I can't remember if it was CALA or Silver-Florin, that wrote she avoids the word euthanisia, because she worries about spelling it correct.


from Sweden.
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I see your point Prose, and when I take my dogs out for separate walks, picking up is allways my last choice.

But since her dog already have had one bad experience with this spaniel, I did, to be honest, meant to say : DO WHAT *#&@* EVER IT TAKES, to make sure that spaniel doesn't get a second chance.
If that means roaring, challenging the spaniel yourself or carrying around on a barrel full of water, whatever, just don't let that spaniel near your dog again. But if nothing else works, THEN do pick him up.

from Sweden.
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I have heard of people and kids getting bitten when smaller dogs were picked up, but it's up to the individual to decide.

My male barks and whines at other dogs...he is not outwardly aggressive in terms of body language and I am sure he would be better off lead, but he is a big boy so I am not willing to take a chance with someone else's dog...so he stays on a lead in public places.

If another dog comes up to us in a challenging manner and we have time, I will call and ask for it to be put on a lead, if I don't have time, I will shout at the other dog. Me loud!
 
Thanks for all the views everyone, it's an interesting one trying to decide what to do next, given we are guaranteed to bump into him again. But I think stepping between them is a good idea, and as a last resort picking mine up I suppose... the spaniel did once chase mine off-leash and mine ran all the way home by himself (which is why I keep him on a lead in that park). So it seems they have a history of dislike!

I'm pretty sure it was genuine aggression, it wasn't just the hackles, the spaniel was spitting and snarling, I've never heard it do that before, usually just a growl or whatever so something somewhere has escalated. He went right in at my dog's neck and had him pinned by the throat, I don't think he would have let go if I hadn't pulled mine out. Anyway, fingers crossed he is on the lead next time! Thanks again all x
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Personally (and everyone does things differently) I would try my very best to avoid picking your dog up - nothing attracts the interest of a dog more than another dog being picked up and held out of reach. I must admit I would tend to focus my attention on the springer - and whilst accepting that some may be horrified by this, my first tactic would be to give the springer a good boot to illustrate to it that its attentions are not required!

If this is not possible then I would grab it by the collar if it is wearing one (watch out for it turning its head and trying to bite your wrist if it is really hyped up) and picking it up clear of the ground - this normally curbs their enthusiasm for being aggresive. If it is not wearing a collar then loud shouting is also effective, keeping your body between the springer and your own dog.

Since it is easy to misinterprete what people write on a forum please can I reassure everyone that this is NOT what I would usually do with other dogs approaching mine, just with a nasty aggressive case like this springer seems to be.

Good luck Nudibranch, I do hope your little dog is OK and not too traumatised by the whole thing
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Sounds very sensible advice Acolyte. Isn't it odd, I would have no qualms about dealing with half a ton of misbehaving horse but when it's something that affects my pup I suddenly become completely clueless!
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Not odd at all - I am ultra protective about my two, even though they are usually the ones doing their very best Tigger impression and bouncing towards other smaller dogs
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Having read my last post again it seems I have a particular dislike of aggressive dogs
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- I think really it is that I am very protective of my own dogs
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