Fight :(

[Kaasuti]

A Cairn Terrier mix attacked my pup today and they got in to a fight (if you got punched in the face you'd react back right?). I managed to get collar Charlie and had to kneel on the other dog because i wouldn't stop trying to get to Charlie, even though Charlie was trying to avoid the situation. The other dog then went to attack a fellow dog owners puppy.

Did i react in the right way??. I know i need to protect my dog.

[Lilie]

Where were you when the fight happened?

[Questforfire]

Where was the owner of the Cairn Terrier? How old is your pup? I would be keen for him to only meet friendly dogs from now on, especially if he is only a young pup. An attack from another dog at a young age could make him defensive with other dogs for life.

[Kaasuti]

Originally Posted by Lilie

Where were you when the fight happened?

I was in my local park. My pup was playing with another puppy. The owner was quite far away from his dog, he wasn't even trying to call him back. Charlie is six months old now. Luckily the pups continued to play like nothing had happened afterwards.

[Lilie]

Were you at a dog park? Were any of the dogs leashed?

Try to paint a picture of what was happening before the fight started. It helps determine what would best help you in this situation.

[Kaasuti]

Originally Posted by Lilie

Were you at a dog park? Were any of the dogs leashed?

Try to paint a picture of what was happening before the fight started. It helps determine what would best help you in this situation.

It wasn't a dog park, it's my local park. None of the dog were leashed no, 99% of the dogs in that park are amazing dogs. This one though, a little terror.

[Questforfire]

I would definitely have a word with the owner of the terrier, and ask them to keep their dog on a lead if he is not friendly to other dogs and has no recall.

Hope your pup is ok now.

[3dognite]

Originally Posted by Questforfire

Where was the owner of the Cairn Terrier? How old is your pup? I would be keen for him to only meet friendly dogs from now on, especially if he is only a young pup. An attack from another dog at a young age could make him defensive with other dogs for life.

I'd ditto this. My GSD had an altercation with a little toy-sized dog when he was young. To this day he's not only defensive with toy-sized dogs, but he actively hates them.

Originally Posted by Questforfire

I would definitely have a word with the owner of the terrier, and ask them to keep their dog on a lead if he is not friendly to other dogs and has no recall.

Hope your pup is ok now.

Ditto to this too!

[martemchik]

A 6 month GSD and a Cairn terrier mix? You'll have trouble yelling at that owner for his dog "attacking" yours. Who punched who in the face? Cause I don't see a cairn terrier having much success trying to punch a GSD in the face...

A punch in the face is not outright "fighting words" to dogs but it is highly discouraged. We have a westie in the family and when my boy sees him he always wants to play. The westie is older, not as social, and ignores him. He used to growl at him and actually try to attack him but we taught him not to as that would surely lead to death without human intervention. My boy tended to punch that dog in the face when they were playing (when he was younger) and the terrier didn't like that, so we taught the GSD not to do that. In fact...most people at the dog parks I go to will not allow their dogs to "punch." They'll allow most types of wrestling...with jaws around necks but punching is kind of frowned upon.

All dogs were off-leash, if your dog had gotten away from you I bet you wouldn't have the greatest recall in the world either since its a 6 month old pup that would be playing with something else at the time. Jumping down other owner's throats for doing the same thing you are isn't very nice in my opinion. My rule with dog parks, or any park, is if you don't like what's going on, then you leave. You can't make another person leave a place they are just as entitled to use as you are.

[Jax08]

Terrier are bred to route out vermin (fox, otter and weasel)...that's their job. It really isn't surprising that they are feisty and would attack a larger dog. They don't care about size. I don't know why anyone would be surprised that a smaller dog would start a fight with a larger dog, especially when they were bred to attack and kill animals larger than them.

I imagine the "punch in the face" comment was an analogy to the GSD puppy defending himself. I've used a similar comment to my husband when our dogs got into a fight and he was spouting about Jax eyeballing Sierra (who had attacked with no provocation). My response was "If you walked into a room and I sucker punched you in the head, you would be eyeballing me too"