German Shepherds Forum banner

My Part in Blue's Relationship with Other Dogs

920 views 1 reply 2 participants last post by  nysirk 
#1 ·
Over the weekend we went camping with some friends - 8 women and 7 dogs - woo hoo!

One of the dogs - an average sized lab mix - is a foster and a pretty good boy except that he 'sort of' wanted to mount all the other dogs. He wasn't real sure of himself - he was happy to play with all the other dogs and got on well, but it was sort of like he wanted to try that mounting thing out. He never really got very far with it, but Blue just didn't like it and initially snapped at the lab, then built up to lunging and barking at him (not terribly aggressively, more of a "hey! go away! I don't like you!" - it was kinda cute - it was almost a whiney bark like the lab hurt his feelings or something. Hehe).

So it made me wonder what my role should be with Blue's interactions. To this point when he's out meeting other dogs I make myself available for him to come back to often kneeling so he can get close, but I won't coddle him or baby talk and if he comes close like that and the other dog follows I keep the other dog away (oddly enough it's mostly little lap dogs that will pursue). And it's worked pretty well - Blue's pretty confident with other dogs, but will also back out of any aggression and head back closer to me.

But now I'm not sure how to handle him when he's telling this other dog off. I understand he wants to make it clear that humping is not allowed - and when possible I stepped in to make the lab not bother him, but sometimes the lab would just be coming out to hang with everyone and he wasn't doing anything and Blue would lunge and try to use his body to push the lab away and while I understand Blue's irritation he does have to allow the dog to be there. At one point I grabbed Blue's scruff and made him look at me (with the watch me command - the scruff grab was just to get his attention - I couldn't break it away with just a command).

This is a little long winded, but the long and the short of it is how do I manage how Blue deals with other dogs. I like his level of confidence and that he's not aggressive, I want him to know he can take care of himself if he needs to (I'm not going to force him to accept being mounted/dominated/attacked by another dog), but there are times when his behaviour isn't appropriate... and I may have answered my own question right there - it's simply inappropriate behaviour and treat it as such.

Wouldn't mind hearing some comments from you all, though.

~L'aura
 
See less See more
#2 ·
I feel like im in the same boat as you, when do you step in and when do you let the dogs resolve their own problems, i have a similar problem with my 3 month old pup he is very dominate towards other dogs in play mostly toy breeds and other puppy's he dose okay with larger older dogs but i would love to hear some comments as well when is enough enough?
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top