Dog Community

Dog-Dog Interactions--To Interfere or Not to Interfere?

Posted : 3/16/2011 9:53:07 PM

Jack (for those of you that don't remember, as I haven't been on much), is a 4 year old male lab.

A friend of mine runs a small rescue, and has a foster that is a female pit mix roughly a year old. She seems to be a bit rude--within seconds of sniffing Jack at their first meeting she was standing on his shoulders and growling. She eventually seems to want to get him to play with her, but she has a very rude, bullying manner about her at first.

This last interaction they had she pretty much greeted him growling. He ignored her when she growled and followed after me. We went to let them out in the back to go potty (it's a large training facility with a large indoor and outdoor play/training area) and they sniffed a few more times and seemed OK. Then the female got in Jack's face and growled again, trying to put her front paws on him. Instead of turning away and avoiding (which he had been doing when she had been rude before), he kind of held his head high, stiffened, thwapped her front paw down with his own and showed her his teeth!

After that she backed down, and he proceeded to do his best to ignore her-turning his head or whole body from her if she got near him, sometimes putting myself or DH in between him and the female. She didn't try to bully him the rest of the night and he did his best to not acknowledge her presence. At one point after she left him alone for a while he did seem interested in playing, but she became very growly and rough so he did the ignoring thing again.

I never got the feeling he was in danger--I think she was just being a buttface. Should I have stepped in when the female began to get pushy, or was it a good idea to let Jack handle the interaction himself??

CoBuHe

Posted : 3/16/2011 10:01:47 PM

Personally, I think you did the right thing in letting them work it out; and it sounds like they did. You would have seen or even felt it if things were going to get ugly, likely. Only if it had been getting ugly would I have stepped in.

tiffy

Posted : 3/19/2011 4:28:51 PM

I think you handled the situation perfect.

spiritdogs

Posted : 4/1/2011 7:06:37 PM

This sounds like your dog handled things extremely well. Pits have a really rude play style - lots of face play, growling, pawing on the other dog. They tend to bully other dogs their own age. So, trainers will often put Pit puppies in with safe adult dogs who can tell them how not to be so darned rude, which is exactly what Jack did. He may not have been in danger, although that's not something I would necessarily assume. So, as to whether you should have stopped it or not, I can't say. All I know is that he was acting perfectly appropriately. And, frankly, it sounds as though he doesn't really like her all that much. FWIW, it rarely seems that anyone is in danger when Pits play, until they aren't playing any more. They go from 0-60 in a nanosecond with little signaling when they get serious. So, the fact that she didn't send up any red flags is not evidence that all was well, or that all will be well in the future. Most dogs are better off not playing with the bully breeds. Incidents with them happen so suddenly that I think they are much safer, and better off, with a few intimate friends and not trying to pose as social butterflies at the dog park.

espencer

Posted : 4/4/2011 8:25:17 AM

I would have intervene first to teach the foster when is "too much" and second to teach my dog that I will take care of it. The pit mix is a foster which means that the less "rude" she is by playing too hard the more chances she has to be adopted. Of course they can always find a house for her where she could play as "rude" as she wants but the more she knows the limits on what is ok and what is rude the more chances to find even more homes to adopt her.

sillysally
Then the female got in Jack's face and growled again, trying to put her front paws on him. Instead of turning away and avoiding (which he had been doing when she had been rude before), he kind of held his head high, stiffened, thwapped her front paw down with his own and showed her his teeth!

Clear indication that your dog is getting "tired" of putting up with her, he was avoiding her before, now he was confronting her. It seems that she got the message this time, is she going to try in the future? is she going to try while your dog is having a "bad day" next time? Is the pitbull side of the foster answer back? I firmly believe that pitbulls just dont start fights out of the simple fact that they are pitbulls but every dog has a defense mechanism and you would not want to have your dog triggering a pitbull's defense mechanism. I know you have a pit mix yourself, probably your pit mix would never would take out her "pitbul" side, do you know if this foster would?

A simple voice correction can do the trick, too many bad things can happen vs good things of letting them "working it out" themselves. THAT is what i call "setting up the dog for failure". I know it was not your intention and that's why you came here to ask if you did the correct thing. I'm not saying that you screwed up because it was the first time but if you let it happen again you could be playing with fire.