Help with aggressive dog meeting

[kim80]

Hi, my sister has just gotten herself a female Doberman cross she is not desexed, we want Roxy and my staffy Maverick to meet, but Maverick does not like MOST dogs we come across, so we have planed to have a mussel on them just in case. i have been told that being he is the aggressive one , i should take him on to her property, so now she has two things going for her 1, she is female and 2, it is her property, but my sister has just told me that we are not going to be able to get them together because she has just come into season,
So my question is will it still be safe to let them meet, while she is in season, wont her being in season make Maverick want to be nice to her....lol
oh and Maverick is desexed, he got desexed at about 8 months old...

i would really like for them to get along, i know if Maverick played to ruff with her she would be fine as she lived with a pitt bull befor my sister got her, the pitt bull has a few little scares from her so i know she can handle her self...lol...

Maverick does play with my other to dogs but they are old now and they stop playing very quick, he does have some friends at puppy school but they dont seem interested in playing with each other.....
What i would really really like is to be able to goto my sisters house with Maverick and put him out the back with Roxy and for them to have a ball with each other...

thanks
kim

 

[CollieMan]

The first caveat I feel obliged to state is that despite anything I say here, I can't stress enough how you should really seek professional help in this matter. Dog aggression is obviously something that must be taken seriously.

Firstly, you need a professional to determine which sort of aggression your Staffordshire has. It's never as simple as it looks.

Many, if not most 'aggressive' dogs are not really aggressive at all. They are, in fact, scared witless of the other dog(s). They have learned that if they bark loud enough and posture a little, the other dog will not come near them. 'The best form of defence is attack' being the notion in this case.

You can usually tell the difference between a fear-aggressive bark and a plain aggressive bark. The fear-aggressive bark is usually a little more higher-pitched, and then there's the body language. They both produce entirely differently body languages, which are way too complex to cover here.

Whatever else you do, I don't believe that you should let them meet while the bitch is in season. There are two main reasons for this: 1. The bitch can become quite temperamental at this time anyway, and 2. should things go horribly wrong, you don't want your dog to associate being in season with the nasty experience. That in itself could bring about all sorts of future behavioural issues.

I have to be honest with you, I'm a little concerned that you "lol" at the fact the pitt-bull has a few scars because your dog 'can handle itself'.

I hope that you do seek professional assistance in this matter, but if you don't then please, whatever you do, make sure both dogs are muzzled, both on long leashes, and you don't try to force them to interact with one another. Let them approach in their own time, at their own pace, and not straight on. I would seek to make this happen over several small stages, as opposed to one all-or-nothing event. Though personally, I'd rather you didn't attempt it at all, without qualified supervision. But only you know your dogs and the exact situation.

 

[CollieMan]

Topic title changed for improved search results, and thread relocated to more relevant forum.

 

[kim80]

thanks collieman,

i was not lol at the fact that the pitt bull has scares from her, it was more to the face that she is a girl and us girls can take care of our selfs if you know what i mean, i love all dogs no matter what the breed, i am a very high believer that it is not the dogs fault that it is aggressive it is up to the owners to bring it up the right way.....
in that said i dont know why Maverick is this way i have had him since he was 5 weeks old, and he has never been attacked, i have never treated him bad in any way he has been going to puppy school since he was 6 months old, it is not fear, he never has his tail between his legs, we can walk up to one dog they will say hello everything will be all good, then walk up to another dog same breed some colour some sex, they will say hello then next thing you know he snaps at it and we can no longer go near that dog, for the rest of the lesson he will just stare at it, i know that when he stares at a dog for longer then a min he is not going to get along with it.......
what you said about them meet while Roxy is in season, sounds right i will leave it till she has finished,
what we were going to do was meet out the front, both dogs have a mussel on, we wont let the sniff each other we will just start walking and at the end maverick will go back in to the car and roxy back in her yard, and do that a few times untill there is no more pulling to get to each other, then we will let them have a sniff of each other just not face to face.......

thankyou so much for your reply as any help with this prob i have with maverick is great...
i have seen some one about Maverick and he said to use a spray bottle witch i am useing and he is about 80% better than what he was....i just can't wait till the day were i dont have to worrie about coming across other dogs off leads...

Kim

 

[bipa]

Hey there! As an owner of a fear-aggressive dog, I can tell you that my dog NEVER has his tail between his legs. To the untrained eye, it looks like my lunging maniac is ready to tear the other dog apart! But he's actually really scared and just putting on a show. So just because you write "he never has his tail between his legs" doesn't mean that he isn't afraid. In fact, he might be carrying his tail quite high to make himself look bigger and more of a challenge.

Reading a dog's body language can be very difficult. What looks like "I want a tummy rub" to one person could actually be a frantic calming signal saying to the trained eye "please don't hurt me, I'm afraid!" Breed and colour aren't the defining factors of why two dogs may or may not get along. Dogs of opposite genders do tend to get along better than those of the same gender, but how a dog behaves and individual personality is just as likely to get a strong response.

Meetings of strange dogs should usually take place on neutral territory. Neither should feel like they have to defend their own territory. A female in heat will be really grouchy, so definitely wait until that phase is over.

You are dealing with two very strong dogs, capable of doing much damage. Please think things through really carefully, and plan out various worst case scenarios. What if.... the leash breaks? ... one slips out of the collar? ... leash simply is pulled right out of your hands? Even with a muzzle, those claws can make deep scratches and sheer body weight slamming a muzzle into another dog can break a limb. I don't know the dogs so can't give any definitive advice, except to say for everyone's sake be careful and have an emergency plan ready (and know where the nearest animal hospital is located).

 

[kim80]

Thank you tx_cowgirl and bipa, for your reply
my trainer at puppy school said it is not fear, i can tell if he is not going to get along with another dog as his ears and the first thing to go forward and then he will stick his chest out and then begin to prance, we had someone come up to as at puppy school the other day and with out letting us know he was coming over as we were talking to some one else and Maverick got her on the ear, he does not just bite and let go he will bite and shake, i got him off and put him to the ground and stood over him untill her had calmed down then i told him he can hop up, it makes me so upset when ever this happens, as i have worked so hard to get him to this stage, my trainer told me to do the sharp snap or the lead and to redo it if he does not listen, and after a couple of goes at that he still doesn't listen to use a pump bottle witch has worked so well and it hasn't made him scared of the bottle either witch is good he still drinks out of it......lol

we are now at the stage that i am not worried during our walks,
i have had heeps of people ask me why dont you just get rid of him........and i really do feel like punching them, i feel when you bring a animal into your home it become your family and if i got rid of everyone in my family that had a prob, i wouldn't have any left:msngiggle:

and if didn't get rid of him because of his diabetes, i'm NOT getting rid of him because of a prob we can work on..........

Kim

 

[tx_cowgirl]

Glad things are going well with him! :doglaugh: And I'm glad you have a professional helping you, that's really good. That will help you a lot. :doghappy: Good luck!