# Luke's dog fight. Opinions on his behavior



## Pauld (May 8, 2010)

I would like some opinions on my 9 month old, Luke's behavior with other dogs. I'll give some background info first.
We got Luke at 6 months from someone who claimed that they could no longer care for his dogs. At the time it seemed weird that he kept mentioning different dogs he had rehomed but our other dog, Daphne, hit it off right away with Luke and he didn't seem to be timid/fearful or have any problems besides normal puppy stuff and separation anxiety. After a couple visits we took Luke home and he adjusted to life with Daphne, my wife , and myself much faster and better than I expected. My wife and I would later come to find out the guy we got Luke from regularly gets a pair of puppies with plans to breed and make money. So far, from what I have been told, all the dogs have been rehomed and, fortunately, never bread.
I think Luke's temperament is pretty good considering he missed out on a lot of socialization during critical times. He gets nervous when people get overly interested in him but he has great recall and focus on my wife and myself for his age. My wife and I are very careful to control him around people and haven't had any problems. Usually if the person tones it down a bit Luke is happy to do a greet and get a pat on the head.
Luke is generally aloof to slightly interested in most strange dogs and loves dogs he knows. He has spent his entire life besides about 2 weeks with at least one other dog. He has decent manors and body language with other respectful dogs. 
Incident #1: We were off leash walking. Luke was walking pretty close to the heal position and Daphne was walking ahead. We come up to a large unaltered male mix. The dog has zero interest in Daphne and goes strait for Luke. Luke tenses a little bit but doesn't seem overly nervous and of course the dog owner is quick to point out how "friendly" his dog is. A couple seconds later this friendly dog is giving Luke a couple nudges in the side so I quickly and calmly say "ok let's go". We get about 20 feet away when I hear the guy calling his dog repeatedly as his dog is about to mount Luke right next to me. He succeeds in mounting Luke and biting the back of his neck before I can knock him off. He yelps but no other reactions. I try not to make a big deal of it call him to my other side and walk back to the truck. Takes him about an hour to get get over it.
Incident#2: I go to meet my friends recent rescue dog with Daphne and Luke. The rescue dog has had zero problems with all the dogs she has met so far. As soon as they meet Daphne is not happy about this hyper, goofy, and clumsy dog and gives her the back off look. She goes over to Luke and he gets super tense, I don't know if this was because of the way Daphne reacted to the dog or what. I gave him some commands and moved his focus over to me and he relaxed a bit until the rescue dog came by me. Luke got all tense again and started to growl a bit. I quickly gave him a vocal correction and we went for a walk. We come back to my friend and the rescue dog and Daphne and Luke both just stay in a heel and ignore the other dog. All of us go for a walk around his property all is fine until the rescue dog, who has been running around in circles around us as we walked runs right in to Luke. Luke over-reacts and bites the other dog's muzzle pretty hard. I vocally correct him and immediately put his focus on me. We were pretty close to my friends kennel so I told Luke to go for a time out and closed him in the kennel. With in minutes of getting out of the kennel the rescue dog bumps Luke again but he just goes over to my other side and starts leaning into my leg, so we leave.
Incident#3. My wife was walking both dogs on leash down the street from our house. The neighbors male unaltered chow mix is out of the yard and starts to charge Daphne. Daphne gives the dog _the look_ and stops it dead in it's tracks. The dog then goes over and jumps on Luke while my wife is yelling at the dog. My wife gives the "let's go" command and starts jogging home with the other dog jumping on Luke and biting his head and neck. Luke does his best to ignore the dog and follow the command. Once Luke gets home he is very upset and just goes and lays down in his bed. Once I get home he become more velcro dog than usual and wants to lay on top of me.
Incident #4. My wife was walking both dogs off leash with my sister-in-law and her dogs. An adult unaltered male bulldog comes in the park and tries to mount Daphne. She turns and gives the dog _the look_ and it whimpers and goes away. A few minutes later the dog is coming after my sister-in-law's female acd. Her dog has very poor recall and starts running away from the other dog. My sister-in-laws dog hides under a bench and Luke gets in between her and the Bull dog. My wife gets in front of Luke and tells Luke "enough". Luke stays behind my wife as she tries to get the owner of the bulldog to come hold on to the dog so they can leave. While my wife is talking to the the owner the bulldog goes around my wife and charges Luke. Luke knocks one of the dog's legs from under it and put the dog on it's back. My wife says enough and he stops. Bull dogs owner is now screaming. Bull dog gets up and charges Luke. Luke tears the Bulldogs face/muzzle open. Wife again says "enough" and Luke stops. Bulldog again charges Luke and Luke tears open the dogs eyelid. Wife again says "enough" and Luke stops. Bulldog owner finally decides to control her dog so my wife and sister-in-law can leave with the dogs.
Luke fortunately has had hundreds of positive experiences with dogs but he is only 9 months and has already bitten and drawn blood from 2 different dogs. Also with the bulldog his ability is kind of scary. I wasn't there but my wife said a full grown muscular male bulldog was totally dominated by our 9 month old puppy definitely not the type of confidence we want him to have. Daphne will give most dogs _the look_ and they will back down. If they don't she would still rather run than fight if she has a way out.


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## JakodaCD OA (May 14, 2000)

My take on this, Luke sounds like a really nice dog and quite tolerant , all of the instances you listed were STARTED by OTHER DOGS. 

A dog is only going to take so much and then defend itself. He has been put into positions where it sounds like he doesn't 'want' to react, but is basically 'forced' to, in order, again, to defend himself or Daphne. 

While we certainly don't want our dogs fighting/biting other dogs, you can't expect Luke to roll over and say "beat me up" when he's jumped. 

My suggestion, keep him AWAY from unruly dogs as the ones you've listed above. If he continues to get 'jumped' by unruly dogs, I think you will end up seeing Luke becoming defensive against all dogs. The "i'm going to get you before you get me" syndrome. 

Been there done that, My suggestion also is when you want to hang with other dogs, KNOW those dogs are calm, easy going, and not bullies. If you get even the slightest negative attention from either another dog or luke, Remove him from the situation immediately. It's not fair to tell him "no" when he's only defending himself.

Just my 2 cents


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## AgileGSD (Jan 17, 2006)

I agree with Jakoda.

I think you need to do a better job of protecting your dog when out and about, or he's going to learn it is up to him to defend himself. This is one reason I don't suggest dog parks - you can't control what dogs your dog is going to interact with.


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## Elaine (Sep 10, 2006)

These incidents were all preventable and were YOUR fault. Your dog clearly told you he didn't want to be around those other dogs and you continued to let them. It is your job to protect your dog and you and your wife failed.

If you want to have other dogs near your dog, it should be on leash introductions and then off leash only if both dogs are clearly comfortable. Once off leash the dogs need to be directly supervised for any sign of aggression or discomfort when they would be promptly separated and put back on leash.


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## Stosh (Jun 26, 2010)

I've read that a male's testosterone level is high enough at 9 mos that other dogs can smell it, so now that your boy is 9 mos, other dogs aren't treating Luke as a puppy any more and trying to show the new young guy who's boss. Since he didn't start anything and stops on command I'd say he's acting well and not aggressively.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Luke must be one handsome dog to have all of those unaltered dogs try to mount him?

I have never had that problem, Sinister didn't get neutered until he was 15 months old, we never had a dog mount him and he never mounted another dog and we have been to the dog park almost once a week since he was 6 months old.


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

I agree with others, Luke sounds really tolerant! Like others said if you know another dog is unruly keep Luke away from them...if you meet an unruly dog by chance do your best to remove Luke from the situation and try to keep it positive. Good boy, let's go Luke...etc. etc.


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

Don't blame yourself for what other's unruly dogs have done. luke does sound like he is pretty tolerant and i agree that at some point he has to defend himself. i would be careful whenever he is around aother dogs but not too worried that he is too aggressive. He is starting to become an adult male dog and I would not want one who is going to run and hide when threatened. Not one to start a fight but not one to back down and run and hide either.


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## GSD_man (Oct 6, 2007)

Pauld said:


> Daphne will give most dogs _the look_ and they will back down. If


"nana nana na na na na naa, nanna na na na...she's got the look" 


9 months, 100s of positive experiences with other dogs....pheeeewww, that's quite a social dog you got there. CGC to the tenth power


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

I think I would stay out of dog parks with this dog, and I would walk the dogs separately until he has matured a bit more, and the bond between everyone has been augmented by a lot of training. 

It sounds like your dog did very good, stopping and sitting in the midst of battle shows a lot of restraint. 

However, dog parks can be too much freedome and too crazy all around. Also, there are too many people out there that cannot or will not control their dogs. I would give them a wide berth. 

If you must go, one dog at a time. 

You WANT a dog with plenty of confidence. Dogs are much more likely to bite that are timid and fearful. So the confidence does not bother me. 

It is troublesome that your puppy has been in more than one situation where he has had to defend himself. I think taking dogs out together contributes to this. 

I wish you all luck.


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## Konotashi (Jan 11, 2010)

I think Luke did very well in the given situations. I do not think that they were "YOUR fault" as someone above mentioned. I do however feel that if he starts to feel uncomfortable, or if Daphne starts shooting 'the look,' that you need to leave the situation immediately. As you can tell from the bully's owner screaming, some dog owners aren't the best in certain situations. I feel your wife and Luke handled that situation amazingly well, and he could have done far more damage had he wanted to.


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## KZoppa (Aug 14, 2010)

i agree that Luke sounds like a very good boy for his age. I do also say that everyone previously has made valid points (though i'm all for dog parks! my dogs love them). I hope you figure out what the deal is. He sounds like a confident guy but you dont want that ruined by some unruly dogs that seem to insist on causing trouble. He needs to know that you will protect him when necessary otherwise in regards to other dogs (this could even escalate to people) he will start to think, as said previously as well, he has to get them before they get him.


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## Pauld (May 8, 2010)

Thanks for the replies. 
The only time Luke has been corrected for his behavior was with my friends dog. The dog wasn't being aggressive, just hyper and clumsy. Biting the dogs muzzle was an overreaction and unnecessary in my opinion so Luke got a time out. I wasn't really worried about it because I just figured he's young and needs to learn appropriate ways of reacting to a dog he doesn't like but isn't threatening. Daphne's body language around dog's is very clear and hopefully Luke can learn to communicate better with out resorting to physical contact. I would never expect my dog's not to defend themselves or punish them for it if it seemed reasonably necessary.
Dogs loose on the street is just going to be a way of life around here. We moved to a military town and 1/2 the town was recently deployed so after the shelter filled it seems people just turned the dogs loose. My wife isn't going to grab or harm a dog in the street so the only solution we could come up with is for her to carry pepper spray on walks.
While we don't want to put the dog's in bad situations, we also don't want to completely block the dogs from reality and the world. We try and keep them in a state of knowing that the world is generally a good place with good people/dogs but, with some bad. I know dog parks aren't popular on this site but we do use them sparingly. I miss the huge parks in IL where you could easily keep your distance from everyone else. The park here is much smaller but it does have a small agility section that almost nobody uses and Luke absolutely loves. He'll run the obstacles for nothing more then an excited "yes, good ramp, tube, etc" unlike Daphne who you had better have a treat ready for. We also use the park to meet up with dogs we have meet trough our dog walker and through training during off hours. At least it has a back gate and almost full view of the parking lot so when someone you want to avoid comes you can usually heel and head for the back. 
I guess I just worry about Luke because he is a little softer and more sensitive than Daphne ever was, I don't know if it is genetic, because he had rocky start in life, or ,more than likely, a combination of both. Things just don't "roll off" him like they do with Daphne.


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## Whiteshepherds (Aug 21, 2010)

All dog parks aren't bad, you just have to know what to watch for. (sounds like you do) 
If you've found a good one enjoy it, they really can be great for socializing.


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## LaRen616 (Mar 4, 2010)

Whiteshepherds said:


> All dog parks aren't bad, you just have to know what to watch for. (sounds like you do)
> If you've found a good one enjoy it, they really can be great for socializing.


:thumbup:


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