# The most aggressive dog on our block



## billsharp (May 3, 2011)

We have several dogs living in our neighborhood. Up and down our block are blond and black labs, weimaraners, goldens, mutts, toy poodles, and lots of cats. Almost all are very friendly and have nice, responsible owners.

A solid young black lab male has always barked at us as we walked past his gated driveway. I've had Liesl "leave it" for several months, but earlier this week we decided to walk up and approach him. Turns out he just wanted to get out and play with us. They sniffed noses and wagged tails (this is the only way she approaches other dogs) and I gave him a few treats, and now he looks forward to us stopping by.

HOWEVER, next door to him is a house with a little Pomeranian. It is the loudest, yappiest dog I have ever seen. It goes banshee crazy from inside its house when we walk by, running from window to window to follow our progress. Sometimes it is out in its yard, and runs to the fence snarling and spitting.

We tried to approach it to be friendly, but the little dog was not interested. Through the fence it continued to snarl, bare fangs, and growl and yap in full-fledged "I want to kill you" mode. For the first time ever, I saw Liesl do the same thing back, after trying to approach and sniff and be friendly. 

Thankfully, the people (who are very nice, btw) never seem to take this dog outside and inflict it on the neighborhood. 

Also, some large hawks have taken up residence in the tall trees in our neighborhood. Little pom might want to stay inside a bit more now....


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## Zeeva (Aug 10, 2010)

billsharp said:


> ] Turns out he just wanted to get out and play with us. They sniffed noses and wagged tails (this is the only way she approaches other dogs) and I gave him a few treats, and now he looks forward to us stopping by.


Aw how wonderful! <3


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## Carriesue (Aug 13, 2012)

Hey, my Pomeranian is the best guard dog in my house... Burgler best be hoping he's wearing shin guards the day he decides to rob my house.


(though he's nowhere near as bad as that one lol... Sounds like that one along with way too many other small dogs wasn't properly socialized)


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

Small dogs are notorious for their hatred of larger dogs. I believe it's fear/defense.


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## Scarlettsmom (Jul 12, 2011)

Scarlett is generally very wary of small dogs. She is actually afraid of a blind, deaf chihuahua up the street. She hides behind my legs if Buddy is outside. There are two little Bichon's around the corner that are HORRIBLE and they have chased us down a few times. They go after Scarlett's back legs. The owners are so clueless about why I get so mad at them. I noticed their house is up for sale...I hope it sells FAST.


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## angryrainbow (Jul 1, 2012)

Please be careful when approaching these fences.. I know you have good intentions and some of these dogs seem friendly, but the barrier can cause frustration and the dog may be territorial.. You might feel safe cause theres a fence, but if a large dog lunged at it, depending on the type of the fence, they could get through or jump it to get at you.. It can also cause lots of stress on your neighbors and their dogs, theres a reason they have a fence. ): i'm glad your encounters have gone well, though. and you've made a doggie friend.


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## x0emiroxy0x (Nov 29, 2010)

People who leave their blinds up so that their dogs can bark at every innocent person walking by deserve to have quadruplets that all have colic and cry all night so they can never sleep.

My boyfriend's mom leaves their blinds up and their dog HOWLS every time someone walks by. She leaves for work at 5am and the lady next door goes on a walk every morning at 6am. When I stay there, I know I will never sleep past 6, nor will the neighbors.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

> Please be careful when approaching these fences.. I know you have good intentions and some of these dogs seem friendly, but the barrier can cause frustration and the dog may be territorial


Also dogs can fight through a fence. 
The best thing to do when approaching a barking dog behind is a fence is to teach your dog to ignore it. Don't approach the fence. It's really actually taunting the dog behind the fence and (for me anyway) quite annoying when people and/or pets approach the fence while my dogs are going nuts behind it.


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## Woof_Terrorist (Aug 3, 2012)

Carriesue said:


> Hey, my Pomeranian is the best guard dog in my house... Burgler best be hoping he's wearing shin guards the day he decides to rob my house.


Barking is a sign of fear in most cases. A small yappy dog will back off and cower at the first sign of trouble. 

There was a TV Show about untrained dogs kept in their houses and a person sent to burglarize their houses (On camera of course). Of all the dogs, an unsocialized GSD was the only one which actually drove the burglar away. It was a mix of protective behavior plus natural suspicion since he had not been socialized with other humans that much as a policy by his owner.

I am not sure how well an untrained dog will protect its owners, however what I am sure : the ones that are the most cowardly - are the loudest yappers and outwardly aggressive mutts.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

My Dachshunds _will_ bite intruders (and they bark) so I'm not sure how accurate your assessment is, there.
The known biters get put up as soon as company pulls in the drive.


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

Poms are Spitz dogs and thankfully are the size they are. You wouldn't want a 70# Pomeranian, that's for sure! 

Pomeranians: What's Good About 'Em? What's Bad About 'Em?


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## Carriesue (Aug 13, 2012)

That's been my only difficulty with this forum, all the hate towards little dogs... My Pom is my heart dog and he must be a freak of nature because he loves people/strangers like a golden retriever. He just seems naturally protective like a GSD.

Though I agree people who don't train or socialize their small dogs(or any dog) are poo poo heads.


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## Woof_Terrorist (Aug 3, 2012)

Well, I wish you all the best with your 3-7lb Pom guarding your house. 

There have been so many incidents of Garden Gnomes doing home invasions this summer... I am sure you are safe.


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## Carriesue (Aug 13, 2012)

Woof_Terrorist said:


> Well, I wish you all the best with your 3-7lb Pom guarding your house.
> 
> There have been so many incidents of Garden Gnomes doing home invasions this summer... I am sure you are safe.


:rofl: Hey those gnomes can be tricky fellows!

But no lol, I don't actually expect him to realistically defend me.  He is just the first one to alert if there's someone at the door or the dang opossum rummaging around in the garage outside.


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## JeanKBBMMMAAN (May 11, 2005)

Carriesue said:


> That's been my only difficulty with this forum, all the hate towards little dogs... My Pom is my heart dog and he must be a freak of nature because he loves people/strangers like a golden retriever. He just seems naturally protective like a GSD.
> 
> Though I agree people who don't train or socialize their small dogs(or any dog) are poo poo heads.


Agree. I think it's because a lot of people have never had a small dog and don't understand that they are dogs and have a lot of good qualities. And that they are small for a reason - no one could out-think, out-do a Pomeranian full size, or Schipperke, or many of the other Spitzy small breeds. They also probably are used to GSDs, and they are MUCH easier dogs to work with behaviorally. Your agenda can become theirs.


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## sheep (Dec 2, 2011)

I'm not sure if around the neighborhood, my dog is the most aggressive or at least was lol.  He became dog reactive, the kind that would react, pull, jump and bark, wanting to go to the threat and control/eliminate it. Good thing is he's not too aggressive, as in bite and shake. He's more of barks a lot, and maybe trying to grab the other one without actually hurting.

But well, you can say that a lot of the dogs are reactive, yet everyone's attention is on mine since mine is bigger.  It sure looks scarier, but at least look at your own smaller dog who's also barking at us (sometimes it's they who begin first)!

Good thing is, he's human friendly but rough lol and the reactivity is getting much better.

But once, I've seen a bigger dog of a neighbor bit someone who was just passing by the dog during a walk. It looked scary, and I'm glad my dog is human friendly.


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

Woof_Terrorist said:


> Barking is a sign of fear in most cases. A small yappy dog will back off and cower at the first sign of trouble.
> 
> There was a TV Show about untrained dogs kept in their houses and a person sent to burglarize their houses (On camera of course). Of all the dogs, an unsocialized GSD was the only one which actually drove the burglar away. It was a mix of protective behavior plus natural suspicion since he had not been socialized with other humans that much as a policy by his owner.
> 
> I am not sure how well an untrained dog will protect its owners, however what I am sure : the ones that are the most cowardly - are the loudest yappers and outwardly aggressive mutts.


 
Truly BEWARE the dog who just stands and watches you (esp. if their mouth is closed and you can't see their tounge!)

Those are the ones who are not afraid and will mean it if they do act aggressively.


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

You cannot discount fear aggression/bites...barking or not! 
I don't get why anyone would say only fear silent dogs. 

Plenty of dogs who bark, bite as well  ALL breeds.

The bark is the "warning" just like a growl is. A growl means "stop what you're doing, it's scaring/bugging/pissing me off". 
The bite is the punishment for not listening to the warning!


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## Jag (Jul 27, 2012)

codmaster said:


> Truly BEWARE the dog who just stands and watches you (esp. if their mouth is closed and you can't see their tounge!)
> 
> Those are the ones who are not afraid and will mean it if they do act aggressively.


This describes the female GSD I had. She NEVER barked, growled, etc. She just attacked. Viciously, and without warning. Very scary! However, I would never discount a barking dog, either. I disagree that a small, "yapping" dog will run away when confronted. I also tire of the negativity towards small dogs... although I admit I didn't have too much love for them until recently. However, I didn't "dislike" them, either. I just never thought I'd have one and preferred GSD's. I still prefer them... I just also have found that a small companion dog is useful, too!


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

> I just also have found that a small companion dog is useful, too!


They are so portable


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

msvette2u said:


> You cannot discount fear aggression/bites...barking or not!
> I don't get why anyone would say only fear silent dogs.
> *Not, ONLY - just Especially!!!!! (Different!)*
> Plenty of dogs who bark, bite as well  ALL breeds.
> ...


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

I base all my "statements" on living with dogs for my entire life...you???


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## codmaster (Aug 5, 2009)

msvette2u said:


> I base all my "statements" on living with dogs for my entire life...you???


 
I base my statements on the dogs that I have owned, trained and lived with for just a little over 40 years, *but also* what professional trainers and behaviorists have told me and also a number of papers/articles that other much more informed experienced people have written.

I believe what my own dogs (8-9 of them - all GSD's from various backgrounds) have shown me, (one of which was the "strong silient type who was usually very friendly and outgoing even to strangers but could and did on a couple of occassions prove that he would back up his behavior when he thought it was justified); but I personally don't believe that such a statistically insignificant sample of all dogs is sufficient to make grand sweeping generalizations about dog behavior.

Just my thoughts!


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## msvette2u (Mar 20, 2006)

As usual, you _over_think it, too. 
In general, a bite is preceeded by a growl or a bark. 
Some dogs don't bark. Some do. Some who bark also bite. Some don't.

GEESH. 
This isn't rocket science...I'm just baffled at folks who believe barkers aren't biters, which is what the OP seemed to be stating.


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