Is this Aggression?

[lurcherman]

Ok, well I was a hunter so I wanted a quiet dog, my point is I want my dog not to start a chance of a fight, his aggression must be in field hunting , he did like 80% of dogs but he understood my point and excepted my view, anyway enough said by me, have a good day.

 

[Eva1]

So let me understand, a dog offlead in a field goes to another dog and shows it’s teeth and growls! And you not reprimand it? Wow weird stuff, , I’m so glad I don’t read doggy 2020 books and google stuff, dogs nowadays are so over sensitive and brainless , hey not all dogs but so many are, I wish you’d all seen my dogs lol the only scars on them was from actually being a dog and not by me battering them, Good lively post thow .

Just to be clear she’s only ever growled at a dog when she’s been on the lead and THEY have approached her. Also when she’s off lead she’s with me and I play around with her so she doesn’t ever care for dogs, again if she’s off lead and a dog runs up to her she’s normally fine and will just play around but sometimes will tell them off for getting in her space or not leaving her alone. The park we go to is bad for dogs just running up to you. Yes they’re friendly and wanting to play but I don’t think it’s right. All the advice I’ve received is helping with getting her to try ignore dogs and people on walks. I won’t punish her for telling me she’s not comfortable with a situation as I need to be listening to her and if she doesn’t like something I need to just walk away with her to ease her stress.

 

[Linz1012]

Just to be clear she’s only ever growled at a dog when she’s been on the lead and THEY have approached her. Also when she’s off lead she’s with me and I play around with her so she doesn’t ever care for dogs, again if she’s off lead and a dog runs up to her she’s normally fine and will just play around but sometimes will tell them off for getting in her space or not leaving her alone. The park we go to is bad for dogs just running up to you. Yes they’re friendly and wanting to play but I don’t think it’s right. All the advice I’ve received is helping with getting her to try ignore dogs and people on walks. I won’t punish her for telling me she’s not comfortable with a situation as I need to be listening to her and if she doesn’t like something I need to just walk away with her to ease her stress.

Welcome to the joys of dog ownership and a fully paid membership of the AHFBC (Anti "He's Friendly Brigade" Commitee ).

No, it's not right that dogs - "friendly" or not - are allowed to be run up to other dogs. There are any number of reasons why it's a bad idea to allow your dog (the Universal "your" not your as in Eva1's dog) to run up to another - especially when the other dog is on leash. It could be elderly, injured, recuperating from surgery, aggressive, a "DINOS" (Dog In Need of Space), blind/deaf or both.

Often, such dogs are not "friendly" at all - they're bad mannered and socially awkward. The human equivalent is a stranger who sees you from across the street who "introduces" themselves by running at you from across the street and flings their arms around you like a long lost friend, and you and your dog are well within your right to object to such treatment.

My current dogs are a yappy Chihuahua and a silent, but still boisterous lurcher. My previous dog, Max, however, was a DINOS. He had no trouble at all putting rude, bad mannered dogs in their place with a growl, and guess who was quick to label him "vicious"?

That's right. The owner of the rude dog who got in his face and learned a valuable lesson that it's not OK to run up to any dog it likes.

After that, I learned to step in and take matters into my own hands so thst he didn't have to. I put him be him me and faced the oncoming dog. Many suddenly came to a halt and thought again

 

[JudyN]

Another reason for not teaching a dog not to growl... when your dog has matured and is no longer reactive, you can often trust him to tell annoying dogs what he thinks rather than you stepping in. Today, an off lead spaniel came up to sniff Jasper's bum as Jasper was walking along offlead. J ignored him/her, but then the spaniel actually had its head right between his back legs as he was trying to walk along. Barely looking round or breaking stride, J let out a low growl/grumble, and the spaniel nipped back to its owner. It was all very low key, neither dog was stressed - they just communicated. But it might not have gone that way if J had been taught that he wasn't allowed to growl. (Of course, some dogs are a darn sight more persistent than that spaniel, and I would step in then... though I wouldn't lose sleep if J got in there first and given them some more clear verbals.