Please don't judge me... so here’s exactly what’s happening: whenever we see an unneutered male, everything is fine until the moment they start sniffing each other. That’s when my dog starts growling, or if the other dog tries to play or anything, my dog just goes for him. Even when the other dog goes off to do his own thing, my dog follows him just to growl at him. Max can’t have any contact with other dogs now without the risk of a scrap or more growling... even though since he was a puppy, he mostly met male dogs. He even used to go on walks with a dog trainer and his two male dogs... I’d say Max had some of the best socialisation possible. This behaviour started about two weeks ago. So, my questions are: do I definitely have to get him neutered, or are there other solutions? What should I do? Why is he doing this? I socialised him so well...
PS: He gets on with females of all ages, it’s just males over 7 or 8 months old I’d say.
Translated from French
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Basically, you need to get your dog used to staying still in certain situations while you stay on your toes yourself. This usually means moving around your own dog to act as a shield as the other dog looks for a gap to attack. You need to stand tall during this "shielding" manoeuvre; don't shout, but you can stomp your heel on the ground while giving a firm, determined "NO!". It’s safe for the human because a dog that's focused on another dog isn't in the mindset of attacking a person.
Yes, I saw that scene. The most shocking part was when both the giant dog and its owner started attacking poor Max. Luckily Mydogs whipped out his magic tea towel and summoned the dragons, and then everything was sorted. Just as well, really, otherwise Mydogs would’ve had to kill the dog and its owner with his teeth, which is illegal in LA. Not in DC, mind you, but in LA it is.
Please, this is a serious topic.
I don’t like wasting my time, so I’m going to report this to the mods!
Yes, I saw that scene. The most shocking bit was when both the giant dog and its owner started attacking poor Max. Thank goodness Mydogs whipped out their magic tea towel and summoned the dragons, and then everything was sorted out—lucky, really, otherwise Mydogs would have had to kill the dog and its owner with their teeth, even though that’s illegal in LA. Not in DC mind you, but in LA, yeah.
You’ve got to stop playing Dungeons & Dragons lol!
Actually, you need to train your own dog to stay still in certain situations, and at the same time, you’ve got to get moving yourself. This usually involves circling your own dog to act as a shield as the other dog looks for a gap to attack.
You need to stand tall during this 'shielding' manoeuvre; don't shout, but you can stamp your heel on the ground while giving a firm, determined "NO!".
It’s safe for the human because a dog that’s focused on another dog isn’t in a mindset to attack a person.
OK, thanks for the advice! But what should you do during a male-on-male conflict? That’s exactly what happened this morning while I was out walking my dog.
Everything was going fine until we saw a dog running towards us (the dog ran at us because the owner actually told him to "go on, attack"!). So I’m trying to keep my dog away, but it’s not easy with an off-lead dog following you that you don't even know! Anyway, once the other dog started sniffing my dog's rear end, Max didn't even growl; he showed calming signals that the other dog clearly didn't pick up on, because then — boom — the other dog lunges at mine to play, my dog snaps back, and it all kicks off! I’m asking the owner to get his dog under control, I’m starting to shout at the guy, but he’s just laughing his head off and kept saying, "attack, attack, that's a good boy!" Inside, I was absolutely fuming while trying to stay calm enough to separate the two of them so we could get on with our walk, which had started out so well!
Then he must have realised that the fight was getting serious, so he started hitting my dog! I didn't just stand there, let me tell you! Nobody hits Max 😠
Anyway, now that the "conflict" is over, I wanted to know how to actually stop two males or any dogs when they’re fighting.
Yes, it’s absolutely vital! Actually, I’ve had the chance to show Basile on several occasions that I’m capable of protecting him when he’s being attacked. Around the age of 10 months, he started getting targeted regularly by entire males (which wasn't the case with my other dogs).
Out of my three dogs, he's the least 'sociable' because he’s still affected by the attacks he went through, but he's the one who listens to me most when it comes to interacting with other dogs.
If I tell him not to go over to another dog, even if he’s 50m ahead of me off-lead, he stops instantly and comes back. If a male dog starts looking for trouble and Basile gets defensive and starts growling, he obeys my 'leave it' command and comes to stand behind me (obviously I still have to react before a fight actually kicks off). It's the same if a dog that's a bit too hyper or playful won't leave him alone! He trusts me to protect him and trusts my judgement on whether other dogs are 'friendly' or not. All of that was built up over those 4 or 5 attacks where I stepped in to help him.
Kainate, what you’re saying about the dog needing to know you’ll handle things reminds me of something. Since our interactions with Eros—the little sighthound who doesn’t really get dog social cues and was pestering Athos, even though he was being patient—Athos has seen that by staying near me, I’ll make sure the other dog leaves him alone. Well, last weekend things went much better with the Border at the stables; nothing’s perfect, but Athos ignored him a lot more, even though the Border was lying just three metres away while we were seeing to the horses.
We’d never actually had the chance to 'protect' Athos from a pesky dog before, because he was usually the pesky one! So maybe he just didn’t realise that we’d step in and handle things if he needed us to? I’m not counting my chickens just yet, but I think it’s definitely a breakthrough, on top of the rest of the training I mean.
No, dogs don't necessarily stay sociable just because they had good initial socialisation :) It depends a huge amount on the breed, hormones, and their life experiences.
However... where you might have 'missed' something (nothing permanent mind you, but you might need to tighten things up a bit) is in terms of his training. Even if Max doesn't like another dog, he needs to be able to leave them alone when you tell him to. Obviously, that assumes you're managing things on your end as well, by stopping the other dog from approaching him afterwards. Having a dog that isn't 'sociable' with everyone shouldn't mean having a dog that can never be let off-lead around others or that you can't trust anymore. Usually, with a bit of training—especially with a Golden—you should be able to avoid that.
It doesn't mean the socialisation work you did with Max when he was younger was for nothing. Not at all!
He might not be friendly with everyone anymore, but he 'knows the rules'. He’s still got those canine social cues, which is crucial for lowering the risk of a scrap and making sure things don't escalate if one does happen.
