Hi, The dog that lunges at other dogs to play and greet has generally missed out on the important lessons in life on how to meet and greet. I don't know how many times others have allowed their dogs to bulldoze my youngsters with their owners bleating the excuse "he only wants to say hallo". One time a young bitch made a charge at Maggie, this was her mistake! Maggie stood her ground and bristled up her hackles and showed this rude youngster what a nice set of teeth she had! The other owner loudly announced what an aggressive dog I had and never learned the lesson being shown her. Maggie did not bite the other dog though her language was something akin to an angry fishwife. I did not tell her off but we carried on with our walk with Maggie happy to be in heel position, she will not respond like this to dogs that we meet that have manners. To explain Maggie's position, she is a leading bitch here at my home and if she were human what happened was akin to some stranger copping a feel and getting their face slapped for their efforts. We have rules about introduction as humans and so do the dogs. Any breeder or owner who has raised multiple dogs together can observe the code of conduct between dogs and steamrollering in and jamming the nose up the crutch is not acceptable by the lead dogs. There are degrees in approach and signals of appeasement made by dogs and the family pet who has had little to no chance to develop his doggy interaction skills is at a disadvantage hence the importance of puppy kindergarten classes with an experienced behaviourist who can educate the owner about their puppy's social skills. Unfortunately many puppies are separated far too early from their mothers and fail to learn the big dog lessons and think life is all about acting like a puppy, couple that with the cuteness factor that suckers most owners and before long we have a socially inept hooligan of a dog that is going to get himself into trouble.
Rose Tierney
