[Hbomb]

Happy first birthday to Ozzy! the last year has flown by.

He's a lovely friendly dog, just had a quick question re dog etiquette

He can get quite growly/snappy usually with other intact boy dogs his age, if they play in a way that is very full on (jumping on his head, one tried to mount him)- which has resulted in a couple of owners thinking he's nasty.

If I notice he doesn't look happy (he goes quite stiff) I will call him, before it escalates to a growl, and he will come to me as he wants to escape but if the other dog follows and too full on with him, he corrects it in a VERY vocal way. We had an incident yesterday with a huge Newfoundland that approached him off lead (couldn't see the owner for a good 5 minutes) and properly tried to sit on him, he wasn't happy and snapped, it snapped back, no dogs hurt just lots of noise and eventually the owner came and got the Newfoundland who was trying to follow us despite both of us trying to get away from it. We carried on with our walk and Oz met a couple of other dogs (female) and was fine, friendly as normal.

This is different to our poor old boy H who was such a soft submissive boy it took him about 4 years to find his voice and he kept getting humped by a variety of boisterous male dogs and just sat and looked at me sadly to intervene (which I always did!). He never really got any aggro from other dogs though as he just ran off if he didn't like them...

I just wondered if there was anything we should be doing about this? The Newfoundland had zero recall which pissed me off a bit as in busy places with lots of little dogs Ozzy is on a long lead so we can practice recall and approaching politely as he himself can be a bit boisterous (being a 1 year old V).

I am not sure if neutering will make a difference but we were hoping to wait till he was nearly 2 as he's still growing and is very lanky at the moment.

Pics below, to show how much he has grown!
The bottom pic is him at the dog sitter and he's been fine with all her dogs, although he looks a bit aloof in the pic!

 

[Gabica]

happy birthday Handsome. I love the sitting at the table, such a vizsla!

I would say the telling each other what they like and don't like in a vocal way is my preferred communication method. my boys are both pretty bold and if they don't like what the other is doing they make sure it can be heard, and in the last 4 years of living together that has never lead too any physical incident. Quick verbal correction usually and within max 10 seconds they are best bodies again, may even start licking each other...I do pay attention though to signs like if one of them constantly gets irritated when one certain spot on him is touched as it usually means for us a chiropractor or vet visit is due.

I don't take mine to dog parks though. When they meet other dogs off leash that is usually hunting related situation where again they are not supposed to play with each other, just work together.

 

[texasred]

Not uncommon for a dog to sound loud, when they are letting another dog know to stop it.
As long as they are not giving the other dog a harsh correction, I don’t see a problem with it.
It’s how dogs talk to each other. The problem only arises, if the other dog does not listen.
it sounds like Ozzy is doing fine, and the newfy just chose not to head the warning.

 

[gunnr]

He sounds normal to me.

 

[Hbomb]

Thanks everyone for your advice. We haven’t seen the newfy again. I walk Ozzy regularly with a mature flat coat (Hercules’ old pal. Although he did torment Hercules by licking his ears repeatedly!! I think he gets on better with Ozzy.). this dog is like the best trained dog ever, 44kg of muscle and he’s so good on a lead my 5y old son can walk him!! His owner has met the newfy and tells me it was never socialised as a puppy so it doesn’t know how to behave when it meets new dogs. (And people)

The flat coats owner has tried to help the newfy to socialise with her dog but the owner has refused as she says she can’t handle him on his lead.

It was slightly scary, seeing this giant at least 55kg dog on its own growling at us, and perhaps Ozzy may have picked up on my anxiety as well.

I spoke to the owner and we’ve agreed they don’t like each other so we will walk at different times !

I agree Ozzy is much better off lead, he’s fine on lead with a bit of sniffing but if the other dog tries to jump at him he gets annoyed. A young boy spaniel hurtled towards him today we were getting ready to leave the field so he was on his lead, I could see him tense so let him off again and they were both fine, playing like old friends!