<p>We live in southern California.</p>
<p>CraigsList!!! How do they know that these are good homes and families? When we adopted Annie we had to pass a full home inspection and a background check. Our male dog we took from a family who couldn’t take care of him. </p>
<p>I would have such anxiety worrying about the happiness and safety of “my” puppies.</p>
<p>I almost died when I heard that. A friend of my H’s contacted us telling us she had a friend who was getting transferred overseas and needed to place her cavaliers. I made a few calls (a dear friend is one who I met when we went through the screening to get our rescue dog, as you described-- a grueling process). She used to be the pres. of the local cavalier club. The person I knew from rescue doesnt do it any more. Anyway, I put my friend in touch with the person who told my H about the placement, but when my friend called her she was told they were already placed. </p>
<p>We ran into my H’s friend (the one who told us about the dogs needing to be placed) at a party last week. When I asked about the dogs, she told me the owner placed them on craigslist!!! Un-friggin-believable!!!</p>
<p>I “heart” this thread. </p>
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<p>When our one year old golden came home with us last summer, the “old guy” would play tug of rope with him in this hillariously not playing at all way, where he just kind of barely held the rope in his mouth. He kept looking up at us like, “You DO realize this dog is a puppy? Are you sure you should let him play rope?”</p>
<p>We now have to spell the word rope around him or he gets it out and he is no longer small.</p>
<p>Our dog trainer (yes, I know…two of our goldens flunked out and Elle was the star pupil, except she growled under her breath in protest to walking in circles) said that the marvelous thing about goldens is what makes them good watchdogs. Michael (the trainer) said that goldens are smart, love their families and friends of the family. And they are smart enough to understand a random person in the street. But they also sense danger and will fight (to the death if necessary) to protect their family.</p>
<p>Michael told me that when I called when Elle got between my son and daughter who were mock wrestling for a remote. She started barking and held my son’s wrist, carefully but with enough force to stop the “incident”. No marks, no growling…but she made her point. Michael said she was not only “normal and not aggressive”, but smart as well.</p>
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How should they have addressed the matter with you? Your dog twice attacked their dog. They figured you can’t control your dog. What’s to discuss? I think they did the right thing.</p>
<p>My main point in starting the thread was to seek out the experience of others regarding aggression by a docile dog towards only one particular other dog. I wasn’t posting to complain about Sid’s owners or what they did. They could have told us how concerned they were and asked us to come up with a plan to make sure Charly isn’t in contact with Sid. If you bothered to read the thread you would see that we were “warned” about the leash law. Our dog is always leashed when he is off our property. Whether we can hold onto the leash in the presence of Sid is the issue.</p>
<p>Good news!!! My son brought his roommate’s dog over–a scared little mix. Emboldened by the “success” of the King Charles we introduced the dogs. My dogs, after an initial bark and lunge, were great! They were disappointed that this one wouldn’t play with them, but the little dog (who is a rescue and fearful) came out of his shell. And my dogs anxiously await the return of the King Charles. </p>
<p>They don’t walk the neighborhood well, but they seem to like the company in the house. Who knew? Is there such a thing as sidewalk aggression?</p>
<p>MOfWC, we have the most docile GSD on the planet. There is only one dog in the entire neighborhood that he cannot stand. Every time I take our GSD down to the main road, I keep my fingers crossed that Mr B. is not napping in the neighbors’ driveway, or there will be trouble. Mr B. (the neighbors’ dog) will always try to attack my dog. Imagine what I felt the other day when I saw Mr. B in our (fenced) backyard! Somehow, he got loose and made his way onto the enemy’s turf! I was getting ready for the worst bloodshed ever. However, Mr B. was wagging his tail as our dog was giving him a friendly butt sniff! The two proceeded to happlily trample my garden beds and play! :eek: DH ran outside, grabbed Mr B. by his collar and took him down the street to his parents’ house. Go figure…</p>
<p>Dogs are territorial and they don’t quite understand the concept of a “property line”. Mr B does not like other dogs walking by his house on his personal stretch of sidewalk or street. </p>
<p>On the other hand, Mr. B is happy to go out visiting. Your dog, however, is not nearly as attached to the notion of protecting your yard and garden as Mr. B is when it comes to his sidewalk. </p>
<p>All is well for now. It remains to be seen whether, now that Mr. B has happily arranged a friendly introduction on your dog’s territory, he will have a problem the next time the dog walks by. Perhaps now that they have met he’ll be a little more accepting. (or not. you won’t know until you try).</p>
<p>AllThisIsNewToMe wrote - “He loves people (almost too much) but he is terrified of other dogs. He was scared even back in Puppy Training class. He tries to drag me to a passing dog and will lay down submissively, but then he will decide it’s enough and go crazy attacking the other dog. He doesn’t actually BITE, but he sounds SO mean and scary…people can’t get away soon enough.”</p>
<p>You have just described my dog to a tee! 6 year old male, fox hound mix, about 45 pounds. I simply choose to only walk him at night, in the dark, praying we see no other dogs along the way. 90% of the time we are successful, but that 10% is AWFUL. If I didn’t love this guy so much I would find him a different home, and sometimes I am so shaken I think I could do so right then and there. </p>
<p>I’m getting too old to keep looking around and jumping every time I see (or think I see) a potential encounter. </p>
<p>I am reading every post in detail.</p>
<p>LOL, calmom. That’s what we figured - Mr B is very territorial and very protective of his yard. And he knows HIS boundaries, because he was not behaving like he was on his own turf when he crossed our property line :). Both dogs are over ten years old now, and they still growl at each other as we walk by Mr B’s house. It is all bark, no bite, since they are old geezers. Grumpy old men, as my H calls them.</p>
<p>Our dog is not territorial and welcomes anyone and anything on our property. Thank goodless he looks intimidating enough so someone trying to check stuff out in our backyard left in a hurry without taking anything.</p>
<p>Walking dogs at night…hoping not to see other dogs…hiding behind cars when other dogs walk by (once setting off a perimeter car alarm on a visiting Bentley)…don’t know a thing about that. :)</p>
<p>All I know is that BF’s puppy is here now and they are playing and happily.</p>
<p>I don’t know this as fact, but there do seem to be breeds that get along better with other dogs than some other dogs. </p>
<p>For example, my brother-in-law has two basset hounds and when we go to dog run areas with them it’s amazing to see how much other breeds seem to immediately take to them. Of course basset hounds and running … that’s a short-lived concept. ;)</p>
<p>My Catahoula has a “thing” with a “Sid” dog living one house over. My dog is good with other dogs to the extent that he goes to a cage-free kennel when boarded. However, he will lunge at Sid every time he sees him . Evidently, they exchange insults from their respective backyards, and Sid often spies at my dog over his (very short!) back wall as we walk by in the morning. I have no faith in invisible fences, and they have the potential to increase aggression in some dogs. I have heard of several Catahoulas who came to blame their shock on whatever they were focused on at the time of the jolt and developed directed aggression as a result.</p>