our girl sally who is an American staffy pup of 4 months has just met her neighbours dog who is a shepherd of 3 years. she snarled and growled at the gate and became a dog I really didn't want to see. I remained calm as did the owner of the shepherd. but what I want to ask is how should I have reacted to this? I know smacking or yelling at her wouldn't help but am unsure of how to go from here? I haven't socialised her until now as she has only just had her last parvo injection last week and was worried that she may contract parvo from the outside world. We train her daily and are Alpha to her but in this instance she just became unrecognisable. Please advise me on how I should have handled this and how I might go on and introduce her to other dogs. thank you , Lisa
Thank you for your query,it certainly is an important issue.
It is great that you are taking Sally through obedience training and now that she has had her Parvo shot, please do socialize her as much as your can. It is hard for me to judge why Sally growled- whether it was dominance aggression of fear based aggression. If I were in your place I would, give her lead rope a firm tug, tell her a stern 'Shush' or 'Oye, settle down' and then put her behind me- indicating to her 'I am top dog, you just stay calm and follow me'. When you start introducing her to other dogs, make sure you pick her first few encounters carefully, these will have a huge impact on her social learning curve. Start with one or two friendly dogs and then move on to bigger doggie-date groups.
I hope this information is useful for you. All the very best to you and Sally.
