Rascal's first fight :(

It happened at the dog park we often take her too....with an "intact" male staff she usually gets along with She is quite a submissive girl, backing off if she senses another dog isn't interested in play. However this time, neither the male staff's owner, or I saw this coming! They were playing ok, fairly roughly but nothing out of the ordinary and the male staff is quite dominant. Rascal is usually quite ok with rough play, in fact she seems to love it! This time though something happened - she was down on the ground, with the male staff standing over her - she whipped her head around, snarling and snapped at him. Well it was on! He did NOT appreciate it. Fortunately his owner and I were right there and she grabbed him straight away. No blood or injuries thankfully.

Could I have prevented this? She's a little more guarded/fearful now. There was another incident just the other day when someone brought in a 4mth old pup (looks like a Collie, but much smaller??) Rascal was wanting play as she always does, however the pup's owner was quite anxious and was holding onto her pup who was by now between her legs, I was trying to distract Rascal away from the pup, when suddenly the pup growled and snapped at Rascal and instead of backing down like she usually does, she growled and snapped back fortunately again, no injuries or blood, but the pups owner wasn't too impressed! I reckon why bring such a young pup into this kind of dog park (ie not segregated) if you don't want other dogs to play with it???

And again two days ago, Rascal was attacked by two small yappy things the moment she entered the dog park I was trying to fend off the two dogs, one of which was going for Rascal, the other was running around in circles barking crazily, the owner is just standing back trying to call them and looking like he had no idea what to do!!! It was only after they almost caused a fight between Rascal and one of her staffy pals (and the other Staffy owner making it clear what she thought of these two dogs ) that he finally took them away.

sorry for the rambling post, just after some thoughts and to "offload" *sigh*

Bruiser was attacked last week when a neighbours older adult male staff jumped over into our garden which is also funny as even though they had not seen eachother for about 5 months they used to get on well im wondering id it was because their dog jumped into mines garden? territory like?- it jumped a really high fence anyway it was quite a bad fight as bruiser is a lump himself now my partner got bitten tryin to break it up and both had minor cuts and bite marks.
so id especially be intrested to hear what other members have to say as bruiser and this dog had played together before but have now had a bad fight.
we wont let bruiser off the lead at the moment because of this fight as we are not sure what dog started the fight in the firstbplace as we were not there for the first few seconds until we heard the commotion- so we feel he could be a danger at the moment an obviously we dont want to risk him gettin into another fight etc
any advice on why u think dogs can be mates then fight please?

Hmmmmm, tough call as they are all differant ... my Zac "turned" (dont like that frase but its the best way to desciribe it really) in one brief incident! and simply would not tolerate another dog from that point on

My brother's rescue staffy on the other hand, has had a few "scuffles" that have got quite nasty from what I gather (one of which was with a dog he has played with a few times) ... and he remains ok with others, but needs to be kept an eye on now

How scary for you. Tyson is generally very good natured and tends to move on when growled and snapped at but I have seen him turn twice in his life and it scared me witless. All I can advise is to always project calm energy and to watch all the dogs' around you body language very carefully and remove your dog if you see any warning signs .

See this link for more on body language http://staffy-bull-terrier.co.uk/dogbodylanguage.html

How old is rascal now? At a certain age usually between 1 and 2ish a usually submissive dog can have a complete turn around and say "hey im not putting up with this anymore" its very comman especially in staffs im affraid. If i were u i wouldnt worry to much but as lynne says take a look at the reading body language section. Try and only let her have good experiences with other dogs for a while, only allow her to play with dogs u and she knows and who have good doggy manners.

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Thanks guys. Carly, shes almost 12mths old now, so I think that may have something to do with it. Lynne, I had a look at the link you posted and am thinking Rascal is not as submissive as I thought! When I think about some of her behaviours and watching how other dogs behave with her I'm beginning to think she's rather confident in herself. It may explain why some dogs don't appreciate her rolling onto her back She's constantly being followed around by male dogs sniffing at her "bits" and trying to hump her - a male pit bull claimed her as "his" the other week and saw off any dog that seemed to be harassing her! This happens on most visits to the dog park, a male will start to follow her around and that's it, he won't let up or leave her alone. I'm wondering if we should take her back to the vet to test if she's still emitting hormones? She was spayed at 5mths, so not sure if this is possible.

I like that saying "they may not start it, but they will finish it"

Concur with the adviced on body language and trying to ensure only good experiences for awhile.

Guys it has just happened to me! Eden has in the last month had a scrap with three dogs all different breeds and sexes. A real commotion heckles up and teeth and on top of them. She has never bitten but it is awful and a real shock for all concerned. It seems to be on one particular field. She is submissive starts to play and it seems to be when I come along. I think its a protection thing as Staffies are known to want to be a leader and I sure know that she does not see me as the head of the pack. I do not have a partner and I think she is protecting me. I am just going to have to keep her on a lead on the field. Its not nice to see so I am going to take extra caution.

crippingale wrote:Guys it has just happened to me! Eden has in the last month had a scrap with three dogs all different breeds and sexes. A real commotion heckles up and teeth and on top of them. She has never bitten but it is awful and a real shock for all concerned. It seems to be on one particular field. She is submissive starts to play and it seems to be when I come along. I think its a protection thing as Staffies are known to want to be a leader and I sure know that she does not see me as the head of the pack. I do not have a partner and I think she is protecting me. I am just going to have to keep her on a lead on the field. Its not nice to see so I am going to take extra caution.

On a different note....i love your staffs little face, so cute is she crossed with a gsd?

Kenny's only 9 months at the minute and i've been lucky. My old girl blitz, was great,just didnt like other dogs, but loved our cat.

the best advice I was ever given with regards to bull and terrier breeds was that as a responsible owner I need learn to protect the dog from itself.


BTW, I am Romanian, (hence the spelling mistakes ) and while growing up there was a ridiculous problem with ferral stray dogs roaming in large packs and if you or your dog couldn't look after oneself, the strays were hitting the jackpot. My father once re-homed a mix male called Roy that we soon found out that other than human, wanted to kill everything that moved. consequently I can count on my fingers the amount of times he got a good walk. He eventually had to be pts due to cancer and even though I loved him I was slightly relieved due to the lesser risk to others.

A nip and a growl shouldn't bother anyone especially owners of this breed but the desire to cause serious harm still gives me nightmares, reason why to this day I avoid bad experiences for my dogs until they're adults.