Pinning submissive/weak dogs

Hi guys! Been a while since I've been on here. Just looking for a bit of advice really. Nyla is now 9 months old. She has just passed her second block of puppy classes and is coming on great. The only issue we are still having is the pinning other dogs. During her puppy class she had a few moments with one of the other dogs but a few time outs and she got on great with all the dogs (with us keeping a close eye on her)
Yesterday we went for a walk with another two dogs from her class and we all walked the dogs off lead - nylas recall is pretty good. We met another group of dogs - one being a retriever who was very submissive and with telling nyla nicely she had a quick sniff and off we went but on the way back we met the same people and one of the girls was petting the dog and nyla went over and stood on top and tried to pin her with the horrible growling - I took her off as soon as it began.
We took her to puppy play dates when she was about 4 months and she picked on a blind dog and a small dog with a deformed paw. She actually pinned both. She's fine with dogs she has met before but this seems to be the case with most dogs we meet for the first time, one minute she's fine and the next it's taken too far. Our trainer said its the high energy and to socialise her more (with were trying) she's fine walking past dogs - pulls a little to have a sniff but never shown aggression. Has anyone else experienced this at all?!

It sounds like staffy playing to me, growling included. It's a regular feature in our house. You might find it more obvious with a weaker dog as they will more quickly get into that submissive position, whereas a stronger dog either won't be down there in the first place, or will flip her off quickly.

It can, though, look awful, especially if you're the owner of the other dog! I'd suggest you keep working on her recall while playing - it sounds like you've got that pretty good already, and just call her away quietly if you or the other owner are concerned. You can often spot a more submissive dog before you get to it, so I'd also think about just popping her on the lead and encouraging her to pass with attention on you with a treat.

Staffies aren't very good at 'play gently'!

I concur with Liz. We use a can of pet corrector and if we think Suki is getting too rough with a smaller dog we use the pet corrector to get her to stop especially if it is a new introduction

If you do use a pet corrector, I'd ask her nicely first with your 'come' command or whatever you use and only if she ignores you would I then up it. That gives her the chance to do it right first and you are correcting the ignoring you almost more than the playing.

I would also hold the pet corrector in reserve for emergency use only. The last thing you want is for Nyla to start to develop negative associations with other dogs.

LizP wrote:If you do use a pet corrector, I'd ask her nicely first with your 'come' command or whatever you use and only if she ignores you would I then up it. That gives her the chance to do it right first and you are correcting the ignoring you almost more than the playing.

I would also hold the pet corrector in reserve for emergency use only. The last thing you want is for Nyla to start to develop negative associations with other dogs.

Thanks for catching that Liz

Harrie does this and its not rough play she is aggressive she sits on another dog and if the dog moves she goes it, at the moment I keep her on the lead when we are near strange dogs and only let her off in the company of dogs we trust her with the ones she has played with since a puppy she is now 16 months any advice would be good.

thanks for all your posts
we do use pet corrector (our best friend at times lol) and she responds well to it our trainer also used a citronella spray collar which she could remotely spray when Nyla was showing signs of this behaviour and again she responded to it. I do hope this is play but I find Nyla really doesn't "play" with other dogs. We sometimes go on pack walks with bigger dogs she knows and she gets on great with them but I find she follows the dogs around sniffing in the same places etc... its like she doesn't quite understand play.
I find its dogs that show weakness/submission she gets a buzz out of pinning them and snapping at them. The way riV explained Harrie to be sounds exactly like Nyla. its a stiff posture with wide eyes, sticks her chest out and makes sure everyone knows shes strong and will accept a challenge. I really don't want this to turn into a bigger problem and for it to turn to aggression but I really do not know how to help her :/
We have to keep Nyla on her lead to around new dogs.
Do you find Harrie does this to any particular dogs like excitable/submissive dogs?!

I've experienced this with my Flo but only with a pup. Walked passed off lead fine but then turned around and went back at least 20 meters and pinned it down.

Now I know Flo well these days but this happened a while back and was obviously very scary for the pup owners and very embarrassing for me followed by much telling off and huge apologies from me. No harm was done but I learnt a very valuable lesson.

Sometimes, without any real explanation they have the urge to do this. It may be a dominance thing or simply I can get the better of you. It could even be a play thing but whatever it's a scary experience for both parties.

The lesson I learnt is to look ahead. If I see a potential hazard I will either walk a different route, lead Flo or distract her. Flo isn't perfect, 99% of the time there is no issue but there are the occasional times I have to act. The one thing I don't do is panic, she will pick up on that.

In your case I would make leaded introductions only. If there is the potential to show this behaviour put Nyla on the lead and make controlled introductions. The good news here is that she isn't aggressive to those she knows and there in lays the hint I think

Thanks Ian! its lovely to hear such reassuring comments!
we have been walking regularly with a great natured lab and two smaller dogs and Nyla hasn't pinned once. it seems to be dogs that rush up to her - so im starting to think she's possibly feeling nervous and with us panicking she feels the need to go into protect/bully mode.

We will defo take your advice with the lead introductions and try to keep calm thank you all again its great having such a lovely bunch of knowledgeable people!