New member looking for advice

Hello everyone! I'm Amy and I'm new to the group! My 18 month old male staffy is named Sterling and he is our everything!

Recently he has started reacting with aggression to larger, bulkier dogs (Rottweilers and English bulldogs specifically) when they come too close to him (which I think is because he is feeling threatened as every time they have been intruding on his space massively). Unfortunately last week a rotweiller (both off lead) kept following him even though my boy was trying to walk away from him and getting in his space. Before I could get sterling back on lead to get him away (my fault completely I should have read the signs sooner and have learnt from this now), Sterling grabbed onto the rotweillers ear and was tugging at him for 20 seconds before I got him off.

Although I didn't see exactly what happened to trigger it, i believe the rotweiller got too close to him again. Another thing is they are both intact and young males (rotty is 10 months). Rotty wasn't hurt badly thankfully.

Obviously I take full responsibility as the owner and from now on will be much more vigilant and responsive to his warning signs (hackles up and walking away despite the rotty stealing his toy) and get him straight on the lead. However I am hoping to get some advice/any other tips on how to stop this behaviour and my main question is, should we consider castration?

Sterling is the first dog we have had and we are aware there can be health benefits from having them done in the long run but we don't want to do it at this point unless it really does calm certain behaviours down?

I appreciate any advice.
Thank you kindly.
Amy

Hi & welcome to the forum

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Hi Amy from me & Katy He's at the teenage stage as was Katy when she became reactive to other dogs. Some dogs don't like others getting in their face so maybe when you see another dog approaching clip his lead on that should hopefully give the other owner the signal to recall theirs. I must admit it doesn't always work & I have to ask them to do it!

Hello Jen and Katy. Thank you for your reply,
I will definitely check out those leaflets thank you so much. I already feel better knowing this forum is here and that there is support available.
Thanks from Amy and Sterling

We are here to help so any questions ask away