Help! Biting puppies!

Hello everyone

Winnie is now 1 year old and an absolute love bug. If we're out in the woods off lead she will run, wiggling her bum and tail to all people. She is also fantastic with about 90% of other dogs. HOWEVER, it seems that any dog which comes across submissive (and that includes puppies) she is really nasty to and will not only get on top of them being dominant but will actually try to bite them. We obviously reprimand her when she does this and put her on a lead but I was wondering if anyone has any solutions because we would hate for her to never be allowed off lead. At the moment we are considering a muzzle! I always thought older dogs were tolerant of puppies but ours definitely isn't. Do you think that might change when she gets a bit older? Also the only other types of dogs she has taken an immediate dislike to tend to be the bull terrier types. For some reason she will just go for them. Why? As I said earlier, she has such a wonderful temperament and has never once growled at a single human being. Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

It is hard to tell, but some dogs are not tollerant of "anoying little dogs" and that includes pups. You have to keep at it and if you really want to work on it she has to be socialized around puppies and submissive dogs. It almost seems to me like she is insecure about herself when dogs are submissive. It might change when she is older and it may get worse if you don't train her out of it with a strong leave command. However, if not you may have to be picky about which dogs she has free romp with. If she in fact proves to be dog aggressive at any point (not saying she is), at least you should know that dog aggressive has nothing to do with people aggressive and wouldn't associate that with requiring her to wear a muzzle as people will begin judging her as people aggressive and she will be miserable. Maybe a long flexi lead instead of off lead would be a better training tool?

thanks for your advice. I have in fact just found a thread of somebody who seems to have gone through exactly what I am at the moment which was very helpful and have just ordered myself a 50ft training lead so I can keep her on it in open spaces and have a bit more control of her. I take your point about not putting a muzzle on her. I really didn't want to resort to that anyway.

I have had the same sort of behaviour with Tyson. He is great with puppies who are confident submissive (as in being respectful of the older dog) but I have found him trying to top less confident and anxious pups in a bully way. He grabs them on the collar and flips them. He is not aggressive with this just seems to be throwing his weight around. I will not allow this behaviour so give the leave command immediately and put him on the lead for a time out. Sometimes the pups come back for more so I ask their owners to keep them back if possible.

How do you introduce the puppies/bully dogs?

I have to say that I get the right hump when people just let their dogs run straight up to Dempsey without asking, just because Dempsey's off lead.

Maybe you should keep him on a long lead when there are other dogs around, and introduce the dogs first before allowing any free play?