behaviour question

as you know we had Lemmy neutered due to his............how shall i put it......big head ........... his "come on i'll take you all on" attitude. even since he has still been the same but i realise he probably still has some hormones knocking about. anyway today we went for a really long walk part of which was on the park where due to today being a really pleasent day the park was really busy with dogs playing and walking. all of them off lead except my Lemmy. Anyway he was as good as gold. Dogs coming over to say hello to him and him letting them sniff him while he sniffed them and then he wanted to play. None of this "i wanna rip your head off" attitude. Then as i walked home i thought about it and then i realised. all the other times he has tried to fight another dog Lottie has been there. Today there was no Lottie. Now i was wondering if anyone thinks the same as me that maybe his attitude has been because he thinks in some way he has to protect Lottie.

could be julie. years ago i had two dogs, one male the other female. the male wasn't very social with other animals, but he was usualy fairly mellow. when my female was around he went into "tough guy" mode around other dogs. neither were bull breeds but just the same.

Herman's Human wrote:could be julie. years ago i had two dogs, one male the other female. the male wasn't very social with other animals, but he was usualy fairly mellow. when my female was around he went into "tough guy" mode around other dogs. neither were bull breeds but just the same.

well thats what i was thinking because he wa such a lovely playful sociable pup. he has been gojng to the park and playing with all the dogs since the first day we could take him out after his shots but then he suddenly changed into this tough guy with other dogs. still the same wee man with humans but dogs no chance. today no lottie and my nice little man was abck it was great

hope it's that simple for you julie.

Today there was no Lottie. Now i was wondering if anyone thinks the same as me that maybe his attitude has been because he thinks in some way he has to protect Lottie.

i find that my dogs behave better on their own when walking, particularly chloe. i think its more to do with some kind of pack mentality, as in 'ive got my mates to back me up if theres a confrontation'
Its like teenagers. they are all tough and hard when they have their mates around them, but meek and mild when they are alone.