attacked again by own kind

went for a lovely walk in the park ..a dog comes charging over hubby trying to shoo it away but it insisted on coming right up to Trouble, they had a sniff of each other and all seems to be ok ..the dog runs back to his owner we eventually merge paths and they meet again Trouble did a little growl but the guy was ok and said " it's ok my dog wont fight " i reply " to be honest it is not your dog i am worried about it is mine " but the dogs seemed to be ok just doing the who is the more dominant bit so i decided i was gonna be brave and let him off the lead but said to the guy he would have to muck in if they start ...anyway it was lovely to see my baby getting along and doing his running and thinking to myself it must be me giving off the wrong signals down the lead ....so another dog comes towards us but it is another staffy ...i turn to the guy and my hubby that i am gonna put him back on the lead just in case (Trouble has been attacked by another staffy twice before and since then doesnt like them) but i wont lock the lead (EXTENDER) so all goes well but the owner of the staffy says "she's ok most of the time she is just a bit possesive of her stick!" so what does Trouble do sniffs her and accidentally knocked this big stick out of her mouth so she lunges at him . he wasnt trying to take her stick he didnt even touch it , luckily i grabbed the lead near the collar and was able to pull him back ..the owner of the other staffy was very apologetic and made such a fuss of mine so we say goodbye and go on our way . at this point i didnt notice any injuries until hubby spots blood coming down his face ...the staffy had caught the bottom eyelid . its a bit swollen but not to serious but what gets me is they should have said before we got to the other dog that there dog was possesive and i would have avoided them but all that has happened is reinforced to Trouble that BRINDLE STAFFYS are not nice dogs .

the dog he was getting along with Trouble went to sniff his bits and peed on Troubles head ..thought that was funny so bath it was for him when we got home


so any way i was thinking to help him interact with other dogs and him not feeling my tension that i would muzzle him off lead until i am 100 per cent sure i can trust him ...any trainers there give me tips ...this by the way would be a temporary thing as i dont like to see muzzles on dogs unless necessary but feel this may be better than the extender lead in the park ....THOUGHTS PLEASE

I don't like muzzles, and I don't think that one would be the answer in this instance.

For the time being I would just stick with dogs you know he gets on with so that he carried on believing that dogs are good playmates!

I don't use an extending lead, either. I find them difficult to control, and I'm never too confident that they'll hold!

Maybe you could try a long line? Just let it trail, but keep the end within easy reach 'just in case'.

I would echo Carylls advice above, we use a long training line so Rocky can have a run around and we still have control when needed.

As for muzzles I personally dont like them, if your dog is attacked he cannot defend himself and could possibly get ripped to shredds. I have seen a dog get a muzzle off anyway.

we tried the training line and it just gets tangled we used to use one when he was a puppy ...the extender lead is a ribbon type not the cord type and is strong and i always make sure i have both hands free so if necessary i can just grab the ribbon for extra quickness , i dont ever use it for road walking . i understand what ur saying bout the muzzles which is what i was saying to hubby ..it is just hard to find dogs that we see regularly for him to walk with although this guy says he walks about the same time every day so gonna try meet him tomorrow if it is not raining . i was also thinking the muzzles might give the wrong impression as well .

I agree with Caryll as well. We use a long leash for Suki and just reel it and her in if we are unsure or want her close to us. We're a bit lucky though because she gets to interact with the same 20 or so dogs almost every day

i was thinking actually he wears a harness so the training lead would be ok