Do dogs naturally find an order?

Whilst out walking today one of our old friends came over to see us with his large dalmation called Archie. He's a 4yr old and incredibly strong.

Archie would not stop trying to have sex with Molly and Watson. He tries to mate with any and every dog he sees.

I ended up picking molly up because it wasn't fair on her, she is tiny, cannot defend herself and shouldn't have to. Watson yelped everytime Archie came over and tried anything and was clearly in distress. We walked off as quick as we could and Archie's owner apologised and walked home. But then the dalmation ran back over to us off lead. I didn't put watson on the lead as carrying one dog I couldnt lift another and watson is larger than Moll.

Questions are should I have put watson on the lead and tried to protect him by probably booting the other dog off or was i best to let watson have the freedom to attempt to run away?

Horrible walk all in all and we won't be out with our old friends again any time soon.

Would castrating his dog put an end to this sex mad dogs desires? I want to speak with the owners and suggest thats the best course of action but wanted to check it out on here first.

I wouldn't assume the humping is a sexual thing, but a dominance/insecurity thing...maybe he's very dominant and wants to boss every dog about or perhaps it's become a sort of obsession for him. If that's the case, neutering him wouldn't be a guarantee. It might help him calm down a bit, but there's no way of knowing for sure, since neutered dogs can be like that too.

As for putting Watson on the lead, it's your choice. You couldn't pick up both of them, so you decided to make sure Watson could run away if he wanted to, so you did what you thought was right.

On another note, who is Watson, another dog of yours? Haven't come across you mentioning him before.

I don't blame you at all for picking Molly up, she's too little, won't understand and might be scared.

Sounds like Archie has a "dominance thing". Male dogs don't normally want to have "sex" with other male dogs - although humping them might look like that it's the doggy way of saying "I'm boss". Left alone, the humper and the humpee might well come to an agreement as to who is boss, although the humpee might well be a little cowed by the experience. Alternatively, it could very well end up in a full blown fight!

I doubt if castrating Archie would solve the problem, he is obviously a dog who feels the need to assert his dominance. The best outcome would be if Archie's owner recognised this trait in his dog and kept him under proper control around other dogs.

It MIGHT not go down too well telling Archie's owners this though (especially the bit about having his knackers off!) unless you know them very well and can speak to them in a non-judgemental way and that they can receive this "criticism" of their dog in an equally non-judgemental way. We ALL like to think our own dogs are perfect, and I expect Archie's owners feel the same way, so tread carefully if you feel you need to.

Personally, if it was me, I would avoid walking my dogs with Archie !

Watson is our english springer spaniel. He and Moll are best friends and they lie and play together all the time

Won't be walking with him, nope. It just can't be at all relaxing walking a dog like Archie. He needs off lead exercise although you couldn't trust him with other dogs and he also runs off.

I know others that have walked when Archie has been out and her dog was cowering in the hedge row to get away. She then broke her finger trying to pull him off when her finger got caught in the harness.

Very hard to approach the castration topic, agreed.

No, walking a dog like Archie is not an easy job. Apart from the dominance thing Archie suffers from, Dalmations were bred to trot for miles between the wheels of horse-drawn carriages, and have huge stamina so yes they do need a lot of exercise.

I know it's difficult,as Archie's owners are friends of yours, but avoiding Archie is obviously best for your dogs, and your dogs are YOUR first interest.