behaviour problems

Hi everyone

So my dog is generally well behaved and usually does what i tell her, She's 7 yr old staffy and bull mastiff cross, But when i'm taking her out for a walk i get a bit worried when another dog approaches as she can sometimes get a bit aggressive, She is always on the lead as she has no road sense whatsoever and when she was a pup was almost knocked down.

It's weird as it's only with some breeds of dogs that she acts aggressive she is fine with boxers, cocker and springer spaniels, alsatians (she's actually scared of alsatians) labs and a few other dogs near bye which i don't know the name of the breed but she really really hates rottweilers and is weird with other staffs .

I was wondering if anyone had any tips on how to deal with it?
I've heard it said that they pick up on the owners feeling could she be picking up my anxieties about other dogs?

Thanks

She could be picking up on you anxiety. She also could of had bad experiences with those breeds before (I'm assuming she is a rescue).

No she's not a rescue got her when she was a pup and when she was a pup we had staffys over at the house and she loved it but as she grew older she gets a little aggressive by growling at them. If it's the rottweiler down the street she gets really aggressive and so does he but if it's a rottweiler at the park she is fine probably a territory thing.

There's lots of dogs on my street or near bye and she doesn't act that way around any of them except the staffy and rottweiler she is always playing with this big grey dog next door that just moved in about a year ago and was friendly with it from day one. or the spinger spaniel down the street who she loves to bits.

Do you know anyone that you just hate? For no reason? Never even spoke to them?

Dogs are the same lol dogs are strange, esp staffies. They are bred to hate other dogs, but we have to try our darnedest to stop that. If there is a certain dog or a few dogs it HATES just avoid them and ignore them.

My girl HATES small fluffies, but only if they are fluffy. Shes okay with JRT.

You can always train her the watch me command. Then when a dog is approaching that she doesn't behave well around, put her into the sit position and issue the watch me command as the other dog passes. It will take time to build her up to being able to stay focused with the distraction. Start in a quiet room in the house, then the garden to a field with dogs/people in the distance etc.
For the road sense a good exercise to do is when your out walking get your dog to stand everytime you come to a kurb. Go to walk across the road if they follow put them back and issue the command again so they stand there until you release them with heel for example. With repetition of this she should automatically stand when approaching any kurb instead of just walking out into the road. I have just started doing this myself. If it works might be another matter

You can teach a dog to wait or sit at the curb, but you can't teach them to look to see if any cars are coming! If they are out on their own they may well stop, but as soon as they get bored they'll go again.

Caryll wrote:You can teach a dog to wait or sit at the curb, but you can't teach them to look to see if any cars are coming! If they are out on their own they may well stop, but as soon as they get bored they'll go again.

They will. The idea is to give the driver them few seconds extra to slow down before the dog walks out into the road.