Incident

Had an incident the other day. I put Bacchus on his lead when I saw an unfamiliar dog coming. ( We pretty much all know each other where we exercise as it's a small town/village ). The other dog, which it transpired was a 6 mth old Lab, came charging straight at us,I must add, in a non aggressive way, but Bacchus lunged at him snarling. The pup yelped and backed off but then tried to jump up on me, again in a friendly manner, at which point Bacchus had a go again. I think his behaviour was brought about by the fact he was on lead and perhaps felt vulnerable, combined with letting the pup know his behaviour was unacceptable,as he is normally very friendly towards other dogs.

Your opinion?

BTW he didn't actually bite but I am unsure if that was because I restrained him. Bacchus being my first staffie, I'm still not 100% at interpreting the breed's (sometimes) rather alarming snarls which occur even during play.

The tail of a dog is always a good indicator. aggressive behaviour will have a very high tail or a very curled under tail, and will be very stiff. happy play will be mid way wagging tail or a high wagging tail.

Maybe the fact it was an unfamiliar dog and the suddenness of it running up to you both put him into a vulnerable/defensive attitude? I wouldn't worry about it anyway, it sounds like he did just feel a bit annoyed with the dog.