Canine racism

Does anyone else have “issues” with certain other breeds of dog ?

At canine club, we let dogs greet when we arrive. This is slacking off the lead and just letting them say hello.
Nifty loves to say hello to all but she’ll back off politely if the other dog is aggressive or crouch submissively if the dog is too boisterous.
As much as she can handle the bargy boxer, the dominant husky or the fizzy collies, she really does appear to bring out the worst in the belgian shepherds.  

There were alot in today’s class and many new faces, probably graduated from puppy school.
One female was aggressive - growling and lunging. But she was like this with alot of the other dogs so maybe not specific to Nifty.
Another young male, that we’ve seen previous weeks, likes to lie down, catch the other dog and roll it over. Nifty being flipped over by a dog twice her size always makes me wince.
Another, again much bigger than Nifty, tried to jump on her head.

During the class, I like to observe how the dogs interact (or not) with each other.
The belgian shepherds are always the ones who are the most dissipated, the less concentrated for wanting to play and the first to look for a fight. They appear to be complicated dogs to work with if you don’t get it right but they are also very popular here.

Much as I hate to stereotype or stick labels, I really am going to give a wide berth to belgian shepherds. I had a quick chat to one of the instructors and she agrees that I should be wary as Nifty is “of very good composition” so we don’t want to change that.
We all attend canine classes to improve our interaction with our dogs but I guess some have alot more work on their plate

I think you're right, some breeds do seem to need more careful handling. One such breed is our very own Staffy, which, if done correctly makes them very sociable such as your Nifty. It takes hard work to get a good well balanced dog which I think a lot of people forget.

The thing with Staffies is that they want to please and therefore easier than some other breeds which may require many more months of training. The worst ones I come across are smaller yappy ones that think they can do anything with owners that clearly have never trained them nor have any inclination to care what their dog does

What Belgians are they? Malinoirs, I'm guessing. Mals nowadays tend to be more 'working line' and quite sharp.

I don't approve of 'meet & greet' at training classes. They're there to work, not play, & the wrong sort of 'greet' can put a young dog off for life. Plenty of time afterwards for play.

Yes, they are Malinois. Great working dogs indeed, often seen in security or police. But from what I’ve seen, look much harder than staffies as family pets.

The meet and greet is on car park when we arrive, before going into training area. I always saw the meet and greet as an equivalent to humans saying hello. Once in the training area, all interaction to be avoided (that’s probably one of the hardest exercises for the younger ones).

-Ian- wrote:The worst ones I come across are smaller yappy ones that think they can do anything with owners that clearly have never trained them nor have any inclination to care what their dog does

I see what you mean.
For starters, there are very few pocket-sized dogs in the classes.
There were 2 in our class today and both were yapping each time they crossed paths with another dog.
The lady with a 10 month yorkshire asked how old Nifty is and commented on how well behaved she is. Big compliment but the result of daily education, even if it is just the basics like manners.
It seems so logical to me but apparently, it isn’t always the priority for dog owners ...

Nifty staffy wrote:Once in the training area, all interaction to be avoided (that’s probably one of the hardest exercises for the younger ones).

And that's exactly why I'd leave the meet & greet until afterwards!

Yup! My lexi HATED small fluffy dogs. She was dog reactive anyway, so was never off lead around them but small fluffy ones were the ones she would react to most. She also hated collies lol she was afraid of spaniels and puppies though.