Hello,
We have an 8 month old Westie, George, and for the most part he is a delightful, social little guy who wants to meet every dog you come across. We take him to a dog park frequently and he should be well socialized.
However, on a few occasions now he has felt threatened by other dogs and begins snapping at their faces. Usually it goes like this:
1. We go to the dog park, he interacts with several dogs and then wants to go off and do his own thing.
2. One of the dogs he calmly said hello to is curious about George and begins following him around, usually sniffing his face/butt
3. George doesn't take kindly to this, and tries to scupper off, tail between his legs and ears down (clearly feeling threatened). However, the other dog is still curious so keeps following, sniffing, pawing him etc.
4. Unable to escape, George resorts to snapping at their face
5. Other dog still doesn't get the signs that George doesn't want to be bothered and keeps persisting by sniffing and generally being a nuisance
6. George loses it, grits his teeth, snarls and aggressively bites the dogs face, repeatedly snapping and biting trying to get the dog to go away.
7. Sometimes George actually now pursues the other dog, actively trying to bite him in the face, even if the other dog backs off.
Now then, I have several issues I guess. Firstly, George is giving some signs that he is not happy and wants the other dog to go away. If that dog is ignoring those signs and keeps bothering George, I guess he is somewhat partly to blame. Today it got to where George reached stage 7 (above) and the other dog still didn't care and kept annoying him!
Luckily George is usually too small to do any damage, but I'm concerned the larger dog will one day see Georges aggressive and attack him back, which could kill him as he is small.
This almost exclusively occurs with large dogs who are usually young (older dogs generally aren't so curious). George is hesitant of larger dogs, and if that dog is young he is generally all over George and I can see why George gets intimidated.
I guess my question is, what can I do about this? I don't want to avoid dog parks as he otherwise loves it and is super friendly in all other circumstances.
I can usually see the signs of when George is not happy and it gradually develops over the course of a few minutes. Do I step in? At what point? How do I teach George not to bite their face?
I also think the other dogs owner should be able to tell George is not happy and get their dog to leave him alone, but that never happens.
We have an 8 month old Westie, George, and for the most part he is a delightful, social little guy who wants to meet every dog you come across. We take him to a dog park frequently and he should be well socialized.
However, on a few occasions now he has felt threatened by other dogs and begins snapping at their faces. Usually it goes like this:
1. We go to the dog park, he interacts with several dogs and then wants to go off and do his own thing.
2. One of the dogs he calmly said hello to is curious about George and begins following him around, usually sniffing his face/butt
3. George doesn't take kindly to this, and tries to scupper off, tail between his legs and ears down (clearly feeling threatened). However, the other dog is still curious so keeps following, sniffing, pawing him etc.
4. Unable to escape, George resorts to snapping at their face
5. Other dog still doesn't get the signs that George doesn't want to be bothered and keeps persisting by sniffing and generally being a nuisance
6. George loses it, grits his teeth, snarls and aggressively bites the dogs face, repeatedly snapping and biting trying to get the dog to go away.
7. Sometimes George actually now pursues the other dog, actively trying to bite him in the face, even if the other dog backs off.
Now then, I have several issues I guess. Firstly, George is giving some signs that he is not happy and wants the other dog to go away. If that dog is ignoring those signs and keeps bothering George, I guess he is somewhat partly to blame. Today it got to where George reached stage 7 (above) and the other dog still didn't care and kept annoying him!
Luckily George is usually too small to do any damage, but I'm concerned the larger dog will one day see Georges aggressive and attack him back, which could kill him as he is small.
This almost exclusively occurs with large dogs who are usually young (older dogs generally aren't so curious). George is hesitant of larger dogs, and if that dog is young he is generally all over George and I can see why George gets intimidated.
I guess my question is, what can I do about this? I don't want to avoid dog parks as he otherwise loves it and is super friendly in all other circumstances.
I can usually see the signs of when George is not happy and it gradually develops over the course of a few minutes. Do I step in? At what point? How do I teach George not to bite their face?
I also think the other dogs owner should be able to tell George is not happy and get their dog to leave him alone, but that never happens.