Originally Posted by Canis-Lupess
Yeah, if another dog challenges him and he's been on the recieving end previously then you can't really blame him for wanting to stand up for himself but the more scared a dog is, the more likely it is to resort to aggression so they need to have an owner who they can trust and be supported by which they are more likely to want to come back to when these threats approach, not one that inflicts any pain on them or shouts at them.
Still, owners of the other dogs should be told to keep theirs under control if they come up to cause trouble and if you make an exciting game to play with your staffie like tug o war with a toy or playing with a ball, you can attract him back to you if you see another dog coming to play with his toy and just keep your fingers in his collar or slip his lead on without making an issue and maybe try to keep his attention on the toy so he doesn't care about the other dog. I do this with Jess and she is so intent on her ball, another dog can even come up and sniff her backside and she still stares at the ball and if she does turn around at the other dog and it backs up, she turns straight back to the ball again without even growling....as if there is no time for the other dog.
I wouldn't use punishment even as a one off. I can't really see how it would solve the problem. Every dog I see regularly that shows aggression to other dogs has an owner who shouts at them and yanks the lead or smacks them and I see the aggressions gradually get worse and worse and these people never seem to cotton on that their punishment methods seem to be making no difference and just put it down to the dog ignoring them or being stupid. It happens every time with every dog who's owners react in this way.
If your dog was off lead and bumped into another dog who challenged him, would he attack them all out or would there just be an aggressive display of hackles, staring, showing teeth, growling but without actual fighting and if there was a fight, just a quick scuffle or what would be a drawn out fight to the death if you didn't split them up?
In most cases if left without intervention from humans, it would just be the aggressive display with maybe a short scuffle at last resort without any injury inflicted and resulting in one dog backing down and being pinned to the floor for a few seconds or being chased off or them both making a mutual agreement to quit and go their seperate ways and I have witnessed this between dogs roaming in the street but when humans come wading in shouting and balling, thats what tends to throw everything off and the dogs start fighting. They think the silly humans have come to join in the fightand they suddenly develop, with the humans support, the confidence to attack the other dog so it is always extremely important to stay as calm and quiet as possible if such a situation arises. Sending the wrong message over to the dog is all too easy and usually ends up in fighting where there otherwise wouldn't be one.