dog park and confidence

[rottilover]

Hi all! This is my first thread; normally I just soak in all the advice that's given here. :-)
I just had to get this off my chest. We go to the dog park usually every other day if the weather permits, and Chopper is always very good and sociable there. Today though, he went to go sniff a Doberman, and she totally snapped at him. Chopper is normally very submissive to other dogs, and doesn't play aggressive, but I saw him pinned on the ground by her, yelping as she was attacking him and then he bit the dobe right on the muzzle. Luckily no one was hurt, but it was very bothersome. The lady who owned her was standing right there and didn't even try to stop it! She was in her own little world talking to someone else. We had to run over there to stop the whole mess, and then she accused our dog of being aggressive. She then was mocking us after we told her Chopper was a boy! Go figure.
My question stems somewhat from today's incident. I know rotties are bred to be confident, cool and collected, but it seems like Chopper is lacking in the confidence area. I talked to breeder about confidence building, and he said that he always lets his rotts win tug of war, but then you always hear about making sure you win when tug of war is being played. I was wondering if there was anything I could do to build him up in confidence. I know it's better to have a submissive dog than a truly aggressive dominant one, but it's sad sometimes to see him being picked on by smaller dogs. :-( What can I do? Thanks for listening to my story, and sorry if it was a bit long.

Chopper is a 9 month old neutered male, obedience trained, had him since 8wks.

[jayneliz]

This is why I am not huge proponent of dog parks...

While many of us love and trust our dogs - we have to keep in sight the fact that they are animals, DOGS. They have instincts and drives that many don't want to accept.

In any event, it doesn't sound to me like Chopper 'wimped' out. He went over for a friendly sniff, Dobe didn't like it, Dobe started hurting him, Rott ends it.

BUT - what would your post be if he ripped the Dobe's throat out?

IMO, dog parks are accidents waiting to happen. In most cases, there is no way to absolutely control your dog, or more importantly, someone else's, if they aren't on a line.

Jayne May

[Jaegergirl]

i considered taking maverick to a dog park when i first got him. once i found this forum and read people's opinions why dog parks are bad news, not to mention the fact that our trainer told us to stay away from them, i decided that i wouldn't take the risk. there are people that don't mind going to them, but it's not worth the potential headache in my opinion. besides, the rottie will always be seen at the troublemaker, no matter who starts the fight.

[Carina43]

Well...even a fairly confident male pup would be submissive when pinned down by an older female dog - females almost always rule in Dogdom! I personally wouldn't take him to the dog park...you can do a search on dog parks, there's been some fairly recent discussions. I'm not a big fan of them either.

Much better for his confidence & development (not to mention your peace of mind) for him to have play dates with dogs you know him to get along with nicely.

I think tug can be a good confidence builder for an unsure dog, let him win, then at the end of the session YOU win. :)

Also, a good positive training obedience class - this is probably one of the best things you can do with him, confidence-wise. Make sure it's a decent class run by someone experienced...your breeder should be able to refer you to a good place. Even if he's already been in some classes, don't stop - he's still a pup and has a long way to go! Ive had one of my dogs in classes pretty consistently from puppy K onwards, because he had aggression issues (ahem) with some other dogs, and keeping him in classes was invaluable in working on that.

Oh, and welcome. :)