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Before I tell the story of what happened today, I just want to make you a little familiar with Ace's personality. I do think he's been socialized plenty when he was a puppy. We went to the dog park 3-4 times a week and had friends and family over to our house a lot. So he met a lot of people when he was young. One trait he always had, however, was being very wary of random people. He would never let anyone he did not know touch him if they were coming up to him first and would either run around the person who wanted to pet him or run back to me. I didn't really worry about it since he did not display any signs of aggression, he simply avoided the people he did not know (like). However, to some he would come up on his own and would push against them and let them pet him or would lick their hands. So this seemed to me like a normal personality display. We are still quite young and don't have kids, and neither do any of our friends, so Ace never had a chance to meet children. And to be honest I'm not a big fan of kids. They get on my nerves most times. [Nothing against any of you who have children, so please don't take this personally!] I've read or heard somewhere that dogs can sense what the owner feels and will feel the same way about certain people. I guess Ace would feel my frustration and he would always be especially suspicious of children. But he has never been the type of a dog that would attack another dog or a person. And if ever a dog tried to attack him, he would run away and try to avoid the situation.
Well, today we went to the dog park, took both Ace and our Leah (cavalier king charles) and were just chilling in a little corner, far from other people or dogs, just playing on our own, not bothering anyone. A man comes by with a his huge rottie and stops next to us. His rottie was bothering Ace and would just come up and try to dominate, Ace stood his ground cause I was near I guess [was he protecting me?] . So this was already a stressful situation. Then this rottie owner comes up and tries to pet Ace, shoving his hands into Ace's face. Ace jumped back, lowered his head and gave the "I'm warning you" look...this guy keeps pushing and trying to pet him. Again Ace would avoid his hands. So me and my hubby gave this guy a hint that Ace does not trust strangers and I pulled Ace closer to me. And while all this is happening, I'm sitting on a metal table.
Then this man's daughter, who came out of nowhere, jumps on the table behind and above me standing up(it's a tiny table) and her dad did not say a word to her like it was okay to jump on a strange persons back. I'm about to flip at her when Ace jumps up to her, baring his teeth, and almost bites her leg. He actually touched her leg and that second my hubby yelled out "NO!" and he stopped immediately. All this happened in a matter of seconds. Of course he was immediately corrected and we left the park 5 minutes later.
How do I deal with this? I'm guessing he felt that I was threatened because he did not know this girl and she was jumping right behind my back (she actually touched me)? But it is also not okay to attack a person, especially a child. Was this him being protective or aggressive?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.
Well, today we went to the dog park, took both Ace and our Leah (cavalier king charles) and were just chilling in a little corner, far from other people or dogs, just playing on our own, not bothering anyone. A man comes by with a his huge rottie and stops next to us. His rottie was bothering Ace and would just come up and try to dominate, Ace stood his ground cause I was near I guess [was he protecting me?] . So this was already a stressful situation. Then this rottie owner comes up and tries to pet Ace, shoving his hands into Ace's face. Ace jumped back, lowered his head and gave the "I'm warning you" look...this guy keeps pushing and trying to pet him. Again Ace would avoid his hands. So me and my hubby gave this guy a hint that Ace does not trust strangers and I pulled Ace closer to me. And while all this is happening, I'm sitting on a metal table.
Then this man's daughter, who came out of nowhere, jumps on the table behind and above me standing up(it's a tiny table) and her dad did not say a word to her like it was okay to jump on a strange persons back. I'm about to flip at her when Ace jumps up to her, baring his teeth, and almost bites her leg. He actually touched her leg and that second my hubby yelled out "NO!" and he stopped immediately. All this happened in a matter of seconds. Of course he was immediately corrected and we left the park 5 minutes later.
How do I deal with this? I'm guessing he felt that I was threatened because he did not know this girl and she was jumping right behind my back (she actually touched me)? But it is also not okay to attack a person, especially a child. Was this him being protective or aggressive?
Any input would be greatly appreciated.