Got really lucky today...
I was walking Ajax to the dog run and in the opposite direction came a woman walking a gorgeous merle Great Dane and black lab. The Dane then dragged his owner across the road and grabbed Ajax by the back of the neck. Luckily he bit down almost dead center on Ajax's 1.5 in wide leather collar. His top and bottom incisors left gashes on the collar, but Ajax was unharmed.
The whole thing happened so fast. Fortunately the leather collar didn't give him any purchase and we were able to pull the dogs apart quickly. The lab was nice and didn't join in. Of course the owner said that this was first time that he's ever done anything like this. I find it bit hard to believe that there were no signs since once the dogs were pulled apart the Dane was shaking like a leaf. I pointed out his trembling and she said that he has anxiety. You don't say. Sorry a little pissed off. It's one thing to have a reactive dog and another to not be able to physically control your reactive dog and to take your dog to places were you are likely to encounter other dogs without precautionary equipment.
I wish I had suggested a basket muzzle, but I was too busy checking Ajax for punctures. I thought Danes are supposed the gentle giants. There's three in the neighborhood and each one is a nerve bag.
Comments
So glad your dog is alright.
My shiba was attacked by a mix breed I had to push the dog off of her and owner did nothing. Luckily I was close by and coarse owner was too just stood there. her dog then went for two goldens two guys had to seperate the dogs again owner did not stop the dog. Like WTF.. I was going to confront her to get name to report, but after the dog going for goldens I was shaking a bit so went home. I really wished I confronted her on it. Luckily Saya was unharmed and I got the dog off soon as it went for her.
We've been attacked on two separate occasions while on leash by off leash small dogs. Once by a yorkie, and he had a grand time of dancing around the little dog while the yorkie was trying to get behind him to bite his back legs. That dog was about 5 seconds from becoming a football before his owner grabbed him. The other was a cream shiba who has a reputation in the neighborhood for getting let out of his house by the kids and attacking any big dog he comes across. He badly bit an English bulldog in the face wrinkles and also attacked a brindle shepard mix (that I swear looks like a dutchie) in addition to Ajax. My husband was walking him at the time and reported the Ajax engaged the shiba right back, but when the owner finally managed to grab the shiba and pull him away, Ajax sat himself down and whined for the other dog to come back.
Most of the time I'm refereeing and trying to correct his behavior so someone doesn't rip his face off.
"Rinse and repeat" sounds about right, with a punk ass Shikoku
We're planning on having him x-rayed and then decide when and if to neuter him from there, but regardless we're planning to wait until he's at least a year old, better yet 18 months.
He's certainly not perfect with other dogs, I think that if he met himself that he would try to fight himself. I had to put him on leash at the dog park yesterday when a 3 year old intact male German Shepard showed up, gorgeous and well behaved dog probably close to 90lbs that is used for SAR. The German Shepard didn't take Ajax's shit, but most importantly he still listened to his owner and still recalled even when Ajax was in his face. He was pretty much my ideal of how I'd like Ajax to behave. Not that I would ever trust him unsupervised in such a situation, but he should certainly still listen even when challenged and not try to start fights.
After putting a Ajax on a leash, we played the ignore the other intact male game. The German Shepard kept wanting to approach him, but always responded to recall by his owner and Ajax was fine with the Shepard directly behind him or next to him, but Ajax kept trying to go face to face with the other dog and start something that he wasn't going to win. I normally wouldn't have tried this, but the Shepard was VERY good and I was not worried about him going for Ajax.
All in all he was far better with this intact adult Shepard then a neutered Akita and Shiba pair that go ballistic whenever they see him. Unfortunately he responds in turn. I can't remember who said this on the forum, but they remarked that the Shikoku attitude is "Oh you want to fight? BRING IT PUNK!" That is very much Ajax.
I kept takeo intact until 3. I had wanted to keep him intact forever, but in our neighborhood, the attacks/aggression from other dogs never stopped, and it just started to give him negative experiences all the time --- and not giving him a good impression of other dogs at all. Poor thing! So I gave in, because I feel he deserves the peace and happiness!! I was adding extra stress by keeping him intact. I know many people successfully can do so, but I think just the dogs in our neighborhood just really don't know any intact dogs and it got really frustrating!
I think a shikoku (intact or not) in general will bring many challenges, they just don't always communicate with other dogs in the same language/or same wavelength. Just my two cents! I hope you have better encounters in future
Firstly north american dog communities have been conditioned to believing that a responsible dog owner means you have to spay or neuter your dog. They also have misled people into believing that no harm will be done if that's the case. They also mislead people into believing a neuter/spay will magically make your dog proper, calm, and generally nicer. And so you have most of america believing that the cause of all your dogs issues are their balls and now they don't know how to deal with their dogs actual problems. There are now masses of dogs have no idea now how to handle being around intact dogs simply because there is very little exposure to it.
Secondly Shikoku is a breed that does not take shit from anyone. They are very in-tuned with their instincts and expect all dogs and people who meet them to follow a proper guideline so to speak. They are far more aware and feel more offended if another dog acts like a fool. They know dog manners very well and so what my boys do is they give body signals to other dogs or humans to take it easy and respect their boundaries. They are reactive and not aggressive. The reason I feel like other dogs don't like Ajax is that because of all this he has a demeanor that other dogs may not like and it may be due to those instincts.