I hope you don't mind me asking your opinion on this. I have a healthy well excercised adult Cavalier bitch who is quite nervous around other dogs until she gets to know them - she has been knocked flying by large boisterous dogs on several occasions so her attitude makes sense to me. My problem is that she loathes most puppies. She will accept the initial greeting including the rear end sniffing bit but will not tolerate being bounced all over. She growls and will attempt to nip any pup who doesn't back off. I tell her to "Leave it" and make her sit and , if necessary, hold her collar to stop her lunging at the other dog. Its not always possible to walk away from these encounters as we meet several pups outside the school gates where I have to wait. In terms of pack behaviour is my dog behaving normally in trying to discipline what she sees as unacceptable behaviour or should she be more tolerant ? Should the owners of the pups control them more and if so how do I politely get this message across ? Or should I expect my dog to be more understanding of "normal" puppy behaviour ? It seems I'm always the one who ends up apologising and feeling guilty when my dog acts like this.

I would say she is being a typical adult cavalier bitch. Why should she have to accept being dived all over by other dogs outside her pack. In the wild it is only young puppies that are allowed to take liberties & unrelated dogs would not be tolerated.

I would not apoplogize for her behaviour, it is the other owners who should ask & apologze if their dog goes to her. My second youngest was friendly with all dogs until an airedale was allowed to dive on him & winded him quite badly, he no longer tolerates all dogs, GSD's Collies & Border Terriers are ok as he lives with the first two & is very passionate about BT's(especially the girls)He grumps at the dogs he doesn't like & fortunately that is all as it's not in the Cavalier character to be very aggressive, lots of vocal but no physical contact is the normal

I would agree with Moonmaiden but carry it further to say this is what most adult dog of any breed would do. Adult dogs see it as their responsibility to discipline young pups, either their own or anyone elses. They're a bit like humans really. Why should an elderly person accept boisterous youngsters jumping all over them? They would expect parents to teach their own kids how to behave around their elders but if the parents had failed to do the job properly the person being jumped on would no doubt take over and tell them to mind their manners. Dogs are no different - just some are a bit more tolerant than others.

I would agree with the last two posts. My adult lab bitch will take only so much from pups or adolescents and then she'll 'have a go'. I dont mean that she'll bite or nip straight off, she'll give a warning growl first, but if they don't take heed, she'll really tell them off. I think you're situation is made even worse by the fact that you're outside the school gates, childrens high-pitched voices can make some young dogs even more excitable, its a scary thought that there are untrained pups around kids though. Don't worry about it too much, your dog is not in the wrong.:):)

I dont like pushy children. So I suppose dogs are the same.