Myself and husband were walking our dobermann yesterday and all of a sudden a golden retriever appeared and he came straight up to my dobermann and they sniffed each other and then it all got very stiff and they had a bit of a to do, we called our dobe and he came but then ran back at the dog, but we did get them apart.  Then the owner of the retriever came jogging along to say "is your dog always like this?"  sort of looking in disgust as though my boy was a vicious animal.  I said "actually no, never!", I didn't stay to say anything more but after I was angry thinking why would he suppose that it was my dog who started this, because I don't know which dog started.  My dobe is 15 months old and he hasn't been neutered.  He is always fine with other dogs, and usually if it all goes a bit still when they are sniffing each other I call him away and he comes.  After this had happened we did come across other dogs and he was fine, as he normally is.  My dobe did actually have a golden retriever go for him when he was about 7 months old.  Is there something that makes a dog instantly dislike another dog?   After all it happens sometimes in humans!!!!

I personally think we tend to expect a lot from our dogs because, as you so rightly say, not all humans get on either! I suspect that your dog is of an age where he may be a bit mroe interested in what other male dogs have to say for themselves, but also he may well have remembered the Golden Retriever from before. Dogs can have a "one off" learning situation in some circumstances :)

I would try to ensure that for his next few dog meetings, he meets dogs you know he gets on well with and praise him well for returning to you (he sounds very obedient). You can also get him to associate the presence of other dogs with good things if you use rewards when other dogs appear and remove them as dogs disappear...it's called "opening the bar" and is a very useful technique for encouraging dogs to associate other dogs with good expectatations.

Lindsay
X

A similar thing ahppened to me when my dobe was about the same age -maybe a little older -we met a pointer -they had met previously and were fine -they were both the same age and un-neutered , they went nose to nose and then all hell broke loose ! ..At the time the other owner was happy to blame me and my dog but on reflection they were both doing a bit of posturing, a bit of teenage boy stuff , they were fairly easy to seperate and no teeth connected -I put it down to teenage talk and trouser stuff ;)

I also think it's hard for other dogs to read rottwielers or dobermanns body language as they have a docked tail and other dogs can't see their tail waggling, my mums rottwieler is lovely and other dogs just love to cause trouble with her.  She wouldn't harm a fly though.  It was like yesterday we where sitting in our obedience class waiting to go next and a boxer nearly dived on her head luckily enough she weren't bothered.  Far to much energy for me boxers.