Hi, could anyone offer advice??
we take our dog to a local park for walks and play. It's a great place for dogs where they get lots of play and  socialising and it's great...our dog just loves going there. The problem is that one dog is becoming very aggressive. He's a Rotty, almost two years old and he hasn't been neutered. I mention the neutering issue becasue he seems to have a go mainly at other full males though he is also becoming increasingly hyper around female dogs, won't leave them alone. He pesters them continually mounting them growling and snarling and pinning them down until the dogs are yelping and clearly frightened of him. A couple of days ago this kind of behaviour resulted in a fight breaking out between this dog and another male dog who came over to play with with the group. Lots of the people who take their dogs there are now beginning to avoid walking at certain times because of this dog and because his owner has so little control over him. He has now had a go at so many dogs, lot's of them quite young puppies, and people are clearly frightened that he will attack their dog. I'm not quite sure what, if anything, we can do. Any suggestions?

Hi Margaret,

Could someone who knows the owner not have a word with him or if they know where he/she stays visit for a chat?  It could be that if done in a non-confrontational way the problems could be drawn to the owners attention and an amicable and useful solution might be achieved. 

Do any of the regular dog walkers for eg. know of a good local training class?  If so, perhaps they could suggest it to the owner - but make it in a friendly manner such as "He's a handsome big fellow now, goodness knows how you manage to hang onto him!  I know of a great training class that could probably give some advice on how to make him more manageable as he matures."  (or something along similar lines) ;)

It's very difficult sometimes to get a message across to owners who clearly don't have the necessary control but some do genuinely appreciate advice so it might be worth a try!

Good luck, HTH, Teri :)

If you have a local dog warden give him a ring (the police should have a contact number) and ask him to have a word with the owner saves you doing it face to face with the owner.

Most parks have parks patrols/police these days. Try and have a word with them about it before someone gets seriously hurt. Sadly, not all owners of out of control dogs are prepared to do anything about it until it is to late. We had exactly this problem at a local park to us and over a period of a few months, the attacks worsened. It only stopped when the Rott killed another dog and the owner stopped taking it to the park. In this case the owner was totally responsible for the dogs behaviour. He did nothing to try and curb the problem and allowed the dog to wander whilst he chatted on his phone! The bottom line is that if you have a problem dog in your parks, then act before it is to late. Aggression on this scale needs to be dealt with promptly and that applies to all breeds. Your local authorities will be able to advise you whom to contact.

hi, thanks for those suggestions and I do think speaking to the dog warden is a good idea. It's a very difficult situation and a tricky one to handle. The owner sadly isn't terribly responsible. We've all tried having a go at saying nicely that the dog is a bit much but she just doesn't seem to understand and forever makes excuses for his bad behaviour.  I do think that it's time to take the problem a bit more seriously as it's getting worse the older he gets and some poor dog is going to get hurt or someone who has to step in to break up these scraps. Also I don't want the dog to end up in serious trouble because I don't think it's his fault that his owner doesn't know how to handle him.
Hopefully we'll find a solution.

I'm just curious....is this dog off the lead when all this happens?

hi, yes the dog is off the lead when this happens and the problem is that his owner doesn't put him on the lead when he behaves like this. She says putting him on the lead makes him worse! So there are no consequences for him if he behaves like this. Though I do think when the fight started a couple of days ago he was on the lead when it began.

As a rottweiler owner this deeply saddens me to read ,, its people that get these dogs and have no control over them that give the breed such a bad name :(
i have 4 rottweilers and i do have a male that is not altogether keen on other dogs while out hence i walk him late at night when there is no-one around.
I certainly do not allow any of my dogs off their lead when there are people around knowing what a boisterous and over friendly breed they can be.

In my opinion this lady is being very irresponsible in her actions,, 1 fight has already broken out ,, has she not considered the consiquences of if her dog seriously injures another dog or another person to that point. Rottweilers are a very powerful breed .. if her dog attacks someone while they are trying to rescue there dog from it and she has no control to prevent this .. it seems its a disaster waiting to happen :(

I do wish people would do their research and realise what reponsibility they are taking on when they buy this breed then maybe there would be less incidents to tarnish this wonderful breeds name :(

sorry if ive said anything out of line but i see this kind of thing all too often and it really rattles me :(
i'll get off my soap box now lol

hi Cazzie, I totally agree with you. I feel sorry for the dog and annoyed by the owner taking on the responsility of a dog that needs to be handled carefully and just not taking that into account. Re Rotts, there are a few others who use the same park and are great dogs without a hint of this kind of behaviour so I understand that not all Rotts are the same.