Your opinions please

[Summer Magic]

I just had a situation that I'd like to share with all of you and see if I helped or hindered the encounter.
I was taking Magic(a sheltie 27lbs) on her leash out to potty as one of my neighbors was walking by with his dog (chi and jack russel mix 12 lbs.) His grand daughter (about seven) was holding the leash. When we exited my house the chi started barking and lunging at magic (about 20 feet away) the little girl dropped the leash and the chi came up my drive toward Magic with his teeth bared, growling and barking. Magic reacted in kind and all I could think of doing was to separate the dogs to prevent a fight. (magic has enough aggression issues of her own.) So I just scooped her up and held her without moving away from the spot until the other dog could be gotten under control. Now she didn't react adversely to my picking her up and immediately stopped barking tho she still watched the other dog, (who was still barking) I held her until they were out of sight before I put her down and took her to the back yard to go (which she did do) Did I do right by taking her out of that situation by picking her up or should I have forced her by her lead to leave the area where the dog was. What about the picking up is that telling her that I'm in control or is it just teaching her to be more afraid. I'd really appreciate some imput here.

Thanks

Judy

[aussiesmum]

I think picking her up isn't right. I think it trains them that, in a sitaution like that, they are expected to be in your arms. We were taught that, in a simular situation, to let the dogs do their thing (sounds wierd and with a dog with agression issues, I imagine it is diffrent). But if you hold the leash tight, the dog feels your tension as well. I think the best thing to do is to keep moving and let the other person take care of their dog.

We were also taught that picking up your dogs puts you at risk. With a Chi-JR mix, ok, not so much, but if it were a bigger dog, the dog could jump on you!

[David Crandall]

If your dog already has aggression issues, then I definitely wouldn't let them interact, especially like that. Any aggressive encounters in a dog that has aggression issues only compounds the problem. If Magic has an aggressive encounter with another dog, then it reinforces her reasons for staying aggressive. If you're trying to improve her aggression, this will be a huge step back; trust me, we took that backwards step a few times before we were getting help from a pro.

I think it probably would have been better to take her out of the area, but there's definitely not always time to do that, especially with another dog running at you.

Dave

[Renee]

Judy-

You absolutely did the right thing. Safety first! You prevented a potentially dangerous situation - way to think on your feet. For some dogs, picking them up can be reinforcing and other dogs feel scared or insecure - but that doesn't really matter in this case. I'll never presume to know what Magic was thinking at that moment...all that matters is you kept her safe and prevented her from having a negative interaction with a questionable (and very rude) dog.