Just When Things Are Going Well...

Question:
 Max blots his copybook:(
We were down in the fields justnow, just me, my son and Max playing ball.
We were 3/4 of the way up the field. Another dog was walking off lead at the bottom, saw Max and came charging up the field towards us. Max straight away went after the other dog and a chase ensued. Neither the other dog (a Weinemarer) nor Max took any notice of either owner. A fight started between the two dogs ending up with the Weinemarer on it's back and Max bit it's ear:mad:
Max finally left it and came back to us. The Weinemarer took off with it's owner in hot pursuit. Where they went I do not know as there is a lot of trees and bushes. No doubt the Weinemarer's owner wanted to catch his dog and check out any damage.
I'm not sticking up for Max because what he did was very wrong, but I think he saw the charging Weinemarer as a threat and dealt with it - the Weinemarer started it and Max finished it but I do not want to encourage that type of behaviour as it could have severe repercussions for us, especially Max (Max is insured against 3rd party liabilty). Our laws are quite strict here and I don't want to end up having to muzzle Max or worse put him down.
Normally Max is very social with other dogs and prefers to play with them. He has a friend, a Boxer who he loves playing with while her owner and myself chat.
How can I stop him doing this again?
He is still learning recall but up until that point was coming back every time I called him.
I can't get him into dog training classes for several weeks yet so I need some advice in the meantime.
Not happy:(

Answer:
 I know exactly how you feel. I have the same problem with Uma. The only thing I can give for advice is to keep Max on lead until there is a good to excellent recall. Even then in the heat of a doggie charging moment Max still may go. Until both you and he are in some type of class I would keep him very close to you.

Answer:
 The Weinemarer came charging in a direct line with me and my son. It ignored it's owner's recall commands. Max was a few yards away from us at the time, having retrieved his ball so he didn't chase the Weinemarer straight away but seemed to weigh up the situation and decided the Weinemarer was going to attack us. At that point he dropped the ball and went after the Weinemarer and the fight started. The fight only lasted about 10 seconds. It looked like Max bit the Weinemarer's ear - it was yelping. I yelled "Leave" several times and Max eventually did. The Weinemarer then turned tail and fled. Max stood where he was. He didn't chase after it then. The Weinemarer ran straight past it's owner and disappeared. The owner was calling it (it was too far away by this time and I couldn't hear it's name) but the Weinemarer had taken off. Last seen the owner was running after it and I lost sight of both of them.
The Weinemarer looked quite young too and is not good at recall either. At least Max stayed where he was after the fight (he stood there looking like "Good, that's got rid of him!!!").
If the Weinemarer hadn't come charging at us and ignoring it's owner, I doubt there would have been a fight. I'm sure Max saw the Weinemarer's behaviour as a direct threat to us and did what any self-respecting GSD would do - protect us and get rid of the threat.
The strange thing is, his Boxer friend comes charging up from the same area of the field yet there is no aggression from either of them. They rough and tumble (play fight) and end up licking each other's faces when they get tired but for some reason Max saw this other dog as a threat.
I have to admit it's left me very worried. I don't want to have to put Max on the lead all the time there because he loves playing with his ball or Frisbee.
Max is scheduled to get neutered on Friday this week and I'm hoping that will help calm him down a bit too. Otherwise he is a really great dog.

Answer:
 Try getting in contact with the other owner and explain whats going on and tell her your very sorry and your working on his training. Keep him on lead when there, he will learn he only gets the privalege to be of leash if he is perfect and listens. You cant let him go if he is gonna act liek that you never know what else could happen, you may be banned from the park totally or worse have to put your dog down. Dont feel bad cause then he cant play, he has to learn that obedience means loose play. Try getting a long 30 foot leash and put it on him and always hold it when there. Then after he starts getting good at his recall when you call him, drop the leash for short periods of time. Also or the first ten minutes in the park he must work on trianing and listen and keep eyes on you. This will show you control him and he must obey while in the park. If you call and he doesnt respond dont keep calling start realing the leash in and when he gets to you say his name so he looks at you and then praise lots and lots...He will get it very fast. Also walk him a little before entering and were out some energy. This will help some too, at home also work on attention excersizes and coming. I cant help too much more since I dont know the dog or what exactly is happening but get into training and get him fixed that should help TONS...

Answer:
 Also you said you kept saying it was all amxs fault but yet you keep saying if that dog hadnt done this or if that dog hadnt done that it wouldnt have happend. All I can tell from what you say is this dog wanted to come play and max attacked, I dont see that the other dog did anything wrong besides not come back to his owner. I think you need to talk to the other owner and see what they thought of it and work together to figure out what happened then you can really effectivly fix the problem...

Answer:
 Thanks for the advice:D
As for the other dog, the way it came charging up the field it looked more aggressive than playful. Rightly or wrongly Max interpreted the other dog as being aggressive. Both dogs being young and male probably had a lot to do with it too (pecking order).
Getting hold of the owner (a man) would be difficult as he made no attempt whatsoever to come and get his dog or even to come and speak to me. He was understandably more interested in finding his dog which run off. Took past him like a bat out of ****!!! He was too far away for us to even see what he looked like. He just stood down at the bottom of the field while all this was going on. He made no attempt to come and get his dog at all, just stood doing nothing while all this was going on.
The only hope I've got of speaking to him is if I see his dog again. In the three weeks we've been going to the field it is the first time I have seen this particular dog. Earlier on there were two Spaniels off the lead and Max didn't have any problems with them. They came up to him and there was the mutual sniffing, Max came back to us and the Spaniels went back to their owner, no trouble or anything.
I have a 30ft training leash and will try what you suggest. Max has had a lot to learn in the three weeks (today) we've had him. So far he's done very well considering he's had to get used to a new home, new name and whole new routine with new owners. I'll be glad when I can get him into dog training as all of us would benefit enormously from it but that's going to take a few weeks yet. He'll have to take things easy for a while after his op, then he has to be vaccinated (we don't think he has been and because he's got a bit of a problem with his nose which is going to be investigated under anaesthetic our vet recommended delaying vaccination until they fix the problem with his nose. They think he could have a grass seed or a blade of grass stuck up one nostril).
As soon as he gets the all clear from the vet and is vaccinated he'll be enrolled in dog training classes. I've already spoken to the dog trainer about this. This trainer comes highly recommended.

Answer:
 I'm going to address a major issue here first. Since as far as you know, Max hasn't had any vaccinations, you need to keep a very close eye on him for the next ten days. An unvaccinated dog biting another dog is a big deal and if Max shows any symptoms of Rabies then it is your responsibility to tell the other owner even if it means making an public announcement in the local paper addressed to "the owner of the Weimaraner who was bit in a field recently."
Besides rabies, there are other transmissible diseases Max may have without you knowing. You need to make sure he has no chance of being in a situation like that again until he is fully vaccinated. Not only to avoid Max passing something on, but what if they other dog was sick and had bitten Max? He could then get sick from the other dog.
As far as preventing it from happening again, the answer is really just training, training, training. If you want to have him off leash a lot, you might want to use something that is a little more effective than your voice. A lot of times a dog will respond to a high pitched whistle more readily than a human voice. You also might want to consider an E-collar for a little more control in off leash situations.

Answer:
 We don't have Rabies in the UK thankfully.
We are assuming Max has not been vaccinated because he was dumped and uncaring owners who just dump a dog for whatever reason usually don't bother getting them vaccinated so our vet thinks it's best to vaccinate him anyway.
I have got a dog whistle but it sounds more like a referees whistle than a dog whistle. Even blowing that loudly had no effect on either dog.
I always thought that dog whistles were very high-pitched, so much so that most humans can't hear them but dogs can.
Just had a look at the E-collar. Since it works on the principle of giving the dog a shock, I would only use something like that if all else failed.
Max has a lot to learn (and so do we) but he is generally a quick learner and I think you're absolutely right with training, training and more training.

Answer:
 I have got a dog whistle but it sounds more like a referees whistle than a dog whistle. Even blowing that loudly had no effect on either dog.
The whistle will not just "have an effect" to the whistle, you have to teach the dogs to respond to it. Blow the whistle, supply a reward (praise, treat, toy)
Just had a look at the E-collar. Since it works on the principle of giving the dog a shock, I would only use something like that if all else failed.
E-Collars are not a punishment, but a distraction- a way of getting the dog's attention. You don't put the thing on a high shock level, just to shock the dog, that wouldn't bring the dog back to you. You put in on a small buzz to get the dog's attention and enforce the completion of a command. It's very much the same idea as tossing beanbags at their rump, or shaking a shaker can.