Question about fighting

tazmaniandevil

Vinny is 14 months now and has seems to have got a lot more confident in himself around other dogs. I was expecting this however and so far have managed to prevent a fight. As far as males are concerened its a flip of the coin whether he likes them or not, sometimes he wants to kill them from 50ft away, other times hell have a sniff and a little play then decide he doesnt like them. Sometimes he loves them and could wrestle for hours. When it comes to females ive never seen him show any aggresion at all. In fact many times hes had his ass kicked and been knocked on his back and he just gets up tail wagging and begins the pestering all over again. Im very cautious around other males and dont really keep my eyes off him as i really want to avoid that first fight but my question is to other members who own males, can i be pretty confident that he wont fight with a female?? My neighbour has 2 big females and all 3 of them charge around together but they are a little bit aggresive towards vinny but he doesnt seem to react. Its like he thinks they are just playing lol

Djammy

When it comes to dogs and what's going on in their minds - you can NEVER rest assured they won't...

We're just not able to tell the tiny triggers and signs apart well enough. So, to my mind managing is always better than being sorry afterwards.

I know that nervous feeling around other dogs. We have a female, but it's not necessarily easier though.

We have done a lot to socialize Djamila early and get her used to other dogs by frequent visits of dog park/ dog beach. When she was a puppy she tried to make some friends, but she never really liked it or gave in when other dogs tried dominating her or getting all over her too much. When she was younger, she just chose to avoid such dogs. But even back then already, when a dog wouldn't stop pestering her, she showed patience, but eventually she could get a little snippy.

Then she discovered her love for balls. Now, as long as balls are around, other dogs just do not exist.
She likes to play fetch with humans and play on her own with balls - even right in the middle of a wrestling crowd of dogs. Just like the others are not there. But as soon as another dog starts pestering her too much while she is chasing a ball or even tries to get it from her, chances are high she'll snap.

She has never seriously hurt any other dog so far and to me it seems more like a lot ado, such as growling and air biting. But I don't want to take the chance. So we just try our best to avoid that situation - even if that means that we have to leave the dog park for that day, because there are potential "chasers" around (We can't just skip the balls, because they are part of this park and always there).

Long story short: You're lucky that you are such a great observer. Sadly you can't rely on "he's never done that before". After all, they're animals. So, it's good that you question the trust in your dog at this point. If you ask me, with this matter, you can't trust him and you will always have to watch closely - even with the females. He seems to have a general and strong tendency to make his personal likes and dislikes clear towards other dogs - he's not the only Bull Terriers behaving that way. And I'm afraid, if the "right" one comes along he can't stand, it doesn't matter, if its a male or female.