Our newly adopted dog, a 4 and 1/2 year old mutt named "Tiny", has adjusted very well to her new home and has quickly become a great part of the family. All has gone much better than we ever could have hoped for and expected. (There's something very nice about adopting an older dog -- they come most pre-programmed! No messes in the house, etc.) Her behavior has stabilized over the past three weeks after her coming home from the shelter -- she's no longer as shy and has become more assertive. We're finally coming to know what she is really like. The dog absolutely loves people!

We cannot, though, figure out exactly what she is thinking when we visit the local dog park and she interacts with other dogs. We immediately started taking her there on weekends after adopting her to ensure she felt comfortable being social. Her first visit she stayed close to us and showed interest only in people while there. The second visit went much better and she began to mingle and run with the other dogs. Today, though, didn't go quite so well...

Every time we take her to a dog park, she erupts into whimpering. We're assuming this means that she really, really wants to go play! Nearly all encounters with other dogs elicit the same response, including that high pitched "let's go play!" bark and a dash around. I rarely see other dogs do this, especially the whimpering on every greeting. After the whimpering fades, during canine greeting her head and tail remain high, which I assume is a sign of confidence. This, in past weeks, resulted in no issues but today she encountered another dog that felt he was above Tiny (on greeting, he put his head over her neck), which caused her to begin growling. She backed away, play bowed, and did the high pitche barking. The other dog continued to be assertive towards her rather than wanting to play and in the blink of an eye I found my dog snarling, barking, and going after the other dog with seemingly violent intentions.

Thankfully, the fight was entirely verbal, but I had to remove Tiny from the park immediately. We went on a leashed walk around the perimeter and I kept an eye on the assertive dog and noticed he had no issues playing with the dozens of other dogs in the park. I will probably never know exactly what transpired or what instantaneous flash of canine communication caused the explosive outburst.

So, I'm wondering what to do in these situations. I can't let the dogs fight it out and sort out the social order on their own. A quick clamp down over Tiny's muzzle might have helped or I could have pushed her to the ground and forced her onto her back to make her calm down but this seems like a potentially dangerous move, though, given that the assertive dog might try to take advantage of it.

We've witnessed other dogs in the park acting aggressively with no response from their owners, which I assume isn't good. This is our first dog, so we're fairly new to all of this and not entirely familiar with dog park protocol, so any suggestions are welcome.

...and what's up with Tiny whimpering longingly at every dog she sees?

I'll go ahead and answer my own question with this. An interesting read!

[german sheep]

hello zerobeat,

you have given the answer to your question yourself.

We immediately started taking her there on weekends after adopting her to ensure she felt comfortable being social.

Socialisation occures only with the humans. All the dog needs between itself and other dogs it knows from its mother and sisters an brothers.
Your dog needs just you and the family.

What do you think would happen if an adult wolf from a pack A goes "to play" with another wolf from pack B? They would try to kill each other, because they are rivals and predators and see each other like this.

So your doggy showed clearly, that she did not wish the forced contact:

Her first visit she stayed close to us and showed interest only in people while there.

Then you did not help her during your last visit, you did not show her that you had control of the situation therefore she took control herself to protect her physical integrity.

Thats the reason for her behaviour.

LG
gs