[Amous Spartacus]

I’m training myself my dog to be a service dog. One thing I was told is not let my dog to play or interact for too long with another dogs. I don’t think my dog acts properly with another dogs when he around them. And he either is to playful, leaks them too much or he does not defend himself. One time he got attacked by a bad Pitbull. My dog is a tall Doberman and he only moved quickly and made the other pitbull missed. I ended up on the floor and when the attack was finally stopped. My Doby ended up only with few scratches. Scratches that in few hours turned into a bad infection. I had to rush my dog to the Vet cause he was dying. Somehow I’m glad he didn’t bite an cause me an extra bill. I was at a dog park and I didn’t get no info on the other dog’s owner and my bill was alone over $1.400. 00.
I have trained my doby not to bite and not to attack. He is a very friendly dog when he is around my friends. But I’m so worry about taking him to a dog park. Or specifically small dogs who attack him and my Doby takes it a friendly gesture and he acts takes it as if the door dog is inviting him to play. I’m proud of my Doby but I have my doubts he will even defend me if I ever need him to defend himself and me. thanks

 

[LeoRose]

Dobermans, especially adult males, are NOT dog park dogs. They are at best dog selective, and at worst dog aggressive, especially with other males (neutering makes no difference). Even if they were extensively socialized a dog friendly as a puppy, adult temperament can be vastly different. If he decides to mangle or kill another dog one day, you will be in a lot of legal and financial hot water, including the possibility of him being euthanized for it.

Dobermans also don't always make good service dogs, due to their nature to be suspicious of strange people. While you can do things like an ATTS test or a WAC test to see if it's in his nature to react appropriately to a threat, unless he's a trained protection dog it's not a given that he will. Protection training and/or bite sport training is frequently in direct conflict with their service dog training.

 

[storyist]

Your dog park problems are easy to solve - don't take him to a dog park.

As to the defense thing, I have Rottweilers and I doubt they'd defend me from a human. They regard all humans as friends or potential friends, which is fine with me. Their very presence is a strong deterrent, and I don't want suspicious, potentially dangerous dogs. Both of my current dogs and my previous girl reacted appropriately to the unfriendly stranger in the ATTS temperament test, but in that test, the stranger acts very obviously threatening, kind of like a belligerent drunk. I don't think a real life attacker would usually be that obvious.