Examples...... I was walking with my girlfriend and dog through the hills near our house, three ladies were walking their three dogs without leashes. The dog´s, reverting to instinkt - the bond between a "pack" and the protection of territory - run directly for my dog. "Don´t worry, they wont do anything" is what they yelled. Naturally the three dogs started attacking mine, as he retaliated and I pulled him away the women started abusing me and my dog.
This is a case of irrisponsibility from the owners and a clearly false understanding of dog behavior. Cleary it annoyed me.
We were walking through Lindau a city in the south of Germany, a beautiful day, people everywhere enjoying sunny day at the start of spring. A Scottish terrior, which was sitting in the lap of a lady, sharing its masters ice cream came running towards my dog Lino. It stood directly before him and looked directly in his eyes. Lino jumped straight on top of the small dog and pinned him to the ground. I dragged him away, the lady checked out her dog saying "Oh you poor thing" of course saying if there is anything wrong with him when she takes him to the vet we are paying. It´s pride was the only thing wounded and it is hard to recieve abuse for such things.
This is a case of treating a dog like a human, the dog forgeting the rules of communication between others of its speicies. Looking directly into the eyes of another dog is a direct sign of aggression.It was quite funny when my girlfriend began to qoute from the German law about fault in such a circumstance, the other dog not being on a leash. I was annoyed.
I have no problem with having to walk my dog on a leash,although it would be great to let him run in freedom, there are just to many people and dogs around I wont risk it. It´s not like he bites everyone he see´s but if they try to pat him he will.
He was 4 years old when I got him, lived most of those years on the streets of Marroco and the rest in the pound. Obviously he has had bad experiences with humans, he needs quite a lot of time before he trusts them to pat him. I see his aggression towards other animals as repect for me and my girlfriend, he believes we are his "pack", we have gained his trust and he try´s to protect us.
Unfortunatly he was not a puppy when I got him, otherwise his behavior would be different, but thats the challange of saving the life of a pound dog.