Puppy was attacked

I would keep socializing him.  Just be absolutely sure he doesn't meet another aggressive dog for awhile.  My non-aggressive one is rather fearful of dogs now because she got beat up on a bunch of times.  But that took awhile.  One incident won't ruin the dog.

Start slow...with people...and small (nice) dogs.  Pup will come around.

the trainer I am currently working with recommends NOT letting dogs get really close to sniff each other.  They can technically sniff each other from pretty far away.  

This is good to know. The pup was kind of under the big dog just because he was so much smaller but trying to sniff his rear. The big dog obviously did not like it. Maybe it just taught pup a little lesson on manners for doggie greetings.

We just had this discussion yesterday (my dog went off on a dog that was sniffing her*) and this is what she said:

"There is never any reason that another dog should be allowed to touch your dog.  It's a strange dog and it's dangerous.  I don't let people's dogs sniff my dogs.  They can smell each other from miles away.  There is no need for it.  In fact, when the dogs in class get to play together afterward and they start sniffing each other, we even correct them for that then.  I don't want to watch a dog stick it's nose up another dog's butt. "

Her website is www.k9mastery.com.

Some of the videos are AMAZING.  Whenever I'm feeling sad or discouraged at my dog's training progress I go watch Sammi's story...I cry a bit and then I smile and hope....

*edit: I was ready for it and had my dog strung up before she could get to the other dog.  I have lightning fast reflexes. :D  The dogs were literally inches apart and my dog didn't even get her mouth on the other dog.

I think she means strange dogs.  They let the dogs in the training class play together after class but these dogs have been allowed to smell each other (from a distance) and get to know each other (from a distance).  They stop them from doing "bad behavior" like deliberately smelling each other.  That's all dog training really comes down to...encourage the behavior you want, discourage (aka correct) the behaviors you don't...

Ok so if we're walking or in one of the stores and meet other dogs we should just keep on going and not let them stop and check each other out?

Then my other question is how do you keep your dogs from pulling all over the place when you are approaching a new person or animal? That is so annoying. I've been teaching pup to heel when we are on our morning walks and he is getting pretty good but this is routine and we never see any other people or animals except maybe a bird. His attention span is still pretty short and I'm sure he couldn't do it out in public yet.

Find a good trainer.  For now I'd say you shouldn't try to force him to meet other pups.  Perhaps wait for a more supervised situation like a group training class.

As for the heeling, every trainer is going to have a different method.  Rather than try to piece together the training just start with a trainer and follow their whole method...it all builds....

You're doing good.....dogs are dogs.  The bottom line is that your pup wasn't hurt....which I'm willing to bet wasn't an accident on the other 'part.  It's usually just a dominance thing, with no injury.  Yeah, every now and then you can find a really crazy dog who will truly attack, but that's actually pretty rare. (it's REALLY rare)

I've always let my dogs just be dogs around other dogs.....they figure it out.

I was actually thinking this on the way home. I mean the other dog had mine by the neck and was NOT letting go but later when I got a chance to look him over there were not even bite marks. Crazy.

Probably sounds strange but I feel really bad for the owner of the other dog. He was really shaken up, his dog was on leash, he said he had never done anything like that before. We walked away but then I remembered to go back and ask about rabies shots - when we turned around the man was still sitting on the ground sort of stunned and exhausted.

In general, I try to avoid having my dogs meet strange dogs on-leash.  I feel like then they are tied to you/their pack/their territory, and they tend to react differently than they would on their own. Plus, it hinders their normal range of movement and body language. They are already sort of on the defensive, as it were. Does not help with your situation, though... but puppies are resilient. I'd say continue his positive interactions, go to the dog park ,etc, and he should be fine. If he struggles with heel or with listening to you in the face of distractions (esp. while on lead), head back to obedience school. If he hasn't been to at least PuppyK and Level 1, I'd definitely go. 

And as a side note, not that it is necessarily relevant here, but I think it's a good idea for every dog owner to know how to safely break up a dog fight. Esp. if they own multiple dogs or frequent dog parks. (being able to identify what is ACTUAL fighting and aggression is also important)

What that guy did to his dog--falling on him and punching him...that's a great way to get bitten or worse.

My take is it was a dominance thing.  Still unnerving though. 

On a side note, my dogs breeder recommended Preparation H for the flesh wounds.  Blue had two nicks on him when I got him and a week of 2-3 times a day there wasn't any sign of the injury.

I'm going to disagree with letter a.  That really depends on the injury.  Just like with kids over time you develop a sense for what does and does not need to be seen.  Some cuts need mom to blow on them and give the kid a cool bandaid.  Other ones are going to require a trip to the ER for stitches.  Dogs are no different.  Yes, if a wound is deep enough or big enough they will likely need antibiotics.  But 90% of the scrapes my dogs have inflicted on each other in fights either just need time, watching, or a little baccitracin.  I think they've only gotten antibiotics twice.  They can only stitch in the first 24 hours or so, definitely keep that in mind.

Definitely WATCH the dog for any signs of cuts you can't see.  For example, in their mouth.  Probably not likely in this scenario because it doesn't sound like your puppy fought back.  But mine got an abcess in her mouth once from a puncture wound that was not visible to anyone.  You could only see it once it developed into a raised abcess. 

We're getting a new puppy in a couple of weeks. It's been a dozen years since I've trained a young dog, and I'm no expert.  So my offering here is more from getting back up to speed in understanding dog behavior, and less from actual experience.

Dogs want to know where they rank in the pack.  They don't care if they're alpha or lower, as long as they know. They establish ranking and dominance through aggression.  So what happened to your puppy is just normal in the dog world.

My guess is that the other dog is dominant over its owner.  An owner/handler should always be alpha for the dog.  So the guy wanted his dog to stop a behavior, but the dog ignored him.  The dog thinks its alpha.  The owner being shaken at the end of it all probably only added the the problem.  The dog probably read that as weakness in the owner.

You can establish dominance a number of ways. With food, the alpha dog eats first. Feed dogs after you eat.  Have the dog sit before letting it start to eat. With the den, the alpha dog sleeps higher. Don't let a dog on furniture or in beds.  If the dog asks for something like a pet, don't respond.  If you want to pet a dog, make it do something first like sit for you.  And on and on.  Sounds like a life that is no fun for a dog, but the dog will actually be quite happy because it will know where it ranks in your pack.

Don't give a command to a dog unless you can correct it if the dog ignores the command. That includes heel.  Give the command only once.  Giving a command more than once is a sign of weakness to the dog.  If the dog doesn't comply with the command, you need to correct the behavior immediately. Dogs live in the present.  

Alphas walk in front. So your dog should be at your side or behind you. If the dog starts pulling on the lead, you could correct it with negative reinforcement. That doesn't mean hurting the dog. Just let it know that you are the alpha and won't tolerate disobedience.  If the dog pulls, you can stop it with the leash, then take it, gently, by the sides of the neck and give it a , gentle, shake while saying "no" in a low commanding voice. Establish eye contact.  

With our old vizsla who died in June I used the clicker training method and mostly positive reinforcement, mostly with food. The only negative reinforcement I used was to turn my back on the dog to keep her from jumping up. Dogs don't like it when you turn your back.

I'm not going to use the clicker method with this dog, although it's a workable method if you work it and are consistent with it and want to achieve basic obedience training.

Breaking up a dog "fight" stinks.  It's exceptionally emotionally and physically draining, especially if it's your own dog.  I think the draining nature stems from the adrenaline rush required to dive into an active dog fight and pull snarling animals apart.  It's definitely an acquired skill...not something you want to be doing for the first time with no experience.  Trust me, I learned that one the hard way.  The first time I tried to break up a dog fight I reached for a collar and missed and my hand ended up between two fighting dogs.  NOT COOL.

Now I use whatever I have on hand (mop handle, stuff around the house, etc.) to chuck it at the dogs, hit the dogs...anything I can do to distract them long enough to allow me a safer entry.  I'll even use my legs and kick them.  Eventually I have to get one of them by the collar at least and pull them off the other.  But you have to time it right.  You really have to wait for the right opportunity.  Hardest fight I ever broke up was 3 days after I had surgery on my foot...I just didn't have any leverage because I only had one foot.  Thankfully the dogs eventually sort of "stopped" with one of them holding the other down by the neck (i.e. one had submitted to the other).  They held still long enough for me to reach in and pull them apart.  I had a trainer once tell me to try to grab them by the back legs (i.e. the end far from the teeth).  It sort of works but the problem is that if BOTH dogs are actively aggressive in the fight (i.e. one isn't just in defense mode) you essentially need two people (one pulling the back legs of each dog).  If you just pull the back legs of one dog you allow the other dog to renew attack.  But it IS rather effective at destablilzing the dog to grab their back legs.  It takes away their leverage.

Your experience may vary.  But I break up (on average) at least one fight per year.  Granted, both dogs are mine so that helps ME out.  I know both of them and I know they are not human aggressive.  If you were breaking up a fight between you and a strange dog you would have no way to know if the other dog has attacked humans before.

Dogs are pack animals.  We like to project our human thought on them but we just really cannot.  They don't think like people. They think like dogs.  They correct each other like dogs.  To effectively correct your dog you need to correct like a dog.  The only sure-fire way to avoid fights is to avoid other dogs.

When I was a kid my pup about a year old was attacked by a huge coon dog and almost died and it didn't really phase her.  All dogs are different but hopefully yours is okay.  Sounds like the other guy did his best to pull his dog off at least.  Hopefully your pup is okay.

Now you've made me nervous since I have a new puppy, 8 weeks old, and we are trying to socialize him as well.  You never know about other dogs.  Some just snap and freak out. 

I'll never train another dog any way but the way I've been taught by this trainer I've been working with in Austin.  No clickers or treats required.  Positive reinforcement and praise are the only things the dog gets for doing it right.  You absolutely DO NOT need food to train a dog.  I only wish I'd brought her my aggressive dog years earlier.  You can help a dog, but undoing 8+ years of "learned behavior" is tough.  And even if you THINK you are correcting the dog for aggressive behavior you probably are not.  In fact, most people are unintentionally reinforcing the behavior because they don't 'speak dog'.  I'm not saying I'd ever want another dog aggressive dog, but at least now I would know what to do to nip it in the bud early on.  People said I was crazy for starting over with training my 10 year old and 11 year old dogs...I figured it was an investment in my future.  These won't be the last dogs I own and now I will know how to train future ones.

Keys are not pushing the dog faster than the dog can learn (i.e. just because you've done sit on the leash doesn't mean you can start using it around the house...as dontracy said, if you can't correct the dog for not obeying then you are not being consistent and the dog will just get confused/annoyed and it will be more difficult to train).  I second only using the command once.  Using it more than once teaches the dog they can ignore you the first time.  If you have to correct more than once you need to escalate your correction.  If you correct strongly enough the first time you won't need to correct again.  Remember that dogs disproportionately correct each other.  The dog doesn't see the correction as a bad thing and undercorrecting is the WORST thing you can do.

Left Brain already trained me on that one as I get ready for our new Springer Spaniel.

Now, you've trained me on not using food!

I'm an old dog learning new tricks.

Both of those points are valid.

When I trained gun dogs we used shock collars.  It's sounds horrible but it's actually very effective IN TRAINED AND EXPERIENCED HANDS.  If done correctly, the dog never associates the correction with the trainer, only with the bad behavior.  The only thing the dog gets from the trainer, as far as it knows, is praise.  This makes for a very loyal and steady dog.

Before anyone starts in on how inhumane the collar is........I've been there when dogs have been shot and killed while hunting because they were not steady to the shot, or broke when ducks came in and jumped in front of a gun......I'll trade the rock-steady training of a collar conditioned dog over that any day.

Don pretty well hit it on the head. Dogs are pack animals and need to know where they stand. Sounds to me like the other dog was above his owner in the pecking order and decided to tell your dog where he was in line as well.

From day one with my dog I let her know that I am in charge and there will be no challenge, I can only think of once or twice where she has stepped out of line enough to warrant an alpha smack down. Now my wife does have a bit more trouble getting her to do what she wants but that is because she is not consistent in her commands or expectations. I have had to show Ali (the dog) that I am in charge, my wife is second and she is last, Ali will still make an attempt to ignore my wife every now and then but never when I am there because she knows I will back my wife up.

I am not an expert but the whole not letting dogs sniff sounds dumb to me. Obviously all dogs do it and it is natural I don't think it needs to be prohibited, just monitored. I always check the other dog out first, is his hair up? Is he wagging tail submissively? Is he hunkering down to show submission while approaching my dog? I will admit my dog tends to try to take the higher ground when meeting other dogs, she wants to lead the sniffing. But she also understands that I am still the leader so she doesn't step out of line. The other day we were rock climbing and we met another dog, the other dog was a herder, the original sniff meeting went fine the other dog was very nice. Ali will put up with being herded for a while but she eventually gets tired of it, so she did and she snarled at the other dog, all it took was one NO from me and she ran back to me and cowered at my feet. 

Anyway, I guess my point is, make sure your dog knows you are boss and you won't have to worry about him picking a fight. When he meets other dogs check the dog out yourself first and don't trust the owner's word. Read the dog's body language and make your determination if close sniffing is appropriate.

And if you get in another situation like you had I have found that other dogs will respond to my mean voice the same as Ali does. Make yourself the alpha with your voice if you can. Bark NO as loud and aggressive without sounding panicky as you can and a lot of dogs will respond to that. Start screaming in hysterics and they will ignore you. I hit Ali once and she looked at me like I was stupid, but bust out the alpha voice on her and it is game over.

Just some thoughts. 

Not to turn this into a training thread, but

Daisy is a rockstar.

Awesome video of what kind of results you can get through training...even without treats.

Wow! That's amazing.

Like I said, Daisy is a rockstar. :D  They don't usually have THAT many distractions going on during an advanced test.  They do the training and tests at a park and there are always people and other dogs around (deliberately for distractions)...but that day there happened to be some kind of soccer tournament party or something...luck of the draw!

That's good stuff.  I can put my dog down and she will do exactly as that dog does with any distraction.....as long as I'm there.  If I drove off or got out of her sight......she'd run wild.