My friend has a new rescue dog(W), estimated at just over a year old. She's very timid and submissive. My dog(S), about 3 years, is not a reactive dog and matches the energy of dogs around her or just ignores them. She also very much loves/is connected with my friend and gets excited to see him. She and his dog get along really well. My dog doesn't push W, respecting her space, etc. Basically close to ideal interactions.
At the dog park, we were the only ones. Then another person comes with their two dogs, both a bit taller than S & W but not by much. One of them rushes up to W, not in any aggressive way to be clear. Very much Hey! Friend?? but with W being so timid, she shyed away. The dog followed, and S (who was about 10 feet away) booked it over and growled, nipping at the new dog's shoulders/back of neck. I recalled her, had to twice with a more stern voice before she came back. But when the new dog looked like they'd come close to W, she ran to do the same thing but stopped when I recalled her. This all happened in a span of 5 minutes, maybe. Since we'd already been there for quite a while and wedidn't want to put any of the dogs in stressful situations, we left.
While it's "cute" that my dog is protective of W and seems to consider her a pack member or whatever, I obviously don't want her being so protective of W that other dogs can't play with W.
To be clear, she was only like this with the one dog who approached W and didn't respect W's clear rejection of interest. S didn't care at all about the other dog.
What is the best way to help S be less protective/dog police of W? The only thing I can think of is high value treats and recalling her to me the moment I see any sign she's going into bodyguard mode. Since she's so food motivated, my hope would be to distract her and hopefully get her focused on something else.
submitted by /u/SeaPomegranateBliss
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