jeffk

Thank you for your feedback. Good Luck.

Hello, my 2 year old Bullmastif, Max, is a sweetheart with my wife, 2 daughters (12 & 10), and all the assorted nieces & nephews (toddlers) that are at our house weekly. He was raised with our 15 year old Cocker Spaniel (who we recently had to put down), and was very gentle with her. He is also best "buds" with our neighbors female Shepard/ Rott mix. From the time he was a pup we brought him to the local dog park almost weekly, and he played nicely with the other dogs. As he grew, it seemed every time we went to the park the smallest of dogs would go after him, and bite his face. The first few times this happened he would run away, or not react. As he grew, I noticed that if other dogs were play "fighting", or starting to growl, Max would run into the mix, and start being a little bit aggressive with one of the dogs. He'd respond to a yell from me, and stop. We finally had to stop our visits to the park after once again, a small dog bit his face. This time he grabbed the dog around the neck and pinned it to the ground. He didn't hurt the dog, but all the screaming (from the dog & it's owners), helped us to decide that maybe the park wasn't the best place for Max. Also, Max & his best buddy have escaped from their yards together a few times, and brought back their "trophies"- geese from the pond behing our house. Over the weekend I thought we'd give the dog park another try (against my 10 year old advise-out of the mouths of babes). He loves to fetch, and I figured we would tire him out, so he wouldn't be as excitable. Anyway, 3 minutes in, he saw 2 dogs play "fighting", ran at one of them, mowed it down, grabbed it by the neck, and began shaking it around like a rag doll. Thank God he only scared the dog (no cuts or blood), and the owners didn't kill me. We will never again take Max to the park (I will listen to my children). Has anyone ever experienced this with Bullmastifs? Can this type of "dog on dog" aggression ever translate to children? A friend of ours who was raised on a farm told us once a dog tastes blood, they will crave it, and the only solution is to put him down. We Love Max, but do not want to put anyone in danger. Please help!