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We learned it was us she was protective around when at the trainer's request we had our dominant female evaluated for Camp Bow Wow (doggie daycare). She passed and gets along with ALL the dogs. We take her 1-3x's a month for dog socialization time. The good thing about Camp Bow Wow, is that they do not allow owners in back with the dogs b/c of the whole protection of my owner thing. They also intervene with all dominant style play. We also like that they have doggie cams and can watch our dogs while they are in daycare from our laptop...which makes getting work done tough (lol).
I don't know how old your dog is...but we had the worst bx's with our female from age 18 months until she was a little over 3 y/o. She was adopted at 4 months old. She is now 4 y/o and will be 5 y/o in March.
YES, there is hope! In the beginning a trainer (whom we did not use) told us on a phone consult that there were too many good dogs to work with and she didn't have the time to work with one with dominant issues. I was so angry at that woman for such a sorry comment! IMO she wasn't a real trainer then!
As for the treat motivation issue, we faced that with our female too. As hard as it is to hear this, do not feed your dog 12 hours before training her. She will be receptive to treats when you train her and she is hungry. That was a suggestion from our trainer b/c of female would spit treats out or not take them. We finally broke down and didn't feed her 12 hours prior to training and she was MUCH more attentive and enjoyed her treats! She was hungry which motivated her to pay much more attention to earn those food rewards.
I was on the Petfinder site and they have a link about the dangers of doggy parks, by the way. (And spotting when "Champ" is not very happy with his doggy pals).
My dog loves other creatures from afar...she whines and cries at my neighbor's cats, will whimper when other dogs go by..but up close she gets nutty and gives off the wrong signals, and most of them wind up snapping or growling at her.
So, for us, the dog park with other dogs, is a no go. My husband refuses to take her there because of her actions and other dogs reactions.
She's been to obedience training and is a lovely dog. She's seen other dogs at parks since she was a puppy.
However, she was a rescue dog and I do not know if she received much conditioning as a little puppy about proper dog behavior. In addition, at about 4 or 5 months, we were nearly attacked by a big dog while walking with my son on the street. (it was scary).
So who knows why dogs act the way they do?
We'd eventually like to get another dog for her friend once we can get our own home.
Actually no, I really overstated the problem to be honest with you. Well, I shouldn't say that. I just don't know. Whenever she sees another dog she wants to play with them - which is part of the problem, as the other owners think she will be fine. But then she does all of these dominance displays, and I know that can turn into aggression quickly.
However I don't like that she's doing these dominance displays. She's a mix from the shelter, they said hound mix but I am not sure of the mix. Honestly I think she is part basenji which is a whole other set of issues...
I need her to be socialized around them to help her get over this but it's a fine line.
I know nothing bad has happened yet. You are just trying to be responsible and only anticipating any bad situations.
However, a muzzle is not uncomfortable on a dog. Having her wear one will send a clear message for the other dog owners to keep their dogs from your dog (good). Another perk is that on a walk, she won't be able to pick up things in her mouth that you don't want her to, like food wrappers (good).
And again, try to find a friend to walk with you on occasion. It will make the walk more pleasant and less worrisome for you in these early stages of walking her.
I don't know if anyone has addressed this yet, but your dog will also pick up on your anxiety and fearfullness around other dogs. My neighbor has a little pom who is very aggressive toward other people and dogs when she is walking it. My neighbor is not very social toward new people/animals. I've known the dog since it was a pup and my dog is king of "laid back", so the pom is fine around us. When I babysit my neighbor's dog, it is much calmer when being walked by me and more curious than anti-social. The dog will take its cues from you. Also I'm a lot stricter, so when she starts to "act up" she is curbed very quickly. My dog is extremely friendly, but he is trained to sit when new people or dogs approach on our walks. Maybe you could train your dog to do that? My dog was a shelter pup too, and this was one of the first things I trained, because at that time I didn't know how he would react around other animals, kids, loud noises, etc. It came in handy particularly with other dogs and their owners. Most people think that other peoples dogs are as "friendly" as theirs, so you gotta take that in stride. We have a couple of unfriendly dogs in my neighborhood that seem to always "get away" from their owners. If I can get Sammy to sit quickly, then I can either get in front of him or pick him up (shih tzu so not too big a dog) and diffuse the situation. It didn't take him long to learn, I bet it wouldn't take your dog long either.
Make sure that your dog is not reacting to you. Tension travels down the leash, so if you are tense, your pup will feel tense too.
i would speak to a behaviorist/trainer to see if there is a time when the playgroup or dog park is not so crowded. My GSD/Lab gets like that when there are too many dogs.
I know nothing bad has happened yet. You are just trying to be responsible and only anticipating any bad situations.
However, a muzzle is not uncomfortable on a dog. Having her wear one will send a clear message for the other dog owners to keep their dogs from your dog (good). Another perk is that on a walk, she won't be able to pick up things in her mouth that you don't want her to, like food wrappers (good).
And again, try to find a friend to walk with you on occasion. It will make the walk more pleasant and less worrisome for you in these early stages of walking her.
I agree with the muzzle. It protects you and your dog from the worst possible thing.
Just be sure that you buy the right kind of muzzle that is meant for dogs to wear while working out. They can't breath and cool off with those nylon things or any of the ones that keep their mouths closed.
There are muzzles made for working dogs that are made so that dogs can even drink water through -- made for them to "work" in -- that protect the dog and are safe for walks.
And, I wouldn't care what other people's reaction is to the muzzle if it accomplishes your purpose. A muzzle will protect your dog while you train and socialize him.
Some dogs just do not like other dogs. This is usually the case of an older dog who was never socialized. I went to obedience class with my Mom and her Beagle years ago. There was a little boy with his Mom there too. They had a mixed cute mutt, but aggressive at 5 months old. He wanted to attack and bite every dog in the class. To make a long story short, my Moms beagle failed the class of course (beagles are very stubborn), but the little boys dog ended up playing nice with every other dog in the class!
I agree with this. Some dogs just do not like other dogs. Our corgi despises most other dogs and he has been through extensive training. Fortunately, he is a gem with children and adults and that's our main concern.
I took my dog to day care today (upon recommendation of the trainer and day care staff) and was told she is not aggressive and I was way off about that. However, she inappropriately plays. It's play and not aggression. Which is what I saw last weekend with the retriever...
Anyway they put her in a group with some older dogs who did not take her crap when she kept jumping all over them (she is a hyper player, they said). One gave her the smackdown a bit but didn't attack her or anything, and then after that she was good. Then in the afternoon she did it again and she got a time out alone.
I think day care is good for her because she needs socialization and is supervised, but a full day is too much for her.
I took my dog to day care today (upon recommendation of the trainer and day care staff) and was told she is not aggressive and I was way off about that. However, she inappropriately plays. It's play and not aggression. Which is what I saw last weekend with the retriever...
Anyway they put her in a group with some older dogs who did not take her crap when she kept jumping all over them (she is a hyper player, they said). One gave her the smackdown a bit but didn't attack her or anything, and then after that she was good. Then in the afternoon she did it again and she got a time out alone.
I think day care is good for her because she needs socialization and is supervised, but a full day is too much for her.
That's good news!
My last dog was a large German Shepherd. He got excited when he saw other dogs. It was not aggression but it had to be controlled. When he got excited like that he was hard to handle.
My dog was socialized and loved to play with other dogs. I had to train him to walk on a leash in public without pulling on the leash to get close to and stop him from barking at other dogs when we saw them. His barking was excitement -- not aggression.
Where I was living was not dog friendly. If a dog was doing anything that someone could be considered "lunging" or interpreted by someone else as aggression -- your dog could be considered dangerous according to their laws.
IMO that's a big problem in today's world. You just don't know who the other people are and how they may respond should there be a problem -- even if their dogs are the one's at fault.
You have to protect yourself and your dog from the actions of others.
Thanks! We are going to continue with training and behavior problem-solving. See I took it as aggression and I'm her owner so you're right, of course a stranger would...meanwhile my dog was so poorly socialized/controlled by her former owners that in her mind she's just playing. This will be a lot of correction and as they said at the day care, sometimes the correction makes them worse, but so far she did ok with the older dogs. The ones her age did not deter her.
Well...at least this explains why she seemed to want to play with them...it wasn't dominance, it was "inappropriate play".
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She was hungry which motivated her to pay much more attention to earn those food rewards.
(beagles are very stubborn), but the little boys dog ended up playing nice with every other dog in the class! 
Not aggressive, just inappropriate! Yay!
