Puppy reactive to dogs bigger than his size?
Hello, I have a maltipoo, 1 year and a month old. Ive had him ever since he was a little baby and have loved him so much ever since. When he was fresh into going on walks, He would want to meet every single dog in the world, big or small didnt matter, always wanted to just play with other dogs on our walk. When he was around 5-6 months old he had a bad encounter with a dog bigger than his size (the dog reacted to my pup) and my dog, being smaller than the other dog got really intimidated and walked with his tail down the whole time after that on our walk. Now whenever we do go on our walks, it’s usually always smaller dogs that walk the same path as we walk on. He is always good, walks by my side at times, and others just wants to meet the other friendly pup his size, however whenever he sees a bigger dog, he will immediately get tense, start pulling, bark, try to sprint over to the dog, and if i can’t get to the other side of the road he will try attacking the dog and even bite at times. This has made the owners look at me and my pup weird one too many times (rather than this one time this lady understood and stayed with us until my pup could calm down and my pup and the other pup are now good friends! Even though the other pup is significantly bigger then mines. Bless that woman’s heart.) I came here to ask on how the heck I can let my dog know it’s okay when he sees bigger dogs while on walks. We take him to dog parks at least twice a week, and off leash he does really well with dogs that are bigger than him. It’s always on our walk that it triggers a reaction out of him. I do think the root of the problem is that one encounter he had when he was little. I do try crossing the road whenever its safe to do so, and give him treats for being calm, but that has led to nowhere. Could it be leash aggression? Any tips? Thank you!