Maxine met Molly, attempt at social. Thoughts?

[zaeva06]

So after a few weather delays, hurray for midwest winters, Maxine finally got to meet up with Molly, my friend's red and white Irish Setter.

Good news: She was able to calm down after about five mintues of appoarch/turn-rounds and actually walk up to Molly's area. She was also able to sit calmy and be petted by myself and friends with Molly only about 4ft away.

Bad news: When they met nose to nose and were doing the whole sniffing introduction, Maxine took a couple of snaps in the air towards Molly. She didn't bite her, but it was enough to send Molly hiding behind my friend's legs.

Conclusion so far: Maxine is ok with slow introductions and being in the general area of other dogs, but still has space issues. A definite DINOS.

Should I keep trying to introduce her to other dogs? Maybe look into a class for socialization?

I don't want to try and make Maxine into somthing she isn't, and if she just dosen't like being close to other dogs that's fine.

Just trying to find the line of 'Helping vs. Hurting' when it comes to putting her in new situations like this.

[drewsthepits]

I think your approach was solid and well-handled. I don't see much harm in meeting other dogs(or trying) if it is done that way since you control the space and the interaction. In the pup classes I have seen, it was a bunch of dogs in a room so I would figure it to be more stressful.
What I personally would do, is seek out a dog that I know is very good with other dogs and start there. Or even a smaller and somewhat calmer dog might make it easier. But again, this is what I would do.

You found some success in this interaction even if it wasn't a home run you still hit a double.

The dogs are resilient things. If she is destined to be without other dogs anyway, then I wouldn't think trying some more would hurt.

[zaeva06]

Yeah, we did the meeting at neutral ground, and I made sure that Molly was the dog used. As I mentioned in an eariler post, she's an older dog that lives with an already hyper active carine and jack-rusell terrier.

Her temperment is extremely docile. In fact her only reponse to Maxine's snaps was to duck behind my friend's legs, her tail still wagging like crazy but giving Maxine her space.

[drewsthepits]

Sorry I misunderstood some of what I read just enough to twist it up. My girl turned about 1 and 1/2 and just went DA out of nowhere...Not completely, she is okay sometimes and never had a problem or anything close to it when she is in my control...It was when the GF had her that things went wrong. I wasn't able to do much about the behavior even with a ton of socializing. I refused to accept it though I should, I don't 'own' the dog anymore so I am out of the picture now.

I wouldn't want to give up on my pup although I have been told I should accept the DA in her. If you think progress is made or can be made then go for it. You are smart enough to control the environment without things going wrong so your risk is 0.
Like I said, if she is going to be DA anyway then giving some interactions a shot can't hurt, only help.

[RealPitBull]

I'd forego nose to nose greetings for the time being.

I think you handled the situation well, but the close interaction was just too much. Do you have a book called Calming Signals by Turid Rugaas? It is GREAT to have for reference so you can look for signals that mean Maxine is getting stressed. When you see these signals, it is imperative that you remove her from the situation she is uneasy about.

So often we misread or just don't see the subtle things dogs are doing to let us know they are not comfortable. When we miss that body language, that's when our dogs can get in trouble because we haven't removed them from the situation.

Some things to look for:

Lip licking
Head turns
Yawning
Sniffing the ground
Flattened ears (pinned close to the head, or pushed back)
Whale eye (whites showing more than normal)
Puckered whisker bed

Let Maxine do the talking. If she wants to interact with other dogs, ok. If she's letting you know she's had enough or is just not interested, then oblige her. A class that is for shy/fearful/aggressive dogs may be helpful. But she should not be placed into any situation where there is forced interaction. Right now I think the best thing for her would be a situation where she is around other dogs, learning coping skills, being desensitized and counter-conditioned, but not necessarily physically interacting with other dogs. A good class will move the dogs along slowly and allow interaction only when the dogs are "ok" with it. There should be little to no outbursts passed the first week or so of class, and even the first week of class will have minimal outbursts because the trainer will know how to keep dogs under threshold which is VERY VERY important.