How to deal with dog fights and aggression?
I had my first bad experience with a MnG today, and thought I would ask for advice. I normally MnG clients come to my house, so they can see where their dog would be staying and can interact with us and our 1.5 year old male Lab/Pit mix. Our dog is friendly, very middle-of-the-pack, we have had him since he was a puppy, and I have never had any aggression issues. Part of the reason we Rover is because he enjoys canine companionship and we can't afford another dog.
Today we had a request for boarding, and were able to do the Meet and Greet today. The owner said the dogs were "active" (a 3 year old male and a 1.5 year old male), and maybe a red flag should have gone up when she couldn't handle both of the dogs herself from the car to our fenced in back yard. We have a large yard and an active dog, so I didn't think it would be a problem.
Per normal, I let the dogs sniff around by themselves in the yard. I asked a lot of questions, and she said her dogs loved playing with other dogs. The older one needed to warm up a bit, and the younger one was tremendously friendly and energetic. Once her dogs seem comfortable after 5 minutes or so, I let our dog out (of course asking the owner if that would be okay at this point, and she said it was). During any MnG I keep a 3ft lead line on our dog out of an abundance of caution in case I need to control him, the few times I have used it is when he is super playful and the other dog needs a bit more space. He sniffed through the door and then went out to meet them. Usually, the 10+ MnG dogs we have had start to play or show curiosity.
Today, the young dog started immediately being aggressive. I started to move them through the yard, as sometimes movement can release their anxiety, and thought it was more playful. It was not. The young dog kept going after our dog, and our dog was going back at him :-( I was able to control my dog and got him between my legs. I tried throwing treats I had in my pocket into the yard in hopes the other dog would get them and my hand got in the way of my dogs mouth and I got nipped. I tried blowing the dog whistle I had. Nothing. Eventually the owner was able to secure her dog, came over and was able to get control of her dog. Obviously we both knew it wouldn't work out. She felt bad and embarrassed, and I did my best to be calm and reassuring - she is providing a great home to her dogs.
Is there something I could have done better to prevent this? Or do we chalk it up to an ...