You are walking your dog. Everything is calm. Then you see it: a dog with no leash running straight at you, and no owner anywhere.
And on the other end of your leash you have a big guardian dog. A Boerboel, a Cane Corso, a Mastiff.
What you do in that moment and what you build at home are two different jobs. In this article, adapted from my video below, I explain what you can really do on the street, step by step, and what you need to train so the next time is easier.
Watch the Video: Off-Leash Dog Running at Your Guardian Dog
The Biggest Mistake: Mixing Management and Training
The biggest mistake I see is simple. People mix two different jobs.
Some try to train their dog in that moment. Others think that because the dog is trained, they don’t need to think about safety. Those are two different things.
| Job | What it means | When it helps |
|---|---|---|
| Management | Keeping everybody safe right now, with the dog you have today | Today, on the street |
| Training | Building control over weeks and months so your dog can handle more | Tomorrow, next month, next year |
Management does not make your dog better. Training does not protect you today if it is not built yet. You need both, but you need to know which one you are doing.
Before You Leave the House
You cannot control the other dog. You cannot control the other owner. The only things you control are your dog, yourself and where you are. And that starts before the walk.
- Check your equipment. Collar, harness, leash, clips. If something breaks in that moment, it will be bad.
- Think about your route. If you know a street where dogs are always loose, a house with an open gate or a park at a busy time, you don’t need to walk there. Change the route or change the time. That’s not weakness. That’s management.
- Be honest about your dog. If he cannot handle a dog running at him yet, don’t put him in places where it will probably happen.
On the Street: See It Early
The most important thing on the street is very simple: see it early. Look around. Stop watching your phone all the time.
The earlier you see the other dog, the more options you have. At 50 meters you can turn around. At 5 meters you have almost nothing.
Watch how that dog moves. A dog sniffing around, relaxed and moving slowly is not the same as a dog coming fast, in a straight line, stiff, with the head up. You don’t need to be an expert. You only need to notice: is he coming to me, or is he just there?
Boerboels are a good example. Many will ignore a dog 10 meters away, but if that dog gets too close, they snap. Distance is your friend.
Create Distance Without Running
If you can create distance, turn and walk away calmly. Don’t run. Running can make the other dog chase you and adds excitement. Walk at a normal speed, confident.
Use what’s around you:
- Cross the street.
- Put a car between you and the other dog.
- Go through a gate and close it, or step into a driveway.
You don’t need to win this situation. You need to leave it.
Short Leash, but Not a Tight Leash
Keep your dog close, on a short leash at your side. But don’t hang on him with the leash tight all the time, pulling him up. That tension goes straight into your dog.
That’s exactly how I teach my fully trained protection dogs to start reacting when I want them to: I create tension on the leash. A short leash is one thing. A tight leash is another, and your dog will feel it.
If the Dog Keeps Coming
If the other dog keeps coming, put yourself between your dog and that dog, if you can do it safely.
Now you can use your voice, not to your dog, to the other dog. A firm voice: “Go home.” Stand tall, move in a straight line, look firm and confident. Many of these dogs are insecure around people, and sometimes that alone is enough to make them stop.
Just the other day, three dogs started barking at me while I was with my wife and my small daughter. They wanted to bite. I stepped in, looked at them and said “hey”. I could already see they were not confident, and it was easy to open the car door and leave.
But don’t turn this into a confrontation. If you have space to leave or you can put a barrier between you, that is always my priority.
“He’s Friendly” Does Not Change Anything
If you see the owner, tell them to call their dog. You don’t need to be polite in that moment. You need to be clear.
If they say “he’s friendly”, that doesn’t change anything. You don’t know that dog. You don’t know if he’s sick or aggressive. You do know your dog, and your dog is not the one you want to test. Don’t let them greet. This is not the moment to see if they become friends.
What About Your Dog in That Moment?
Stay calm with your body and your voice. If you scream and pull, your dog will feel it, and you will feel that you are losing it too. That doesn’t help anybody.
If your dog already knows something very well, something simple, you can ask for it: stay with me, look at me. But understand this: in that moment you are not training. You are using what you already have. If it’s not there, you don’t have it. So you don’t depend on it. You depend on distance, position and your own calm.
If Contact Happens
- Keep hold of your leash.
- Don’t put your hands near the heads of fighting dogs. That’s how people get bitten.
- The goal is to separate and leave, not to punish anybody. Not your dog, not the other dog.
After, check your dog. Look for bites, especially under the fur, on the neck and legs. If there is anything, disinfect it right away and go to the vet. Dog teeth carry a lot of bacteria, and even small bites can become big problems.
Get the owner’s details if you can, and give your dog time. He is not going to be calm again in 10 seconds, especially a Mastiff. Don’t go straight back to the same place as if nothing happened.
Why This Is Harder With a Guardian Breed
Part of it is people. If a small dog runs at your dog and something happens, most people will not ask who started. They will look at the big dog. That’s not fair, but it’s real life. So you need to be the responsible one.
Part of it is the dog. In my experience, trained working-line German Shepherds and Malinois switch between states very fast: excitement, obedience, excitement again, aggression, obedience. That’s what we do with fully trained protection dogs, and it’s why you rarely see a fully trained protection dog that is a Mastiff.
Many Mastiff types struggle to come back from aggression to obedience, because they are much more defensive dogs. Defense is about making the threat go away, and defensive behavior does not automatically mean courage.
When a strange dog runs straight at him while he’s on a leash and cannot move away, that is a threat coming in. If he growls, barks and lunges, and the other dog backs off, he learns that it works. In that moment the label doesn’t matter. What matters is whether you are losing access to your dog, and that’s what training needs to change.
This defensive side often becomes much stronger as the dog matures. I explain what changes, and when it becomes a problem, in your Mastiff is becoming more serious: normal maturity or a problem?
Training: Knowing the Command Is Not Control
Knowing a command is not the same as having control, especially when the dog is excited. Your dog can sit perfectly in the kitchen. That doesn’t mean he will listen when another dog is 10 meters away and coming fast. I explain this in detail in why your dog listens at home but not outside.
Think about a car. Drive is the engine. Obedience is the brakes and the steering. If your brakes only work at 5 km/h, they are no good. You need brakes that work when the car is going fast.
That’s why, for me, the work starts long before the street:
- Engagement. Your dog needs a real reason to pay attention to you.
- Communication. He needs to clearly understand what you are asking.
- Obedience. The behaviors you will need, taught calmly first.
- Distance, distraction, duration and drive. Added slowly, one step at a time.
This is the foundation of my Drive Control Protocol.
Up, Down, Up, Down: Building Fast Recovery
At the beginning I teach with food, not with high excitement. Then I make the dog excited for the reward, ask for something simple he already knows, reward it, and let him go up again. Up, down, up, down.
At first he may need 30 seconds to come back to you. Then 10. Then 3. Then it’s almost a reflex. The faster he comes back, the more control you have, and he learns that obedience does not kill the fun.
I see this a lot with people training Mastiffs. Boerboels, for example, often end up just dragging through obedience. If that sounds familiar, read how I train a Boerboel for real control.
Go step by step. You don’t learn to drive in a Formula One race, and you don’t test your dog in the hardest situation on day one.
And please, don’t punish confusion. If your dog doesn’t understand what you want, correcting him only makes him more stressed, and a stressed guardian dog around other dogs is exactly what you don’t want. A consequence is only fair when the dog really knows what is expected and chooses not to do it.
The Goal Is Control, Not Friendship
The goal is not to make your dog love every dog on the street. I don’t need my dog to be friends with that dog.
Think about a child and chocolate. You don’t teach the child to stop liking chocolate. You teach him that he cannot eat it now. That’s control. When I tell my dog to stay with me, he stays with me, even if he’s excited and even if he doesn’t want to.
That doesn’t mean turning your dog into a robot. He can still be a guard dog, with his character and his drive. But the decisions go through you.
On the street, you manage. At home, in training, you build. Little by little, the dog you manage becomes the dog you can trust more.
When to Get Help
If your dog already has a history of fights, or you know you cannot hold him physically, don’t try to fix this alone. Management first, safety first, and get help from someone who knows these breeds.
If you are dealing with reactivity, fixation on other dogs or aggression with your guardian dog, you can book a call with me.
Frequently Asked Questions
Should I run if an off-leash dog runs at me and my dog?
No. Running can trigger a chase and add excitement. Turn and walk away calmly at a normal pace, and use cars, gates or the other side of the street to create distance.
Should I let my dog greet a loose dog if the owner says he’s friendly?
No. You don’t know that dog, and you know your own dog is not the one you want to test. Ask the owner clearly to call their dog and keep yours close.
Can I train my dog in that moment?
No. In that moment you can only use what your dog already knows well. Training happens before, at home and in controlled steps, so that next time you have more to work with.
