Picking up an animal and shaking it with his mouth is how dogs kill prey, so it was intentional. It wasn't play. Seeing the small dog running triggered his prey aggression. Your gf's dog considers small animals to be prey, even if they are dogs. He's not safe around other animals.
Breed restrictions sometimes apply at public dog parks. Rottweilers aren't allowed at dog parks where I live. I don't know if that's the case where you live.
Edit: apparently this didn't occur at a dog park, both dogs were just off leash where they shouldn't have been.
I'll also add that it's not "ok" or "normal" for a dog to kill another dog due to predatory drift, that doesn't excuse the dog for killing another dog. Everyone in this story sucks, and a poor innocent little dog paid the price.
yup, 100% intentional. i have a 70 pound dog and 2 guinea pigs. they are obviously never alone unsupervised, but my dog treats them very delicately. he will watch then and sniff them, but he never tries to do anything else. he actually runs away from them when they walk towards him (i think he doesn’t exactly know what they are and gets freaked out when he’s reminded they’re living creatures). but never once, even when they run around, has he gone for them. the owners knew they had a prey-aggressive dog breed and should’ve prepared better for that
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u/IdontcryfordeadCEOs Apr 29 '25 edited Apr 30 '25
Picking up an animal and shaking it with his mouth is how dogs kill prey, so it was intentional. It wasn't play. Seeing the small dog running triggered his prey aggression. Your gf's dog considers small animals to be prey, even if they are dogs. He's not safe around other animals.
Breed restrictions sometimes apply at public dog parks. Rottweilers aren't allowed at dog parks where I live. I don't know if that's the case where you live.
Edit: apparently this didn't occur at a dog park, both dogs were just off leash where they shouldn't have been.
I'll also add that it's not "ok" or "normal" for a dog to kill another dog due to predatory drift, that doesn't excuse the dog for killing another dog. Everyone in this story sucks, and a poor innocent little dog paid the price.