Originally Posted by WarChild

Don't get me wrong, I don't advocate aggressive dogs at all.

A child, maybe 5 or 6 years old snuck up behind us in the park and startled me and my dog by smacking him on the ass. His response? Big kiss in the face for the kid.

A few weeks back a female pit was lose in the park with her owner trying to chase her down. She ran right up to us and her and my dog proceeded to have a roll-around-and-lick fight until everyone was covered with slobber. Not even a hint of an aggressive response.

Same goes with the cat. The dog is interested in the cat but not aggressive. He just sits there looking at it. The incident we had the other day, the cat actually ran over to the dog and flat out attacked it. His response was to fight back.

I'm heavily involved in Schutzhund training with this dog right now. I paid good money for a dog with a protective nature that is absolutely not aggressive but on the same hand totally fearless. When it comes to fight or flight, he's going to fight every time.

Dogs are pretty good at reading body language from other dogs. They know what the situation is. The original poster used the word "attacked" so we have to take that at face value. Barking and acting bad ass is not attacking.