Dogs being bullied?

Question

I have a pit/boxer mix. He’s a year old and I rescued him a month ago if not longer. I take him to the dog park frequently in my apartment complex. He’s very submissive most dogs. I have an issue with GSD , two actually and cane corso ganging up on him. One of the GSD always bites at my dogs neck and at first it was playfully but has progressively gotten more aggressive to me .

Today he was biting my dog to the point I could hear him wheezing. I pulled my dog away and let them calm down let him go and then the other GSD and Cane Corso ganged up on him poking at him while the other GSD again was bitting my dogs neck meanwhile my dog just lays there rolling around and kicking .

Long story short I got into with pet parent because I slightly pushed her dog away from mine because I grabbed him again and the dog was nipping at my dog and I had enough. She said they are playing but in my eyes they are being to aggressive with my dog who has scratches all over him.

I try my best to Protect my dog because of his breed and people don’t understand that , I don’t want him playing a certain way or picking bad habits up because if my dog was to do those things they would be the first people to say my dog is aggressive

Answer 1

Your problem is not your own dog, but the "gang" and their respective owners.

If your dog submits to another, he shows typical dog behavior and there is nothing wrong with it. If the GSD doesn't stop biting his neck even after he rolled over and clearly showed his submission, the GSD is behaving badly. Pushing him away from your dog was IMHO the right thing to do.

If the owners don't see anything wrong with how their dogs are bullying around, there is not much you can do but avoid being at the dog park at the same time.

She said they are playing

Letting dogs play around in dog parks unchecked and without correcting overly dominant behavior, unfortunately, leads to some dogs becoming bullies. It's not in your right to correct someone else's dog, but if you show the owner the scratches on your dog, maybe they realize the behavior was not as playful as they thought. But don't get your hopes too high...

I don’t want him playing a certain way

No, you should let your dog play like all dogs play. You're right to not want him to pick up bad behavior (like the bullying), but playing is not bad behavior.