Stalking - Is this normal??

Monty is 4 months old now and at the moment his favourite thing in the world is a stalking type behaviour. It's kind of like you see sheepdogs doing on "one man and his dog".

He does it when passing people in the street, he does it when he sees another dog and now he does it at home if you look at him.

Just now i called him and looked in his direction then he slowly stalked his way across the carpet and went into pounce mode on me.

Will he grow out of this or should i be doing something about it?

Its cute!!!!! Hes been expressive!

Its quite scary though when he prowls towards you and pounces last minute even though you know he's going to do it!!

i think it sounds lovely, he loves u & is playing with you! Enjoy!!!!!

I hope thats all it is!! It is quite amusing at times and he generally only does it to other dogs if they are also doing it.

Hi Esme are you sure he isn't 'play bowing' , this is a puppy's invitation to play and involves crouching down on the two front paws like this ...



..then approaching in little hoping movements

Nope, definitely not that. His whole body lowers to the floor.

He kind of creeps up as slowly as possible, never taking his eyes of you and as above very similar to what you would see a sheep dog doing.

When he does he holds the pose for a while so i'll try to get a picture tomorrow.

Esme if it is all four legs down and creeping it can be a play gesture too, but it can also be a crouching submissive gesture in a puppy who is a bit uncertain about things and so tries to look small and less of a threat.

continued..
what kind ot temperament does he have, is he bold or a little shy and unsure. If it is the latter I would try to praise him in a bright voice whenever you get the chance to boost his confidence

Just a quick question regarding your actions.....

When he's done his 'creep' and he's holding that pose looking at you ready to "pounce".....

1) What does he do if you walk directly at him big, fast, bold, confident and upright ?

.......I suspect he'd either back down or at least drop the stare/pose and greet you with a waggy tail. At 4 months he may jump up and mouth you in which case stand still and ignore him.

2) What does he do if you run away ?

........does he chase you ? Again if he does - I'd probably stop and ignore him.

We've had similar behaviour and my guess would be that it's all down to who takes the upper hand when he's ready to pounce.

Give it a go but that would be my approach.