Apparantly....

to show dominance you stare a dog in the eyes (a strange dog)

talking to someone the other day and this person was staring millie out - luckily she dosent bother - sam would rip your throat out - she a totall dominant cow -

i was like erm no - not such a good idea mate - this person was like um yeh i do it all the time - right well i ve always been told that threatening behaviour and when ive seen dogs fighting they (normally) make eye contact first then go in fo rthe fight - same with people - in town - eye contact fight...

oh - i ended the convo with, welll when you get bitten from doing that, let me know i was right.....

am i right???

It can be a threat but some of mine are taught to Watch so it would have little impact on them!
Becky

oh yes millie has been taught to watch as well - but what i meant was as soon as this person meets a dog (any dog in teh street) they are stared at!!

so like me - if i met one ofyour dogs and didnt even stroke it - just glared/stared at it.......

i just thought it was classed as a threat...

Yes it would, people really should let go of this dominance thing :smt002
Becky

Some people are just plain stupid, some of mine wont bother but 1 I have now and 1 that I lost a couple of years ago would attack if strangers made eye contact, both are very bold and have extremely high defence/fight drives and although it is acceptable by family mambers it isnt by strangers. One day this idiot will learn the hard way when he comes across a dog that wont tollerate it.

Oh boy, do that to the wrong dog and he will have a real problem on his hands.

I agree with you, some dogs would treat this as threatening, really not a good idea:smt018

Yes its seen as threatening in the way described [ and yep very different to `watch` ]. Its a great way to get bitten
If the fool tried it with my dogs it indeed would be a challenge - to me for trying to un-nerve my crew

Never mind the dog watch the owner lol! (so like me!!)
Becky

Snap !

For showing purposes mine are also taught to "watch me", which they do, without moving...lol and often when the Judge has wanted a good front view, I've told them to watch the judge too, so they are used to staring at someone without it meaning anything other than "I'm gonna get treated for this in a minute" lol

For some dogs though, it's taken as a challenge, so it's not a good idea for anyone to do it to a dog they dont know