A full on attack - was that what happened though? I read it as being a few seconds of snapping/lunging because one dog was afraid of another. A full on attack to me means the vet and lots of blood and gore and possibly no bite inhibition and an intent to do serious damage.

My interpretation was that the incident was all noise to be honest.

Perils of the internet though as one can never be sure. My intention for posting the Clothier article though was to highlight that it's important to understand why dogs do what they do.

I've seen too many dogs told off by owners who haven't bothered to learn about canine communication. It shouldn't be happening ...

On another tack, I know of someone who allowed their Springer bitch to tell other dogs off too much, and she started to enjoy it and thought it was even expected of her - she had a heck of a job stopping it after she'd encouraged it.

Wys
x

Thank you XX

Hi, out of interest did you read the article and if so, what did you think of it? I take it you would disagree that it's OK for dogs to tell another dog off in any circumstances, or are there some circumstances in which to you, it would be acceptable?

(I should say I'm not saying a dog should do it all the time, but I do believe, as per the article, there are times when it's both unfair and unrealistic to expect dogs to never ever react in an aggressive manner).

I think we actually expect far more of our dogs than we ever do of ourselves, it's rare any of us humans to get through life without "snapping"

Some dogs will never show any kind of "aggression" although these are rare.

When I say "aggression" I mean "showing aggression" at a particular time, ie telling another dog off with a 2 or 3 second quick snap type thing

Wys
x

As i've said. I would never tolerate snapping from my dogs, if they did snap, they would certainly know how I felt about it.

An interesting and informative article Wysiwyg thank you

Posts referring to a locked thread have been removed. Please stay on topic and do not bring a locked thread into this one.

Thanks.

Very interesting read, thanks for posting it.

Thanks Mini. I am quite passionate that we understand our dogs and how they think


Recently I was at an agility show and I saw a lady there I've known on and off for years. She's judged a few comps. and is considered fairly experienced.

A friend of mine has a wonderful dog that is one of those bouncy, everyone loves me boys - really gorgeous with only purely friendly intent ever, but of course a bit too much and OTT for some dogs.

The other week I was so hoping the woman would notice what her dog was attempting to tell her. She was talking to my friend whose dog was being all OTT and bouncy - her dog was showing a backward stance, giving calming/communication signals by tongue flicks and side turning of the head. He also attempted to move away but of course could only manage the length of the lead.

He then was still being pestered and just couldn't cope so he had a grump and slight lunge at the over friendly boy (who hardly noticed ).


The owner sadly hadn't realised what her dog was trying to tell her (ie please get me away or protect me) and gave her dog a bollocking which to me was so unfair. It's happened before. If only, if only, she'd paid attention to her dog.

And in those circumstances, her dog had every right to grump and tell the other boy off, something she did actually agree with

Just a shame it had to happen in the first place.


Wys
x

That response saddens me greatly

Please, please, read the article then reconsider how you would deal with it. If your dog were to snap, there will be a reason for it, its up to an owner to understand that reason then to deal with it appropriately, which should not include a negative method such as you are implying as thats a sure fire way to create a big problem from a simple canine communication which you may not have understood yourself.

Consider if you will, how responses here could be translated in to human terms.
Lets say, hypothetically, that your response could be interpreted as the equivalent of a `snap`.
How would you then react if someone `certainly let you know how they felt about it`.
Would you respond with a happy smile ?
Or would you become inflamed and retort back even more strongly, and possibly then develop a chip on the shoulder, always assuming others were going to be horrible to you just because you were a bit `reactive` once which then makes you often react defensiveley...

Thats a hypothetical only, I`m not saying you were being snappy when you responded, but its a demontration of how a communicaion can be misunderstood, humans misunderstand humans all the time, so can we fairly say we understand every dog communication and how it works between them in every given situation - such as thinking a snap toward, [ not even connecting, its a common clear visual canine to canine communication usually not intended to connect ! ], a pushy dog is pure aggression when its nothing more than a ` I`ve asked you once [ the grumble ], now I`m telling you, back off, you are in my space` from which the other dog learns to be more polite and realises the grumble was actually a request to move back a bit so next time they are more aware to heed it.

"The owner sadly hadn't realised what her dog was trying to tell her (ie please get me away or protect me) and gave her dog a bollocking which to me was so unfair. It's happened before. If only, if only, she'd paid attention to her dog."
______________________

If this bouncy dog was genuinly only wanting to be friendly towards the above dog, then the above dog's owner would be telling her dog that there is something to be worried and concerned about had she moved the dog away from the bouncy, friendly dog, imo.