How would you interpret this greeting between two dogs...?

I was watching two dogs in the park today - just wondering if I've interpreted their behaviour correctly?

Both were large dogs. They were with their owners, both off leash, quite some distance from each other.

One dog was a Lab, the other a cross of some kind, possibly GSD.

The GSD x was moving forward into the field with his owner. The Lab was with his owner and some other dogs quite a distance away. He began moving forward, slowly.

Once the dogs were a bit nearer - though still quite a bit of space between them - both dogs stopped.

They stood there, totally still, eyes locked on one another. The Lab's hackles were raised - I wasn't close enough to the other dog to see if his were too.

It was like 'high noon' in the park! The dogs just continued standing there, perfectly still.

Not sure if I am reading the dogs' body language correctly as am pretty inexperienced with this ...

Thanks in advance for your responses!

Mine does this he often drops down and lays still. They they will both run around chasing eachother.

I find my dogs hackles can go up in many situations not always in fear sometimes when they are excited as well

Thanks

Just to add that neither dog dropped to the ground - both just stood there, quite some distance apart actually, totally still, staring...

Labs hackles commonly shoot up in excitment as well

Depends on lots of things but if you were feeling tension then more than likely they were unsure of each other and assesing the situation

Equally they COULD have been best of friends and waiting for the first one to move to play chase games

The thing with dog body lauguage is all bets are off if they are friends - they can do all sorts of rude behaviour then

One of my dogs frequently does this ~ I call it "trapped in a staring match"

There's rarely a bad outcome. Most often one of the dogs will look away, or either me ot the other owner distracts the dogs. But it's almost like a dare ~ who will be the first to break the stare & they're both stuck, eyes glued, unable to break away. Normally Barney glances at me & I just say go say hello, or something, & both dogs then do their usual meet, greet, sniff each others a**e routine

Agree with others though my initial thoughts were that they were not at all sure of each other. We'd have to know what happened next did they ensue play or walk away from each other or circle before leaving?

Thanks WILBAR - that's really helpful as I had - clearly wrongly - assumed that when two dogs lock stares in this way then it was outright hostility. So thanks for helping me understand it does not mean this and that it can be a 'normal' interaction

I agree, I thought they were both unsure - these dogs had not met before.

As for what happened next - not quite any of the options suggested, let's wait and see what others suggest If nobody posts anything I'll update later today. Many thanks for your response

Interesting, I'm very into this at the moment coz my dog can be a bit iffy with dogs with attitude, so I'm watching stuff like this like a hawk! I've actually had this situation myself (with my gsd), but I now know IF the other dog is going to be aggressive, because my own dog kind of senses it, I feel the tension building up in her, and if the dog starts coming in stalking mode, she responds by growling and almost ready to lunge at it if it got near enough, BUT, having said all that, it's easy for me to distract her by holding the rope on her ballwhich is always in her gob, and leading her off in the other direction, coz I avoid aggro!

These instances have been very rare for me now, even though I meet/pass hundreds of dogs throughout a week, and usually when the stare happens, the dog in the distance drops to the floor, or stalks for a little bit further towards us and then drops to the floor,and I immediately see my dog totally relax, her tail wags, and she almost pulls me towards the dog if I've put her onlead, which I usually have if it's a strange dog.

If you study it long enough, you really can see that tension building up in a dog who wants to have a pop, and you can also see the total relaxation if the other dog shows by some means that it's friendly. It's all so interesting to watch (it's a case of having to with me!).

My view on your situation is both dogs are wary and if one of them doesn't submit, there could have been trouble, IF one of them or both is the type of dog to fight it's corner, that's my take.