Barked At Other Dog, Is She Protecting Me?

[woosydiver]

Sorry I've not been around for a while, been enjoying dog life :-)

Just a quick question to gather opinions on a recent behavior. Fudge is an 18mth old Cocker, she seems to be very happy and content. Loves being with my wife & I and meeting people and other dogs. We have recently been going to an off-leash beach where she meets other dogs but doesn't tend to go too far from us.

At the weekend she seemed to be intolerant of 2 other dogs who to me looked like they just wanted to play, they kept coming up & play bowing. Yet Fudge barked and chased them away, coming back to our feet and looking up at us. We guess this was some sort of possessive behavior & she was defending the pack. The 2 dogs were quite separate & at separate times, i.e. it wasn't the 2 dogs coming at the same time. There were many other dogs on the beach which we didn't have the same issue with.

Looking for opinions as we don't want this to get any worse. We thought that maybe we had inadvertently showed some signs of fear of those dogs which Fudge had incorrectly picked up on. We thought that if we pet other dogs more it would show Fudge there's no problem with other dogs coming to us.

Thanks.

[Aidan3]

If I had to guess at motivations I would say she was uncomfortable with those other dogs and was seeking refuge with you, maybe even hoping you might leave. But I don't like to guess and there is every chance that I am wrong, so let's just say that barking and chasing served to drive off the other dogs and the behaviour increased, so successfully driving off the other dogs was a reinforcing consequence.

If she is normally quite happy to interact with other dogs then stick with those situations where she has good interactions with other dogs. The beach may be OK if she was happy with all dogs except those two, just pick a quieter time and be prepared to move on if dogs she doesn't like are bothering her (rather than letting her sort the problem out on her own). A good recall will be very handy.

[dee lee]

If I had to guess at motivations I would say she was uncomfortable with those other dogs and was seeking refuge with you, maybe even hoping you might leave.

This has been my experience.

Honey is not overly social and, if she finds the play overtures of other dogs too much, will behave much as you describe. Her body language when she does it makes it very clear to me that she is looking for me to save her. Which I do by moving between her and the other dog/s and walking her away somewhere else. If the dogs follow us I will shoo them away.

At 18 months, Fudge is now a mature dog, no longer technically a puppy. Where she may have been happy to play with all dogs previously, she may prefer only to play with specific dogs now. That is fine, dogs dont NEED to play with other dogs all the time.

I would suggest that if she shows signs of feeling uncomfortable again, you remove her from the stress and then distract her by playing a game.

[woosydiver]

Thanks for your comments, appreciated. It's funny, you both said that you thought Fudge was stressed but both my wife & I thought she was protecting us as she definitely kept herself between us & the other dogs, she didn't try to hide away at all. The episodes were quite brief and all was well immediately after so we were all happy.

BTW, the beach was Rowlands Reserve, Bayview. A bit of a drive for us but we enjoy the place due to the beach and there's always lots of other dogs. But why the @@@@ can't people pick up their dogs poo, GRRRR.

[Aidan3]

Thanks for your comments, appreciated. It's funny, you both said that you thought Fudge was stressed but both my wife & I thought she was protecting us as she definitely kept herself between us & the other dogs, she didn't try to hide away at all.

Broadly speaking there are two common responses to stress, flight (hide away) or fight (stand up to it). Either are an attempt to reduce stress, what you have described would be called a "distance increasing behaviour", dog barks or charges and other dog backs off (hopefully).

[Austerra]

My kelpies would react the same as they don't like "in your face" bouncy dogs, they tend to feel intimidated by these types of dog.

[shmoo]

Sounds like splitting behaviour.

[luvsdogs]

I used to have a very reactive dog that didn't like most dogs. Up until I read this article by Suzanne Clothier I used to think it was her fault.

http://www.nesr.info/images-english-shephe...s-to-say-hi.pdf

It's quite long but well worth the read.

Edited May 13, 2010 by luvsdogs