Sabien&Abs Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 I took Sabien for his walk this evening and at the bottom of the road there is a gated street. As we approached I could see a man standing there over the wall and as soon as we got to the gate Sabien started growling and baring his teeth. The man was stood on the other side of the gate with two Akitas. The Akitas had not done anything, not barked, growled or anything. Sabien would not stop growling at them and I had to drag him away. I was relieved that there was a gate between us. Sabien is generally a friendly dog, unless a dog has snapped or growled at him and I cannot understand why he reacted in this way when they had not done anything. Is there a better way to deal with this rather than just dragging him away, he would not respond to anything I said to him at that moment. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
BingBlaze n Skyla Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 maybe he just had a bad feeling about them or the owner :/ Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabien&Abs Posted August 16, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 maybe he just had a bad feeling about them or the owner :/ Possibly. I could see the change in his body language before we even got to the gate and saw the dogs as you could see the man over the wall, at that point I didn't even know he had dogs with him. Sabes isn't normally like this at all. Felt stupid as the man and his dogs were staring at us and all I could do was literally drag him away (not an easy feat!!). I suppose there are dogs they take an instant dislike to, there is a German Shepherd who lives near us who we see quite regularly and he and Sabien hate each other. Me and the owner have to have conversations from across the road to each other. We managed to get to the point where neither dog would growl or bark but they stalk past each other, staring. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Calin Posted August 16, 2011 Report Share Posted August 16, 2011 Hmmm, I don't know what to say but I'm interested as I had the same thing happen with Aries and a Lab a couple of weeks ago. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Removed #5 Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 For what it's worth - I learned a long time ago to pay attention to my dogs signals. They seem to have an innate ability to sense the value of another person (or dog). I've worked with people with whom - as in any workplace - I "get along" but wouldn't consider the after work brew. Can't say why I don't care for them, but for some reason I don't. In all cases that I can think of my friend in fur didn't like them either - whether they were reading my feeling or I was reading theirs was immaterial. We just agreed that "this person" wasn't acceptable ... It could be, dogs or not, Sabien was uncomfortable with this guy. Were it me, I'd be avoiding his place in the future (if you can). As for how to deal with it, let Sabien know that you understand his feeling (a stroke, a treat) and move on by. In my book Sabien was telling you he was very uncomfortable with the guy (not the dogs) and *I* wouldn't take that warning lightly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Removed #1 Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 Something else you may want to consider is just that it could have been something in his line of vision that didn't set well with him or that startled him and his reaction was to be loud and scary rather than to wait and see if it was something to worry about. Fox is iffy about men wearing hats or people with hoodies on. It's strange, he's never had a negative experience with someone wearing a hat or with a hooded sweatshirt but he gets a bit jumpy until we show him that there's nothing under the hat and under the hood is just a person...He's not as bad as he used to be with it, and in his case it's really just taken repeated exposure Going through a list of things at present to get Eponine exposed to at present and some things are easier than others...people on bicycles and lawnmowers are easier to walk around or past on a daily basis than people with uniforms on...and thus far the usps guys haven't been too keen on taking a few seconds to meet our dog so she's familiar with/doesn't get growly or barkinglike when she sees him...or other people dressed in a similar manner. Additionally could there be a bitch in heat nearby? Fox is fixed now but he still gets whiney/pissy with other male dogs when there's a female in heat in the neighborhood...he's gone from the gotta have gotta hump to the...If I'm not gettin any no one is... Good luck... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabien&Abs Posted August 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 For what it's worth - I learned a long time ago to pay attention to my dogs signals. They seem to have an innate ability to sense the value of another person (or dog). I've worked with people with whom - as in any workplace - I "get along" but wouldn't consider the after work brew. Can't say why I don't care for them, but for some reason I don't. In all cases that I can think of my friend in fur didn't like them either - whether they were reading my feeling or I was reading theirs was immaterial. We just agreed that "this person" wasn't acceptable ... It could be, dogs or not, Sabien was uncomfortable with this guy. Were it me, I'd be avoiding his place in the future (if you can). As for how to deal with it, let Sabien know that you understand his feeling (a stroke, a treat) and move on by. In my book Sabien was telling you he was very uncomfortable with the guy (not the dogs) and *I* wouldn't take that warning lightly. Interesting, Sabien doesn't generally 'have a go' at dogs unless they have been funny towards him,so I wonder if it was the man he took exception to as he saw him first and his body language changed at that point and then escalated from there when he saw the dogs. Sabien is a very friendly dog, who normally likes everyone, however we have a friend who we have known for a long time and when we first got Sabien if this friend came to the house he would growl at him and flinch if he went to stroke him. We couldn't understand it as Sabien is never normally like this. A few weeks later our friend ended up in hospital after he attempted suicide and when he was discharged he moved out of the area for a brief period. He has since come back and been to our house and Sabien has been fine with him, no growling and friendly. Makes me wonder if Sabien had picked up on his illness and this had made him unsettled. I also used to walk him at our local beach, and to get there you have to walk under a tunnel. One evening we walked under there as usual and there was a lad and lass drinking in the tunnel and as we walked past Sabien was growling at them even though they had not done anything. He was definitely uncomfortable in their presence. Our dogs are very clever and intuitive... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabien&Abs Posted August 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 Something else you may want to consider is just that it could have been something in his line of vision that didn't set well with him or that startled him and his reaction was to be loud and scary rather than to wait and see if it was something to worry about. Fox is iffy about men wearing hats or people with hoodies on. It's strange, he's never had a negative experience with someone wearing a hat or with a hooded sweatshirt but he gets a bit jumpy until we show him that there's nothing under the hat and under the hood is just a person...He's not as bad as he used to be with it, and in his case it's really just taken repeated exposure Going through a list of things at present to get Eponine exposed to at present and some things are easier than others...people on bicycles and lawnmowers are easier to walk around or past on a daily basis than people with uniforms on...and thus far the usps guys haven't been too keen on taking a few seconds to meet our dog so she's familiar with/doesn't get growly or barkinglike when she sees him...or other people dressed in a similar manner. Additionally could there be a bitch in heat nearby? Fox is fixed now but he still gets whiney/pissy with other male dogs when there's a female in heat in the neighborhood...he's gone from the gotta have gotta hump to the...If I'm not gettin any no one is... Good luck... Thanks Stephanie. There wasn't anything unusual about the man and nothing had startled him that I could see. Sabien is generally laid back and not a lot bothers him, eg people in hoodies, hats, bicycles, lawnmowers etc. It's an area we walk past or down every day as we have to go past. Not sure if there are any females in heat nearby at the moment. Would there be any difference in his general behaviour if there was? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Angel n Auroras Mum Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 maybe. maybe he just didnt like them, their smell or something. people dont like everyone do we? so lets assume sometimes dogs dont like everyone or every dog they meet? My mums dog hates black men, dunno why! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Removed #1 Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 Thanks Stephanie. There wasn't anything unusual about the man and nothing had startled him that I could see. Sabien is generally laid back and not a lot bothers him, eg people in hoodies, hats, bicycles, lawnmowers etc. It's an area we walk past or down every day as we have to go past. Not sure if there are any females in heat nearby at the moment. Would there be any difference in his general behaviour if there was? It really depends on the dog...he might be a little more restless than usual or there could be a twinge more whining or just the rawr all the girlz are belong to me behavior..Fox gets whiney and has the all the girl are belong to me whenever he crosses paths with another male dog when there's another female in heat despite having no balls...I am grateful that in our city you have to keep bitches in heat indoors or I couldn't imagine what walks would be like during certain times... and ultimately the only reason we were able to identify this behavior in him as associated directly with being around a bitch in heat was a trip to the vets office where there was a bitch in heat and then our beagle going into heat and him being a crackhead about things... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 For what it's worth - I learned a long time ago to pay attention to my dogs signals. They seem to have an innate ability to sense the value of another person (or dog). I've worked with people with whom - as in any workplace - I "get along" but wouldn't consider the after work brew. Can't say why I don't care for them, but for some reason I don't. In all cases that I can think of my friend in fur didn't like them either - whether they were reading my feeling or I was reading theirs was immaterial. We just agreed that "this person" wasn't acceptable ... It could be, dogs or not, Sabien was uncomfortable with this guy. Were it me, I'd be avoiding his place in the future (if you can). As for how to deal with it, let Sabien know that you understand his feeling (a stroke, a treat) and move on by. In my book Sabien was telling you he was very uncomfortable with the guy (not the dogs) and *I* wouldn't take that warning lightly. Yeah, what he said Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
sutsibe Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 I've had several dogs over the years that were really good judges of people. If my dogs don't like someone, I tend to listen! It could also have been something very subtle in bodylanguage that the human or dogs did that you didn't catch, but that Sabien did - they are so quick to pick up on things we humans miss! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Storm Angel n Auroras Mum Posted August 17, 2011 Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 I've had several dogs over the years that were really good judges of people. If my dogs don't like someone, I tend to listen! It could also have been something very subtle in bodylanguage that the human or dogs did that you didn't catch, but that Sabien did - they are so quick to pick up on things we humans miss! if my dogs dont like them them I probably wont either lol Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sabien&Abs Posted August 17, 2011 Author Report Share Posted August 17, 2011 So maybe Sabien is a good judge of character. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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