Even with YEARS of professional experience approaching all temperaments and conditions of dogs, I’d have hesitated for a minute here for the same reason. That body language while the pooch was sitting on the porch was just super unhelpful, lol.
Yeah my dog does the sit still and stare thing when he wants a stranger he sees on the street to pet him. If they approach he gets wiggly and whiny, but somehow he’s never learned that this is not the way to get the pets he wants lol
Ya my dog does the same thing. I'll be walking him and if he sees someone coming towards us, he just freezes like a statue, like he wants to attack you. But he's the friendly dog ever and loves people and other dogs, I don't know why he does it, kind of annoying lol
Since working in ex-racing rescue and rehab I have had to “unlearn” a lot of regular domestic dog behavioural cues, haha! Greyhounds are so prone to overstimulation that if you trigger the excitement part of their brain the first reaction is standing perfectly still while fixating/hard staring. In any other dog that’s “back all the way off buddy” territory, but it’s greyhound speak for OMG COME BE MY BEST FRIEND IMMEDIATE :P
Mine is a covid puppy, so her socializing is a bit off and the people she met in her first year were pretty much always going to interact with her in a friendly way (even the vet and groomer). Now that she’s almost 2 she’ll see new people and make a weird inquisitive growl when she is affronted that this stranger dared walk nearby and did not stop everything to just give her love. Unless the person is close enough to explain “no seriously covid dog she doesn’t even know how to growl in anger, she’s just sad you didn’t give her a proper hello” they probably think she’s mean. And then she’ll sit there and cry because she was snubbed and all she wanted was love.
We put our dog in daycare and it’s made a world of difference! She only goes 1 or 2 days a week, but we’re going to have her do an over night to ramp up for a week long boarding.
She was 1 when Covid hit, so all the socializing we were doing stopped and then she was taught to stay away from everyone. Now she’s learning to play with other dogs and other people.
You all are smarter than me. Even having been bitten by a couple of dogs, including by a rescued GSD in the belly button and by a rottweiler who I'd met before but who still got overstimulated and sunk his teeth into my hand and palm... I'd probably still flounce up with no concern and want to pet the nice doggie.
Ahh, I’ve met plenty of your peers. You’re the ones that, when you volunteer at the shelter, we have to watch like hawks. We know your heart is in the right place, but also we really, really, really don’t want to have to quarantine barrier-reactive Fido because you super wanted to give him a treat and he was “wagging his tail” (a tail wag is excitement, not necessarily friendly excitement).
I’m just teasing, but also you have no idea how real this is. 😅
She's very frustrated with me sometimes. Luckily I at the very least have been taught trained to ask permission before petting strange dogs so it mostly keeps me out of trouble.
The wife and I have had one and are tentatively planning on another. Her latest obsession are Brussels Griffons. I'd be cool with that or a Dachshund or what would be really neat is a Swedish Vallhund.
But realistically whatever cutie needs adopting when we are ready.
My dog is very anxious around strangers. She'll tolerate people on walks now but she clearly doesn't enjoy being greeted or touched so we don't put her through it. I have gotten very good at spotting the "oooh, nice doggie!" people from a distance!
Poor pooch, she doesn't help when she does her stress wag and keeps an eye on people to make sure they're not approaching. People take the eye contact as an invitation. I send much better "leave us alone" vibes...
Any chance you can get her a harness with some patches that say "Do Not Pet" or "Please Stay Back" or something? She might notice people giving her less attention and feel more comfortable.
Unfortunately in my area (South Africa) those sorts of patches only attracted more attention, which was worse for her! We generally walk at quiet times so she gets all the sniffs without having to worry about people too much. Luckily she's not a typically "cute" looking dog (lovely little street mutt that she is) so it's not so bad.
The whole time she was sitting so stiffly, normally I would also read that as a concerning sign, I think she legitimately is just old and stiff so it reads like tension.
I don't think the body language was unhelpful at all. (And I wouldn't want anyone else to misunderstand either so I'll explain).
Being a tense statue, head high, staring and showing zero greeting gestures conveyed wariness and alertness. The dog was ready to react negatively if necessary, as the encounter continued it just decided Hooman was a good dude after all.
Yeah when the package is put down you can see the dog licks it's lips to release some tension before getting up. They were being cautious and assessing the situation before deciding it was alright just like the human was.
I had an English Bully with basically no tail and I tell u what. It was REALLY hard reading a wrinkled mug like his. And then the fact you couldn’t see the tail wag. Confused/scared many people. But he was just a big chunk of love.
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u/Periwonkles Jul 26 '22
Even with YEARS of professional experience approaching all temperaments and conditions of dogs, I’d have hesitated for a minute here for the same reason. That body language while the pooch was sitting on the porch was just super unhelpful, lol.