Dog Experts, What Would You do if...

[welsummerchicks]

Quote:
She yelled, 'go home, git!' and the dog did nothing. No change.

She decided to stand still and do nothing. She did not want to provoke the dog. After some time she heard someone calling the dog. It did not respond or move. Finally the owner showed up and led the dog away.

She said what bothered her so much, was that the dog was NEITHER friendly NOR overtly aggressive. She expected either tail wags and flattened ears, or barking and the usual bluster and in either case, that a 'go on git!' would send the dog away.

 

[Hens_And_Chicks]

First of all, I am scared to death of dogs I do not know. If a strange dog or even an known dog comes on my property, it is a threat to my birds. I have no problem becoming agressive and I have no issue shooting to kill. It is an irresponsible dog owner that has no clue where their dog is and if it comes on my property, the outcome may not be good. I will not compromise my safety, my child's safety or my animal's safety for any dog.

 

[dainerra]

many people have used "wary" to describe the dog. A dog that is wary doesn't generally sustain eye contact. Their eyes dart around, gauging the entire situation. That is the part that stuck most with me.

As for people who make outrageous guesses at size only at a distance, I wish! I've had people with their hands actually on my dog say "he weighs what? 120? 130?" Umm no, he weighs 70lbs. I've even had them call me a liar, but we were in the store so I walked back to the scale and weighed him. My older male, 95lbs and overweight, gets guessed at 150+ on a regular basis. I usually chalk it up to the average public being ignorant and the "bigger is better" attitude.

If she is familiar with the breed, then yes she could be accurate. If she just looked it up later and saw the standards, I would be a bit more skeptical. A wolfhound would fit the height, but not the weight. A saint the weight, but not likely the height. Great Dane might be a possibility but the weight seems too high. So now I'm curious

 

[chickenzoo]

First, it would have had to get past my 5 GP's and 4 Emu on my land....... LOL......... and if that happened I'm a goner.....

But if i didn't have them and was alone in an open field and saw such dog, at first I would be still and in a firm but soft tone try to get the dog to turn off, all the while looking for a stick etc.... If the dog kept coming I would then try to be more threatening and walk forward in short distances, with a louder voice, maybe raising my arms, looking to see if any signs that the dog may be deaf etc and not hearing me.....
If it still advanced I would brace myself for an attack, while still trying to assert myself in a strong posture to try to convince the dog otherwise.... as running would just provoke them to chase me.

Oh, I always keep my phone with me too, so I guess I'd have 911 on speed dial..... hehe

 

[ChickenfootDuckbutt]

In this order....

1. COME HERE DOGGEH! WHOS A CUTE DOGGEH!? WHOS CUTE!?
2. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH GET IT OFF MEE GET IT OFF!
3. *deadness*....x_x


nah, no really.



I too am slightly scared of dogs, big dogs I do NOT know scare the nuggets out of me

, they don't even need to be loose, they can be tired, in a house, with their owner ect. does not matter, they make ne nervous, now if I KNOW the dog, then I'm fine.

I have been through exactly what the OP discribed twice, the behavior in my experience (and no offense Shepherd owners/lovers) is most exhibited in shepherd based breeds, in bothof my cases, they were both shepherd mixes. the dogs were neither aggressive nor friendly, they were curious as to what I was and what I was doing.

honestly what I did was kept on walkin, but kept a close eye on the dog, most cases if ignore them, the dogs will get bored and go about whatever it was they were doing.

 

[watchdogps]

Quote:
Me too. Sshe said thick coat, so dane is out, as is mastiff. Saint is the only one listed with a thick coat and weight that high. Unless you go into the fss breeds. Then there is the spanish mastiff, and possibly the caucaasian ovcharka (they are advertised that big but very rarely are), but their standards aren't listed, they still go by the fci standards...

 

[Peaches Lee]

Quote:
Me too. Sshe said thick coat, so dane is out, as is mastiff. Saint is the only one listed with a thick coat and weight that high. Unless you go into the fss breeds. Then there is the spanish mastiff, and possibly the caucaasian ovcharka (they are advertised that big but very rarely are), but their standards aren't listed, they still go by the fci standards...

I was thinking Newfoundland?

 

[Jamie_Dog_Trainer]

Quote:
A dog that is watching you intently for your move is wary, and will sometimes give a lot of direct eye contact. This is a learned beahvior. Fearful dogs will *sometimes* lock on to your face because that is how they learned to recogize that the cues for facial expression are important in human behavior. Everything about this dog is wary, not fearful, but the dog is unsure so moves to investigate with unfriendly bodly language. As I said in my post before, the dog isn't being overtly hostile but his body language clearly demonstrates some form of stress from the dog. Any dog using body language that is NOT relaxed, such as this dog, is considered a wary dog to me, no matter how "confident" the eye contact or posture might be. After all, dogs do not posture without cause, just like people, if they seem tense they are feeling stress.

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

I've often wondered what I would do in an attack type of situation. In the situation described above, I don't think I would be afraid unless the dog was charging at me or showing some other sign of aggression. I've always been good at reading animal signals and giving appropriate signals back. It's always come sort of natural so I *typically* have never had an issue with an aggressive animal. I've had a couple of aggressive roosters and a turkey, but I don't really count those!

There are a couple of dogs at the rescue where I work who have the potential to go crazy I think. These are dogs who receive excellent care, but some of them have been in kennels for a couple years and definitely have some pretty severe mental issues. Some are even medicated for it. I think acting relaxed, calm, and in charge helps a whole lot. Most of the people who work around these dogs are scared of them and that definitely influences how they react towards them. I've been able to work on all of the dogs, but I don't get nervous around them. I'm just more careful with some than others.

I've worked around working dogs like bomb, drug, search and rescue and farm dogs, and they act pretty much like the dog WC described. I would most likely just be more alert, but ignore the dog. If it actually charged me, I would probably see my life flash before my eyes and reach for the throat. I'd probably do a lot of kicking.

 

[welsummerchicks]

Since the owner came and got the dog, I don't feel comfortable making any assumptions about what the dog may have been about to do, or what it would have done if the owner did not show up.

I have seen dogs act like this, twice in my life. In both cases, the dog bit the person it walked right up to. The dog was very calm, neutral in expression, sound, tail and stance, made a brief eye contact like this one, and then walked up to the person and bit the person - one was on the guy's thigh, the other was on the guy's hand. In neither case had the person threatened the dog, spoke to the dog, shown fear or aggression - one of the guys was chatting to someone else and didn't even know the dog was coming.

oh, she said one other thing - the dog didn't wag its tail at the owner, or make a 'happy face', no change of expression. Willingly went with the owner, but no friendly reaction. Nothing aggressive, nothing friendly.

I actually asked a buddy of mine about this behavior. He's got more experience with guard and protection dogs.

He told me that is the most dangerous kind of dog there is. He said that kind of behavior gives him the chills - even after many years of training guard and protection dogs. He said he rarely sees a dog like that, but when he does, all he wants to do is 'get the he** out of there'.