Our pup is an 11 month old spaniel terrier cross. He’s always been very friendly with other dogs-happy to play if they want to or he’ll have a quick sniff and move on. He’s seemed good at reading their body language. He’s been growled and snapped at so many times I’ve lost count, never any warning from the owners-it’s always been when both dogs are on lead and after a very quick, 3 second tops sniff. He’s never reacted back.
Today, he was off lead and approached another much larger dog (also off lead) the larger dog was very stiff. My dog then mirrored his stiffness whilst they sniffed and I saw, for the first time, the start of a reaction from him -a growl and an air snap. I called him away. (I say it was a reaction but actually he did it first).
Is there anything I should do? Is it just a case of watching his body language? We haven’t had him castrated yet and weren’t planning to for a while. Is this something that might become more frequent? It seems so common for dogs to do this that I’ve been anticipating the behaviour in him but I’d like to do whatever I can to prevent it in the future. Many thanks:
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Is there anything I can do to prevent this behaviour developing or is it just a ‘normal’ part of being a dog?
49 replies
Socre383 · 08/08/2020 12:08
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