Why is my dog frightened of this man?

[CantFindTheBeat]

Hi all,

I have a long standing friend who does some design work for me. I know her husband a little bit. He's a nice guy.

Today, he came round to pick her up after we'd done some work together and he came in for a coffee for the first time.

My 6 year old lab was terrified of him. Wouldn't go near him and wee'd on the floor ☹️☹️

I honestly wouldn't say there is anything suspicious about the guy at all. He seems harmless to me.

Anyone got any thoughts? My poor dog!

One of my dogs can be a bit like that, one way we have got round it if they need to be in the house, is making them the nice person who throws high value treats on the floor for them when they come in. Less threatening than hand feeding but they will still associate them with nice food. Also, the person needs to essentially ignore the dog other than that, no approaching them for strokes/fuss. Take it very slowly, good luck!

If he's okay with other men it's probably something innocuous like he wears glasses, or has a beard, or wears a hat. They can take offence at the most bizarre things sometimes!

Ah, thanks both, that's reassuring.

The guy does have long hair and wears a hat - maybe that's it!

Probably

Mine takes offence at temporary traffic lights (but permanent ones are okay, the SKY vans (but other vans are fine) and sand bags 🤷🏻‍♀️🤣

My ddog goes nuts if dc wear a hat!

Mine is v suspicious of baseball caps and traffic cones. Luckily she’s never seen one on a traffic cone.

My dog hated anyone wearing a hat or carrying a rucksack. Super friendly dog in general, but he wouldn't go near anyone with a hat on!

Our puppy is usually happy to meet anyone but there's one particular man who we see in the park who is always trying to talk to her and she stands behind me, tail down and huddles right up by my legs. I can feel her shuddering

He seems a perfectly normal and nice man and I've often had a chat with him over the years - no hat, no beard, no unusual clothes but she's terrified. He's a decorator and wonders if she really hates the smell of paint or turpentine. He seems quite offended by it poor man

There's no accounting for taste

My dog is scared of hi vis vests and men on ladders 🤷‍♀️. He has growled at 2 men when I’ve been walking him alone so maybe he got bad vibes off them. I don’t know them though so couldn’t comment on whether they’re good people or not but he’s usually the softest, friendliest dog on the planet.

Our Ddogs have the same reaction to hi vis and the postman!

@GiltEdges oh he loves the postman as he brings lovely boxes to shred 😂.

It’ll be the hat - my dog even looks at my DP suspiciously when he wears a hat.

Ive seen dogs get scared of beards, glasses, my friend has a dog who is scared of guitars... dogs are funny about random stuff.

😂😂😂

Noted: avoid traffic cones wearing caps!

Thanks all. It's good to see that my dog isn't necessarily picking up on some inner evil!

My abused ex-racing greyhound absolutely loathed one distant neighbor on sight, despite otherwise being a friendly sociable dog. On speaking with this neighbor he said he used to race greyhounds. I always wondered what my dog was picking up on to hate/fear this person so much and was it a coincidence that this person raced greyhounds? (No dog track anywhere near so can't imagine there were many ex-greyhound racers around)