My dog seems to hate one particular man

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She's a very friendly gentle 10 month old working cocker and generally pretty happy and pleased to see people and other dogs.

But a few times in the last couple of weeks we've been passed by a particular man on the street and she's immediately started straining on lead, her body language has become aggressive and she's growling and baring her teeth. As soon as he's gone she reverts to normal. I obviously hold her back and try to calm her but he must think I've got a seriously aggressive dog.

I've never seen him before but now we keep passing him. He seems pretty normal as far as I can tell. Any idea why she would have taken against one random individual like this? She is clearly really upset by him. I've never seen her react like this to anyone else

A friend's dog used to bark at a local man who had a prosthetic arm, even though the man had long sleeves on. I think the dog thought he had something up his sleeve or maybe viewed his posture as aggressive

@HippyChickMama, my dog (who very rarely barks) barked at a man who had a prosthetic leg. I was very embarrassed.

(This man’s leg was visible though as he had shorts on).

Some dogs just take a dislike to individuals for no good reason.

I used to tell myself ddog was judging their character until he was horrid to a lovely friend of mine, and lovely to a man who, it later emerged, was a convicted child rapist.

It's entirely possible, of course, that ddog is a wrong'un and knows a kindred spirit when he sees one.

My dog is a bit weird with one of my sisters, and she's lovely. He hears someone approach/open the door and excitedly goes to greet them, all wiggly and waggly and when he sees that it's her he just stops dead - front paw half up sometimes in mid stride - they stare at each other for a few seconds, then he sits down. She briefly pats him, which he grudgingly accepts, then he stays out of her way. He adores everyone else in his life. They're so strange sometimes.

Not strange... listen to your dog

Agree that dogs don’t necessarily get it right when they are judging people! Our dog is really unsure about one of our oldest friends who I’m absolutely certain is a lovely man without a bad bone in his body. Just one of the nicest, gentlest people you could ever hope to meet, but DDog puts his ears down and growls at him 😔 Said friend is very very tall and completely bald with a big beard so can only assume DDog just thinks he looks threatening.

I've recently adopted a 4 year old cocker. She's fine with everyone in the house except my 20 year old son. She won't make eye contact with him and will take the biggest detour to get around him. So weird

Is he talking on his phone using EarPods? My dog is highly suspicious of people who appear to be talking to themselves....

This. I was walking my 3 labs in a heavily wooded area- all off lead but perfect recall. A bloke appeared and rather than off sniffing their own thing. They surrounded me like a triangle two at the front and one behind. Fur up on end - and these are children friendly perfect dogs and they snarled at him - he had come from a path to my left. They properly snarled at him - all three literally walking on my feet - normally they dart off and wag tails and love people etc - there was just a low tumble growl for about the 5 minutes he walked slightly ahead and then he started running - I was totally and utterly - the most bizarre thing ever. Even when he wasn’t in sight anymore they kept this triangle formation. Got home a good 45 minutes later and thought odd but ok. Two days later a woman got flashed at 3 pm on exactly the same path. Description matched the guy who didn’t flash me but my dogs dislike. Their sense of smell is totally different to ours - they can smell hormones and a million and one things that we can’t!!

My dog HATES a man who walks his spaniels down our road. I'm certain it;s the man not the dogs as when his wife walks them, no reaction... but even in our enclosed garden with no way of her seeing ..she smells him or something and goes running to the wall growling! I have no idea why but I don't like him on her behalf

She also dislikes my neighbour. I'm not keen on her either.. her dear old cat died in MY arms after being neglected for years..I think my dog KNOWs!

Only once, out walking I realised there was a man behind me..I was in a country park which was deserted... and he stopped when I did then came nearer... my girl ran up to him growling and barking and I'm pretty sure he did have bad intentions and she warned him off, so I kind of trust her judgement!

Some dogs just take a dislike to individuals for no good reason

This.

One of my mums dogs hates dh. She is utterly terrified of him and will cower, hide or growl at him and has done for ten years. She was normal with him for about 3 years and then one day we visited and she just wasn't. Out of the blue, no reason.

She's a lovely dog who is friendly to every other human or animal she meets. Dh is a proper dog person and every other dog we know/meet loves him.

I'm pretty certain he's not a secret serial killer (and if he is, there are dozens of dogs out there with shit senses because they love him 😂)

is this man's body language/walk abit unusual? Dogs pick up on the slightest change in body language.

Mine notices immediately if someone is sad or frail and changes his mischevious teenage behaviour instantly to mr.gentle.

I had a female rescue labrador that hated my father, as do I. But that's because he was always standing about puffing his chest out trying to dominate everyone.

if it's not that, could be as PP have suggested, hat, glasses etc...or it could be this man has a funny smell she doesn't like and she's warning you/him.

I would trust my dog.

My brothers dog ( also a cocker) yhe sweetest friendliest boy you ever met, is like this with my sister's bf who works out and is extremely muscular.I think he feels threatened!.he reacted similarly to a life-size shrek cut out!

Dogs can take exception to the most random things - hats, glasses, sunglasses, backpacks, walking sticks, shopping trolleys - it could be that he's wearing a random selection of stuff that would be fine on their own, but combined on this particular person really freaks her out.

My dog is terrified of loose plastic bags and sand bags (the kind used to weigh down temporary traffic lights). I have no idea why

My old dog took an immediate dislike to a dog that would walk down our street sometimes. Black, hairy retriever cross. He hated this dog at first sight! No idea why, nothing bad happened and the dog was on the opposite side of the street too. But he'd spot the dog down the bottom of the street with his owner and immediately start growling.

Lots of dogs dislike black dogs as their colouring means they can be hard to read - the same applies to flat-faced/brachy dogs, or ones without tails.

My dog absolutely hates a black Frenchie that lives nearby!

yes my little dog hates all those things you've listed also add joggers to the list. Can be a nightmare sometimes when a quiet jogger that i dont see coming suddenly appears from no where. had a few embarrassing incident of him lunging to ankle snap. I'm always on the look out for joggers so I can make sure we are no where near.

my dog also absolutely hates Frenchies and pugs absolutely no idea why.

I had a dog who was terrified of my son and continued to be terrified of him till he ( the dog ) died. He wouldn’t go near him , if I needed to let him out for a wee I had to send my son upstairs or outside so I could get the dog to walk through the house.

one Xmas me and DH were sitting chatting and I said my sons name , the dog literally exploded off the floor and flew out the room so fast he took the (large) xmas tree with him.

he also once saw him unexpectedly in the house and ran spraying shit everywhere in fear.

we got him from a rescue when he was about 11 months old and dog was like this from the first time he saw him. We assumed son reminded him of someone who had mistreated him , whether that was looks or voice or smell or mannerisms.

Can I just say I’m relieved to read that others have dogs who appear to have random fears and dislikes as I honestly though my dog was neurotic and was worried we’d somehow made him that way. It’s reassuring to know that other people’s dogs also have irrational fears!

Things my dog is scared of include windscreen wipers and long cardboard tubes. He also really doesn’t like the word ‘car’ and by extension, the word ‘carp’ which we discovered the other day when DS was talking about fishing.

It's super common - it's because they can't read their body language properly as they have such squashed faces and no tails.

Most dog communication is done via body language - the position of a dogs ears, tail etc. says a lot about how comfortable they are and whether they're friendly.

Lots of dogs don't even recognise these breeds as dogs as they just look so different to say, a labrador or a spaniel.

One of mine objects to most people... but very specifically he reacts to people who have been smoking or drinking.... clearly a weird anti vice dog 😂

Dog probably thinks he has his head on upside down!

@Spanielsarepainless Probably 😂