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Today I took my dog to daycare for a half day of play.
I was tied up, and just before pickup time, I checked my voicemail and got a message that the dog had been acting out and could I come and pick her up.
She has always been wonderful with the other dogs. She LOVES this place and I would bet $ that she'd rather be with other dogs than me 24/7. She loves all dogs. Usually when she enters the room, she does the "roll on her back" greeting to show all that she's friend, not foe.
This is the first instance of her acting out. She was apparently barking in the other dogs' faces, nipping at them, and antagonizing them. One boxer decided he had enough and went at her. But the attendant intervened, so there was no injury.
Have any of you had experiences with your dogs where they are usually really good with other dogs, but have had one or two bad experiences on an exception basis?
The one thing I never thought I would have to worry about is my dog's harmony with other canines. Now I am worried.
Our dogs attend doggie daycare and we have gotten to know the owners well. They have attendants monitoring constantly and will give a dog a "time out" or even a short "nap time" if the dog seems tired, frustrated or annoyed. The owners say that dogs are just like people and can have a bad day.
One of our dogs recently came home from daycare with about an inch cut on his head...it was hard to see but I'm one of those moms (lol)! The cut looked like a tooth from rough play with another dog. When I called to find out what happened, they were unaware of the cut, but did tell me my dog had "time out" that day. That completely shocked me, my dog LOVES dogs and had never been in "time out" before...at least to our knowledge. They explained one of the younger dogs was becoming too much for my dog and my dog started to get grumpy. All is well since then and our dog has returned several times.
I would chalk your dog's bad to it being just that...a bad day...not a bad dog!
I just got a part time job at a place that does doggie daycare and boarding. And sometimes, there are bad combinations of dogs. This past weekend, there about 30 dogs in the big dogs yard. Five of them were troublemakers that we had to keep pulling and giving timeouts to. One was a Portuguese water dog, another was a Vizla, there was a short haired pointer and the other two were beagles.
There was no real aggression, but it was more that they would bark too much and harass some dogs that wanted to be left alone. We just tried to keep the overall mood friendly and relaxed. And while I believe that every dog should have a chance to bark and "talk", it's also not good to encourage the barking. And the dogs do play with each other, but just not the same rough and tumble way that my four puppies do. Which is part of the reason I kept them. They just love each other so much.
Otherwise, this doggie place is large enough that there is no reason to send any dog home early for bad behaviour. We have enough side rooms for timeouts or better smaller combinations of dogs.
My Bigun is like your dog, playful and respectful. Most visits to the dog park, he gives the other dogs their sniff time, either seated with his back to them, or belly up. When they are done, he moves to romp and tussle time. That's 99.9% of the times we've been out.
Then there were a very, very, very few occasions where another dog took more than a casual interest, and would not respond to Big's letting it know it was getting "TOO personal," and he snarled and leapt at it. In those few times, all but two (separate occasions) dogs stepped back, and moved on. In the two times, the other dogs came back snarly, and I stepped in to take Bigun for a time out.
In both cases, the cooling off period worked, and he was able to continue playing without further incidents.
Probably, had you been there, you would've been able to do the same, because you know your dog and what she's like. Daycare attendants cannot apply the same judgment.
I would not worry, as long as the incident is rare. Otherwise, think of it as an occasion to get to know your dog even better, and ask to work with her and the other dog's owners in some social settings.
Rolling over on the back to expose the belly doesn't necessarily mean she's friend, not foe. It means she's submissive. That doesn't necessarily mean she's fearful, but if she's too submissive, it could be problematical with other dogs.
As the others have said, I wouldn't worry too much about it if it's a one-time deal. Give her another chance (if the daycare will allow her to return). Every mixture of dogs is new; the hierarchy is new. Her role -- as a submissive -- in the pecking order is new. So the next time she goes, she may not have the same "problems" she had today, due to the different chemistry of dogs.
Your dog could act out because your not there to be the alpha figure. My dogs will be well behave so long as they know I'm nearby, but when they are away from the house, with strangers and know I'm not around, they flip to wild.
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