My dog hates certain breeds of dogs (pitbulls, how much, lab)
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yes, my going-to-be 4 years old golden hates certain breeds of dogs! We live in an apartment where sometimes, we have to share the elevator and the nearby park with the other doggie residents.
I've noticed a trend and my dog hates breeds like german shephards, boxers, bulldogs, and bernese mountain dogs. He'd bark at them (from when they first met) whenever the elevator door opens andone of the abovementioned dog breeds happens to be in it, that we'd have to take the next elevator. We'd walk him at a park or somewhere he'd bark at any of the mentioned breeds.. What do you think is the reason for this?
I can probably understand his dislike for the bernese. There's an indoor place (fenced) in our apartment for dogs to do their business. Once when I brought him there, he was peeing halfway when 2 Bernese mountain dogs came with their dogwalker (she claims she's their dogwalker and not owner). One of the bernese started barking and the other somehow got off from the dogwalker's grip and ran for my dog, and jumped on the fence (luckily I had shut the fence door). My dog was startled and from then on, whenever my dog sees bernese mountain dogs, he'd start barking at them. However, with the other breeds, I have no idea....
On the other hand though, my dog really loves to 'meet' and play with other dogs.. He loves it when there are other goldens around, gets along with terriers, labs, huskies and older dogs.. doesn't really care but doesn't mind small dogs, even when they're barking at him. He won't bark when he meets the dogs he likes.
My dog has never showed any aggression before.. never bitten any dogs, anybody.. totally loves my 4 y.o niece..He'd growl and bark at the dogs he doesn't like, but i have never felt him lunge at the other dog..
Another thing, I think he knows when he's done something wrong! Whenever he barks at the dogs, I'd yell and say 'NO' to him with a raised voice, and sometimes, I'd go back to my apartment for a few minutes before going out again. First few times, I'd tell him to sit after that. Now though, he knows after I yell and say 'NO', he'd automatically sit, and inch his way such that he'd be next to me and leans his head on my leg (kinda weird to look at) and looks at me nervously with those guilty eyes.. but yet he shows no improvements..
Am i doing anything wrong? Why is he showing dislike to those breeds? What can I do?
I don't know that I can shed light on your issue of what to do about it, but I discovered I cannot foster long haired dogs as my own do not like them and attacked one - a skye terrier. So no yorkies, lhasa apsos or any long haired dogs (it's my only fostering request). I don't understand it either.
My dog hates pugs...I don't know why. Every other dog she whines to meet or wags her tail at but not pugs...someone has 3 of them and she just wants to bark and bark at them. They are very noisy and aggressive so I guess it bothers her.
We had a wondeful Great Dane we finally had to get rid of because of this. She had a terrible babyhood, my daughter took her in and worked with her. Most of the time she was a lover, but she would attack small dogs, even my daughters smaller dog. this occurred especially when she was stressed (company, noise, etc) eventually my daughter and husband got transferred to Poland for a few years and were not allowed to take a dog that large so we fostered her. well, she almost ate our little guy and I have scars to show what happens when you try to separate dogs. We never knew when she would freak out. Luckily there was a little old man, looking for a big dog, preferably a Dane and he wanted an older one, so if something happened to him doggy wouldn't have a long life without him. He worked out wonderfully. He got a great dog and we were able to live a normal life again.
my dog hates cattle dog types, but i think that's from experience - she likes to chase balls, they like to herd her while she does it. she HATES being herded. she's never actually gotten into a fight over it, but i won't take her into a dog park if those kinds of dogs are there, and leave if they come in. luckily my favorite park doesn't have any that come regularly.
she's actually indifferent to most dogs but looooves small breeds, labs, and greyhounds. and every once in a while there's a magical dog that she will actually play with. that seems more personality-related than breed-related though.
We had a Golden once that was scared of Labs. Don't know why. We had her her whole life and she never had anything happen to her that would explain this. She was once bitten by a GSD but never seemed to have any issue there, but anytime we were on a walk and came upon someone with a Lab - she would avoid it....
There are a lot of dogs that don't like my dog breed, even the friendly ones. This is what I've read from browsing on a few sites at least, and it seems to make sense with some of the breeds you mentioned.
I have a Chow Chow, she is super friendly and loves to meet other dogs, but she doesnt get the same reaction back. I read similar accounts from other chow owners as well. From what I understand, other dogs don't like chows because they look very different from your average dog. It is difficult for other dogs to read the expression due to the large fluffy head and curled over tail, apparently some dogs take the natural "scowl" expression to be anger, and they can't see the wagging tail since they are curled over. Some owners say that chows smell different too, but I'm not sure quite how much I believe that.
Anyhow, judging by you mentioning bulldogs, and others mentioning long-hair breeds, I'd guess something similar. It's not as easy for a dog to judge the expressions and happy tail wagging from these breeds due to the longer hair covering the faces, or faces shaped in a different way. Does your dog act that way with dogs that have short/docked tails? How about other long hair/fluffy breeds?
That'd be my best guess, and it seems somewhat reasonable. We've met up with a lot of other normally friendly dogs that are cautious towards our dog, and even my parents dog took a few visits till he got friendly and comfortable playing with our dog.
It might also be subtle aggressive body language cues that the OP's dog can read. Many different breeds share temperament traits that make them more extroverted or aggressive. Either that or the dog is associating certain traits with past bad experiences.
See, I don't believe that a dog hates all dogs of a particular breed. I hate hearing that and hear it every single day at the dog park. "My dog hates Bulldogs." Really? It's almost like saying your dog hates Asian people. Funny thing is, last night this was told to me by a guy with some kind of mutt, after his dog growled and lunged at my dog as we were passing by. 2 seconds later, his dog went after a golden, so I guess his dog hates goldens as well.
My dog can get along with any breed and sometimes comes across a particular dog that he just does not mesh with. Does that mean he hates all dogs of that breed? No. Just like humans, they pick and choose their friends and you can't expect them to be friends with every single dog they meet.
When my boy was a around 8 months old, he got attacked by 2 Pitbulls and they broke skin. Given human logic, he should be avoiding pits (or dogs that look like them since most humans can't correctly distinguish between pits and look alikes, so I imagine it's even harder for dogs) from now on, yet they are the first he will run to and play. Dogs don't discriminate like humans do. I'm sure he'd avoid the ones that attacked him (as he avoids the ones that snap at him at the dog park) but is welcoming to other, friendly ones of the same breed.
Last edited by MAK802; 11-05-2009 at 10:02 AM..
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