Roxy and Other Dogs

[KEITH WHITTER]

My 17 week Mal exhibits unusual behavior around every other dog.  When we are tooling around the yard she comes to my side and sits to watch the other dog.  She does not bark or make any noise whatsoever.  On walks when she sees another dog; even across the street from us, she drops into a sit and stares at the other dog.  Again, not making a sound.  Invariably, the other dog begins to pull on his/her leash and bark.  Roxy simply stays in her sit and stares.  What am I dealing with here?  Is it fear?  Natural aloofness?  Beyond my knowledge to determine.  My goal would be for Roxy to simply ignore the other dog and continue to walk without distraction.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there, welcome to the forums!

There can be several possible causes for this behavior. She may just be evaluating the situation, she may be sitting as a way to offer a calming signal (dogs use several appeasement gestures to demonstrate they are no threat) or it can be a freeze response from fear. 

How is the accompanying body language? 

Has she been socialized with other pups or dogs? Gone to puppy classes?

Has she finished all her vaccines?

By Mal, do you mean Malinois or Malamute? 

 

[KEITH WHITTER]

Hello Adrienne,

Thank you for the course and the reply.  Roxy exhibits various behaviors when confronting other dogs.  On walks she stops walking and just sits and waits for the other dog to pass by.   She doesn’t bark or whine, just watches the other dog.  If the other dog is aggressive she shifts herself up against my leg.  Sometimes she barks back and starts pulling on the leash.  She is a Belgian Malinois, and probably the smartest, sweetest dog I’ve ever been owned by. 🙂

[KEITH WHITTER]

She completed her vaccines a week ago.  Vet said wait two weeks before dog contact.  She has been socialized with many different people and she loves meeting new people.  She has never been interested in other pets; dogs, cats or even rabbits.  We are enrolled in our first obedience class at the end of the month.  Future plans are to continue obedience and eventually into agility.

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hi there,

Sorry for the delay! Thank you for the extra details, they are very helpful! 

Without seeing the accompanying body language, please understand that I can only make some assumptions. A deeper insight can be obtained by carefully watching the accompanying body language and carefully assessing the present situation, even relying on some pieces of past behavioral history.

For instance, are the ears plastered flat and the tail between the legs upon staring? Or are the ears forwards and tail up? How is your Mal interacting with the world around her in general? Are there any patterns  or related patterns emerging in any other contents? Can there be an underlying issue on a larger scale going on that is culminating in this behavior pattern or is this an isolated behavior? Also, what happens when the other dog leaves? Does your pup show signs of having the ability to calm herself down? 

These are things you may not have noticed much before, but that are worthy paying attention to for the purpose of learning more about how your dog is feeling in that particular context or situation. As soon as you start engaging her in classes, you may learn more about how she feels around other dogs. Ask the trainer to pay attention to her body language and offer insights. 

So let's cover some possibilities. I already mentioned some, but let's go a little more in depth on them and then see what we can do to work on the behavior. 

A Freeze Response 

When dogs are fearful or intimidated by something, they may react in different ways. Some dogs will bark, some others may freeze. In these cases, it helps to carefully watch the context in which the behavior occurs and the accompanying body language. 

When stopping to stare, is the dog exhibiting signs of stress? Rigid, lip licking, panting? Is there a hard stare? Is the forehead wrinkled? Is the body tense?

It also helps to gain some insights based on her history of how she normally interact with other dogs. At 17 weeks without a history of negative experience with a strange dog or lack of socialization, fear may be unlikely. 

A Calming Signal

Norwegian dog expert, Turid Rugaas, in her book "On Talking Terms With Dogs" lists sitting as a calming signal. When exposed to hyper, possibly aggressive or fearful dogs, some dogs will try to "appease them" by offering a sit. Other calming signals may unveil if we loosen the leash, such as walking slowly, turning the head, yawning and sniffing the ground. 

A Wait and See Approach

Sometimes, the reaction is mostly based on visuals. Your pup will just stare to see what happens next so to be prepared, so to say. As working dogs, Malinois are very smart and can be quite sensitive to any perception of conflict and therefore, they may need a bit more time to process and obtain safety cues in social contexts. It's important to allow these pups to process the situation.

It could therefore be that your Mal is pausing to read the other dog's body language and learning to understand subtle cues. It's their way of being "thoughtful." Try to identify if there is a pattern, does it happen mostly with unfamiliar dogs? or also with familiar ones? If only with unfamiliar, she may be "studying' their behavior so to make important decisions on how to interact.

Tips

Without knowing whether the behavior stems from fear, a calming signal or just a careful evaluation of the situation, we cannot tackle the issue directly going to the root cause, but the good news is that, in these situations, we can still have more basis covered by using a generalized approach. 

So in this case, you may find it helpful to work on engagement  and see how it goes from there. What is the desired alternative behavior? Not looking at other dogs? Then practice, moving around a bit to get your puppy's attention, then reward for "eyes on me."

Work ahead of time on this before adding the distraction of other dogs. Use the smacking sound to grab your pup's attention:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/the-airplane-game/the-smacking-sound/

Then add movement to engage your pup, you can train a few steps of attention heeling:  https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/obedience-101/heeling-attention-heeling/

Or ask your pup to come target your hand, before she has a chance to sit: https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/brain-training/preschool/targeting/

For sure though, sitting down, calmly watching other dogs walk by is far better than barking and pulling towards unknown dogs! Indeed, sitting calmly watching dogs can be a good alternate behavior for these overly excited greeters!

I hope this helps, let me know if you have any other questions or concerns, happy training!

Best,

Adrienne 

 

[KEITH WHITTER]

Thank you Adrienne!  You have provided me with excellent actions I can take.  I believe she is watching and waiting in most cases.  She has nearly tripled in size over the last 8 weeks, and she is becoming more confident with other dogs.  She still likes to watch them. 🙂

Her body language is tail curled up or wagging when standing, her ears are up and possibly tilted forward a bit, her mouth is closed and she simply looks directly at whatever it is: dog, cat, rabbit and even a duck once.

I appreciate all of your input and am looking forward to continuing our journey toward the Einstein level!

[Adrienne Farricelli]

You are very welcome! Keep us posted on how things go with Roxy!

[KEITH WHITTER]

Roxy has been improving every day.  We go through the basic obedience commands before every meal.  A minimum of 45 minutes in the morning of leash training.  She mostly ignores other dogs while we are out now.  Occasionally an aggressive dog (usually a Chihuahua 😃) leaps and barks at Roxy.  She will want to head the way but recovers her heel quickly. Very proud of her!

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Excellent! And I am proud of both of you! Keep up the great work.