I feel funny asking a dog question like this, since I am around many dogs on a daily basis. We have a foster dog here named "Ginger"..she is small around 30 pds. We are not sure what she is maybe some sort of beagle mix. Anyways, she is the cutest,sweetest dog. She gets along WONDERFULLY with the other dogs. I have my 2 dogs, plus other customer dogs who come and go. She is playful with each dog who comes here. She loves the kids, rolls on the bed with Faith. They are so cute together.
OK..now the bad part. On Sundays we have adoption shows at the local Petsmart.I put a leash on her and bring her up there. All the volunteers sit there with their foster dogs. Little miss Ginger will growl at every dog who comes by her to sniff. It is so unbelievable to me. This sweet little girl who runs and rumps with dogs at my house will growl at dogs at petsmart. I have to sit separate from the other volunteers/dogs so there will be no fights. Yet, when people come to pet her, her tail wags and she is happy for the attention. I just dont get it? Anybody else ever experience a dog like this?
Next week is a big Local adoption show where all dift groups in the area were bringing their dogs for adoption. The adoption coordinator of our group suggested I did NOT bring Ginger to this event LOL...it is big and very cramped, and she just didnt want to stress Ginger out. I came home and Told my husband that Ginger was banned from next weeks adoption show. We laugh about it, because she is the sweetest little girl at home.
What do you all think about this? Common, not common? Of course we do not know her background.

By Bobbie~moderatr on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 10:04 am:

Could be the stress of being in "public"? We had a dog that would freak every time we went to the vet, even for boarding. She just hated the noise, the people, the smells.. It would set her off every time. She too was an angel at home.. She just didn't adjust well to the stimulation. Went into over load.

By Tink on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 11:11 am:

This is exactly how my dog is. She is wonderful at home, great on walks when we encounter other people, but freaks out when she is exposed to other dogs and she's not in an environment where she knows the territory. I think it's an overcompensation to being a small dog (mine is about 15lbs) and feeling insecure about not being on her own turf, so to speak. Unfortunately, I don't have a clue how to train her out of it.

By Hol on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 01:00 pm:

It seems like she is very happy at your house and feels secure with your human family and your furbabies. Yet, when she is around other dogs, away from your home, she feels either threatened or maybe protective of you? Maybe she is afraid that you'll bring one of THEM home? I'm assuming that the other dogs in your home were there before her?

It's hard to say what is going through her mind. And, you're right. You don't know what happened to her in her past. Don't you wish that they could talk so that they could tell you what they're feeling? Although, we can talk, and we don't always understand our OWN feelings, or know how to communicate them.

She sounds like a cutie. Maybe she wants to be YOUR dog forever. God bless you for doing that sort of work. The world needs more people like you.

By Cocoabutter on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 02:31 pm:

My dog is large, about 60 pounds. She acts up when we are on walks and she encounters another dog. They meet, and they begin sniffing. The other dog will begin by sniffing her nose, then down her back. By the time they get to her rump, she snaps and growls.

My vet said it is an obedience thing. When you have a dog tugging on the leash and the owner following behind trying to pull back, that puts the dog in the dominant position. She needs to be reminded that she is not the dominant figure, and in order to do that, voice commands are more useful. She also said we do not reward bad behavior with a soft voice. (Like- "It's okay, Cocoa, she's a nice doggy!) It is necessary to use a firm tone. (Like- "COCOA, NO!")

It works with my dog now. She responded much better to my voice commmands than I thought she would!

By Reds9298 on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 04:18 pm:

Riff (my older Jack) has absolutely no social skills except for with our other dog. He's not aggressive with other dogs, just barks constantly and is irritating as can be. It's like he doesn't know how to act around other dogs at all, like he's confused about them or something. He's fine if a stray comes to the fence, but face to face with no barriers he turns into a weirdo. Maybe she's just nervous? Maybe she's trying to "protect" you from other dogs? It's hard to say, but actually I think it's kind of cute that she got banned from the adoption show.

By Hol on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 08:48 pm:

We had a lab/spaniel mix for fourteen years that we adopted from a shelter. She was THE most placid dog. She loved everybody, and other animals. We used to take her hiking up the woodland trails behind our house. She loved it and would run on ahead of us, then double back to get us. Bob used to say that if we walked ten miles, she walked twenty, coming back to get us. LOL!

One day, we encountered a young couple coming the other way with a puppy. All of a sudden, Bonnie went running up to the puppy, showing her teeth and growling! TOTALLY uncharacteristic for her! We were embarrassed and tried to explain to the couple that she had never done that before. She never did it again, either. It was a sad day when she got too old to hike with us anymore.

We don't know why she did it. Bob said that maybe she came to think of the trails as HER yard, though she certainly would have let ANYONE in the house or our real yard. Or maybe there was something about that particular dog. We never knew.

By Hol on Thursday, September 14, 2006 - 08:56 pm:

Deanna - your Jack Russsell sounds like our Brittany Spaniel. He's a maniac. (I LOVE your description of your jack as a wierdo! LOL!). "Howdy" is 11 and thinks that he is "king of the mountain". He tolerates our two Beagles, and he accepted our cocker spaniel when we brought her home. (She went to the Rainbow Bridge in 2001). However, we tried to bring home a female Brittany that we rescued from a terrible situation. She looked a lot like him, and they made a cute little couple. However, he HATED her! To make matters worse, she put her paw on his back, which I guess is a sign of dominance. He went after her. We had to break them up. He is too "alpha". We gave her to our friend, the animal control officer, and she got her a very good home.

Bob and I think that he accepts the Beagles and the cocker because they are smaller than he is. He didn't like the other Brittany because she was as tall as he was. I've seen him do the "paw on the back" thing with the Beagles. They don't care, but he has to be the boss.