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Pupforum presents your training questions answered by professional dog trainers.
Lynne has been training dogs since 1985. She has worked as head trainer for two facilities, a studio trainer (print ads, commercials and television) and as a continuing ed and certification rep for what was then the largest dog training company in the US. Lynne is a member of the IACP and keeps her training techniques current by attending various seminars and reading books. She currently competes in the sport of schutzhund, has a registered therapy dog, and has started her young Papillion in agility. Lynne owns and runs Blazing Trails K9 Academy in Santa Clarita/Antelope valley California.
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8/10/2005
Are you interested in letting your dog play with other dogs? On a daily basis I work with people that are always searching for other dogs to introduce their dogs too. The problem they run in to is that they don’t always understand how to do this in a way that keeps everyone safe. The other problem is that many times, they are trying to force their dog to do something the dog doesn’t really want to do.
Take for example my grandmother with her 9 year old male border collie/Labrador retriever mix. This dog does NOT like to play with other dogs. Upon seeing another dog, the hair on his shoulders goes up, and he begins to lift his leg on anything vertical in the vicinity. He will TOLERATE the other dogs and not run over and pick a fight, but he’d just assume spend the majority of his time curled up at my grandmothers feet. And yet, she still insists that he needs to play with other dogs. I have a fear that one day she’ll learn the hard way that he doesn’t LIKE to play with other dogs for one reason or another, and that she shouldn’t try to force the issue. This is a common thread with many other people I work with. Everyone assumes their dog would prefer to play with other dogs. Not EVERY dog likes to play with other dogs though, and that’s perfectly fine.
Another problem I run into with people wanting to introduce their dogs to other dogs, is that they are so intent on watching the other dog, or the other handler, or trying to make them play, they don’t take the time to really watch
what their dog is telling them in the form of body language. I hear constantly “well, he always got along with dogs before and then out of nowhere he just snapped at another dog”. The usual diagnosis is that their dog had been telling them all along they really didn’t LIKE the other dog and that they’d really prefer to fight with him, but the owner either wasn’t watching, or didn’t know enough about body language to read the signs. So lets talk about what some of the GENERAL body language signs on a dog looks like.
First let’s go over displays of dominance. Generally a dog that is trying to display dominance leans forward, stares hard, ears pricked or perked forward, they’re up on their tiptoes, and if challenged may let off a deep throaty growl or begin to bark. There are always different variations on the theme in body language, but GENERALLY the dominant dog tries to appear bigger then the other dog. The tail is also up, but may be wagging stiffly. This is where many people go wrong. “He was wagging his tail” doesn’t necessarily mean the dog wants to play. It’s the TYPE of wag that makes all the difference in the world. Tail wagging is a gesture of “I want to INTERACT with you”. How the dog wants to interact is determined in the REST of his body language. A high stiffly wagging tail can be a dominant gesture, which although not in itself a sign of impending attack, it CAN be a signal that leads us to watch the REST of the dogs body language and the other dogs’ reaction very carefully.
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