Do Dogs Prefer Human Company (To Their Own Kind)?

My personal experience says yes…all of the dogs I have owned seem to prefer me to the other neighborhood dogs. So the question is: does your pet dog think he is actually a human? Or is it a case where he sees you as his pack leader, and hence, he should not hang with dogs outside the pack?:smiley:

Depends entirely on how the dog is socialized in its formative years.

Not knowing of any controlled studies, I will observe that dogs greatly enjoy leaping, cavorting, and (um) other activities with their own kind. However, humans give out food, belly rubs, retrieving opportunities and additional intellectual stimulation that other dogs cannot.

Our own dogs have obviously preferred socializing with us rather than other dogs in the household. Competition for our attention has been the general rule.

Slightly more srsly. . .

My social life consists of, on occasion, hanging out in dog parks.

Now, I have made it my habit to approach and pet every dog I see, which I’ve done since I was a pre-schooler. Nearly all dogs love to play with anyone who will play with them.

But I’ve noticed, however, at dog parks the dogs tend to prefer playing with each other than the humans who are around. They occasionally stop by to check out someone there, especially when a person just walks in, but mostly they play with each other.

The exception is in the case where a human is tossing balls for frisbees for them to chase. That always seems to take priority over everything else.

He prefers you because you are his pack leader, yes, and any other members of the family, who also in the pack. It does not follow that he won’t like socializing with other dogs, or even other humans, too. IME it varies quite a bit from dog to dog (and maybe from breed to breed) how much they like to socialize with outsiders.

If tehy have grown up feral, with other dogs, they will prefer those to humans.

It’s more or less the same question as, do seven year olds prefer the company of other seven year olds to that of their own family? Yes, if they’re playing with other compatible seven year olds. But they still want to go home and eat dinner, and go to bed in their own bed, and be surrounded by the safety and love of their own family.

Dogs are no different.

As dogs get older they usually become less interested in playing with, or even meeting, strange dogs. They prefer to hang with their family (human and canine).

By the way, Senegoid, I hope you are careful to only approach dogs who want to be approached. I know a lot of dogs who really do not want to interact with human strangers. I have had to protect my several non-extraverted dogs from people who were convinced that all dogs loved them because they loved all dogs (protect in the sense of having to step between them and my dog, because they were not going to listen to mere words).

This a common way to get bitten in the face, so please be careful to read the signals.

I guess I read dogs kind of automatically. It seems like I can tell if a dog is going to be friendly. Apparently, I get it right just about all the time.

I always invite a dog to approach me. They usually do.

I’ve been growled at a few times, snapped at a few times, nipped a few times – over a period of umpteen years. I’ve never really gotten chomped, not even once.

ETA: And that’s included a fair number of undisputed Pit Bulls too. On the friendly-breeds list, I’ve always found them, like Boxers, to be in the top-mostly tiers.

But this is not a balanced test.
If you only consider dogs you own, then you have:

  • spent hundreds of hours with them
  • fed them
  • become their pack leader
  • given them a home