My dog is cool, but he does a few things that I think are strange.
A lot of times he’ll walk right up to me, turn around and show me his rear, just out of nowhere. You’ll just be sitting there and he’ll come up to you, turn around and get his ass as close to you as possible. He does this to everyone. Is this his way of telling us to fuck off ?
If you aren’t eating or drinking anything, he just walks up and hands me his paw. Is he trying to hold my hand?
He’s got a bunch of toys that he chews on all the time, he never cares if one of us humans touch any of them. But when we take him for a walk, he grabs onto his leash with his teeth and won’t let go. When we get home from our walks, he lets us unhook the leash, but he won’t let you take it away. He sits there and guards it, if you try to take it away, he growls or snaps at you. What’s with the attachment to the leash?
He hates plaid. If anyone wears a flannel shirt, the dog stands there and barks at you. He doesn’t care if it’s on the ground, in the laundry or thrown over a chair, but he hates it if it’s actually being worn by anyone. I don’t get that at all.
Lots of dogs like to be scratched just forward of the tail. Sometimes, it’s due to a skin problem, but usually they just like it.
It sounds like somebody once taught him to “shake hands,” and rewarded him for it. Some dogs will spontaneously perform their tricks without a command. Maybe he’s trolling for a treat.
He might have a problem with his anal glands, does he sit and scoot on the carpet?
My dog does this with his paw. He likes the attention and so do I. I don’t have to scratch him or anything when he does this, just sit there and share the moment.
I’d be careful with the leash guarding. Growling and snapping shouldn’t be permitted but breaking the habit depends on your dog’s history. That might be a job for a professional dog trainer.
My dog goes berserk when people wear long winter coats. She barks and growls at anyone wearing one, but becomes as docile as a lamb once the coat is taken off.
A dog’s mind is status/rank oriented, and the main indicator of his rank is the odor of his anal glands. This is why dogs smell each other’s ass, and why a humiliated dog keeps its tail between his legs" covering his glands to hide his lack of status.
I had (well, the father’s wife had) a Lab mix who hated hot air balloons with a passion. Nothing else fazed this dog; he was a cool character otherwise, but the balloons? Freak-time.
I had a half-chow, half-American dingo dog who hated, hated, hated to see me in a hat, especially a knitted cap. He’d bark and growl as if he’d never seen me before. The whole thing just freaked him out, even worse than “that doggie in the mirror”.
That being said, he was one of the smartest dog I’d even known. He just had his hangups, I guess.
My dog does the ass thing and the paw thing. I am told that the “let me just get my ass as close to you as I possibly can … there we go,” maneuver is some kind of dominance thing. The dog is claiming you, a la a conquistadore with an ass-shaped flag.
The paw thing for my dog is basically a “hey, jackass, pet me,” maneuver, as far as I can tell.
If my dog is kind of sounding like a jerk, well, I won’t argue against that interpretation. He’s also a bigot, but that’s a whole 'nother story.
The “ass” thing sounds submissive to me. A dog mounting another dog from behind is a sign of dominance. It sounds like he’s giving you his ass so you can mount it. Oh, don’t actually mount the ass.
The paw thing can be submissive or dominant or neither. It’s dominant for a dog to put its paw across anothers back or neck (sometimes it’s a precursor to mounting). It can do that to people, too. I suspect it’s just a call for attention. My dog will paw the couch to remind me that it’s feeding time or just to get his head scratched.
Don’t know about the leash. Sounds a little dominant, like he’s commandeering the walk. I wouldn’t let my dog do it. I wouldn’t let him growl or snap at me over anything. That’s REALLY behavior you should try to curb. I’d make a point of pinning him down and taking the leash from him and scolding him.