Our childhood dog always reacted violently to UPS trucks, and they came up out street all the time because one of our neighbors regularly received packages from them, due to his job. We knew the dog was sick one time when the UPS truck drove up the street and he woke up, stuck his head up a bit, and put it back down. 
Later, we knew he had gone deaf when he didn’t react to it at all.
Be careful of the Whateley boy, he’s known to carry a revolver. Though, it is prone to misfires.
Well I’ve had my dog Bailey (Maltese and Yorkie mix) for almost 10 years. The majority of that time, it was just me and him living in my house. He was my little buddy, my sidekick. It was almost two years ago when my girlfriend moved in and my little buddy has not been the same ever since.
Bailey went nuts as soon as Megan moved in. He became possessive but not of me, of my girlfriend! That is the opposite of what usually happens, a new person is introduced to the dog and the dog gets possessive of the owner. Not Bailey though. Bailey fell in love with Megan and treats me as an existential threat to his woman. 
Anytime i get home or even just enter a room, this dog flips out, yelping and growling and barking like crazy. I can’t overemphasis just how nuts he gets.
I thought this behavior would subside with time but it has only grown stronger. I don’t even like that fucking dog anymore, his personality and behavior is so sharply different from the dog that I had known for all these years. Even the object of my dog’s unrequited love can’t stand him anymore. Anywhere Megan goes (in the house), Bailey is desperately following her. He is her fucking shadow permanently. At first, she thought it was cute but the novelty has worn off and we’re both just sick of this crazy dog.
“Yes, Mama. But he was my dog. I’ll do it.”
LOL. You’re joking but I am seriously contemplating giving my dog to someone else. Personality issues aside, he is unbelievably cute. He’s definitely a calendar dog. And I think the driver of his behavior is my gf, so in another home away from her he’d be alright. I’m not quite there yet but each day inches me closer.
My dogs jump right in and expect Jim to give them rides!
That is just a smart dog. 
My dogs love everyone now. My older dog is a certified therapy dog - she has no issues with small kids, disabled adults who move strangely whatever. My younger dog was afraid of men with beards when I got her, but I’ve resolved that (by walking up to strange men at Home Depot and asking them to feed her a cookie) and she has decided that all people are awesome because they pet her. I walk them a lot. We pass all sorts of people, stoners, alcoholics, stoned alcoholics, and regular folks with no issues. I use them to teach small children to not be afraid of dogs. About 2 weeks ago, we were passed by an teenager around 16-17 years old. My dogs LOST THEIR MINDS. Absolutely ballistic. This kid likes dogs. He is the neighbor of a neurotic Border Collie who loves him. We saw him a week later while walking with the Border Collie along. Border Collie = NEIGHBOR KID! THROW ME A STICK. My dogs = WE WILL KILL YOU KID!
Heh.
Though, yes, he really is. Smart, wierd, fearful, and HUGE. I suspect the fearful and smart go together - He’s smart enough to realize the world is a dangerous place, but not smart enough to figure out what to do about it - Except bite it.
Good for you for taking him on.
I had a doberman mix who was great with everybody. A good dog, well-socialized, that I took everywhere. I stopped by church one day as Mass was letting out - to bring something to my parents, I think. Maggie was mingling, doing just fine. Stanley was a guy in the parish, from Africa. He had a little daughter, a toddler, who had his keys, and Stanley was afraid she’d lose them, so he tried to take them away from her. She started fussing and Maggie rushed over and put herself between Stanley and his daughter. She had no intention of letting that guy get to the baby.
Similar situation, I was at my parents’ house waiting for their cable guy to show up. He came and was working on the cable inside the house. The whole time, Maggie stayed between him and me. He turned around suddenly and gave me a work order to sign and she snapped at him (didn’t get him), but he knew he couldn’t come close to me with the dog there. I trusted her judgement.
StG
Both a dog owner and son of a retired mail carrier. Based on Dad’s experience, and my dogs’ behavior, Sunny Daze is right. He (my dad) said that a lot of dogs seem to read businesslike behavior as “up to no good” and take offense. When the person drops his stuff and leaves, the dog seems to think that he’s successfully protected his home from a threat, which reinforces the behavior.
Dad carried the big end of a sawed off pool cue and a can of dog repellent (in the days of lax leash law enforcement) , but rarely needed to use either. He got good at recognizing whether to ignore, walk away, back away, or stare down a dog acting aggressively.
My family had a dog like that. Ferocious around unknown, therefore suspicious, men and boys, but docile with unknown women or children.
She often displayed a mixture of emotions. The neighbor (male), who she knew well, and who was no threat, elicited a loud bark accompanied by a sheepish, wagging tail.
I can recall dogs in our US army unit in Vietnam who had an obvious and intense dislike of Vietnamese natives. They could tell the difference between a US GI and a Vietnamese, even though the Vietnamese often wore discarded GI uniforms, so it wasn’t the clothes that set them off.
I fostered a dog that was very friendly towards black people, but was scared to death of white folks. And I’m white, it took him a while to get used to me. Still didn’t like other white folks though.
Also, “Loves black people” isn’t exactly something you can put in an adoption ad.
What with being home all the time, and spending waaaay to much time with these dogs, I’ve come to the conclusion that they are scary smart, and know and can sense things we have no clue about.
We hang out in the shop, and I’ll head towards the door (same direction as the fridge), and all I have to do is say, “Stay” and they don’t move. But if I head over to the stereo, and turn it off, they bolt to the door, because they know we’re going in to the house. My wife says they hear my car way down the road and get all worked up and ready to greet me. If we’re out in the desert and I start the Jeep, they know its time to go, and come running.
And yet they smell sooo bad!
nm nm nm
Our family dog during my teenaged years, an otherwise mellow-tempered Belgian Malinois, took it upon herself to be my chaperone. She would let my boyfriends in the house without reaction, but if one attempted to touch me, even something as innocent as helping me on with my coat, she would grab his wrist in her teeth, gently without breaking the skin, while growling. If he struggled to get away, she would tighten her grip. She always stopped short of biting or injury, but the threat behind her gesture was obvious.
In all our years of having her, I never saw her exhibit any other negative reactions to anyone.
Our current dog (‘pit bull’ type) has never had a negative reaction to a human in any circumstance I’ve seen. New guests, delivery people and contractors in the house, all fine. Loud people and quiet people, people of all colors, fine. Little kids running up and hugging her fine. People following behind me at night fine. People hauling off and slugging me perhaps fine; that hasn’t happened yet and I wouldn’t risk it, based on her appearance, if I was somebody thinking of doing it. She saves up all her aggression for other dogs. 
Our previous dog (Beagle type) had quirky reasons for disliking some people. Race seemed to be one factor, embarrassingly.
My parents had a Scotty that may have been a bit racist. He was a rescue dog that my cousin got from a shelter, then realized he couldn’t keep him, so my folks took him in. The dog was generally friendly to everyone, but did NOT like the guy who came to read the water meter every month, who was black. It was an older house with the water meter in the basement, so they’d have to put the dog in one of the bedrooms and close the door while the meter reader was in the house.
That might have been a case of territoriality + ‘strange person.’ IME, Scotties can be pretty territorial.
Years ago, in my teens, I had the sweetest female Doberman that LOVED, LOVED everybody… except my best friend’s uncle. She would growl and stay between me and him whenever we encountered him in the neighborhood or at my friend’s house. A couple of years later, I learned he was put in prison for molesting young girls.
I currently have a Pitbull/Caucasian Ovcharka mix… she’s a HUGE 110 lb. baby and oh so sweet. But she does NOT like women with really bleached blonde hair. One day, a lady friend came to visit. She has an almost white blonde bob hairdo. My previously always sweet dog started barking and growling at her, every hair on her neck and back standing on end! At the time, I had no idea why and didn’t realize it was the hair color. A few weeks later, we encountered another girl with the same almost white blonde hair in a ponytail. NOPE, she didn’t like her, either. It was then I started to figure it out. When we’re out and about for a walk, she’ll stare really hard at anyone with bleached hair and won’t go anywhere near them, no matter how hard they try to charm her. Everyone one else she meets is her best friend. I have no idea why she reacts this way. I’ve had her since she was 8 weeks old and she just turned 3 years old. She hasn’t experienced anything negative that would make her react this way. It’s the weirdest thing … I just don’t know …