So very true. You can tell the people in our neighborhood who’ve been to obedience training or are familiar with dog behavior because they always ask, “Is your dog friendly?”, “May I pet your dog?” or “Can we say hi?” And they do it while they’re still several feet away from you.
That would explain Snooky’s behavior. He was the toy dog we had when I was growing up. His inner untamed beast wanted to run with the wolves. We always thought he was a bad dog. Turns out we were ignorant dog owners.
Shit. It sounds like it’s a good thing that the OP is taking dog-owning lessons too.
You show me a dog that isn’t allowed around people and will “bite the living shit out of you if you weren’t looking out”, and I’ll show you a poorly trained dog. Doesn’t matter if it’s a Chihuahua or a Great Dane
I hate the look of those dogs. The Pitbull first and foremost is an athlete. It was bred to be an athlete. I like to think of them as something like a linebacker or halfback. Not the biggest man on the field or the fastest but a combination of strength, speed, and cardio that makes them a complete package. If people wanted to breed a large, overbuilt, lineman of a dog there are many other breeds that would be better choices. Hopefully when the Pitbull regains some stature as a good family dog and isn’t the go to dog for thugs we will see the disappearance of such lines. I honestly think their has been some progress in the past few years towards such a goal.
Haplo was crazy - I mean, he actually had some sort of mental illness or something. He was fine until he turned maybe eight or so, and then he started with the biting - he’d give you no warning whatsoever, be fine for hours with a new person, and then bam, you’d be holding your arm in the air with dog attached.
We had his eyes checked - wasn’t that, although it would have explained it. We had a trainer come and give private lessons, because no obedience class would take him (he’d had some lessons but not a lot, and he was an independent little terrier, so he needed a lot of work in general that we didn’t give him.) He did get better, but of course I still didn’t trust him with anybody else - the trainer agreed that he was “a little screwy”.
Anyway, the main point is, I was 12 years old when I got Haplo. I was 29 when we got Captain. Do you think we might have learned a thing or two in the meantime? I mean, jeez.
ETA - that was a response to Jack Batty.
So the woman is in this class to learn how to handle her dog, and when confronted with a situation she is unsure about, she asks the instructor instead of making her own decision. I don’t see what’s so pitworthy about that. And if she’s being pitted for not automatically recognizing how safe Captain is, I would think the instructor who misidentified him would be first in line for that.
Here’s hopin’.
No offense, I hope, but the mere fact that the owner is sure the dog wouldn’t hurt a flea is not a good indicator that the dog won’t bite. As you mention, the dog is not used to being around other animals, and he was trying to get away from the contact. I’m not so sure I would force this kind of contact of a smaller dog with a larger, unsocialized, obviously frightened dog either.
Yes, yes, I know - your dog wouldn’t hurt a fly. They never do.
Put it this way - shouldn’t you be extending the same kind of understanding towards the Sheltie as you want the other owner to extend to Captain?
Regards,
Shodan
Nothing wrong with the Sheltie. Looks like a nice dog.
Captain wasn’t trying to get away from the contact with any of the dogs. He was just also making some noise and staying close to my legs. (And when things got hectic, he tried to crawl into my lap.) When the other dogs approached he went out to greet them and sniffed them very politely. The classroom is set up so that none of the dogs are very close to each other when seated with their owners, so if you have your dog in hand they aren’t close enough to interact physically normally.
ETA - and like I said, there were other dogs that were actually snarling. Well, one. Just because it was a little dog doesn’t mean it won’t bite, and it isn’t like a Sheltie couldn’t get the hell bitten out of it by that little daschund. But she wasn’t worried about Snappy.
There’s a movement afoot to designate those dogs a new breed, the “American Bully.” Such movements are always popularity contests, and only time will tell if the designation sticks. Those “Gotti line” dogs look like they have hip dysplasia in their FRONT hips, for crying out loud.
When you have a dog that potentially looks aggressive - you have to be aware and ready for the perception other people have that he may be aggressive. We have a very friendly, rather silly, omega German Shepard mix - but the coloring, the size, the long muzzle with lots of teeth are all indicators to people that he’s aggressive. So I find myself starting conversations with the pizza delivery guy or the Fed Ex guy with “he’s friendly” as I keep a firm grip on his collar. I also try and remember that not everyone is comfortable with big dogs - and the Fed Ex guy has probably had more than one bad experience with a dog since some people’s dogs ARE aggressive.
We have friends who have a boxer - that dog is always mistaken for a pit bull by people who can’t tell one breed from another.
Captain looks like a great dog - those eyes are sweet. But this will happen over and over again and you are going to have to figure out a way to deal with it. There is the “walking the dog dance of respect” that owners do “do you want your dog to interact with my dog…do I want my dog to interact with your dog…are you all business and trying to teach your dog to ignore other dogs - or are you out looking for doggie socialization opportunities?” I always assume the if they have their dog pulled to the side as we walk by that they are trying to teach their dog to respect other dogs space - not that they think MY dog looks aggressive - or that they assume I don’t have my dog out for socialization.
Yeah, but this is a class! I expect the UPS man to be concerned, and we’re working on getting him not to charge the door. But there are dogs in the dog class, yes. It’s a shock, I know. Some of them are in need of training, cause it’s a dog class. She was only, ONLY worried about my dog, and my dog was not behaving in any way that should scare anybody.
I guess it’s sort of understandable that she wouldn’t be afraid of the dachshund who was snarling. I mean, I would worry, but maybe she just thinks, “Oh, small.” (Not that that’s a smart attitude at all.) And if the Weimeraner wasn’t growling, there’d be no reason to be afraid of him.
Of course not, but he had quite a lot of teeth to show everybody. And Pees on the Floor could well get your toes damp. (Pees on the Floor sleeps in the bed with her owner and the owner’s hapless boyfriend, by the way. One does hope she isn’t also Pees in the Bed.)
There was also a dog that I really might have not wanted my dog to go up to, because it was really scared - hiding scared, wouldn’t come out to the instructor to work on “sit”, etc. Petrified. A dog like that really might bite unexpectedly. It was about the same size as the Sheltie.
YMMV, but I don’t allow my dog to approach any other dog that is visibly nervous or upset. That’s just asking for trouble, to me, especially since my own dog is a nervous type.
Also, while I totally agree with your right to vent and rage and pit people, why does what she was wearing make her a cunt? I really wouldn’t have expected that of you, Zsofia, though I understand you were posting in the heat of your feelings.
IME folks who don’t “speak” dog, (i.e. can’t read body language) often have a strange reaction to brindles. I don’t know what it is about the look of a brindle coat, but they just assume this is an aggressive dog.
My Dad raised English bulldogs, a line that was almost too wimpy for my to have respect for, (we’re talking fawning, belly-to-world, whiny dogs here, but sweet, definitely perfect family pets) but people often refused to take the brindles because they just seemed more aggressive.
I also think that she was in a class. Hopefully everyone was there to learn, and she paid money to have an instructor on hand in order to receiuve advice when she felt she needed it. Is it at all possible that she didn’t want to stress your dog further? That she could see he was nervous?
A nervous fearful dog is the most dangerous. You can NOT predict when they will snap into defense mode.
But I love your defense and loyalty to your dog. It’s great, truly.
And not everyone in the class is used to dogs. If you knew all about dogs, you wouldn’t need the class. But the students in the class often have fairly limited exposure to dogs. Your dog made her uncomfortable. She apparently knows so little about dogs that she prefers snarling small ones to yours.
Oh, it wasn’t just what she was wearing - in general she just doesn’t seem like a person of quality. Like the kind of person who’s afraid to go downtown because of all the black people. I don’t generally use that word, though. (She said something about my baby.)
Technically three, but the breed standards seem so similar I personally don’t see the point.
The more generalized problem with pits is generations of backyard breeders have created a huge melange of “shelter dog” pit mixes of all sizes and types. This is my neighbor’s shelter-acquired pit mix, Cooper. That largish, squarish head tends to be the defining characteristic for most people, likely hence Zsofia’s classroom issues.
Frankly from this first photo, I could kinda see the confusion. He does look like he might have a bit of pit in him. And as a shelter dog he might. Thing is Catalhouhans seem to vary a fair bit themselves, being rather loosely defined as a breed and the other pictures of Captain in profile suggest otherwise. So he may have a little pit, maybe not.
The breach in etiquette is not being unsure of whether a dog with a sizeable, squarish head might not be dog aggressive. It would probably raise a question in my mind as well - pit mixes tend to be and it’s reasonable to be aware at least. It’s just in a dog training class, it’s a little gauche to act like a dog that so far hasn’t displayed any overt aggression is ipso facto such a threat that you can’t carefully bring your two leashed animals near each other for a sniff. It’s a controlled situation and if I were the OP I’d be a little exasperated at that move as well.
That said Zsofia, it probably would be worth it to develop a thicker skin on this issue. It almost certainly won’t be the last time and probably the best thing to do is develop a sense of ( resigned ) humor about such reactions, no matter how silly. That also makes it easier to defuse tensions in such situations. As we can see even in this thread, some people are just a little too conditioned to be fearful of any pit-seeming dog.
Exactly - I mean, the whole thing is supervised, and the trainer definitely has control over the class. It’s not the same thing as the UPS guy being afraid when I answer the door to sign something and he’s trying to squirm out around me (I hop out and close the door while we work on “go to your bed”.) He probably hears “He’s a really nice dog!” all the time. Hell, I want my neighborhood miscreants to get a good look at his junkyard face and think better of any ideas to break into my house. But it’s really annoying and kind of insulting in a classroom setting.