Last night I visited my cousin and his wife, they have an approx two year old black labrador dog called Cassie. I’ve met Cassie a handful of times before so I’m not a total stranger.
While talking to my cousin Cassie kept nudging up to me to be petted, which I was happy to do so, whenever I stopped she would nudge me to start again.
However after about ten minutes I was surprised when she bared her teeth at me, I took my hand back but she snuggled forward again to be petted, when I petted her again after about ten or so seconds she would start baring her teeth at me again. So naturally I stopped petting her and she eventually left the room in a huff.
Both my cousin and his wife said they’d never seen her act that way before, she didn’t seem to be being aggressive in any other way or about to bite so what was going on?
I had a client whose dog would do that. The people he got her from had been abusive to her so while she wanted me to pet her she’d also get scared.
She snuggle up to be pet and then show her teeth.
I’d just pet her anyway, but I was careful not to make any sudden moves and I never bent over near her. I didn’t want my face anywhere near her teeth.
My dog paws (which ends up being claws) people if they stop petting her and she’s really into it. If I’m scratching her belly and stop, she growls and eventually barks. If we’re sitting in a room talking and she wants attention she’ll growl and eventually bark.
She’s not abused or mean or anything - she’s just a spoiled brat. How else does a dog have to communicate displeasure (displeasure with you stopping) than to growl?
If there were no other signs of nervousness or aggression, she may have just been grinning at you because she was happy/excited. Our lab mix does that, and so did the one we had when I was a teenager. It’s…quite disconcerting the first time you experience it.
It’s especially bad with Dolly, because she loves to meet people at the door, and she gets super-excited when we have new visitors. So people walk up to the door, and through the fanlight they can see a dog hopping around in the hallway with its teeth exposed. We warn folks, and she’s play-bowing and wagging her tail so hard her whole butt is swaying, but it still makes even people who are used to dogs a little nervous until they get to know her. People who aren’t used to dogs tend to be silently certain they’re going to the hospital before the night is over.
I am a new puppy owner and have been doing a lot of reading on dog training and behavior. If a dog demands attention by nudging you that is a sign of dominance by the dog. As the dog begins to feel it is the boss, its behavior will get worse and more disruptive, and the dog will be unhappy because it will try to control the situation, and it can’t. We are training our puppy that when people arrive it first needs to sit nicely, and then it will get the attention that it wants. If it displays too much alpha behavior, we go back to the basics such as feeding it by hand, not allowing it to get ahead of us on walks, and making it sleep in its crate.
Was the teeth baring accompanied by growling, raised hairs, or other signs of aggresion? If not, it might just be an over excited dog ‘smiling’ like CrazyCatLady said.
That’s exactly the word I was looking for, very off-putting.
Nope, no other signs of aggression, I didn’t think she was going to bite me but I wasn’t sure why she was doing it which is why I was worried.
That all makes sense but just one thing, how do you keep a dog behind you when out walking? I haven’t owned a dog for some time but my last dog (who was a working sheep dog turned pet when we stopped farming) would run miles ahead and do her own thing when I took her out for a walk, and a less assertive and alpha dog you couldn’t meet.
One time I was feeding grass to a horse in a field when I stepped backwards and nearly tripped over her, she was tucked right in behind my legs hiding from the horse. I suppose it would be worrying enough if you were the size of a border-collie.
I have some idea of what works for our dog, but each situation is going to be different. Our dog is small and is always on a leash outside, mostly for its own protection. When we get to a doorway I give him the “wait” command which means he hangs back until I am through the door and say “okay”. If he get’s ahead of me I stop and change direction, then he is behind me again.
I agree with the grinning theory, if there were no other signs of aggression. I’ve had labs before who do that, and currently my granny’s lab does it. My theory is that they imitate it from us smiling.
Ebony even does it if I say: “where’s my smiley puppy?”, she’ll flash her big (disconcerting) grin at me. It looks exactly like a horrible snarl, except she’s wagging like a maniac and there is no sound.
The reason I think it’s imitation, is that it’s always the more intelligent and empathetic dogs that do it, in my experience. By contrast Ebony’s brother Willow is an adorable oaf and he doesn’t smile. (He can’t even fetch properly, which is pretty tragic for a labrador! Poor sod.)
ETA: I agree dominance is over diagnosed, and nudging need not be a dominant thing at all.
Thanks. I have read that website before and probably agree with most of it. We can substitute “bad behavior” for “dominance” and “leadership” for “alpha”. We have trained our puppy with positive reinforcement and ground rules. If he displays a behavior we don’t like, we reward for a different behavior we do like.
I am not sure if dominance theory is disproved entirely, but personally I prefer to look at the situation as one of mutual respect and trust, where we lead because that is essential to make things work.
Smiley pit bulls look more like they’re actually smiling though, don’t they? Labradors pull their top lips up and show their teeth in the same way they do when they snarl. I think pits sort of widen their whole mouth. They do look adorable when they do that!
I just felt compelled to mention that if one substitutes ‘submissive’ or ‘slave’ for every occurrence of ‘puppy’ or ‘dog’ in that post, it not only still makes sense, but evokes some pretty interesting mental pictures…
There was a good article posted just the other day about submissive grinning in dogs. Some dogs - not many - will pull back their top lips when they’re super happy and submissive. It sort of looks like snarling but the corners of their mouths are usually relaxed, their ears and soft and relaxed, and they often close their eyes partially. Their whole body says “I’m super relaxed!”, it’s just the front teeth they’re showing. When a dog snarls for real, on the other hand, their whole mouth is exposed, their eyes stare at their target and their bodies get rigid.
Here’s a bunch of links with photos, so you can compare. I would guess Cassie was just really into your scritches.
In re dominance and dogs: a whole lot of unnecessary unpleasantness. Imagine if every time you saw your boss, he jumped up your nose, shouting, “I AM BOSS! I AM ALPHA!” Now imagine living with that. Calm down, dude. You’re going to give yourself a stroke.
My family’s dog (also a black lab) does the smiley grin a lot too. It looks just like what this dog is doing:
He does it when he is really excited and wagging his tail so much that his entire backside wags like crazy. It’s so cute. I think it’s a lab thing. Though my dalmatian used to smile. Now that looked scary if you didn’t know he was actually grinning. We used to call it a “smarl,” a cross between a smile and a snarl.
My 3 1/2-year-old black Lab does bare her teeth and make disconcerting huffing and panting noises when she is on her back getting a chest and belly rub. I figure it’s either because she’s nuts, or else she’s indicating that while she’s enjoying the attention she knows she’s vulnerable, and just wants me to know that if I decide to attack, she can defend herself.
But my money is on her being nuts.
I think a dog which bares its teeth like that, or engages in other disapproved-of behavior to get attention, should be ignored rather than have you reinforce the behavior. For instance, if your dog barks to interrupt a conversation because it wants attention, ignore it and/or leave the room.
Poor sod.)