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Old June 2nd, 2010, 02:25 PM
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Spatx Spatx is offline
Mom of Cody and Nova
 
Join Date: Feb 2005
Location: Toronto
Posts: 591
Trouble greeting dogs - Any ideas?

I've been dealing with an on going problem with Nova's behaviour. She has trouble meeting dogs.

Here is a scenario:

Walking down the street, she sees a dog. Nova gets really excited, scramble walks, bounces, wags her tail, she can't wait to go see the dog!

The dog goes to say hello to her, she instantly snaps and starts growling, snapping and becoming super defensive. It doesn't matter the size of dog - she does this to any dog from a chihuahua to a great dane. It is aggravated more by large dogs though.

She won't let the dogs sniff her, or if they are excited and trying to come see her she will constantly snap at them. She is not trying to bite, but acts extremely defensive.

Once we eventually get past the initial reactions and the other dog is no longer interested in her - she's perfectly fine. She'll be around them no problem, even play with them. This is what happened on the weekend when she met a large shepherd X a friend has. It took a good 10 minutes until the other dog finally lost interest, but then they started to play. Play bows, chasing, stalking each other. They had great fun!

But initial meetings are extremely stressful because she flips out. I avoid meeting other dogs on the street since there is no time for her to get past the initial reactions and calm down. I go to a park and the dogs know each other, so there is hardly any problems there unless a dog she doesn't know comes.

There are certain dogs that she just loves, kisses them and is all over them - but they all have something in common, they plain out ignore her.

Any dog that shows too much interest in her she will show her teeth to and constantly tell them off if they get too close.

I've never seen a behaviour like this with other dogs before, and was wondering if anyone had any insight? I've been told it can be a Border Collie problem, and know another BC that goes to our park with the same problem, but only much worse and will never allow other dogs to go near her. (Unless she is around them all the time and accepted them as one of her pack).

They aren't trying to hurt the other dogs, but are definitely warning, telling them off, being very defensive, and extremely snappy.

Ideas?
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Cody - Australian Shepherd
Nova - Border Collie
Sniper - Border Collie/Cattle Dog X
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