dog owners question
Discussion
A question for you.
I love dogs and they like me.
However tonight on a home delivery shop i went to a customers door, rang the bell customer comes to the door as does the dog. A beautiful border collie.
She came up to me i said hello and she went beneath my legs to be pet. I pet her and spoke to her. Made polite small talk to the owner and then brought more trays from the van.
Each time I left the tray just at the front door. The dog had gone back inside at this point as had the owner who was emptying shopping in the kitchen.
Once the last tray was brought to the front of the door/porch i saw a load of empties just inside the door.
I reached in to grab them still with my feet outside.
Went back to the van with them and returned to the front door.
At this point the dog was there and the demenour changed. She was barking quite aggresively as if i had startled her or we hadn't met.
The owner calmed her down but she never really settled.
The only thing I can think of is she smelled my scent in the porch and this was out of bounds in her opinion.
Would that be correct?
I love dogs and they like me.
However tonight on a home delivery shop i went to a customers door, rang the bell customer comes to the door as does the dog. A beautiful border collie.
She came up to me i said hello and she went beneath my legs to be pet. I pet her and spoke to her. Made polite small talk to the owner and then brought more trays from the van.
Each time I left the tray just at the front door. The dog had gone back inside at this point as had the owner who was emptying shopping in the kitchen.
Once the last tray was brought to the front of the door/porch i saw a load of empties just inside the door.
I reached in to grab them still with my feet outside.
Went back to the van with them and returned to the front door.
At this point the dog was there and the demenour changed. She was barking quite aggresively as if i had startled her or we hadn't met.
The owner calmed her down but she never really settled.
The only thing I can think of is she smelled my scent in the porch and this was out of bounds in her opinion.
Would that be correct?
Just a random thought but are you sure it was the same dog?
They do think differently to us though, it’s tempting to anthropomorphise and say it thought you were stealing the owners empties but I suspect that your hunch that it was about territory is correct. Ours has free run of the garden and will bark like mad if anyone comes in from the back. She rarely goes out the front door so doesn’t seem to consider the drive to be “her territory” and is much calmer greeting visitors at the front.
They do think differently to us though, it’s tempting to anthropomorphise and say it thought you were stealing the owners empties but I suspect that your hunch that it was about territory is correct. Ours has free run of the garden and will bark like mad if anyone comes in from the back. She rarely goes out the front door so doesn’t seem to consider the drive to be “her territory” and is much calmer greeting visitors at the front.
The dog hadn’t seen something else and you just happened to be in its line of sight? Cat across the road? Another dog being walked? Pigeon on the roof of the house opposite? Seems odd if it had already said hello and appeared friendly.
Edited by Antony Moxey on Tuesday 7th February 07:39
Border Collies in particular are generally quite highly strung and can be very temperamental and react to the slightest thing that they consider disagreeable, I suppose it's their herding instinct and desire to control stuff.
We had one who would be perfectly friendly, sociable and playful with other dogs for 98% of the time but just very occasionally a dog could make a slight almost undetectable movement that would somehow trigger him to go into herding mode and he'd have a little nip at its rump or heels.
We had one who would be perfectly friendly, sociable and playful with other dogs for 98% of the time but just very occasionally a dog could make a slight almost undetectable movement that would somehow trigger him to go into herding mode and he'd have a little nip at its rump or heels.
PositronicRay said:
Dogs are wierd and that's all there is to it.
And the OP met the weirdest sort at that. We have two collies and they are both bat s
t crazy, not in an aggressive way at all, but they don't seem to have a coherent thought process. Ermm excuse me Dad, that fly wasn't on the wall yesterday. How dare it land on my wall. I now need to stare at it. For hours. Until I have done my job and made it move. Cleverest breed, maybe most trainable but cleverest? Don't worry OP it was probably just not keen on you coming in to it's house (ours would have barked before you got on the drive so you were doing well!)
Bullybutt said:
It could also be a bit of doggy dementia. Forgotten that you had been there already etc. It’s more common than you think.
It was a mountain rescue dog in training I would be surprised. I think it was touched on above either me entering her territory ie the porch, or taking away the trays.
Was the dog watching you from the door on your final approach or did you get to the door and it was in the hallway and you just appeared as such?
If the latter maybe you just spooked it and once they have that adrenaline shot it takes a while to calm them. Or maybe it got wound up by something else in the house then you appeared and it was enough to trigger a different response in an agitated state. I can’t remember the technical term for it something like trigger compounding. Eg dog gets mildly annoyed at cats but is fine to see one. Dog gets mildly annoyed at delivery drivers but is fine to see one. Dog has to deal with deliver driver moments after seeing a cat, delivery driver gets barked at.
If it watched you coming it may be to do with you unintentionally looking a bit threatening on approach.
My dog is completely different around people or dogs who are “normal” and confident and those who appear a bit sus. Stop and stare or walk up to her slowly for example and she will act like you are a serial killer coming to take her family away.
She has a bit of an issue with the wife’s grandmother. Fine sat around with her, has cuddles etc but grandmother hunched over, slowly walking up to her is a no no. Think she sees it a bit like a dog stalking her, which has led to her being attacked in the past so is a big red flag in her mind.
If the latter maybe you just spooked it and once they have that adrenaline shot it takes a while to calm them. Or maybe it got wound up by something else in the house then you appeared and it was enough to trigger a different response in an agitated state. I can’t remember the technical term for it something like trigger compounding. Eg dog gets mildly annoyed at cats but is fine to see one. Dog gets mildly annoyed at delivery drivers but is fine to see one. Dog has to deal with deliver driver moments after seeing a cat, delivery driver gets barked at.
If it watched you coming it may be to do with you unintentionally looking a bit threatening on approach.
My dog is completely different around people or dogs who are “normal” and confident and those who appear a bit sus. Stop and stare or walk up to her slowly for example and she will act like you are a serial killer coming to take her family away.
She has a bit of an issue with the wife’s grandmother. Fine sat around with her, has cuddles etc but grandmother hunched over, slowly walking up to her is a no no. Think she sees it a bit like a dog stalking her, which has led to her being attacked in the past so is a big red flag in her mind.
Elysium said:
Possibly resource guarding. Dog was fine when you brought stuff, but not happy when you took something away.
Mine immediately turns into Gollum if you give her anything.
My boxer does this, anyone making deliveries becomes her new best friend for just as long as it takes to hand the goodies over.Mine immediately turns into Gollum if you give her anything.
w1bbles said:
I understood it. Maybe not amazing sentence construction if we’re being PH picky but clear enough!
It's a bit more understandable in the cold light of day, I apologise.Was there a costume change in the interval perhaps? Some dogs don't like certain items of clothing like Hi-viz and hats.
I'm surprised questions weren't asked at the time or the owner saying something.
Hopefully they'll get to go back and we can have episode two.
Simpo Two said:
Whilst not a dog expert it seems to me that on the final trip you reached inside the front door, and that was the dog's territory. You stepped over its line without knowing it and it may have felt threatened.
They didn't step inside, nor did the dog see them, so how did it know?Evoluzione said:
Simpo Two said:
Whilst not a dog expert it seems to me that on the final trip you reached inside the front door, and that was the dog's territory. You stepped over its line without knowing it and it may have felt threatened.
They didn't step inside, nor did the dog see them, so how did it know?My dog always brings something when she greets me. She isn’t giving it to me. She is just showing me how good she is at resource guarding.
If I take it off her she sulks. When she was a pup she used to growl at me and try to take it back.
Elysium said:
Evoluzione said:
Simpo Two said:
Whilst not a dog expert it seems to me that on the final trip you reached inside the front door, and that was the dog's territory. You stepped over its line without knowing it and it may have felt threatened.
They didn't step inside, nor did the dog see them, so how did it know?My dog always brings something when she greets me. She isn’t giving it to me. She is just showing me how good she is at resource guarding.
If I take it off her she sulks. When she was a pup she used to growl at me and try to take it back.
Evoluzione said:
Elysium said:
Evoluzione said:
Simpo Two said:
Whilst not a dog expert it seems to me that on the final trip you reached inside the front door, and that was the dog's territory. You stepped over its line without knowing it and it may have felt threatened.
They didn't step inside, nor did the dog see them, so how did it know?My dog always brings something when she greets me. She isn’t giving it to me. She is just showing me how good she is at resource guarding.
If I take it off her she sulks. When she was a pup she used to growl at me and try to take it back.
So he needs to warned not to take anything else.
Evoluzione said:
Simpo Two said:
Whilst not a dog expert it seems to me that on the final trip you reached inside the front door, and that was the dog's territory. You stepped over its line without knowing it and it may have felt threatened.
They didn't step inside, nor did the dog see them, so how did it know?The dog had gone back in but could have seen him reaching inside the house. There was a change in behaviour and that is the most logical explanation.
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