Kingdom of Pets

Posted by MaxHollyNoah
Apr 7, 2009

Hi there,

I am very interested in my dog's reaction to bikers yesterday.

Here is some back ground info:

Noah, my 2.5 yrs Border Collie mix, is a very obedient and gentle dog to people incl. small children. He just loves to be pet and lay down next to you when he is inside.

He has bad aggression to bigger dogs, and reacts to skateboarders and bikers by lunging at them.

Yesterday, a friend of mine took him for a short walk along wih her Shiba inu on the bike path. There came a couple of bikers with helmets and my friend got a bit nerveous since she knew (I had told her before) that Noah would react to those bikers and get out of control if she does not have him really close to her. She shortened the leash and kept telling him to be "Easy". Amazingly enough, he didn't even react to those bikers!!

When she told me this story, I couldn't even believe. Whenever I had him on the leash and encountered bikers, he would react by pulling the leash and try to lunge at them (sometimes, he does this even to joggers when they are going fast).

Would somebody help me understand why he acted differently? First I thought maybe I am unconsiously sending him a message that I am nerveous but it does not explain because my friend did tell me that she WAS very nerveous and worried.

Thanks!:confused:

Posted by LetsPlay
Apr 7, 2009

Hi there,
there could be many reasons why Noah reacted differently:

your dog might know you better and therefore sense your nervousness easier
your dog might be calmer because of the presence of the other dog
your dog might feel he needs to protect you and therefore lunges at the bikers
your dog might just like chasing/herding bikers, but was distracted by the other dog
your dog might see your friend as higher up in the rank
your friend might have felt nervous but still acted confidently

It could also be that the lunging is triggered by something very specific that the bikers your friend encountered didn't have/do (specific color, clothes, direction of travel, speed, noise etc)

I hope that helps.
John

Posted by Idan-Kashi
Apr 7, 2009

Maybe the dog have remind calmed because the other dog have. If he would follow the other dog, he wouldn't bother to be act like that while his "leader" confirms the situation and remains calm. That's in case the other dog is indeed in "higher rank".
But when you take him to walk, you get nervous, so you actually confirm this behavior that might be a kind of aggression or self-defending.

Also, you can't really rely on one specific case.

Just my own opinion.

Posted by MaxHollyNoah
Apr 8, 2009

Hi LetsPlay and Idan Kashi,

Thank you so much for your responses. I agree with the possible reasons that LetsPlay gave me but none of them is not applied to Noah's case. See my comments next to each cause below:

your dog might know you better and therefore sense your nervousness easier
> this can be possible but I am sure my friend was more nerveous than I usually am since I know how to handle him but she never had such experience before.

your dog might be calmer because of the presence of the other dog
> I have 3 dogs so Noah is frequently with one of the other 2 dogs on his walk. In fact he behaves even worth with a presence of my other dogs.

your dog might feel he needs to protect you and therefore lunges at the bikers
> this is possible but not very likely. He is not a dominant dog and I am way top of him. He is very obedient to me, not because of him being scared or afraid of me, but because he is just a sweet heart and likes to please me.

your dog might just like chasing/herding bikers, but was distracted by the other dog
> Yes, as a herding dog, he likes to chase/herd bikers. Anything moving fast excites him. My friend's dog is not a herding dog so she had no interest in bikers. Therefore, she didn't react at all and that might be the reason why Noah just copied the dog and stayed calm.

your dog might see your friend as higher up in the rank
> this is not very likely. She is not a very dog savvy person and her current dog is her first dog. Her dog doesn't listen her at all, partially being spoiled and partially the breed (shiba inu).

your friend might have felt nervous but still acted confidently
> this can be true. I, also, think I am acting confidently although I predict how he would behave when I see bikers and I hate to deal with a lunging dog.

Anyway, my friend offered to take Noah again (without her dog this time) and see how he will behave. I am very much interested.

If you can think of other reasons, I will appreciate it.

Posted by LetsPlay
Apr 8, 2009

Hi again,
I'm very interested to hear how your friend gets on next time.
John

Different person, different behavior?