Doggy Lama Blog

Dog Body Language Snapshot

Monday, November 27, 2006

Odo the cattle-dog mix is trying to get Dakota (husky mix in middle) to play with him but he’s doing so using dominant body language: he follows her around and stands perpendicular to her—putting his head over her back. (He was just standing there doing so—of course he sat back a bit just as I took the photo.) That’s a dominant behavior—you’ll often see that in a dog park, especially between male dogs jousting for higher position in the doggy pecking order.

Little Maggie, on the other hand, is being submissive to Dakota—she’s sticking her snout and tongue in her mouth (something submissive wolves also do with more alpha wolves), which Dakota is responding to positively by playing with her and making light growly noises.

Pepe, Lola, and Predatory Drift

Friday, August 25, 2006

Pepe and Lola know each other well (I have boarded them at the same time before) and he is very gentle. I let them down on the floor or yard together for short periods of time (only) while I am supervising them.

At the Dog Walking Institute http://www.dogtec.org/schedule.php and through my reading, I learned about “predatory drift.” Two dogs can be hanging out and playing happily when something happens that scares the smaller dog, who then makes a high-pitched sound that doesn’t sound like a dog—it sounds more like a prey animal than a predator (dogs are predators). That can instantly trigger predatory drift in the larger dog, who may then attack and kill or maim the smaller dog. Some small dogs are more likely to make those kind of noises, (a maltese or a chihuahua for instance rather than a beagle,) and it’s more likely to happen when there’s more than a 1:4 weight ratio. To avoid it, we learn to think carefully about our pack makeup, (e.g., if the largest dog weighs 100 lbs, the smallest dog should weigh 25 lbs at the most) and to keep dogs separate who might trigger this behavior or supervise play very carefully.

Lola is on my lap right now. She and I do most things separate from the other dogs for this reason.

More info:
http://www.sfspca.org/behavior/dog_library/size_diff erences.pdf#...
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dog_park