Why do dogs behave differently towards other people?

Question

I have a shih tzu puppy and he loves everyone except for one of my friends and everytime she even walks in the room "Barkley" goes crazy...could u help me out?

Answer 1

animals react differently to all different people. The can sense fear, uneasiness, odd smells, if your friend has lots of other pets around he can smell that as well. Just because your dog freaks out on your friend doesn't mean that your friend is a bad person, it just means that your dog hasn't adjusted well to her. If you are sure that your dog is juts uneasy around her, and your friend hasn't given him a reason to be antsy around him you should try to adjust your dogs feelings toward her. Give your friend treats that your dog loves before she walks into the room, and slowly introduce them to your dog through your friend. then Barkley will start associating her with good things, and hopefully respond in a better way. Make sure that she isn't scared of Barkley. Fear antagonizes dogs.

Answer 2

Has this friend ever done anything to the puppy? Scared him maybe? Or been too rough? Dogs can often sense things about people that we don't get.

What do you mean by he goes "crazy"? Is he aggessive towards her? If so, you need to put a stop to it. You could try putting him on a leash and trying to lead him up to her. Let the puppy sniff her. She is not to move, not to pet him, not to make eye contact. After the puppy is done, she can try to coax him or talk to him. Take it in slow stages - if he's friendly to everyone else, he has some reason.

Answer 3

Same reason you act differently around certain people. Your dog is bothered be her presence for a variety of reasons. Practice dominance with your dog by stepping between the dog and your friend.l Constantly move when the dog moves so that the dog doesn't have a good line of sight on your friend, etc. You don't need to say anything to your dog, just keep moving and blocking. He will get the point.

Answer 4

Dogs have preferences just like people. Often when a dog zeroes in on particular people, there is something that they experience about that person that we humans don't see.

One example of this that has been listed is smell. It could be that your dog just flat out hates this person's perfume or hairspray or something.

Another example is sillouette: sometimes a dog will react strongly to a person wearing long skirts or a hat or with a beard. To us humans, the person just looks like a person, but that difference is a big deal to your dog. For example, one of my rescue dogs initially got really freaked out anytime she couldn't see someone legs. She barked at a woman in a parking lot with a long skirt, she barked at someone standing behind a lawn mower, and she barked at a jogger who stopped behind a fence to stretch -- people with "no legs" really confused her (she's well over it now).

Finally, sometimes you meet someone you just really don't like for no good reason, and dogs can be the same way. It may be that your friend seems nervous or maybe the opposite, overconfident. Maybe she's a little hyper, or maybe she's very deliberate in the way she moves. Maybe she stares a little too much at the dog, or leans over her an intimidating way, or maybe she doesn't make eye contact at all and your dog finds that strange. Or maybe it's none of those and you'll never really figure it out.

You have two options, really. One is that you can put Barkley away when your friend comes over. The other is to try to counter-condition Barkley's reaction. Here's one approach that could help (I'd want to know more before figuring out whether there's a better approach, but this is typically a good start): Put Barkley on a leash and take her out of the room. Have your friend go sit in the room with her back turned (this is *important*; she should not look at or speak to Barkley). Have her occupy herself with something like reading a book so she is paying no attention at all to Barkley. Enter the room (on leash!) and sit in the farthest opposite corner you can, while feeding Barkley his favorite treats or playing with his favorite toy. You may need several sessions, but see if you can work up to Barkley calming down. If Barkley is still nutso, try to set up a way that you can work from even farther away, or have your friend hide behind a chair or wall or around the corner. You want to work juuust close enough that Barkley knows she's there but doesn't react. Gradually (maybe over several sessions!) try to work a little closer and a little closer, but never go so fast that Barkley goes crazy again. All that does is let's him practice the "bad feelings" about the situation. If that does happen and he goes nuts, it's okay, but take several steps back and go much more slowly the next time.

Depending on how strongly your dog feels about the situation, yes, this may be a slow process, however if you want your dog to actually be happy in your friend's presence, this is the way to go. Just remember that it IS an alternative to put him away when she comes over, too, and it will not kill him.

Please don't "show your dominance" with Barkley to get him to "accept" your friend. This often backfires, because you haven't made your dog less upset, you've simply taught him not to tell you about it. This method frequently lands you with a dog that bites without warning ("What's your problem, mom? I'm upset, and you said not to bark, but you didn't say I couldn't bite!") Best not to go there.

Answer 5

Well I love dogs and I know a lot about them but I'm not an expert but dogs feel threatened when they get looked strait in the eye if this person is a good friend of your and the dog see you together it also could be jealousy.

Answer 6

Dogs go by sent Barkley may not like the way your friend smels or some thing. He may just have a wieder feeling about her or some thing. Try to get your friend to feed him some goodies or some thing like that.

Answer 7

Crazy as in bad? Dogs know things about people that we do not. I am sitting for my boss-actually have the dog at my office and this dog has been so quiet and cool and yesterday a bioch came into our office and the dog growled and barked. They detect things we only learn about later. No offense to your friend.

Answer 8

Since your dog doesn't have issues with everyone... I would believe that this person is up to no good. Every person that my dogs don't like proves to be a problem person. So, now I listen when my dog is trying to tell me something is amiss. Trust the dog.

Answer 9

People all have different energy and intent. Do you like some people and dislike others? Dogs, cats, etc. are exactly the same way. They like who they like, and don't like some others for reasons all their own. Sometimes it's because of something that person did to them, sometimes not. Although, sometimes our animals are extremely GOOD judges of character!!

Answer 10

it could also be that dogs know who "dog people" are...
my dog is very interested in most people... but he's growled and woofed at a few people...

i've gotten a chance to ask some of those people about their relationships w/ animals... and they either don't like them or care little for them.

weird how dogs can sense that.