Curious dog owner Question?

Question

Hello,
I was just wondering if when a dog meets another dog of the same breed if they will recognize that there is something similar about them or if its just another butt to sniff. I have a rottweiler who has yet to meet another rottie, when he does will he realize ooh he's just like me?

Thanks for the answers!

Answer 1

Yes, they sure do, I have shown dogs for years and they always get excited when they see their own breed. Plus they recognize breeds that they have good friends of. My Dobe saw a choc Lab at PetSmart and wiggled his butt off thinking it was his brother. They also get excited at similar breeds, my MinPins thought Manchester Terriers were less than perfect MinPins and red and blk/tan Dachs were funny looking MinPins. Both my big guys go to the dog park and fussed over a MinPin that came in, much to the dog's dismay..lol.. They have good memories too, my second Rott was run with a German Shorthaired Pointer, (when they were both young pups), who pointed birds and he not only learned to find birds but scared the GSP people at dog shows with his happy prance seeing the GSPs. And this was 3 yrs after his last play time with the GSP pup.

Answer 2

The short answer is no, they do not recognize individual breeds. When one dog meets another strange dog they communicate first by body language and then by smell. Watch your dog interact with a strange dog next time you take him for an off leash walk. They will stop and stare before slowly approaching one another. Then the more submissive dog allows the other dog to sniff. When the "dominant" (hate, hate, hate that word!) dog is done sniffing, usually, he allows the more submissive dog to sniff him in return. If they are an equally matched pair (neither one submissive) they will exchange sniffs at the same time.

Dogs DO recognize that physically, a dog who is a similar size to him/her is more likely to make a suitable playmate. That is why a small dog might be outgoing and confident when meeting another dog of his stature but timid and submissive when meeting a much larger dog. A bit like with us humans, really. I know I feel a little more intimidated with meeting a person that is much taller than me then a person who is on my level.

Hope that helped answer your question.

Answer 3

I have three shih tzu, a yorkie, and a yorkie mix. I love the shih tzu... they're fantastic dogs, fun, playful, cuddly, beautiful long hair, and extremely trainable, and willling to learn and work. One of my girls adores agility... oh, I wish you could have seen her last time I put her down in a course... she ripped through it, bouncing around, and trying to jump on the pause table too early. She didn't score super-high because of a few errors, but she had super-fun! The yorkie is okay, I'm not a huge fan, in fact, of terriers in general... He likes to yap (I've trained him not to, but he still tries to get away with it every once in a while), and he has that "whimpy little dog shakey syndrom" that annoys me so much. But he is very sweet, and very friendly with everyone, and he loves doing obedience and agility as well. The yorkie mix is hillarious! She's absolutely insane, hyperactive, funny little dog. Sometimes her yorkie fiesty nature shows through, but she loves playing, loves working, loves being a dog. She likes her agility too, but obedience is still shakey (she's only a year old, after all) because she's just so excited she wants to jump all over me on the recall. But yeah... fun dogs... I used to have a german shepherd, she was a wonderful dog, amazing trainability.... one of the best dogs I've ever had. I also had a foster aussie puppy for a while. Soemone had dumped her on our street... she was very obviously the result of a merle-merle breeding, and turned out to be completely deaf, and nearly completely blind (I had wondered why she had a penchant for cutting directly in front of me while walking, and getting kicked... she just couldn't see me). She was an incredibly sweet dog, and I loved her very much, but with her being deaf, and my yard being unfenced, there was just no way I would have been able to keep her. High energy+deafness is not a good combo if you can't get the dog's attention. Thankfully she went to a wonderful home where she was taken around to schools to teach kids about deaf dogs... then they loved her so much she just became their pet. It's funny, that aussie had a perfect heart marking right on the end of her nose. It was a butterfly nose, you see... due to her merle-merle "lethal white" coloring. Beautiful, although sadly messed up dog.

Answer 4

I think they do. I'll bet when you get your occurance for your rottie 2 encounter another of his own kind, he'll react in a diffrtent manner than he would in meeting an opposite breed. This should be very interesting ! They're fun 2 watch & figure out, aren't they ?!

Answer 5

I think so, because my cavalier is rather shy around all other dogs, but we have this other cavalier in our road and whenever my dog meets him he is really playful and not scared at all!!! I am just wondering if it is like tha with males and females of the same breed?!
xxx

Answer 6

They might recognise it depends. Dogs sometimes don't know what they look like because if they look in the mirror they will probably think it's another dog but if they know what they look like they will probably not recognise it because no dog is the same they are different heights or different sexes.

Answer 7

I don't think so. I can't tell you how many times my dogs have seen themselves in a mirror and went crazy barking b/c they thought there was a strange dog in the house!

Answer 8

yes i think they will know if they are the same or not.but sometime they still might not get along its funny because you have humans that act like that females don't get along with each and males don' t get along.

Answer 9

I know chihuahuas recognize their own breed and prefer other chihuahuas to other breeds.

Answer 10

I don't think that they can, but wouldn't that be cute?! I think they only care whether or not they are male or females!