Hi, doggy forum.
Before I ask this question let me set the scene. I'm not a dog expert, so this might come with bits 'n' bobs of my own speculation that might not make much sense. Okay, it's a bit of a story to set up... here we go...
I moved into a lodging type situaiton some 4 years ago, and the live-in landlords/homeowners had 6 dogs, a mixture of dalmations and rhodesian ridgebacks. It was a long standing family, with all different ages, and over the next 3 years, we lost two of those dogs.
That was a little alarming. I've always sort of fussed the dogs if they're around, we 'get on well' as it were, and I have clear favourites: a guy dalmation who's always exciteable and engaged (and frisky if he gets a chance - the birth of 9 pups not so long ago was actually a kind of accident, and he's the daddy); and a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge guy rhodesian ridgeback, a monolith of a dog. Playful when among the others, but when coming for fuss, he's nonplussed, sort of leans against you, and is more likely to give you an intelligent look than a jump up. The guys are cool! There are three others: a female dalmation, and two pups... teenagers I suppose, in doggy terms, one dalmation and one rhodesian ridgeback, who are endlessly energetic, an ongoing tornado of brown, black, and white blurs!
Okay, so my question is to do with the adult female dalmation. .. obviously, these dogs aren't neutered or anything, so at certain times they have to be cycled around the house separately or in specific groups. There's the owner's bedroom, ofc, the holy of holies, a special treat place wehre the dogs get cycled thru like a rota so there's decent time with the owners outside of being with the rest of the pack; there's a doggy room at the front of the house, their sort of indoor home within the home where they'd generally be if the owners were out/busy etc. .. the living room! One of the dogs can basically live there sometimes... and that's it.
Me and the female dalmation always had a strange kind of relationship, I think. From our kitchen, if the dogs are playing in the back garden, you can see them pretty clearly and they can see you if your'e pottering around in the kitchen. That sighting, if they've had enough of being in the garden and fancy coming back in, they bark at the person in the kitchen. That fem dalmation seems to bark at me with a special kind of gusto during those times. She looks pretty psycho when she does that. Her owners say she's the mischievous one, but she's got crazy eyes! I think she's the nutter!
Anyway... when the pups were born they were hers... me and the landlord both smoke, and we have a kind of system, leaving the ashtrays loaded with cig ends, so that if one of us runs out of tobacco and gets desperate, we can make smokes out of what's been left in the ashtray. We've both done it dozens of times.
Well... I'd run out of tobacco while this dog and her 9 pups were in the living room.... not new borns, this was just before the selling started... so it was past that, 'leave them well alone, zero stress' sort of time... tho maybe a little bit still inside. I went in to get the ashtray from the living room. I had a feeling it might not go so well, so I was careful to make a slow b-line toward the table, away from the doggy pen. But the fem started growling as soon I went in. and after I took a step, she went for me!
One spin, and pull, and I had the door closed, and was safe outside the room. She didn't reach me, or if she had, she refrained from making contact.
I get it, in terms of animal body language, I did something suspicious and unusual. I'm outside of 'the pack' for the most part, I tend to view the dogs as 'the owner's thing' and really don't interact with them if I've gone to a doggy-laden area to chat with one of the owners.. not always business, maybe just for giggles. So i'm in-out of the pack, I'm a solo sort of animal in close proximity, I did something suspeicous and she secured the area. I realised, okay, I was asking for that. My bad.
Part of me wonders if this dog, having birthed and puppy reared 9 pups, and now has only 1, if she thinks I might have eaten the other 8!? Tho', it wasn't her first rodeo. Idk, this is kinda.. maybe my ignorance.
Anyway! The death of the eldest dog, and another that died of having a tumor, kind of jolted me a bit. I was like, wow, they just disappear, and kinda fast sometimes.
So, I decided to make more of the time we have, especially as there are a couple of them that I think are great. I often joked that the male dalmation is the one I was 'going to steal when I move out.' The landlord knows I'm only messing, and he gets a pride smile too, he knows that's an awesome dog!
So.. part of my new invoved approach to the dogs was... while out at work, i'd get some doggy treats, and put them in my pocket so that when I got back, I could visit whichever dogs were in the doggy room or living room, and make a kind of fussy / special occasion. Hey, i've been out hunting, I should bring them back a gazelle, right? Or.. at least.. a chewy bacon wrapped mass produced weird thingy for them...
The first time... I come home... guy and girl dalmations in the doggy room, which means they can see me when I walk from the van to the door. As usualy, they went beserk, bouncing up and down in the window (the girl dog also looks crazier than the others when she sees me thru this window!)
So... aware that it's the first time I've ever walked into the doggy room.... wondering if it's a li'l dangerous to do this on my own... but also... thinking... I don't wanna put this off! I wanna set this up as part of our routine! ...
so I walked in there!
Both of the dogs were overpleased, bouncing around, up for fuss, you'd think I'd walked in there a hundred times before, it was pretty awesome
After a coupla mins of generl excitement, I gave them their treats! They loved that stuff. As chance would have it, i'd bought some nice ones. Two big dogs like this, and they spent minutes chomping... minutes upon minutes.... it became a bit weird... silence... two dogs with their heads low, noshing ilke crazy... I thoguht those treats would be gone in seconds, but apparently that had some resistance to them.... and then I was like... erm... I guess I'll leave then? lol! So I left them to it, and I've done this thing a bunch of times now, sometimes with the fem dalmation on her own in that room! she's been fine. The whole routine, roughly the same time every day, dog or dogs bouncing in the window, me go see them, fuss, treats, and leave them to it....
but then I got covid... and long covid too >< ... months off work, but now I'm back.
On the first time back... back at that regular time.. it was her... lol! it was the fem dalmation.. ofc it was! ... I could hear her barking from the van, and I had to smile. All righty! Back into the old routine!
It's not unusual for me to pause at the window. In previous years to taunt/tease/mouth off.. sort of... they doing their doggy thing inside the window, and me doing a kind of human equivalent outside of it.... so I paused, 'heyyy helluuu' and all this.. but she did something she never did before... I thought she was growling at first... but then realised there was no sound.
She had her head turned a little away from me, and was barring all the teeth down that one side. Maybe from the front, it would have looked like the submssive grimace thing, but I'm not sure. Body language was .. decidedly not happy 'n' relaxed... but also... not really anything else.. if anything, she looked like a pointer dog, doing its thing, exept her head was turned, and teeth barred.
That's what I'm curious about. I didn't want to do the one-paragraph, 'what does it mean when a dog bars its teeth but doen'st make sound' ... I mean.. I've looked those questions up already.... and going off those, it seems she did a submissive smile thing....
I still went in there.... maybe worth to note, she had urinated in the doggy room, and I'd say recently, it wasn't evaporated at all. I'd guess she gets told off for that? So maybe she expected a mixed reaction from me once inside the room? idk...
I went in anyway.
She was fine, mega friendly, and ofc ready for her treat.. .treats.. I took two cuz I bought smaller ones by accident, so for dogs that size I double up on them... she loved that, and then it was time to go visit the guy in the living room!
So what do you think about this odd teeth-barring thru the window? Maybe she kinda knows that I think she's a psycho? Maybe she thinks I'm a doggy child-snatcher? Maybe she'd do anything for that treat? I'm mad curious about this.. partly because if it's stressing her out when she's on her own in there, and sees me coming, I sort of want to know about that.... I mean, I could give her the treat without fully opening the door, I'm sure she'd love it just as much, and I still get to have a moment with her, still get to capitalise on the time we have, kinda thing.
Let me know, doggy people. I'd hand out treats for anyone who actually reads all that, if I could! lol! Thanks if you did, ♥
Before I ask this question let me set the scene. I'm not a dog expert, so this might come with bits 'n' bobs of my own speculation that might not make much sense. Okay, it's a bit of a story to set up... here we go...
I moved into a lodging type situaiton some 4 years ago, and the live-in landlords/homeowners had 6 dogs, a mixture of dalmations and rhodesian ridgebacks. It was a long standing family, with all different ages, and over the next 3 years, we lost two of those dogs.
That was a little alarming. I've always sort of fussed the dogs if they're around, we 'get on well' as it were, and I have clear favourites: a guy dalmation who's always exciteable and engaged (and frisky if he gets a chance - the birth of 9 pups not so long ago was actually a kind of accident, and he's the daddy); and a huuuuuuuuuuuuuuge guy rhodesian ridgeback, a monolith of a dog. Playful when among the others, but when coming for fuss, he's nonplussed, sort of leans against you, and is more likely to give you an intelligent look than a jump up. The guys are cool! There are three others: a female dalmation, and two pups... teenagers I suppose, in doggy terms, one dalmation and one rhodesian ridgeback, who are endlessly energetic, an ongoing tornado of brown, black, and white blurs!
Okay, so my question is to do with the adult female dalmation. .. obviously, these dogs aren't neutered or anything, so at certain times they have to be cycled around the house separately or in specific groups. There's the owner's bedroom, ofc, the holy of holies, a special treat place wehre the dogs get cycled thru like a rota so there's decent time with the owners outside of being with the rest of the pack; there's a doggy room at the front of the house, their sort of indoor home within the home where they'd generally be if the owners were out/busy etc. .. the living room! One of the dogs can basically live there sometimes... and that's it.
Me and the female dalmation always had a strange kind of relationship, I think. From our kitchen, if the dogs are playing in the back garden, you can see them pretty clearly and they can see you if your'e pottering around in the kitchen. That sighting, if they've had enough of being in the garden and fancy coming back in, they bark at the person in the kitchen. That fem dalmation seems to bark at me with a special kind of gusto during those times. She looks pretty psycho when she does that. Her owners say she's the mischievous one, but she's got crazy eyes! I think she's the nutter!
Anyway... when the pups were born they were hers... me and the landlord both smoke, and we have a kind of system, leaving the ashtrays loaded with cig ends, so that if one of us runs out of tobacco and gets desperate, we can make smokes out of what's been left in the ashtray. We've both done it dozens of times.
Well... I'd run out of tobacco while this dog and her 9 pups were in the living room.... not new borns, this was just before the selling started... so it was past that, 'leave them well alone, zero stress' sort of time... tho maybe a little bit still inside. I went in to get the ashtray from the living room. I had a feeling it might not go so well, so I was careful to make a slow b-line toward the table, away from the doggy pen. But the fem started growling as soon I went in. and after I took a step, she went for me!
One spin, and pull, and I had the door closed, and was safe outside the room. She didn't reach me, or if she had, she refrained from making contact.
I get it, in terms of animal body language, I did something suspicious and unusual. I'm outside of 'the pack' for the most part, I tend to view the dogs as 'the owner's thing' and really don't interact with them if I've gone to a doggy-laden area to chat with one of the owners.. not always business, maybe just for giggles. So i'm in-out of the pack, I'm a solo sort of animal in close proximity, I did something suspeicous and she secured the area. I realised, okay, I was asking for that. My bad.
Part of me wonders if this dog, having birthed and puppy reared 9 pups, and now has only 1, if she thinks I might have eaten the other 8!? Tho', it wasn't her first rodeo. Idk, this is kinda.. maybe my ignorance.
Anyway! The death of the eldest dog, and another that died of having a tumor, kind of jolted me a bit. I was like, wow, they just disappear, and kinda fast sometimes.
So, I decided to make more of the time we have, especially as there are a couple of them that I think are great. I often joked that the male dalmation is the one I was 'going to steal when I move out.' The landlord knows I'm only messing, and he gets a pride smile too, he knows that's an awesome dog!
So.. part of my new invoved approach to the dogs was... while out at work, i'd get some doggy treats, and put them in my pocket so that when I got back, I could visit whichever dogs were in the doggy room or living room, and make a kind of fussy / special occasion. Hey, i've been out hunting, I should bring them back a gazelle, right? Or.. at least.. a chewy bacon wrapped mass produced weird thingy for them...
The first time... I come home... guy and girl dalmations in the doggy room, which means they can see me when I walk from the van to the door. As usualy, they went beserk, bouncing up and down in the window (the girl dog also looks crazier than the others when she sees me thru this window!)
So... aware that it's the first time I've ever walked into the doggy room.... wondering if it's a li'l dangerous to do this on my own... but also... thinking... I don't wanna put this off! I wanna set this up as part of our routine! ...
so I walked in there!
Both of the dogs were overpleased, bouncing around, up for fuss, you'd think I'd walked in there a hundred times before, it was pretty awesome
After a coupla mins of generl excitement, I gave them their treats! They loved that stuff. As chance would have it, i'd bought some nice ones. Two big dogs like this, and they spent minutes chomping... minutes upon minutes.... it became a bit weird... silence... two dogs with their heads low, noshing ilke crazy... I thoguht those treats would be gone in seconds, but apparently that had some resistance to them.... and then I was like... erm... I guess I'll leave then? lol! So I left them to it, and I've done this thing a bunch of times now, sometimes with the fem dalmation on her own in that room! she's been fine. The whole routine, roughly the same time every day, dog or dogs bouncing in the window, me go see them, fuss, treats, and leave them to it....
but then I got covid... and long covid too >< ... months off work, but now I'm back.
On the first time back... back at that regular time.. it was her... lol! it was the fem dalmation.. ofc it was! ... I could hear her barking from the van, and I had to smile. All righty! Back into the old routine!
It's not unusual for me to pause at the window. In previous years to taunt/tease/mouth off.. sort of... they doing their doggy thing inside the window, and me doing a kind of human equivalent outside of it.... so I paused, 'heyyy helluuu' and all this.. but she did something she never did before... I thought she was growling at first... but then realised there was no sound.
She had her head turned a little away from me, and was barring all the teeth down that one side. Maybe from the front, it would have looked like the submssive grimace thing, but I'm not sure. Body language was .. decidedly not happy 'n' relaxed... but also... not really anything else.. if anything, she looked like a pointer dog, doing its thing, exept her head was turned, and teeth barred.
That's what I'm curious about. I didn't want to do the one-paragraph, 'what does it mean when a dog bars its teeth but doen'st make sound' ... I mean.. I've looked those questions up already.... and going off those, it seems she did a submissive smile thing....
I still went in there.... maybe worth to note, she had urinated in the doggy room, and I'd say recently, it wasn't evaporated at all. I'd guess she gets told off for that? So maybe she expected a mixed reaction from me once inside the room? idk...
I went in anyway.
She was fine, mega friendly, and ofc ready for her treat.. .treats.. I took two cuz I bought smaller ones by accident, so for dogs that size I double up on them... she loved that, and then it was time to go visit the guy in the living room!
So what do you think about this odd teeth-barring thru the window? Maybe she kinda knows that I think she's a psycho? Maybe she thinks I'm a doggy child-snatcher? Maybe she'd do anything for that treat? I'm mad curious about this.. partly because if it's stressing her out when she's on her own in there, and sees me coming, I sort of want to know about that.... I mean, I could give her the treat without fully opening the door, I'm sure she'd love it just as much, and I still get to have a moment with her, still get to capitalise on the time we have, kinda thing.
Let me know, doggy people. I'd hand out treats for anyone who actually reads all that, if I could! lol! Thanks if you did, ♥
