I am looking for an explanation for strange dog behaviour

Star, and flag. The doggy is telling you something. You mentioned the dogs IQ, sometimes the 'dumb' ones are the smartest, but they aren't trained.

I always listen to the dogs.

Originally posted by loner007
u dont need to know the dogs history. A dog dosent live its life in the past like we humans do they live in the moment. This seems to be a leadership issue where the dog thinks its the pack leader and not the humans. YOU need to do psychology on the dog to let him know he isnt the pack leader you are... Seen the dog whisperer? if not check him out u can learn a lot

Apparently you have never owned a dog that was mistreated by its previous owners.

My parents rescued a dog that was starved and abused by a grown man. When they first got it all it would do is hide underneath the bed and usually wet itself and crap itself rather then come out.

After a few days it finally came out and would growl at my dad and if he tried to pet her she would bite at him. It took 2 years for the dog to finally fully trust him.

You can look into that dogs eyes and see the pain, she never wags her tail and when people are over their house you can tell that she is very frightened. That poor dog will never forget the abuse she endured

Maybe you should turn off the dog whisper.

I think dogs live very much in the present,but they also DO remember things from waaaayy back,good things and bad.
My mate had a great sheep dog which used to roam around the town on his own(jumped the fence).I palyed ball with it loads when he was a tiny pup,then moved away and didn't see him for a few years.
One day,having not seen the dog for about 4 years I went back to the town he lived,and went to a supermarket.
My mates dog was walking past,and he saw me and rushed into the shop,squealing and wagging and jumping up at me.
After 4 years!
Thats proof enough for me,dogs have a good memory,more than we give them credit for.

I think I know what you are thinking is causing the behavior towards the child. Dogs are very perceptive of our energies.... if the child has a 'negative' or dark energy, your dog is most likely trying to tell you this, or even trying to take care of it herself. I'd give the dog a biscuit!

I wonder what is up with the child?

I wonder what is up with the child?

This is a very dangerous way of thinking. Posters have given lots of sensible reasons why the dog might be wary of a new person without having to assign 'dark energy' or auras or whatever to a 9 year old boy.

Primitive tribes at least have an excuse that they don't know any better when they start seeing witchcraft and demon possession in innocent children. It's very disappointing when supposedly educated and rational adults who have internet accesss do the exact same thing.

The dog is a rescue animal and 'not the brightest' please do not change your opinion of a young boy based on its reactions.

The same people I had mentioned in my other post, also had another dog there sometimes that belonged to an older relative. The dog, according to them, only liked older people and more typically, females. The dog did sit next to me and let me pet it....reluctantly.

I might also guess the one boy in the OP had a certain body odor that the dog didn't like and connected with someone from the past. I've also noticed certain people have different body odor I don't like. Some smell like dog poop or baked beans, others a weird musky acid type odor. One smell I can't stand is fast food deep fryer grease.

It's been said that dogs can sniff out various bacterial infections.

There was a website that listed famous people that smelled 'funny' or bad.

I agree that it is a display of dominance. Ruby is picking on the child because he is small. She is establishing her territory. She loves you and your wife, and senses that you love this child, and she does not want this.
She feels jealous, and is threatened by this. You are "hers".

I have never muzzled a dog before but I think I would in this case, until she learns she cannot bully the child. Also, I would put the child in the position to visibly show some dominance over the dog to show her the boy has power over her. Give the boy a dog treat to give the dog. Then have the boy pretend he is eating it. (Dominate dogs eat first). He may then toss Ruby "what is left".

Otherwise, she just doesn't like the child. (Maybe the child pulled her tail or something and hurt her when the adults didn't notice it?) I will say, this type behavior is generally seen in male dogs? Not so much this type aggressiveness in female dogs. So I'm thinking....jealousy.!!!

It is not a dominance issue.
It is something about the boy.
THe dog has no problems with other boys as has been mentioned.
Study the boy, his voice, his speech, his actions. What does he talk about?
He may be behaving in a friendly manner to the dog, while inside him he is thinking intensly hateful thoughts about the dog.
Dogs read minds.
What exactly is different about this boy?
What about his clothing? Is it in anyway different?

I'm also one who gets along with animals, however one day I went to the office wearing black slacks and a black sweater. One of the girls had brought her dog because she had a vet appointment for her.
ANyway, the dog looked at me and growled.
Dogs don't like people's clothing to be all one color.
Note their hostility to the Postman and delivery guys.

My dog doesn't like my older son. He has a gravelly voice that makes him sound like he is growling.

aleon, that weird musky smell that some people have...a kind of acrid odor?....That is a sure sign of schizophenia. Freud sniffed his patients as part of his diagnosis. And Ii had first hand experience with this myself.

Originally posted by loner007
u dont need to know the dogs history. A dog dosent live its life in the past like we humans do they live in the moment.

Whilst I agree that dogs and other animals live in the moment, they definatly DO remember, albeit subconsiously.

The first 6 months to a year of a dogs life is the 'socialisation' period, where they take in all their experiences of people, places and other animals and this forms how they will perceive life after this period. For instance, if dog has never met say, a man with a beard in the first year of their life, they may react strangely when they do meet one. Not necessarily aggresive though, which makes me think that there may have been some previous abuse issues with this poor dog. It sounds like she may have been hurt by a child of a similar age or with a similar certain smell.

The aura thing is a possibility too, but don't be getting too suspicious of the child just yet. Dogs can be a very good sense of character and pick up on bad vibes from people but this doesn't mean that his particular boy is bad, again, it could just be an association thing. You mentioned also that she was shaking during a family arguement, my dog does this too although she has never been abused or anything, some dogs are just very sensitive. Being female may also have somehing to do with this (not being sexist here I am female,so I know what we can be like! ) Hey, maybe she is a canine empath!

Luckily the dog is still young and so hopefully this habit can be broken. If she had been a lot older then sometimes these things are alot harder to shake off. Like other people have said, get her to spend (supervised) times with the boy in the same room for short periods, if there is no genuine threat from the boy she will realise this in her own time.


[edit on 5-8-2009 by titan69]

Thank you again for your comments and suggestions.

I tried spraying some of my aftershave on the boy to trigger a different reaction but that didn't work but we went up to my parents for 3 days last week and before leaving i told the lad to do some things that Ruby would like to do, if she would let him.

He took her for walks and played ball with her and i got to give him credit, after the way she has reacted to him he is not scared of her at all and always seems willing to give her another chance.
Anyway, when we returned she has transformed into a different dog when she is near him, i wouldn't say she is ecstatic when he is around but she hasn't been aggressive towards him and they play together quite happily now so it seems like "happy ending" music should be playing.

To clarify a couple of things that have been said; originally Ruby attacked him the very first moment she saw him, she didn't take a split second to "get to know him" or seemingly smell him, just jumped at him as soon as the door opened. This is what led me to believe that it wasn't his scent that she didn't like, more like something "about him".

I have never said, or believed, there to be any "possession" qualities about the child and i did originally say that as far as i am aware, he is a great kid with a nice demeanour. That is definitely not what i meant when i mentioned his "aura", i think that word infers a persons inner personality, a good, or bad, radiance that each of us emits. Maybe animals are capable of picking up on it and seeing a persons true nature, possibly making up for their lack of speech or rationalisation in human terms.

I am glad the situation seems to be resolved but I'm also very interested to see what happens next time he comes down from Scotland, whether she remembers him as the boy she played with or the boy she intensely dislikes.

Thanks to you all for everything though.

I can't explain the reason for the dog's behavior, but I would recommend that you get rid of that dog. If she's showing that kind of aggression you'll be in a lot of legal trouble if she does something more serious to that kid or someone else.

Dave, you stated that the dog was a Patterdale Terrier and that
it looked like hairy greyhound.

I checked and the Patterdale Terrier looks more like a miniature Labrador.
Short and robust.
Patterdale

Patterdale

Now there is a dog that looks like a miniature Borzoi, that could be described as a hairy greyhound -- it is called a Silken Windhound.

Windhound

They're beautiful!!!
I want one!!

[edit on 17-8-2009 by OhZone]