Dogs Disliking Specific Breeds

[SaddlePsych'D]

Is this a thing?

I know Ivy being a Greyhound means the potential for issues with small dogs but the rescue had no concerns about this with her, and we come across lots of small dogs on our walks. If anything they mostly don't like her! She ignores just about every dog we walk past, including a very little pup that came running up to her that was very small and fluffy, but I'm starting to hypothesise that she has a 'thing' about French bulldogs/flat faced breeds.

 

[Clodagh]

My Doberman x kelpie in Oz couldn’t abide blue heelers and would take offence at them at any opportunity.
I wonder if brachy dogs with limited body language are outside her sphere of knowledge and understanding? Harley hated heelers as there was one living near our house that had sworn a blood vendetta, and he carried that on to others.

 

[CorvusCorax]

All my shepherds like and are drawn to/get on with terriers.
Dislike slinky collies and anything flat faced or carrying tail high over back.
Flat faced breeds are harder to read.
My old breed dog reacted to a Dalmatian like it was an alien.
My youngster hates spaniels as one gave her a fright at a very impressionable age.
A lot of dogs react badly to her father, he has a very threatening outline, black silhouette, erect ears with fringing, scorpion tail, orange eyes ?

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

Interesting, yes a bad experience with a breed makes sense to generalise to others of the same breed. We cant be sure in Ivy's case but seems unlikely.

She's not reacting as such but gets very fixated. A couple of times from a distance and today up close. It was making a really odd (horrible, to my ears) sound of excitment which might have added to her confusion.

Maybe they look more cat-like than other dogs? Or that's the closest thing she can associate them with? The response is quite similar (we are working on the cat thing ?)

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

She also met a staffie today on the same walk. In each case no contact just stood to chat to owners briefly. She was an angel with the staff but pulled towards the french bulldog which is very not like her!

 

[Kat_Bath]

Buddy appears to really dislike a cockerpoo puppy near us. It is straining at the end of its lead and is vocal, which I think sets him off, but no matter what we try, he reacts. Our trainer recently said that one of her dogs really dislikes a dog that lives near them and I thought that if she's saying that, it must be OK that we might never be able to train Buddy not to react to the cockerpoo - I originally thought it would be something we would have to overcome, come hell or high water, but maybe not.

 

[Escapade]

Mine is breed selective. Gets on famously with small fluffies, generally dislikes collies/shepherds/dogs with eye, but she DESPISES red setters. She’s a bit tense with Gordons but okay. I don’t know if there’s something in her history or if she just took a notion.
I think flat faced dogs can be hard for other dogs to read? Can’t imagine most greyhounds will have encountered many ?

 

[CorvusCorax]

If you saw your sworn enemy every day and believed shouting at him made him go away, would you stop?
It's a common thing.
Dog reacts, we naturally move our dog away and so does other owner.
So often the dog thinks 'wahey, foe vanquished, me da brave boi' and it's a self rewarding behaviour.

You also don't know what energy the other dog is giving out/how your dog perceives it/what sort of association is made.

 

[some show]

Other dogs, particularly small ones, routinely shout at my greyhound - he hasn't got great doggy body-language skills so probably looks quite intense, plus he wears a muzzle which I imagine looks weird to 'normal' dogs. They just don't seem to like the size/shape of him, which is quite wise when it comes to the small dogs (he's got a very strong prey drive)!

 

[AmyMay]

Daisy absolutely adores a big dog - specifically a black one. Labradors and Rottweilers in particular. I haven’t come across a breed she actively dislikes.

Jack just hates anything bigger than him ??

 

[misst]

My late JRT and my sons late JRT were best friends but they both absolutely hated springers. If Tilly was on her own and off lead I would call her back and she would just walk next to me grumbling with hackles raised quietly giving it the evil eye. If both dogs were together not only had to put them on lead but would have to shorten leads and preferably walk the other way. If there was no choice but to pass they would be extremely vocal and "rude". If they had been let off lead I have no idea if it was all "front" and they would have run the other way or if it would have been an attack - obviously we never experimented.
This was all springers not just any particular ones. They were fine with cockers though!

 

[Boy Tom]

It wouldn't surprise me to discover that dogs and perhaps horses too, pick up on our body-speak. If we have a dog and we're approached by a man mountain of a Czech Border Patrol GSD, and if we take up the slack on the lead, then we are pre-warning our dog. Do it often enough and our pooch will perhaps learn to fear all GSDs.

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

Definitely understand not liking bigger dogs!

I do wonder about Ivy's body language, and how she appears to other dogs. She's quite timid/reserved/aloof usually. She's only just started bothering to say hello to any of the other hounds on the sighthound group walks. Definitely don't expect her to like every dog, they can't all get on with every other dog. It's one of the reasons I dont like random dogs coming up because you can't always tell how it's going to go. Hopefully we'll start making some more on lead walking buddies soon though and get more idea of how she interacts. I'm just a bit struck by the apparent pattern around a particular breed - makes sense they are trickier to read.

 

[Cinnamontoast]

Zak reacted very poorly to bearded collies, there are 2 locally. The neighbour’s son’s bearded collie attacked him without any provocation when he was a puppy-we were in the car park of the local woods. Even Brig would go mad when he was next door but was 100% neutral to other dogs who visited there.

The owner’s wife had him loose in a different car park one time. My OH very politely asked her to put him on lead as our three were snarling and going crazy, never seen Brig or Bear react that way. She refused and my OH asked if she’d prefer him to let ours go. She put him on a lead (surely only sensible in a bloody car park!)

 

[DizzyDoughnut]

My old border collie hated german shepherds, I have no idea why she never had a bad experience with one and got on with pretty much every other dog she met but she always wanted to go for any German Shepards we saw out and about.

 

[Cloball]

The westie doesn't mind small brachy dogs but dislikes an English bulldog that walks past the window, he also doesn't like the malamute that lives opposite that could eat him for a snack. I think it might be the size and tail over the back as he has had no bad experiences.

The old chow on the other hand had an unhealthy love of (particularly male) whippets and greyhounds, he only had to see a whiff of one on the horizon and he was off.

I used to look after a chihuahua that didn't like big dogs... So every other dog ?

 

[CorvusCorax]

It wouldn't surprise me to discover that dogs and perhaps horses too, pick up on our body-speak. If we have a dog and we're approached by a man mountain of a Czech Border Patrol GSD, and if we take up the slack on the lead, then we are pre-warning our dog. Do it often enough and our pooch will perhaps learn to fear all GSDs.

I'd be more concerned that I'd woken up in a time warp before the fall of the Iron Curtain.

 

[Karran]

Mrs Collie hates GSD's and anything similar. But that is due to the prat who has a longhaired black one in the park that really should be on a lead and muzzled as it is very reactive, even when we are a good distance (like 30m away).

Our obedience classes can be interesting as there are two GSD's in that. One unfortunately is very similar in look so we often have a meltdown if she deems he is too close. Other owner is very understanding and we have an unspoken system in place to avoid such meltdowns. She is grudgingly coming to terms with the idea that the short haired GSD isn't going to bother her though so that's an improvement.

She is very against the gorgeous, placid Great Dane we see and also took offence to the Newfie we met once. I think those are out of her comfort zone and doesn't believe they are dogs as they're so big!

She is also very, very good at sizing up the bull breeds we see. I have had some very narrow misses as she goes sailing in to start a fight which she won't win. (I do pop on a lead or turn and walk in a different path when I can, it's just the unexpected bump around a corner type situation.)

Mrs Spaniel however barely registers any other dog as sniffing or fetching her ball is far more important.

 

[planete]

Dylan is dog neutral unless a labrador makes a beeline for us. I have seen him meet a charging lab with a full tilt shoulder barge that sent the other dog back to his owner instantly. He has good reasons for his reaction after being flattened a few times by labs as a pup though. I am afraid I am secretly delighted at the look of confusion on unruly labs' faces who find themselves stopped in their tracks by a whipetty looking lurcher!

 

[satinbaze]

Meera doesn’t dislike any dog however she absolutely adores spaniels especially cockers.

 

[danda]

Many dogs seem to be uncomfortable with French bulldogs, my Golden can walk past with no reaction bur as soon as the Frenchie gets near the reaction is immediate.

 

[Umbongo]

My border collie disliked all dogs, but he really really hated german shepherds.
After he made friends with a golden retriever once, he decided that all golden retrievers were ok.

 

[Roxylola]

Prick eared dogs are harder for other dogs to read so they can get a negative reaction more than normal.
My collie had an obsession with a peke that she just wanted to eat, fine with literally every other dog.
A lot of frenchies (and other brachy dogs) are noisy breathers. Mine like frenchies in principle but they're confused by the ones that sound like they're snarling because they can't breathe normally.
My little hound loves collies for some reason only known to her. So it goes both ways

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

Ivy walks around with her 'batman ears' quite a bit, although they're chilling out more and getting a little more mobile/bouncy. It makes her look more scary than she is I think.

I'll keep an eye on how she goes and definitely make sure not to pre empt to add to whatever vibe she's picking up.

We've not found any favourites yet but I think she has a soft spot for the elderly lab at the yard which is very sweet.

 

[SOS]

My two (whippets) do not understand flat faced, brachycephalic dogs. My girl grew up in vet practice with myself and would happily sit behind the desk whilst many dogs and other animals came and went. But if a noisy breather, brachy dog came in she would get up and look out and would seem confused and not good at communicating with them. I think it’s the body language (often panicked and body shape is so different) and that dogs should be able to breathe and pant without excessive noise (they sound like they are growling).

Interestingly my cat also used to join us on reception and would sit high up on a shelf. He ignored howling dogs or anything but if a brachy dog came in he would occasionally hiss down!

One of the dogs is wary of collies but that is because he got attacked by one when younger.

 

[Unicorn]

There's clearly some sort of border collie vs GSD thing going on!

My GSD x rottie takes great exception to border collies. She's not a fan of most dogs, to be honest, but border collies are in a league of their own. Partly because she had one launch at her when she was a lot younger.

Huskys and malamutes though are apparently all wonderful.

 

[Moobli]

My GSDs have grown up with border collies and working beardies (and vice versa) so mine tend to be absolutely fine with collies, beardies, kelpies and others that look or act similarly. They don't see that many different breeds close up and so I can't say I have noticed if there are any they particularly like or don't like, but it was interesting to see my bitch's reaction when she first met my sister's border terrier. She definitely went into eyes on stalks, pointy nose prey drive mode until she got a good sniff of her and they started to play. My male had met the border terrier when they were both pups so he was nonchalant.

My old longhaired GSD bitch was very sociable to most dogs but she adored springer spaniels because I looked after one for a friend and they got on famously, she also liked any border collies she met having played with one regularly as a puppy but she detested boxers, as one very boisterous one knocked her around when she was just tiny and she never, ever forgot.

 

[Annette4]

Fizz hates GSDs, no idea why, she's never had a bad experience.

Dobby can't handle being stared on so most working collies he doesn't like and he's reacted to black dogs before now but I assume that's because he can't see their eyes.

Ginny can be a bully with anyone smaller than her but she doesn't have a breed she doesn't like as such.

 

[Cinnamontoast]

We met a Frenchie puppy today, considerably smaller than Goose who adores other dogs. He hid behind my legs! Normally he’s very keen to (very politely) say hello to other dogs. Bizarre.

 

[SaddlePsych'D]

We met a Frenchie puppy today, considerably smaller than Goose who adores other dogs. He hid behind my legs! Normally he’s very keen to (very politely) say hello to other dogs. Bizarre.

Oh bless him!

Ivy met a young bouncy GSD at the yard today. I was pleased with how she got on. Said hello and then kind of wasn't interested. Of course the youngster wanted to play! I was pleased that Ivy gave a couple of "nope" signals and the pup took note and moved away. If it hadn't I would have stepped in. Not ideal perhaps but good to see Ivy didn't over-react and the pup listened.