Dogs recognising breeds?

Luci07

Luci07

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Can they? Do they diffentiate? Reason for asking is when out hacking with youngest staffie bitch we met up with another rider with what looked like a working cocker. My dog normally ignores all other dogs with the aid of treats but this was like a scene from Romeo and Juliet. Both dogs rushed towards each other and then did the spaniel circle rush. She has never done that before BUT one of her newest doggy firiends is a working cocker pup and she often hacks out with an older one.

She came back to me as we didn't stop but never seen her do that before..thoughts?!
 
my dog HATES spaniels! he was attacked by a Rottweiler but for some reason he has this thing with spaniels, he goes ballistic if he sees one :( makes our walks so stressful because he used to be fine with all dogs untill he was attacked :( but he adores greyhounds, ahaha I dont know whether its the energy level or something but when he sees a greyhound he cant control his excitment!
 
I reckon they do.
My 2 whippies always seem to spot other sight hounds from a distance and and somehow become deaf and run off to meet them. They actually play more with them rather than just sniffing backsides of other breeds.
 
Interesting. Still it meant we inadvertently proved that a very new baby 4 year old, whom I was babysitting on my old 5 year old..is dog proof!
 
absolutely definately! Vizzies can recognise another vizz a mile off, I have a lurcher that hates border collies and my vizz dislikes black or choccy labs...yellow or fox is fine! Shes also a spaniel lover and will seek out spangle friends!
 
Most definately, when we took our Lancashire Heeler pup to training classes the trainer at the end of the class brought in his Dobermann to demonstrate how well trained his dog was. Our Pip got so excited when his dog was brought in and it was because she recognised the breed as she lives with 2.

We often have a black Lab, Springer and a Greyhound staying and all my dogs if they see one of these breeds will gravitate towards them.
 
Yes. Every dog I've had recognises certain breeds, whether its a negative or positive experience they've had in the past. Not sure they can differentiate between very similar breeds or crosses that look almost pure, but some breeds & types definitely. Mine is very cautious of lap dog types after one bit him as a pup. And as more likely to be pampered spoilt old ladies darlings than other breeds has realised they are less likely to be of any interest. A few months ago we met a man with a huge friendly, playful mastiff x dane. ( think English bull mastiff at dane height). He also had a bichon. Quite embarrassing to explain my large mainly doberman dog was keeping his distance because of the bichon, not the large dog! Once we'd spoken & the large dog moved away from the bichon they had a nice play, with mine keeping his distance from the bichon!
 
my dog (some mongrel/terrier cross) appears to have issues with labs (brown or black) more than anything else for some reason. She is reactive with other dogs when she's on the lead anyway (this is improving!)but she goes really ballistic when she sees a lab. I don't know her entire history and got her when she was about 9mths old dso whether she's had some bad experience with a lab, who knows!
 
Yes definitely. Evie has an issue with black labs, can spot one a mile off , and my dogs all recognise other shepherds. Pickle will go mad to get to shepherds thinking they are his pals from home. On a similar theme , was at a fun show today with Freya standing happily in a class of around 20 pups all breeds. A shar pei pup walked past the ring and she had a real go at it!:(. Some people standing nearby commented that maybe she didn't recognise it as a dig, I think it was possibly cos the poor thing had so many wrinkles you could hardly see its eyes and so perhaps she couldn't read it's expression !
 
Yes I think so, My dog recognizes German Shepards, he was attacked by one as a puppy and now he HATES them!

My mum had a golden retriever once that my dog used to play with. My dog is anti-social with other dogs, but if we went out and saw a golden retriever he would try to play like he did with my mums dog.
 
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My weimaraner bitch has taken against greyhounds and lurchers. I am sure it is because they are faster than her. Very poor taste on her part.
 
my girl hates collies of all colours / types. I think its because a few tried to stare her out and she's decided to hate all of them. also not keen on JRT.
 
My dobie generally doesn't like other big dogs. She just doesn't wag her tail at them or go to say hello. If she sees another dobie she always goes up to it and wags her tail and licks it's face :)
 
haha love this, so true

my collieX loves to meet other Heinz57 types and absolutely adores GSD's aswell as she grew up with my old GSD's and always associates them with suggorgate mother figure and rushes at them going 'Mum!' 'Mum!' which always lets the strange GSD owner a bit shocked looking :p
 
I think they do :) although I think as well they recognise 'friends' as well. I love meeting other bassets as when they play they are just soo funny!
 
Montmorency said:
They can definitely recognise breeds- or types. My whippet especially. He adores other pointy nose dogs but can take or leave most others.
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Our whippets cannot abide a collie. I have no idea why, but their opinion is that the only good collie is a dead one. Such a shame as we have good mates with two lovely collies and if our girls were pleasant then they could play together. Dogs eh??
 
My sister's RR could spot other RRs from a distance and was always totally beside herself with giddy playfulness around them (and flirted shamelessly if they
were boys!) despite being very 'take it or leave it' with all other breeds of dog that she came across on walks. (Tho she loved our GSP dog but then she knew him from a pup and he lurrvved her;))
 
Oh and they have recently got a RRxDane pup (who just looks exactly like a huge RR) and were initially worried if she'd tolerate him but she liked him from Day 1. Even let him sleep (on the edge!) of her bed and take food out of her bowl which had NEVER happened with any of the other family dogs we've had in her lifetime (ESS,Boxer x Collie,GSP,Lab,Irish Wolfhound,Lab cross). She obviously reserved her preference for her 'own kind'! (Do you think breeds all give off slightly different scents....like a DNA make-up kind of differentiation smell..?)
 
Dogs are dreadfully racist IMO I see it all day with the dogs I walk.

My last collie had a real hatred of Chow Chows - only dogs I ever saw her put her hackles up at on sight I couldn't think of an incident to create this and otherwise she was very easy going. She adored black labs and got quite giddy when she saw one! And collies rated above all others in her eyes.

My current collie (rescue) clearly hadn't come across other breeds of dogs as the first time I took her out she was unsure how to react to other dogs until we met a collie and she visibly relaxed. We just had a spaniel staying overnight and she didn't know what to make of him and he clearly though she was a waste of space. They didn't row just ignored each other - quite a contrast to the week before when we had a collie staying and I had to separate them to ensure they both slept at night as they were so into playing!
 
One of my Dalmatians has a major dislike of Labs, especially black ones. The other spotty doesn't seem to mind either way about other dogs and the English Bull Terrier assumes all dogs are her new best friends and always looks rather surprised when they don't want to play with her!
 
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