Is it because of his flat face?

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Poor Prince was bitten by a whippet today at the park. This is the fifth time in two weeks that he's been bitten, at the park and by dogs on leashes on the streets, and luckily it's lots of noise and a big old nip, but no skin broken. He is not the type to go rushing up to other dogs and is cautious, sweet and respectful. Most dogs love to play with him, but he has garnered more than his fair share of Prince hate recently.

Is it because of his pug face? Or because dogs can sense he is a complete pushover? Stella, too, has a flat face--and no tail!--and I've never, ever had an issue with random dogs getting nasty for no seeming reason.

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

Poor Prince.

Don't know what to suggest - Sweep has the same problem at County Shows - there was always some terrier having a go at him and he never even looks at another dog. Its one of the reasons I stopped taking him.

 

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Poor Prince.

Don't know what to suggest - Sweep has the same problem at County Shows - there was always some terrier having a go at him and he never even looks at another dog. Its one of the reasons I stopped taking him.

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Not St. Sweep

Stella said she's coming over to act as bodyguard.

Last week we were walking up the Hudson river path--lovely peaceful walk--when this bloody Chesapeake Bay Retriever comes jogging by with its owner, takes one look at Prince, lunges and bites him on the head. Princey yelped, I called the owner a coward for not stopping. It was dark out, so I didn't know how bad it was, but isn't that common courtesy to stop? Anyway, Stella shouted plenty of obscenities after the offending dog/owner so that made me feel a bit better.

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

Yey go Stella!!

St Sweep says anytime she wants to come over and bodyguard for him she is welcome!!

He will give her a guided tour of his favourite fields!

 

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She would like that very much

And tell Sweep that if he fancies joining Stella and her crazy country cousin, Crow, they know some awesome places in Connecticut. Crow in particular favours a roll in a bog, followed by a swim in a lovely festering pond, finishing up with a good hoon in their favourite apple orchard. Just got to wait for the damn ice sheets to finally melt!

 

[FinnishLapphund]

You probably have heard about why flat faced dogs can have problems but for those that haven't, because of the anatomy of Pugs and a few other breeds, when other dogs who are not used to socialise with flat faced breeds, they can misunderstand the signals and either think he is very rude staring at them or feel uncomfortable/uncertain because they can't read his facial mimicry, both reactions are usually due to that flat faced breeds have their eyes almost next to their nose, possibly adding the colouration factor, e.g. Prince doesn't have much colour shades in his face, the black around his nose makes it smaller and stand out even less towards the yellow background , which makes it even more difficult to read his facial mimicry.


An important part of saying Hello to each other includes sniffing towards/at each others noses and when the other dogs get to that part, they suddenly finds themselves staring straight into Princes eyes, since staring is usually a ''bad'' signal and they are taken by surprise, their reaction is to snap/bite...
At least that is one possible reason why this is happening to poor Prince, because of his anatomy he can't look away with his eyes, the same way other polite dogs would do.




A Boston Terrier is flat faced but not as much as Pugs, their eyes are not sitting placed as much straight forward as they are on Pugs, they have a white blaze going down between their eyes, possibly making it more easy to see that they are trying to look away with their eyes.
So though that for a dog that is really lacks socialisation, also a Boston Terrier can have a too flat face that is difficult to read, for dogs somewhat better socialised would not have difficulties with a Boston Terrier but could still have problems with a Pug, if that makes any sense.

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Poor Sweep. Is he entire?

 

[Slinkyunicorn]

No - for some reason terriers just have a go at him and always have done. He is a big wuss pants so never even so much as grumbles back.

 

[piebaldsparkle]

Oz can be grumbly on the lead, but rarely snappy (unless its an over friendly entire dog, when he will follow up an unheeded grumble).

Just noticed that Prince is a Pug, so agree with Finny that it probably is his freatures.

 

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You probably have heard about why flat faced dogs can have problems but for those that haven't, because of the anatomy of Pugs and a few other breeds, when other dogs who are not used to socialise with flat faced breeds, they can misunderstand the signals and either think he is very rude staring at them or feel uncomfortable/uncertain because they can't read his facial mimicry, both reactions are usually due to that flat faced breeds have their eyes almost next to their nose, possibly adding the colouration factor, e.g. Prince doesn't have much colour shades in his face, the black around his nose makes it smaller and stand out even less towards the yellow background , which makes it even more difficult to read his facial mimicry.


An important part of saying Hello to each other includes sniffing towards/at each others noses and when the other dogs get to that part, they suddenly finds themselves staring straight into Princes eyes, since staring is usually a ''bad'' signal and they are taken by surprise, their reaction is to snap/bite...
At least that is one possible reason why this is happening to poor Prince, because of his anatomy he can't look away with his eyes, the same way other polite dogs would do.




A Boston Terrier is flat faced but not as much as Pugs, their eyes are not sitting placed as much straight forward as they are on Pugs, they have a white blaze going down between their eyes, possibly making it more easy to see that they are trying to look away with their eyes.
So though that for a dog that is really lacks socialisation, also a Boston Terrier can have a too flat face that is difficult to read, for dogs somewhat better socialised would not have difficulties with a Boston Terrier but could still have problems with a Pug, if that makes any sense.

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Makes perfect sense. My dog walker said that the whippet was getting aggressive with many of the other dogs, although in the other cases Prince has been singled out.

I'm a bit worried about taking him hiking in CT, as it's all Labs, Sheps and Spaniels up there, and I imagine most have never seen a pug before; I guess we'll just choose to go on quieter paths at first.