Monday, October 11, 2010
West to Victoria ;)
West met my sister. I had her in the same position as Mom, except due to other factors, we were in a different area. She had a very dark sillhouette compared to Mom, and I expect that was a huge factor. He alarm barked, hackled. Calmed when I increased distance and had her lie down. We approached very slowly, retreating for any signs of affiliative behaviour. He met her and was fine when she sat, then stood. I then handed her the leash to take him for a brief walk, as Mom had, and when she came to return him to me, he barked at ME! Sigh. So, I had her sit and calm him, then just remove the leash and walk away from him. I called him as though nothing had happened, and he came along inside without a problem. What a strange little dog. Obviously, as much as he LOOKS like he's bonded to me, he isn't. Valuable information, anyway.
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It sounds like rather than responding to people, he is responding to Otherness. I think Food Lady said he was basically just thrown out in someone's dog run for 6 months, right? If the dogs spent a lot of time barking at anyone they saw on the other side of the fence, and not a lot of time interacting with people, that might explain why he always interprets the "other" as bad.
ReplyDeleteHi Katherine,
ReplyDeleteI just found all the comments now! I'm sort of new at this blogging thing.
I think you're mostly right about his sense of 'otherness'. As far as I know, no one really KNOWS his history, though we guess at it.
The part that struck me as oddest was that he was (and still is) mostly totally fine with my mom, but did the flip when he met Victoria. It will be interesting to work further and figure out what exactly triggers him.