What are your dogs tells, that he or she is serious and do you take them serious? Discussions

Just wondering if every ones pup had a tell, when you knew he or she means it?

How much do you trust it, to dictate matters?


Mouse is pretty easy since he was around 9 months. His head rolls forward with all the wrinkles and the hair in the center of his back kind of makes a line like a ridgeback has, and he locks up.


Back story is neighbor beside me has a grandson that just got out of prison and is staying with him for now, me neighbor and Mouse get along great. Grandson, I have never seen Mouse go into full blown "I don't like you mode" with a person across the street, more than 20ft away across the street, Mouse just locks up and stares at him, with all the tell he hates him.


I know the guy has never been close to him or even on the same side of the street as him.

Guess the problem is neighbor knows I work a lot and mow the property next time mine which I bought and will fence in this summer when I take down the old fence, and I mow a friend next street over, and has asked if I would want his grandson to mow it for me (using my mower) for 30 dollars a week. (Actually very cheap for the amount of mowing).

My problem with it is guess, I just trust Mouse to much, with all he has done for the wife.

Am I just being nuts?

First point is that you have a gentle, trusted dog which is behaving out of character with this young man. If you do need this chap to do the mowing, (and you really do have enough on your hands at present), I would take some time to try and make Mouse into a friend before allowing him casual access to your property. There is no way that Trish could cope if things got out of hand while you were at work.
However, I seem to be picking up on the fact that you do not trust this young man either. Maybe Mouse's response is because he is actually picking up on your feelings of suspicion. I think we all have gut feelings, and when we do override them we usually come to regret it.

No your not nuts alway trust your dog they are very good at picking up vibes from people, your neighbours grandson must be senting out bad vibes which mouse as picked up.

My K9 is very calm as to be as he's my system alert dog (medic alert) he gets on with everyone accept one of my nephews, K9 will stand in front of me growling at my nephew until my nephew moves away, K9 will then calm back down & go back to sleep.

Body language, smell etc could have triggered his reaction, though I do think a lot of the time dogs pick up on our feelings about a specific person.

If any of my dogs had that reaction I wouldn’t let the person onto my property if I wasn’t there.

Nigredo is funny with very dark skinned people. Always has been ever since I got him. He isn't aggressive, he just doesn't want to be near them and ducks being petted by them etc. Someone dark skinned was probably mean to him before I got him. But on the extremely rare occasion Nigredo growls, I instantly don't trust that person either.

Nigredo will rumble a nasty growl, and all the hair on his back will puff up kind of like an angry cat. Not just his hackles, his entire body will puff up. He's 100 lbs and rather fluffy so it looks quite scary! I've seen him do this to two people, both of which I didn't trust. One was harassing me on a walk, and another was lingering at the local park being quite suspicious. When Nigredo, who has an extremely gentle temperament puts himself clearly between me and another person and gets in defense mode, there is something way off.

In defense, he's very gentle and I do not think that he will bite, he is merely feeling a bad vibe. Jade tends to not like anybody, including kids, so her cues I don't trust as legitimate. She gets raised hackles and her bunny ears stick straight up when she doesn't like someone, but she won't bark or growl.

I would agree with this, but I think my reaction is a bit more now to what Mouse's reaction was as first time he did it I had no clue even who he was.

Rosie is exceptionally people friendly. The only times (two) that she has growled and barked at anyone, they were 'dodgy' people.

Both times it was at a man that was obviously intoxicated and laying on the grass. She spotted the first one before I did so it wasn't transmitted from me - she instinctively knew they weren't right.

She's had plenty of contact with all kinds of people from posh folk to the homeless, but these are the only times she has given an adverse reaction.

I've always trusted my dogs to be good judges of character

Im not convinced dogs can sense if a person is bad, but I do believe they pick up on peculiar behaviour/ physical differences, which is different from the norm and this can unsettle them which is why they would act aggressively.

Ive had dogs react to the way a person is walking, especially if they are coming toward me at a fast pace or stooped over shuffling along, for some reason one was very wary of anyone wearing hats, ill never forget coming downstairs one day with a towel wrapped round my head, Ninja went mad till he realized it was me.