I'm wondering what you think of the behaviour Fraser showed last night on his walk. We were coming down a street when a big, friendly golden came out of his garden and greeted Fraser. The golden's tail was high and waving and though I know tail held high can mean dominance, overall he wasn't showing any aggression. Fraser responded as he usually does when it's a much bigger dog, by sitting down and letting the dog sniff him and then sniffing himself when he knows it's safe. I've actually met this dog before in a chaotic moment another night when I was picking up poop and the dog came out of the garden and was all over me trying to greet. I was juggling my own dog on his leash, a can, two gloves tucked under my arm so I could pick up the poop and, of course, an open bag of poop as I didn't have time to tie it. In the melee of dogs greeting each other and the golden trying to greet me, Fraser's leash wound round my feet. It was quite the Buster Keaton moment, but it was clear the dog was just being over friendly. Why it was outside at night loose is another question as the garden is unfenced.
Back to last night. Once the two dogs seemed to have had enough to complete their greeting, I moved off down the street, calling Fraser to follow. He hestitated and then came on, but now followed by the golden who wanted to greet me as well. Each time the golden came forward, Fraser stopped his follow and turned back to place his body in front of the golden, but back facing the golden and face turned toward him. Golden stopped, I called Fraser to come and on he came, only to be followed by the golden trying to get closer to greet me. Again, Fraser ran back and sat in front of him in the same back toward the other dog, head looking over his shoulder. The scene happened one more time and finally we got far enough ahead that the golden gave up. Now, I've accepted that in cases of aggression against me, my friendly cocker is not likely to be any use as a guard dog. But what was the behaviour I've described? (Sorry to go so long, but I'm trying to give enough info for interpretation). Was Fraser being protective of me? Or was it more like possessive jealousy: he didn't want the golden to get to me for attention. I suppose if it was protective behaviour, he might have growled, but there was none of that, just the placing of the body between me and the other dog. Thoughts?
