shoulder barged......

[hle]

I know what you mean about black labs. Somehow Cody notices the difference between black and golden labs after having a bad experience with one particular black lab. As a puppy I use to let him meet every dog unless the owner pulled the other dog away. He made friends with a black lab who is younger than him. The lab put his paws on Cody's shoulders and wrestled him to the ground then snapped at his face. Cody whimpered and walked away. The next time they met I thought let them sniff, it may have been a one off. Once again the lab pinned Cody down and bit his neck. Cody did snarl back at him and growl so I pulled them apart. Since then Cody is absolutely fine with any dog until it lays a paw on him then he snaps. I know he is only defending himself as he never makes the first move but I do warn people that he is friendly unless their dog touches  him. I have noticed that he cowers away from black labs, his tail and hackles go up and he never approaches one. The owner of the black lab in question insists that he was only playing but Cody didn't see it as play. He is normally a very confident, happy dog frightened by nothing but he really dislikes black labs although most that we know are lovely. What I am saying is that sometimes it is easy to label a breed depending on your experiences with one particular dog. Yesterday a friend labelled all cockers as 'those mad, uncontrollable dogs', I added lovable, loyal, merry, fun, gorgeous.........etc

[clairep4]

I have heard that dogs often find black dogs quite hard to read as they can't see their facial expression as well, and that often black dogs need to make much more effort in dog etiquette to get by, it'd be interesting to hear if people with black cockers have had this experience?

A bit off topic but kinda leading on,
I did a t touch workshop at Battersea where they did some work with a stuffed toy dog. They were working with a greyhound who isn't overly dog friendly. I thought that the greyhound would quickly realise that it wasn't a real dog due to the smell but they said that dogs go by silhouette a lot (which explains things like big hair and umbrellas sometimes freaking them out). Anyway they brought in the stuffed dog and the greyhound perked up and went and sniffed its bum, mouth, ears etc and was being really quite twitchy around it. We left the toy in the room and the greyhound remained interested all the time and kept doing that staring thing at it. Very interesting to see... They use toy dogs quite a lot to help with dog to dog behaviour esp in aggressive dogs.

[Jay06]

I have heard that dogs often find black dogs quite hard to read as they can't see their facial expression as well, and that often black dogs need to make much more effort in dog etiquette to get by, it'd be interesting to hear if people with black cockers have had this experience?

A bit off topic but kinda leading on,
I did a t touch workshop at Battersea where they did some work with a stuffed toy dog. They were working with a greyhound who isn't overly dog friendly. I thought that the greyhound would quickly realise that it wasn't a real dog due to the smell but they said that dogs go by silhouette a lot (which explains things like big hair and umbrellas sometimes freaking them out). Anyway they brought in the stuffed dog and the greyhound perked up and went and sniffed its bum, mouth, ears etc and was being really quite twitchy around it. We left the toy in the room and the greyhound remained interested all the time and kept doing that staring thing at it. Very interesting to see... They use toy dogs quite a lot to help with dog to dog behaviour esp in aggressive dogs.

Jeez so that's why Bailey keeps getting chewed!!!!  Seriously though, he has been 'attacked' quite a few times now. I had actually heard this and told OH and he laughed at me  Only problem I am having now is Bailey is deciding to growl at any dog that walks by! wee rat! Took him to obedience on sun and he didn't even blink!! Got home, went for a walk and the wee bu$$er decided to growl at a wee scottie dog!  Spoken to his trainer and she's decided we'll 'test' him one on one with her German Shepherd - i feel sorry for it!!!!