Why Does My Dog Like Some Dogs And Not Others?

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Dogs are very similar to humans in many ways. One of those ways is how we interact with other people.

Have you ever met somebody and immediately say to yourself I don’t really care for her. Well, the same thing can happen with your dog.

Let’s talk about some of the possible reasons for this.

If you take your dog out for walks around other dogs quite frequently you probably said to yourself my dog doesn’t seem to like dogs that look like that or my dog doesn’t seem to like dogs that act like this.

Of course, the question is always why?

There can be a lot of different reasons.

For example, if you don’t know your dog’s history because he was adopted he may have had a bad experience with a dog that looked like that. Maybe as a young puppy, your dog was attacked by a large white dog. He will remember that and in the future, he may not like big white dogs and will respond aggressively to keep that big white dog away when he sees it on the street.

Another thing to consider about dogs is body language.  Dogs communicate through body language and with their olfactory abilities. If the dog sees or smells something that isn’t right with a particular dog again they may act aggressively.

However on the other hand if they see or smell something that brings back good memories they will probably act friendly.

Another possible reason why your dog acts aggressively toward a new dog is in its efforts to protect you from the other dog. We usually see this in a dog that hasn’t been obedience trained well. Since obedience training develops the master dog relationship it gives the dog a leader to look up to. Without that training, the dog assumes that it is the leader and needs to protect the other members of its pack.

If your dog reacts badly to new dogs on a regular basis consider doing some obedience training and possibly some behavior modification that includes positive reinforcement when your dog sees or comes into contact with other dogs. Remember with your future dogs to train at 4 months of age and socialize early to avoid this type of problem that always seems to raise its ugly head somewhere between 12 and 24 months of age.