Meet and Greets

When your dog meets another dog there are a couple of stages that they go through. First we have the initial greeting. This typically begins with both dogs meeting face-to-face. At this point it is very important to pay attention to their body language. The initial greeting is one of the places where a fight could break out. This is the part in the greeting process where they are sizing each other up. Have you ever heard the saying 'don't look a dog in the eyes'? Well, this is why. Direct eye contact from another dog is almost always seen as a challenge. Typically, the dogs will adopt a very stiff posture; their legs will be straight, their tails will be up either held perfectly still or quivering slightly, and their ears will be forward.

If the lack of a second front leg bothers you, pretend both dogs are tripods.

One other thing to note: The stress of being on a leash can make dogs feel vulnerable. They are more likely to fight if they are restrained on a leash. This is why I do NOT recommend face-to-face greetings while on a leash. If you are out walking your dog, and you pass someone else who has their dog on a leash, that is not the time to do a meet and greet. If the other person requests one, politely refuse and continue moving.

Face-to-face greetings can always be tense, but they are more comfortable for the dogs if they are unrestrained by a leash and they are in a secure fenced-in area. If you are concerned about how your dog might react to a new dog, then by all means, leave the leash hooked to their collar, just let it drag on the ground so that you have something to grab or step on if a tussle breaks out or if things get too intense for one of the dogs.

Continuing on: from the initial meet and greet, there are a couple of things that can happen. If one of the dogs is feeling uncomfortable, they will turn their head away and look off to the side. The breaking of eye contact, and the aversion of the face, says to the more aggressive dog 'I don't feel safe. I want you to leave me alone.' This move will be accompanied by lowering of the ears and tail.

This dog is feeling uncomfortable

Sometimes though, the other dog just doesn't get the message. If that fails, and the dog still doesn't want anything to do with the other, more aggressive, dog, sometimes they will turn their whole body to the side. If you notice your dog doing this, you may want to shoo the other dog away. Occasionally, this is where a tussle may break out. The uncomfortable dog may decide to take other, more aggressive, action to get the other dog to leave them alone. This doesn't mean that the uncomfortable dog is dog-aggressive. It just means that the other dog didn't get the message.

The next stage of the greeting process is where the dogs move away from one another's faces and the proceed to sniff the genital area. That is where the strongest scents are and that is where they can learn the most about one another.

In the picture above, these two dogs have moved on to this stage in the greeting process. As you can see by their body language, they are not too sure of one another. They are still a little stiff. However, in this case, all was well. The yellow dog quickly did a play-bow to let the black and white one know he wanted to play and off they went together, chasing each other around the park.

I have a friend who is a very talented with a camera and she takes gorgeous pictures of shelter dogs. I thought I would share this with you because it is a perfect example of what a play-bow is, for those of you
that don't know. The dog will position themselves with forequarters on the ground and their butt's in the air. Their head will be up, to look at the other dog and gauge their reaction. They are probably one of the cutest behaviors a dog can do, other than zoomies, which will be explained in a later post. Normally, the play-bow is accompanied by a couple of barks, to get the attention of the other dog.

What to do if a fight breaks out

If a tussle does break out between two dogs, there are a couple of things you can do:

• Make loud noises - clap, shout, stomp your feet.
• Throw water on the two dogs
• Blast a dog air horn
• Use a citronella spray

If you wade into the fight and try to pull the two dogs apart, there is a 90% chance that you are going to be bit. Either by your dog or the other dog. A lot of the time, if a dog is engaged with another dog, and you jump in and try to stop them, they are going to redirect their aggression onto the intruder — you.

I am just going to say this: if you are carrying a concealed weapon, DO NOT discharge it at the dogs. DO NOT shoot the dogs. There are other, more effective, and less deadly, ways to break apart a dog fight than shooting a dog. (We recently had an off-duty animal control officer from a nearby city shoot a dog that was 'attacking' his puppy at a dog park with his concealed weapon. Both dogs are fine, but it was a completely unnecessary use of force.)

Once they break apart — hopefully a result of using the bulleted methods above, and not by risking yourself — quickly leash the two dogs and take them FAR away from each other. Preferably out of sight. Don't let them sniff each other again, or even look at each other. That is simply asking for more trouble. Make sure you inspect your dog for injuries. This is one of the reasons I always carry a doggie first-aid kit with me when we go to the dog park. If your dog was injured to the point where you think they need to go to a vet, then you need to get contact information from the other owner, as well as vaccination information about the other dog.  If you know that your dog was the aggressor, remove them from the park. If you have other dog's with you, leash them up and take everybody home. It is not worth it to allow them to continue playing when one of them is hurt, or could be hurt again.

Hopefully, all meet and greets will go smoothly for you and your dogs, but it is always a good idea to be aware of body language so that you can determine when a situation is becoming too stressful for your dog.

References:


Play-bow: http://www.flickr.com/photos/dzinelvrslc/5411550749/

Bailey, Gwen. What is my dog thinking?. San Diego, CA: Octopus Publishing Group, 2002. Print.