Saturday Blog Hop

Don't assume that the dog who appears to be the aggressor is actually the problem. Last night a play date errupted into a fight within the first 10 minutes of the date. An anxious dominant dog was brought to a play date and instantly decided he was going to take over the house and the yard. He challenged the dog tha...t lived there, tail upright and wagging stiffly, stance stiff and challenging, eyes hard and ears pricked far forward. The humans assumed the tail wag meant the dog was friendly and ignored the other signals. So when the dog who actually lived at the house finally escalated his own signals of "please stop" to a mock attack, he was punished and banned to the house.