Category Archives: instinct

Don’t I look vicious? Grrrrrrr.
Probably more freaky than vicious…

I usually love walking the trails around where we live, but today, whew! We mostly walk trails where humans take us dogs off our leashes. When we meet other dogs, we socialize. Simple concept.

We see a small dog running down the trail to greet us. There are introductions of the doggie kind. Then, his big dog brother lopes on down. More intros – all good. When their human joins us, all H-E-double-hockey-sticks broke loose. The little dog barks what seems like orders to the big dog and big dog attacks. It’s an intimidation strike, teeth bared, but no intent to bite… yet. Their human reprimands, as I snuggle myself in the human tunnel of mine, between both his legs with my tail in assault mode. The human apologized for her dogs, even gave me a little pat on the head and they were on their way.

It was pretty much out of sight, out of mind for me. I heard A-Dog say that the little dog reminded her of the cartoon dog with a hat and cigar, barking orders to his big, dopey dog friend. I don’t know about that, but I do know that dogs can be unpredictable to humans. We don’t always act sweet and want our heads rubbed. And when you’ve got more than one, you must be wary of the dynamic. Those behaviors live deep in our furry genes. Woof!