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Canine Behavior/Dog snaps at certain children

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Expert: Lee Charles Kelley - 1/11/2008


Question
My german shephard/border collie mix was a rescue dog from Louisiana. She is an absolute loveable cuddly dog and very protective. There are "certain" children and young adults that she will not let go near her. She snaps at them. A complete adult stranger can go up to her male or female and she will not snap at them, yet she snaps at my 18 yr old nephew and wont go near him, and my 3 kids have lots of friends that come over and she jumps all over some of them licking playing with them yet there is a "certain" few that she snaps at. Is it their smell? Just seems really strange that she picks out a certain few that she just does not like.

Answer
Hi, Jackie,

You've asked one of the most interesting questions about canine behavior out there. There's an old saying that "dogs can smell fear," and that may be true. There may be some telltale odor given off by people (or animal's) whose adrenal glands (the body's fear/stress glands) are active. I don't think that's ever been proven, scientifically, though.

Here's what I think. I think dogs are very sensitive to changes in the emotional energy of any situation they're in. Some dogs are more sensitive than others. Most dogs, in their most natural state, actually become more social when there's a spike in energy. Others, usually those who've either been treated roughly, or even if they're not given a satisfying outlet for their instinctual hunting or herding energy, seem to become LESS social. To my way of thinking the smell may be a factor with your dog. There's no way to know for sure one way or the other. But I think it has to do with the possibility that she has trouble accommodating certain types of energy. They throw her off-balance emotionally.

I hope this helps,

LCK

By the way, you know the song "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys? Brian Wilson, who wrote it, said he got the idea for the song from something his mother told him and his brothers when they were kids. She said that dogs can sense whether a person has a "good vibration or a bad vibration."

I don't think that's necessarily the case here. (There's no such thing as a bad vibration; energy is just energy.) But you might want to look at the kind of energy the types of people she reacts to have, and see if you can find any similarities between them. It would be an interesting experiment.

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Lee Charles Kelley

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I've been training dogs in New York City for nearly 20 years. My training approach and philosophy are based on the way police dogs, search-and-rescue dogs, and detection dogs are trained--through the prey drive, inherited from the wolf. It's true that there's been a shift away from using the "wolf model" in dog training recently, and to some extent, there's a good reason. That's because trainers have been using the wrong model, the one that says you have to be the "alpha" or the pack leader in order to control your dog's behavior. This simply isn't true. In wild wolves there is no dominance hierarchy, no "alpha" wolf, and no pack leader (not in the traditional sense). The pack instinct only exists to enable wolves to hunt large prey by working in harmony. (Wolves who live near garbage dumps, for example, and who don't hunt together, don't form packs.) So if wolves don't have an instinct to "follow the pack leader" or "obey the alpha wolf," how could dogs have inherited it from them?

Years ago, before I became a dog trainer, I noticed that the happiest, most obedient, and best-behaved dogs I met weren't the ones who'd been to a dog trainer or behaviorist; they were the dogs whose owners always had Frisbees and tennis balls on hand. And while it might seem that my approach would only be relevant to high-drive dogs who love fetch and tug-of-war, it isn't. Even something as seemingly unrelated as a housebreaking issue or greeting behavior are often the direct result of a dog's predatory energy not having an acceptable outlet.

All behavior is an expression of energy. So when a dog's energy isn't utilized in a way that feels satisfying to his or her instincts and emotions, that's when behavioral problems develop. Giving the dog an acceptable outlet for its energy will almost always bring the dog's behavior back into alignment with its instincts

Feel free to ask me questions about any training/behavioral issue.

LCK

Experience

20 years as a dog trainer. I'm also a bestselling author, writing a series of dog-related mystery novels for Avon.

Organizations
Dog Writers Association of America

Education/Credentials
Just a natural gift I have for understanding and training dogs

Past/Present Clients
Too numerous to mention.

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