[Deber]

We have an ageless man who comes on occassion to our area looking for old appliances, water heaters, and will haul them off (his face tells of a life without a lot of joy to me). My goldens just flat don't like him at all. Let me say my dogs LOVE everyone else, but even my yorkies will bark and go hide when he is on the property. He came by about a month ago when I was walking Kye and I braced myself for the wild pulling, very excited actions she always does when people pull up, but she just turned her head and did a very low, but loud growl, then turned to look at him, but refused to move forward or backward..just a solid stance with a low growl. This past weekend, I had little baby Cooper out walking when he pulled in. Coop wanted to go say hello and got all the way to the guy then jumped back and growled.

Course it could be something on his hands, body smell, I am trying to decide what it is that they don't like, but though this guy has been nothing but nice while on the property, I understand from the neighbors he had a very disturbed past. Guess I am trying to decide if I should try to get to the roots of this that upsets the dogs and try to get them over it, or just leave it alone and chalk it up to a Person who we stay away from. I trust dogs senses much more than my own and would work through a dislike if it would be better for the dogs, but wonder if sometimes it is best to just leave the dislike there. Again, thankfully he just comes by a few times a year.

Our country place is pretty isolated and in a few years we will be there full time. I work hard to socialize the pups but I would want them to alert us to danger.

How would you handle this? Is there anyone your dogs just don't like??

 

[willip]

Chester has (and so was our past dog) always been unhappy about my BI...no idea why. He's never been aggresive to him...just a low grumpy growl when BI come's in then he sits at our feet grumping away untill BI leaves.

Oddly enough EVERY dog loves my hubbie....even ones that are well know to hate/be aggresive to other poeple/men much to their owners utter amazment!

I wonder if some poeple just give off bad vibes (or good ones for that matter!)..doesn't make them bad poeple though.
Might be something to do with body language that we don't pick up on but in the dog world speak volumes!

Having said that...If Chester did this to a stranger I would probably take it as a warning and keep my distance!

 

[goldensrbest]

I think i would trust ,in the reaction your dogs are having.

 

[flykelley]

I always trust my dogs, if they have that low growl something doesn't sit right with them. Thats good enough for me.

Mike

 

[Willow52]

I would trust my dogs as well. They usually have instincts keener than ours and not to mention, we have been "molded" by society to accept (or not) people at face value. Personally, I wouldn't allow him to be on the property if I was alone.

 

[mylissyk]

Trust your dogs. Like you said, they love everyone. If there is someone they DON'T like, there is a good reason, take their advice and stay away. You would not want to try and train them out of that instinct.

 

[fostermom]

The next door neighbor up at the lake is someone that my Jasmine absolutely detests. She will charge him while barking ferociously. That is the only person she acts like that with. My goldens love him. I really think it's because he's somewhat fearful of dogs and she picks up on it and that freaks her out.

 

[Jige]

Trust the dogs.

My APBT Mikado ( R.I.P.) loved almost everyone. Only 2 people he didnt like one my co-worker and I dont lke him either and the neighbor that bought the property across the road from us 3yrs ago.
Mikado was a therapy dog he loved meeting new people. He would jump in strangers cars to see if there was anyone that need some loving but he flat refused to go up to either of these men. I trusted Mikado 100% and if I were you I would trust your dogs too.

 

[LifeOfRiley]

Trust your dogs.
Like you said, it could be something as simple as a smell, or something, that they don't like. But I always figure that you can't go wrong in assuming they have a deeper reason. Doesn't mean you can't be nice and polite, but I would be a little bit more watchful around anyone who inspires that kind of reaction from your dogs.

Riley generally doesn't "like" any strangers, but he's happy to simply ignore most of them. When he shows a strong reaction to someone, I trust him. There's one woman who lives here in our complex who we thought was really nice. Riley hated her from day one. Turns out, the longer we've known her, we've come to realize that she's more than a little unbalanced. He knew it before we did.

 

[Deber]

Thank you my friends for your answers. I don't know what particular thing they don't like about this guy and honestly he deals with my Hubby so I don't have to speak to him, but gonna go with the dogs and their distrust of him and we will just stay away. Kye is young but showing us that she is tuned in to things more than I in her turn towards this guy and omiting a low, long growl. She has not ever done this before and her stance was so strong, like an adult in a 6 mo old pup. She didn't like him one bit,,,and I trust my girl. We will just keep away.

 

[harrym]

Lucy loves nearly everyone, but there are two people she doesn't like. One is my wife's former boss, who is a great guy and a good friend. But he is afraid of dogs, and I think she senses it. She will growl and bristle if he gets close. The other is a BIN who is also afraid of dogs. I have never been afraid of a dog, and nearly all dogs like me. I have been bit once, by a little toy dog that attacked from the rear without warning. I think dogs' reactions are more tuned to fear factors than to the goodness/badness of the person. We once had a neighbor that would pick up anything that wasn't locked down, but our dogs loved him.

 

[Dallas Gold]

I'm reading Jennifer Arnold's first book "Through the Eyes of a Dog". She has a chapter in the book related to dog instinct--definitely trust your dogs' instinct.

 

[Deber]

Agree & trust their instincts. They are picking up on something not right or good, so we will just go inside when he comes.