This weekend my boyfriend was in town and we went to his aunt's house for a party. He brought his dog, Angus, a neutering, ten year old border collie. Two dogs live there-Ozzy, a chow/border collie (assuming neutered) and Rainbow another border collie (spayed probably?).
Rainbow was NOT happy. Angus went in for a sniff, standard meet and greet, and she started barking, growling and showing teeth. Angus had no reaction, or it was subtle. As far as I could tell he just stood there as she "shouted"and then he walked away. I don't know if it is DA or what. I suspect it is rooted in fear though, because even though she would lunge at him/bark/snap, Rainbow was hunkered down and backing up.
I say undersocialized, because apparently standard procedure for things like this is "lure Rainbow into the closet/room with a treat and lock it". So she had no way of learning to interact properly.
Outside in the yard, she seemed more relaxed. She would kind of follow Angus and show interest, like she wanted to play but then she would got.back to the growl/bark routine. Unless I'm misinterpreting some sort of stalking behavior?
Ozzy for the.most part was ok with Angus, only barking in response to Rainbow making a fuss. However in the yard, in one instance Rainbow and Ozzy did gang up on Angus.
Two major things concern me the most though.
My boyfriend's eight year old cousin casually mentioning that "Rainbow tried to bite me today" obviously is not ok. They also have a six year old and kids in the ranges of four to ten visiting...and kids and dogs don't mix well at the best of times...
This seriously pissed me off when I heard about it (did not.witness it). My boyfriend put his.hand down to give Rainbow.the opportunity to sniff it and gets snapped at. (He said he wasn't even trying to reach out and pet her/invade her space). His uncle.laughed and said "get him" afterwards. That is NOT a joke.
To top it off, they are trying to pawn off Rainbow to my boyfriend and his family. Yeah right.
Bottom line is someone needs to work with her before she bites their kids or a stranger and is put down. Stop shutting her up... I would hate to live in fear (or general stress, whatever it may be).
I tried to stay out of the way. I did not want to get caught in the middle (literally) when it escalated. After several hours of harrassment Angus did bark back at her, as if to say, "quit it!"
Rainbow was NOT happy. Angus went in for a sniff, standard meet and greet, and she started barking, growling and showing teeth. Angus had no reaction, or it was subtle. As far as I could tell he just stood there as she "shouted"and then he walked away. I don't know if it is DA or what. I suspect it is rooted in fear though, because even though she would lunge at him/bark/snap, Rainbow was hunkered down and backing up.
I say undersocialized, because apparently standard procedure for things like this is "lure Rainbow into the closet/room with a treat and lock it". So she had no way of learning to interact properly.
Outside in the yard, she seemed more relaxed. She would kind of follow Angus and show interest, like she wanted to play but then she would got.back to the growl/bark routine. Unless I'm misinterpreting some sort of stalking behavior?
Ozzy for the.most part was ok with Angus, only barking in response to Rainbow making a fuss. However in the yard, in one instance Rainbow and Ozzy did gang up on Angus.
Two major things concern me the most though.
My boyfriend's eight year old cousin casually mentioning that "Rainbow tried to bite me today" obviously is not ok. They also have a six year old and kids in the ranges of four to ten visiting...and kids and dogs don't mix well at the best of times...
This seriously pissed me off when I heard about it (did not.witness it). My boyfriend put his.hand down to give Rainbow.the opportunity to sniff it and gets snapped at. (He said he wasn't even trying to reach out and pet her/invade her space). His uncle.laughed and said "get him" afterwards. That is NOT a joke.
To top it off, they are trying to pawn off Rainbow to my boyfriend and his family. Yeah right.
Bottom line is someone needs to work with her before she bites their kids or a stranger and is put down. Stop shutting her up... I would hate to live in fear (or general stress, whatever it may be).
I tried to stay out of the way. I did not want to get caught in the middle (literally) when it escalated. After several hours of harrassment Angus did bark back at her, as if to say, "quit it!"