This thread made me think of this. I can count five local dogs Oban is/was absolutely enthralled with. They were all spayed females but all 5 had been rescues from some kind of BYB breeder and had produced at least one litter. He never mounted them but there was "something" about them. Three of them thought he was pretty nice too and they'd have wild, rollicking plays. The other two liked me better, which pleased me no end as they were very nice dogs. 4 have passed on and I guess the Great Dane might have too as we have not seen her for over a year. Except for the Bassett they were all older than him too. Oban is intact and I do notice most female dogs, spayed or not, seem to like him. But he himself strongly likes the ones who had previously had a litter, they must smell different? Maybe there is some of that going on in the other thread? Twice we met Boxers, both neutered males, and between them and Oban it was instant, "I LIKE you", resulting in more wild, rollicking plays. Other Boxers have not had the same effect on him and didn't seem to care one way or the other about him. Oban likes GSD. At first I thought it was only the females (two spayed, one in the category above of had a litter and rescued) but we did meet a male and he likes him too. All but one of the dogs above are his size or bigger but there is a Pug and a Puggle, both neutered males, that really like Oban and if they work hard at their play bows eventually there will be a play. One of the females from above, Chloe the Newf, liked me best, her house mate the male neutered Berner, Murphy, liked Oban but Oban only had eyes for Chloe. Till one day Chloe was recovering from surgery so not on the walk and Oban and Murphy acted like long lost friends and had a wild, rollicking play. Murphy's owner and I just shook our heads. Their play was unexpected since previously Oban had ignored Murphy but here they were acting like great buddies. What about your dog? Can you see any patterns? Rhymes or Reasons to your dog's friends?
Nope, can't work Lilly out at all. We met a very nice yellow lab (bitch by the size) in the woods this afternoon. Nice approach, nice hellos, bit of a play preamble then the yellow lab did all the play bowing but Lilly just totally ignored her! What was that all about? She is normally the one to instigate.
I think Labs tend to like other labs or dogs that look and behave similar to Labs. All of ours have been like that, but they would play with other dogs as well. Tilly is not too fond of small white dogs. We have a photo some where of our first Chocolate Lab, Ginger, swimming in with two other Labs, a Black and a Yellow, that she had never met before that day. They all were swimming, holding the same Stick. Tilly has done the same thing with one other Lab. Our first Lab was bitten by a neighbor's GSD, and subsequently hated all GSDs.
Juno's doggy friends range in size from coton de tulear, shih tsu, through labs and border collie crosses, sight hounds to mastiffs. Also range through the spectrum from entire males, neutered males, spayed and unspayed females.
Charlie is extremely straightforward. If you play nice, gentle chase games, don't touch the chocolate fur too much (no rough stuff), and are great at play bows, Charlie loves you. If you are rough, charge up (unless you are a puppy or well known), have bad manners, growl for any reason whatsoever, or even look like you might be thinking of humping, or you are a white terrier, Charlie will avoid you at all costs. Girl or boy doesn't matter, but girls and puppies tend to best fit his definition of 'nice to know'.
Fred loves every dog he meets, some more than others, but he is known is the village as Freddie the Flirt
Sam just loves them all, but his very best in all the world is his hero , chocolate Lab Yorkie , they met when Sam was a puppy, Yorkie was about 18 months old and there really was absolute adoration Millie , for some reason , dislikes Border Collies , always goes a bit " stiff legged " if one approaches
That is really unfortunate. For his part Oban seems to harbour no grudge against Golden Retrievers, even after the same thing happened to him. I was watchful for a long time around any GR though, as I've heard of an unpleasant experience setting up antipathy to others of the same breed.
Snowie loves other Labs -- instant recognition, I think the gallumpy run and the mad dash to say hallo. Some other dogs find this quite overwhelming I think, but not Labs. Second best are Golden Retrievers, I think because they know the "let's hold a stick together" game, like Labs. Snowie will sometimes try to entice another breed to play this game, but not guaranteed unless a Lab or GR. Snowie has a "thing" for neutered choc Labs. Races towards them, gets his head right under and has a good extended lick. Next wants to mount them. His best friend in the whole world is a neutered choc Lab. They know each other's names, and you only have to mention Snowie to Labyrinth, and "Where's Labyrinth?" to Snowie, and they start darting around looking for each other, it is remarkable. When they catch sight of each other, well, you'd best stay out of their path, shoulder to shoulder they gallop at high speed all over the place in heaven. But unfortunately, it always ends with Snowie wanting to mount Labyrinth. I think it's because Laby has hip dysplasia and after that initial burst of excitement he's too exhausted to carry on. Snowie meanwhile doesn't want to stop and gets so frustrated that his outlet is to mount Laby. Laby barks at him and grabs him by the loose skin on his cheek, and Snowie generally rides over his head in the end. At which point, to save poor Laby's hips, I leash up Snowie and have to drag him away, while Laby grabs Snowie's leash and has to be distracted with a biscuit lest he chews through the leash. Next in this category are Miniature Schnauzers, usually spayed females, drives Snowie insane! Can't get enough of them (in the licking sense). Again, leashed up to avoid embarrassment (of mounting such a small dog). Same with older females, lots of licking and wanting to mount them. He does not take kindly to dogs (I think they've all been male, about four of them that we see every now and then) who want to tower above him, get their necks over his shoulders, try to mount him in an aggressive way. Then he gets all stiff legged and stops, and on the odd occasion will growl if the other dog won't leave him alone, then I step in, don't want Snowie having to learn to defend himself in this way (maybe I'm too overprotective, but he waits for me to step in). But unaggressive mounting, no problem he couldn't care less, carries on with his business of sniffing or whatever he's up to. Snowie used to be far more friendly, but once he turned three he became less interested in playing with other dogs and only gets really excited for his known friends: Laby the choc Lab, a female Staffie, a black Labradoodle, a little black Maltese x, a medium black skinny dog up the road, and two Malamute sisters also up the road. We did spend a weekend with friends and he fell in love with their 12-year-old Labx (they spent the entire weekend walking around together non-stop tails wagging, it was incredible to see). Other than that, always keen to race up to meet n greet every dog, but seldom extended playing. He also has dogs that hate him. He does nothing, just stands still and waits for them to leave him alone. A miniature male Schnauzer who has attached himself to Snowie's cheek and Snowie did nothing -- we see him most mornings on our walk. A Charpei. And a Chow Chow (wants to kill him, but this dog would like to kill many others) -- in this case, Snowie barks back -- one of the few he reacts to.
I know who Homer is not fond of rather than who his friends are. He definitely doesn't like boisterous dogs and puppies. That includes most poodle and poodle cross dogs. Of which there are quite a lot of in our area.
