My 3 year old male lab Ziggy is generally a completely delightful, easy going, good dog. Very occasionally he displays some behaviour towards other dogs which I'm not sure how to interpret and whether it's a positive or negative trait. For example, he goes to day care once a week with a lady we know well and he knows her male husky well. Another dog she looks after is a 6 month old retriever. The husky can sometimes be a bit of a rough player (that's the breed's nature, it's all good fun) and a few times Ziggy has gone and stood over the pup. Now this appeared to be quite chivalrous, protecting her from the husky's vigourous play style, but actually as an in-tact male, is he trying to give a message to the younger male - "I'm the big man here". He's done something similar in the park - again when a male dog was getting a bit vigourous with his play - and stepped in with a little growl seemingly to protect a smaller dog (not sure if this was male or female). It's always smaller, younger dogs and I suspect always bitches, though not in season. I'd be really interested in anyone's interpretation - protection or possession?
Interesting . I am no expert on anything much less dog behavior but it sure seems to me that your pup is trying to protect. My Zeke and Rex are pretty rough with each other but play very gently with the smaller dogs in the neighborhood. And I have seen Zeke get in between one of the rougher dogs and the little dog. And he also might be teaching 'dog rules'. I saw Rex stand over Zeke a few times as they were growing up. Seemed serious at the time. Now they do it and it seems to be a signal to play.
Thanks CamK. This is of course what I like to think but I don't want to assume noble human qualities as he could be thinking with his testicles!
