Hey everyone! First of all: Thanks so much for this website and this forum!! It was such a relieve reading about all the puppy problems everyone is having - and not only us and that it gets better! Just wish I would have stumbled over it much sooner! This is my first post, I hope I put it in the right section... We have a 3Month-old black Lab (our first dog) and since a couple of days he does this strange thing... or maybe its not strange at all, but we are unsure about what to think of it. When one of us gets back home he comes running, obviously happy to see us and jumps up and around. But sometimes, when we pet him he then puts his tail between his legs; he doesn't go away or anything, just puts his tail between the legs. Does this mean he is afraid of us? at least in that situation? Or do we do anything wrong? :-\ I don't think the way we greet him has chanced since the last month.. Hope I explained the situation well enough, maybe you got any ideas?! sorry for any mistakes, I'm no native speaker :
Re: Strange greeting behavior?! Hi and welcome to the forum Usually if a dog puts it's tail between it's legs it means they are unhappy or unsure of a situation. It does seem strange if he only just started doing this! Hopefully someone else will be along who can offer you some advice
Re: Strange greeting behavior?! Hi and welcome from me too Naya is right about body language, but this can also be a sign of submission , a way of saying " I mean no threat " . Can I ask , when he comes to greet you, all happy , do you speak loudly to him ? If so , it could just be that he is a little worried by this and wants you to know that he is worried by being submissive . Is he fussy and happy with you at other times ?
Re: Strange greeting behavior?! [quote author=kateincornwall link=topic=8720.msg123447#msg123447 date=1415814641] Hi and welcome from me too Naya is right about body language, but this can also be a sign of submission , a way of saying " I mean no threat " . Can I ask , when he comes to greet you, all happy , do you speak loudly to him ? If so , it could just be that he is a little worried by this and wants you to know that he is worried by being submissive . Is he fussy and happy with you at other times ? [/quote] I agree, try to be a bit quieter, he is obviously overjoyed to see you but is maybe getting the wrong message by your reaction. Try to not go bonkers when you meet him. Duno why im saying that as I go bananas when I see Bouncer after work.
Re: Strange greeting behavior?! Hi there....welcome from me too! I was wondering if there were any issues on your return home previously - had he had an "accident" at all, has he picked up a signal before that has made him wary. It could even be a bit of irritation from an over-bouncy welcome in the recent past. Some dogs are really sensitive to you mood, tone of voice, body language....... I guess you may never get to the bottom of it. jac
Re: Strange greeting behavior?! Thank you for the warm welcome and all the replies and ideas!!! Hmm I don't think I was too loud, we always try to keep it down, he gets overexcited pretty easily!! can't think of any "accidents" either. to me it was just as usual, but I didn't pay attention to the details of the exact situation. Maybe it was because I carried a lot of bags?! So I seemed bigger than usual or something like that, does this make any sense? ??? I guess I have to keep an eye on the small differences here.. but he hasn't done it in a while, so maybe I'll never find out. Which is fine by me as long as he's happy ;D
Re: Strange greeting behavior?! Forgot to mention: the only other situations when he puts his tail between his legs is when he meets another dog for the first time, but he gets past ist quickly and its getting less the more dogs he meets. I think this is pretty normal, isn't it?! and also when he has his "crazy time". usually when we are outside, he starts running in all directs and in circles and puts his tail between legs. I read a lot of dogs do that, the crazy 5 minutes, so I hope I don't misinterpret that. We could never find a reason for this, so we took it as a "I'm just so happy to be outside and have all the wide world to run around", lasts about 1 minute or less he isn't much of a cuddler, but never did the tail-thing when petting or playing with him. kateincornwall, was that what you meant with "fussy and happy with you at other times"?
Re: Strange greeting behavior?! That's interesting, we had similar behaviours, Benson as a very young pup, when very excited would put his tail in between his legs, usually first thing in the morning we came downstairs, this was the only time he showed much affection. When he hoolied around the garden, it would be humpy backed and tail between his legs! I think because there wasn't a cluster of other things indicating nervousness or anxiety we weren't too worried and just put it down to over -excitement.
Re: Strange greeting behavior?! Yes - I call it the 'bum tuck'. Gypsy adores water - if she's on the edge of the reservoir she bum tucks through the water They also do it when playing together sometimes.
Re: Strange greeting behavior?! oh i'm so glad to hear that, sounds just like him 8) don't see other signs for nervousness or anxiety either, but I'll try to watch him more closely in the next couple of weeks, just in case... Thanks again for all the comments, I'm really glad I found this website/forum!
Re: Strange greeting behavior?! [quote author=Boogie link=topic=8720.msg123631#msg123631 date=1415877528] Yes - I call it the 'bum tuck'. [/quote] That was my initial thoughts ..... Also just dropping in to say hi from Dexter and I ,our 2 year old yellow boy Best wishes Angela x
