stalking

Me again Next question...

When I took Buster for his walk tonight a dog came onto the field, it started trotting over to see Buster, who then started to stalk it?! He crouched low down and was slowly crawling forward to see the dog - he looked like a cat! The dog kept going past, she's not one for playing with other dogs and I think once she had seen Buster she remembered he was too bouncy and so kept going. He also then did it a bit later on with some other dogs. He is never nasty, and I have never seen him do it before. Why has he started doing this, and is it something I should stop?

I did wonder if it might be because he is on the long line and thinks that I wont notice what he is up to? Or maybe because I've been getting him to sit when I am talking to someone who has a dog, so he has decided to get low to approach them? Any ideas?

He could be being submissive, Moo isn't at all, but thats the signs I look for when we aproach other dogs.

Suki does something similar as well. I've always thought it was prey instinct and just natural. As long as he is okay otherwise I wouldn't worry

sasha used to do this too when she was younger,even to birds as well as dogs,i think she thought she was a lion!

Billy does this when we throw the ball and make him wait

In my opinion it is a form of submission. Showing the oncoming dog that he is friendly?

Not necessarily submissive. Dempsey will do it & he's now way a submissive dog!

I think it's a mixture of a 'play bow' and prey drive. He's anticipating play, and he wants to creep up & pounce! It isn't a problem as long as the other dog (and owner) is ok with it, and nothing bad happens afterwards!

Caryll wrote:Not necessarily submissive. Dempsey will do it & he's now way a submissive dog!

I think it's a mixture of a 'play bow' and prey drive. He's anticipating play, and he wants to creep up & pounce! It isn't a problem as long as the other dog (and owner) is ok with it, and nothing bad happens afterwards!

I don't think Buster is very submissive either, although he will roll over with certian dogs. He is still on the long line at the moment so I can still keep control of him. Nothing bad has happened so far doing it, but I just wanted to check if it was something I should put a stop to now as it has only just started. We didn't see any other dogs while out this morning so I don't know yet if he is going to do it every time.

This is something that Rocky always does too. He will do the creeping up thing as if stalking his dinner. We put it down to the fact that he is supposed to be Staffy/Border Collie and it is the Border Collie thing like when they are herding sheep.

Interested to read that it could be submissive behaviour but it does sound more like prey drive instinct and anticipating play to me knowing how Rocky is.

Pixee does it too.