Solly curious and worrying behaviour

Hi there, well will try to be brief and objective, Solly has taken an extreme dislike to someone, not a friend, but someone we see around in a boatyard. When we go to our boat Solly has the run of the boat yard, no problems there, but one morning when we were going down the gangplank, Solly gave a loud yelp which to us sounded as if he was hurt, we turned around and the said guy exclaimed 'your dog just went for me' Solly is very people friendly and has always been happy with this fellow around him, not so now, the next incident was about 10 minutes later when the guy came towards Solly and he growled again. We asked the guy not to come anywhere near to Solly in future and we in turn now keep Solly with us all the time. We asked the guy did he hurt Solly accidently the answer was a firm 'No' and Solly did not bite him, but now Solly only has to scent the guy in the air and his hackles go up. Must add that Solly is a very well balanced dog mentally, loves people dislikes most unneutered males (dogs that is, sorry gents)) and is generally a happy staffie cross. One last thing the guy who would always call Solly by his name now refers to him as 'that dog' and you get the feeling that he wants to enter into a slanging match which we will not do.
Its all very unfortunate, have tried to describe the circumstances as far as I can, and was wondering if anyone on the forum has had a similar experience with their dog and how did they remedy the behaviour if at all

Thankyou
Anne

I have moved this post to Training & Behaviour as requested. Sorry I dont think I can be of any further help, have not come across this problem, yet, sorry.

I hope you can get some answers to this query.

If he's taken a dislike for a particular reason then there's very little you can do without the help of the guy concerned.

There's a guy round here that Dempsey cannot abide & I think he'd bite given the chance. We just make sure he's on lead & keep away as far as possible.

Kathytake2, Thankyou for moving my post.

Caryll Thankyou,we dont want things to escalate and are doing what you suggest, better to be safe than sorry.

Anne

I'm a doubting Thomas and to me it sounds like this bloke has done something he's not admitting to out of eye and earshot , not a lot you can do without his co-operation so as Caryll says then just keep on your guard and keep Solly close

Dave Thankyou, we think that too, but if you dont actually see what happened its difficult to point the finger, but it is so out of character for Solly, Thankyou

Panda wrote:Dave Thankyou, we think that too, but if you dont actually see what happened its difficult to point the finger, but it is so out of character for Solly, Thankyou

Sorry I didn't mean to insinuate you point the finger , just if you have the experience of Solly and know his character I would trust Solly before your "average human". My 2 love everybody and if 1 of them took a dislike to a person I would take that as a good judge of character.

My grandad always said dogs seem to know all our secrets, sometimes they can sniff out a dodgy person, even if they haven't done anything to the dog in particular. Clever creatures

Without his help I'm not sure you can do anything. If he is willing to help have him feed Solly

Is he on any kinds of medication ? Thanks Lizanne x

Hi there

Dave, I too think that dogs are great judges of character, and yes he is by our side all the time now. Thankyou

Pigmyparrot, you may well be right, after asking about the guy seems to have some kind of form, but thats as much as we know. Thankyou



jstaff, We are all for conciliation, but keep our distance for as long as he refers to Solly as 'That Dog'. Thankyou


Lizanne, No Solly is not on medication, and he is on quite a bland diet. Thankyou

It doesn't fit that Solly would suddenly just take a dislike to this man, there must be a definate reason for it. Perhaps the man stepped on his foot and pushed him out the way. There must be something behind it. Also if the man like Solly previously and then took to calling him 'that dog' and being funny with him then something must of happened. Otherwise he would want to fix things and would probably be happy to work through it with you. I would keep Solly near to you and not let him go near this man, if you have never seen this behaviour or anything similar before he must have frightened him. I do understand however that you have no evidence and cannot point the finger. And its defo true about dogs knowing all our secrets...

[/b]Nosipho[b]. Thankyou for your comments

Anne