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Question about nerves

1K views 11 replies 7 participants last post by  Thecowboysgirl 
#1 ·
Hypothetical question: Does a dog who falls for disguises or different clothes, appearances have poor nerves?

Examples: I boarded a dog who lost his mind when I came out with a towel on my head after a shower.


Dogs who don't recognize someone they casually know wearing the big bug sunglasses.

ect.

thoughts?
 
#3 ·
that particular dog/incident, I took off the towel to calm him down, spoke to him, then put it back in on front of him and he was fine. He apparently didn't recognize me because he was fine as soon as I took it off, and his owner said he does not come upstairs when she showers and has never seen the towel on head thing before

another dog, another time, someone the dog casually knew came out of the house with the big bug Hollywood sunglasses on and he barked at her. I told him to quit and he was fine thereafter. I don't think this dog has ever seen sunglasses like that before. they were kinda freaky looking
 
#5 ·
I have read that dogs recognize profiles of things first off until they can verify by scent and sound.My dogs have barked their "stranger!!" bark at a family member wearing an unfamiliar hat and whenever we get a new vehicle until they get familiar with a new shape.I agree with Hineni that as long as they recover immediately it wouldn't indicate bad nerves.
 
#6 · (Edited)
For me I'd want to see the type of reaction, the severity of it, how quickly the dog calmed down, even after they saw that it was fine were they still on edge/jumpy about other things? Did the dog immediately come forward to investigate or stay back? Etc, etc.

I have a dog I do not consider strong nerved, he is not weak nerved either but lies somewhere in the middle. We had a total stranger (to him) come into our home and use the shower, she came out with the towel on her head which is not something we do. Rather than just freak out, he investigated it before deciding it it was an issue or not, after that he was just immensely curious. He may or may not have tried to pull it off her head. :')

But yeah, it's hard to judge any dog from one situation or one person's recollection of a situation. I know some dogs who would appear strong nerved in certain situations but show their weaknesses in others. (For example I have a Mixed Breed who is very confident/daring environmentally but nervy as heck out people, through regularly exposure and conditioning he looks normal around people but if you have an eye for it you can see the weakness show through).
 
#8 ·
Also multiple times I will take her to a family members house and she greets everyone. Except someone is in the shower or whatever and kinda just "appears" she will do her stranger bark and run up to them but realizes by the time she reaches them that is a family member...would not consider her strong nerved though.
 
#9 ·
My wife got a new jacket for spring weather and let the dogs out to use bathroom. She put her new coat on with hood up and walked out to pick up dog mess. Athena seen her come down the steps unto the grass and my wife said she aggressively barked and jumper on her almost knocking her down. Once she spoke and said quit, Athena walked off calmly. I told her next time speak to her while she's coming towards you. I've never had any issues and I wear hoods up all the time. The car thing is spot on. My wife got a new vehicle a couple months ago and they were always walking by the door then barking like someone was here.
We was talking in club a while back about clatter sticks in protection. The consensus there seemed to be that the first time they are exposed to it that if they are taken back a bit no big deal as long as they recover and proceed. Same with the GSD temperament test. They quickly spring open an umbrella at the dog. It's OK if the dog jumps or backs up a step or two. But then they expect the dog to come forward to investigate.
 
#10 ·
Yeah once when my dog was about a year, I let him out to potty at night and he went down in the woods. I went about halfway after him and stood on this stump to see what he was doing. I had a hood up and a spotlight at my back. He turned and started back, looked at me and stopped and I could see the look on his face was like Holy Crap there is a giant monster staring at me. I looked 8 feet tall with no neck lol. I put the hood down and told him it was me and he was so relieved, poor kid.
 
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