[boomer11]

No one asked if it was true. I asked is it relevant to the discussion? Imo a back handed compliment of she's educated but too stupid to work a staple remover is not very relevant at all.....

You should give Jane a treat to give your dog every time he visits so he can associate her with good things.

I do believe dogs can smell all the different chemical reactions our bodies give off. Dogs can certainly smell fear/aderinalime but they certainly can't minds.

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[belladonnalily]

You should give Jane a treat to give your dog every time he visits so he can associate her with good things.

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Already did that. In the beginning before this happened. I knew she didn't know much about dogs so I did this several times. After the first "incident", I tried letting her toss him a treat. At this point I'm just not having him close to her at all.

No way am I letting her hand feed him at this point. One bad decision on his part could end badly for all of us.


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[boomer11]

Well if she does end up being a serial killer I'll come back and profusely apologize

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[belladonnalily]

And ok, point made. Next time I'll just describe basics and give no details about unusual behaviors, etc. My choice of words was maybe worthy of edit, but the funny part is much of what I've said Jane would acknowledge. Like I said, she does have a sense of humor and on some levels, knows she is "interesting." But anyway, since no one here knows her, no one will understand. She herself pointed out the staple-remover thing. I just borrowed it.

I just deleted the rest of my post because my sarcasm was starting take hold. I think I'll go spend time with my nervy, prejudiced dog now and see if we can come up with some new Jane jokes before tomorrow

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[SunCzarina]

I just deleted the rest of my post because my sarcasm was starting take hold. I think I'll go spend time with my nervy, prejudiced dog now and see if we can come up with some new Jane jokes before tomorrow

I was entertained by the stapler comment. It speaks to the overall person.

I work with engineers all day. People who don't work with or know any engineers get all indignant and condescending like I don't have a clue what I'm talking about when I say 'engineers don't read the directions.' I have directions written in 24 pitch red letters on one page and still I have to ask the question 'did you read the directory considerations?' It's obvious to me who reads it. They're engineers and they 'know how to do it'. Highly educated. Can't work the stapler.

 

[belladonnalily]

Well if she does end up being a serial killer I'll come back and profusely apologize

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I'll have the maintenance staff check her freezer today. I'll keep you posted.

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[Sri]

I just read this thread, and I did not feel you were disparaging Jane. I felt that you really wanted to understand why and you were also real but humorous.

 

[Sri]

I have to add that we had two men working in the yard yesterday. And I took our dog to meet them, one he was friendly with, approached with a tail and butt wag and body lower, ears back. The other he was pushy with (and this was actually a much bigger bulkier man than the other). I looked at man's face and I saw that he was obvously scared. So I called Frodo back and made him sit next to me, the man then held out his hand for my dog to sniff, which he did but his(the dog's) body language was still not friendly. It was not aggressive either, but definitely felt pushy. I then engaged him in play and walking around and he ignored the men while they worked.

Oh! Have to say mine is 14 months old now, and I am beginning to see he is very friendly with some strangers, not quite so with others. But usually after meeting someone and I have been talking with them for a while he is friendly always.

 

[Gwenhwyfair]

Eh..sounds like Jane isn't one of the popular in the office.

I agree with Sparra and Blanketback.

It would be an interesting experiment if you, OP, could adjust your perception of Jane and see if that changes how your dog reacts. It would be hard to do though....

In any case this maybe one of those situations that gets sorted out by karma, one of which could be your dog will no longer be allowed in the office.

 

[Lilie]

I am suprised by the amount of folks on this thread who are unable to read their own dogs. Kinda sad really. You won't ever be able to understand where the OP is coming from, if you've never experianced it.

 

[Blanketback]

You people actually think your dog doesn't like every person you don't like? You honestly believe that?

Why does this seem so incredible to you? Of course our dogs can read us, and pick up on our emotions. If everyone is thinking, "Oh no, not Jane again!" then OP's dog will know it.

Maybe you think we're anthropomorphizing, and using the word "like" is incorrect? Then I should rephrase it: my dogs have always acted 'differently' around people I didn't like.

 

[Gwenhwyfair]

That's a pretty harsh assessment to make about several people who don't agree with you (and very unusual for you to make a statement like that too... )

One thing is for sure, we can't tell what is really going on with the OP and her dog. Any one of the ideas mentioned here could be correct, or wrong.

Even top notch trainers 'misread' dogs too.

All I know for sure is, if I allowed an employee to bring a dog to my place of business and it started causing trouble like that, I wouldn't give a flip whether someone was misreading the dog or not. More important things to worry about like being profitable....just sayin'.

I am suprised by the amount of folks on this thread who are unable to read their own dogs. Kinda sad really. You won't ever be able to understand where the OP is coming from, if you've never experianced it.

 

[Gwenhwyfair]

Agreed. When speaking with a K-9 handler he said when tracking the dog could smell the stress hormones of a suspect that is on the run. He said it helps the dog track actually.

Also, seizure alert dogs, they pick up on subtle changes in body chemistry that occur prior to a person having a seizure.

For these reasons I think your statements have validity and are far from 'incredible' given there's actually dogs out there utilizing those senses for their work. They're proven.

Though in this case it's hard to say for sure but it's a fair possibility.

Why does this seem so incredible to you? Of course our dogs can read us, and pick up on our emotions. If everyone is thinking, "Oh no, not Jane again!" then OP's dog will know it.

Maybe you think we're anthropomorphizing, and using the word "like" is incorrect? Then I should rephrase it: my dogs have always acted 'differently' around people I didn't like.

 

[Lilie]

That's a pretty harsh assessment to make about several people who don't agree with you (and very unusual for you to make a statement like that too... )

I suppose I'm just weary.

The OP expressed her desire to find out why her (young) dog reacted to a specific person. The dog has never reacted to anybody else. I find that behavior very interesting. I'd like to have heard a more mature discussion on that specific behavior.

Instead the focus remained on the OP's co-worker's abilty to utilize a stapler. And the reasons why the OP should never have made specific statements about her co-worker.

To me, that means those folks have no idea how to answer the OP's initial question. I find that sad.

 

[Gwenhwyfair]

I wouldn't be sad about it, happens all the time here! We can't even have a debate without someone accusing a person explaining their position as 'bashing' or 'browbeating' even when it's not personal. So I guess it's a matter of being consistent....or not.

BUT....one of your recent stories got me thinking and more on topic....

I was thinking about your Hondo running your hubby's friend up to the gate. He hadn't done that before, when he was younger.

I think with some of the dogs they go through these stages, like the puppy landshark phase. Ilda went through something similar. As a puppy she liked everybody. Then as she got to be about 10 months old that started changing.

At first it seemed like it was just one person but then it started happening more often. There didn't seem to be a rhyme or reason to it. So we went to a trainer (GSD/IPO/protection trainer) who said she's going through a phase of looking for challenges. He told me what to do about it.

So she went from a puppy who 'liked' everyone to a dog that is now aloof with strangers (as she was bred to be) but that inbetween phase was a little flakey.

I believe had I been a more experienced trainer/owner that phase would have indeed been shorter and less noticeable too.

So that may be what's going on here as well, some food for thought.

I suppose I'm just weary.

The OP expressed her desire to find out why her (young) dog reacted to a specific person. The dog has never reacted to anybody else. I find that behavior very interesting. I'd like to have heard a more mature discussion on that specific behavior.

Instead the focus remained on the OP's co-worker's abilty to utilize a stapler. And the reasons why the OP should never have made specific statements about her co-worker.

To me, that means those folks have no idea how to answer the OP's initial question. I find that sad.

 

[martemchik]

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter WHY the dog is doing this. It's reaction is completely unnecessary and improper. I know that some of you don't care if your dog barks and bites everything that moves, probably think it’s the greatest guard dog on the planet because it flips its lid over anything that moves outside of your house. But this is a terrible reaction.

The dog more than likely reacted to something physical rather than chemical. OP wasn’t in the room, has no idea why, and in the process of getting a hold of the dog probably missed something that Jane was wearing or doing at the time that freaked the dog out. Not a big deal, even balanced dogs get freaked out once in a while by something new.

This whole thread is a perfect example of normal human behavior:

1) When we don’t like someone, we tend to notice funny/different things more. We pick on the things they do and remember them. If someone that we liked did them, we wouldn’t even notice.

2) We get upset when negative things are said about things we have raised. A dog, a kid, anything that we think we’ve been doing right by. When the blame is placed on “us” rather than the object that isn’t under our control, we get upset and defensive.

3) We don’t like to be confrontational. This happens all the time on threads. The majority of people will agree with the OP, and many times with whatever side the GSD is on because we hold this breed in such high esteem. We don’t like to go against the response that OP is looking for, and so most people will appease that, they put themselves in the shoes of the OP and think of how they’d react (then go back to 1 and 2).

If you’ve been on this site for long enough…#3 gets really apparent. I can’t remember the number of threads where a GSD is “attacked” by a small dog and everyone blames the off-leash small dog. Once there was a thread about how a small dog came onto a GSD’s yard, the GSD then protected its yard, and even chased the dog back into their yard where it proceeded to kill said dog. Everyone was in agreement…GSD was in the right, small dog was in the wrong, should’ve been on leash, contained, blah blah blah. There was also a thread about some guy who shot a GSD that “attacked” him and his small dogs when he was walking. Owner and neighbors of course said the GSD was the sweetest dog in the world and was just trying to play. The majority of the forum again sided with the GSD…how could that guy shoot the dog? It wasn’t attacking! It was playing! Didn’t matter at that point that the dog had left its yard, wasn’t on lead, wasn’t under control…

Back to the thread though…the reason most people placed blame on the employee is because of the picture OP painted. Jane is all these “weird/different” things…my dog is an angel that has never done anything wrong before. Is that believable? Maybe OP is missing signs that the dog does react negatively towards others? Or does have anxiety in other situations? Maybe the reaction isn’t as forward as this one was, but there was still some sort of stress in that reaction? I’ve learned that many times, a dog’s reaction is never a “first time” thing. I know this because I used to think I had a perfect, submissive, little angel of a dog. Then the first time he didn’t submit and decided to stand up for himself, I thought, well it’s just the first time, THAT dog must have something wrong with it. Then it kind of kept happening again and again. I then thought back about other signs I’d seen before, I spoke with people I trained with, who all pointed out things that they saw in my dog that spelled that something like this was going to develop.

 

[Sri]

. More important things to worry about like being profitable....just sayin'.

and liability.

 

[Gwenhwyfair]

I snipped out only what I want to address (as for the rest, you're on your own there! )

I meant to say earlier that it could also be subtle body language.

I noticed in protection body language is used to help train dogs to differentiate between no-threat and threat.

Dogs are reading our body language, even facial expressions. There's been some research done on how in tune dogs can be with humans (due probably to modern dogs and modern humans actually co-evolving).

So yeah, it could be reading physical signals too.

At the end of the day, it doesn't matter WHY the dog is doing this. It's reaction is completely unnecessary and improper.

The dog more than likely reacted to something physical rather than chemical<snipped ...>

 

[Lilie]

I think that is why I find dog behavior so interesting. You can have two dogs in your home. Your rules are the same for both dogs, but you have to train each one differently.

If you tried to train both dogs the exact same way, you'd fail both. How you learn to train each dog is by being able to read your dog. Some of your dog's 'language' is easy to read. Some 'language' you have to be open to look for. But it's there. You just have to respect your dog (as a dog) enough to listen.

 

[Gwenhwyfair]

So true that too!

and liability.