Why the snapping at another dog ?

The Golden & him are just sitting there by us & he will just snap, 1 quick snap at her. Not all the time, just have caught him at times. No toys or nothing just pets from us.

I did see him when we first brought him home do this more often than now. He did this once to our GS female when walking past her.

I just wondered why he did this & what it would mean in dog langauge ?

I have seen him also lick the mouths of our GS female when taking a walk together & also has done this once or twice with our Golden. I thought this meant.....want to be friends or took it as a nice sign.

Just afraid of the snap behavior though.

Thanks

It seems like he's correcting the other dog for some perceived infraction. Are you sure the golden isn't maybe staring at him? It doesn't necessarily have to be a hard stare, just that their eyes can meet and she doesn't shift hers away fast enough in his opinion.

That's a really easy to miss sign that can provoke a snap from another dog. Same with the walking past the other dog, perhaps the GS didn't defer to him as he expected her to (didn't move out of his way, or she looked him in the eye) and so he snapped?

As for the petting, you mean that you might be petting one of them when this happens? I think it sounds like he is reacting some kind of behavior/signal from the golden that you haven't been able to pick up yet.

How are they otherwise, do you notice one dog deferring to the other when it comes to picking up a toy, or getting your attention?

Annie does a mouth air-clopping thing to start play with us or when she's being snuggled -- it's clearly not a snap, but it does look as if she's kind of popping her jaw and biting the air. I've seen her do it with other dogs too if she knows them -- they've never taken offense, and it's always during or just before starting play.

I've never seen her snap around other dogs (although I've seen her "air clop" around them), but I've seen them snap around her. I've never worried about it (I know all the dogs involved). Annie's very big and sometimes too rough for smaller dogs when she plays. They're warning her to back off, which she does. The play continues.

My first dog had a very good buddy she played with daily for years, and they snapped and snarled and screamed like mad at each other. It was play.

The serious "back off or I'll take drastic measures" snaps that I've seen amongst the dogs I know well are always accompanied by lots of warning signals -- snarls, ruffs up, eyes hard, tails up. Except for one very spoiled small dog that snapped and bit without warning.