I recently fostered a dog who first greeted me at the shelter that I sprung her from by jumping up on me. Front or back, it made no difference to her what side of the human was presented to her, she was just delirious with joy that someone opened her kennel gate and was paying attention to her. I spent the first two days with her almost exclusively working on preventing her from jumping (by standing on her leash at a length that did not prevent her from standing and moving, but wouldn’t allow her to leap up at me) and generously reinforcing her for not jumping (by quickly putting my hands on her and giving her massive amounts of petting and attention when she remained calm and had all four paws on the floor, and by tossing treats on the ground to direct more of her attention to lower altitudes).
However, when I introduced her to a friend, and my friend immediately held her arms out and greeted the dog’s enthusiastic jump up with a big hug, petting, and cooing, I was reminded once again that everyone likes different things about dogs!
I really, really, dislike it when big dogs jump on people! And while I feel like small dogs who jump up on people have a better excuse for doing so, I’m not a fan of sharp little nails scratching my legs, either! But I have lots of friends who not only don’t mind when dogs jump up on them, they encourage it! Ack!
However, I have to admit that my dog Woody has a behavior quirk that has always amused me, and is very much not appreciated by many other people: He likes to walk straight up to people and walk though their legs. He’ll stop halfway through, wagging his tail furiously, hoping that the person will reach down and scratch his butt. It’s his favorite way to greet people—but not many people appreciate being greeted by having a big old Pit Bull head coming straight at their crotch! And he’s nearly knocked over a few shorter people, and taken a few kids for a short ride!
Of course, when we’re in public, I prevent Woody from greeting people in this way. And when folks come to my house, I have to judge whether they are capable of either telling Woody “Off!” or if I need to put him on a leash or behind a gate. I would never let him near my beloved 94-year-old neighbor, for example, but the guy who came to trim some of our trees was sturdy enough and seemed comfortable with the dogs; I just told him he could just tell Woody “Off!” and the dog would leave him alone. He did tell Woody “Off!” and Woody did leave him alone—but did he (or some of my other friends) leave my house that day saying to themselves, “Sheesh, she’s a dog trainer? Her dog’s behavior is awful!”
People also have very different reactions to barking. My sister barely seems to notice when one, two, or all three of her small dogs are barking, but I can’t even talk to her on the phone (much less in person) when I hear them in the background bark, bark, barking at something. I often have to interrupt her to say, “Go see what they are barking at!”
Licking is another deal-breaker for me. I don’t like being licked by dogs—not even my own dogs! But lots of my friends don’t seem bothered by it at all.
What canine behaviors are deal-breakers for you? And what behaviors do you tolerate that you think other people really don’t like?
