Really stupid breed question.

[hbwright]

I'm really grasping straws here but have seen something I find interesting and wondering if it is just a fluke.

Has anybody had a dog that prefered a certain breed companion over another, or even the scent of a certain breed?

My dog, Summer has always been raised with dobermans. She had puppy rotties as a puppy but one was stollen, the other died after her second parvo shot. Since then she has had two dobermans as companions, first male and then female. She took a while to become real sisters with the female but once they bonded, they were never apart. Since Cleo died she has been lost without her and after 5 weeks is still mourning her hard.

Around the neighborhood I've realized that there is only one dog that she seems to tolerate playing with and the others she either ignores or simply doesn't like at all. Then, comes a doberman who you would have thought she grew up with for her entire life. I thought it was very unusual for her to have this reaction and wondered if it is possible for dogs to be prejudice of things such as breed preferance.

Today I went to the grocery store and met a beautiful little girl there that I befriended and played with while I had the chance, another female dobie. Coming home Summer was very interested into my scent and excited to smell this dog on me compared her usual indifferent "what's that smell". Again an unusual reaction where her but actually wiggled.

Is this just plain silly for me to think like this, especially the scent thing? I've never noticed certain breeds having a certain smell but I guess it is possible.

[RD]

My Border Collie will actively seek out other Border Collies. This breed varies so much, but my rough-coated black and white dog with "classic" markings will immediately approach and initiate play with an all-black smooth coated dog or a mainly white dog with prick ears, and both turn out to be Border Collies. Most BCs do tend to gravitate towards one another.

My dogs are racist snobs. :p My Papillon even prefers the company of other Papillons.

[Bahamutt99]

I've noticed that with my dog. She tends to be leary of other Pit Bulls who are the same color as her. On the other hand, she is fascinated with shaggy or curly dogs. Maybe its not a breed-specific thing so much as a trait-specific, or type-specific kind of deal.

[Laurelin]

Papillons definitely prefer papillons to other dogs. At the last (or was it two years ago) butterfly picnic, we had a dozen or so paps playing with each other just fine. No aggression or anything. Traci brought out one of her 'big black dogs' (she has 3 and we all have no idea what they are) and all the paps went completely nuts. They were all growling and barking and everything. But when a new papillon came up it was fine.

Nikki prefers no other dogs be there.

But my two shelties are absolutely terrified of all dachshunds they've seen. they hid from my aunt's miniature puppy who was trying so hard to play with them. I mean, they cowered together on a stair and you can usually hardly get them to go near each other. It was pretty funny!

[rabbitsarebetter]

Ruckus (sheltie)
is very partial to the herding group.

[skyeboxer]

I've read here or on another forum that GSD's typically don't take to Boxers. I can't vouch for the truth of that myself but can imagine a boxer's clownishness may go against the grain of a more dignified or serious GSD. Also something about Boxer's facial structure apparently makes it harder for some other breeds to read.

Skye has a thing about balck dogs - mostly because one owner let his young GSD approach our gate and harrass her everyday. Now she'll be fine with little Zappa my mum's black mutt, but I have to take care of any strange black dogs no matter what size or shape.

Interesting point about the smell. Some breeds are known to be more 'scented' than others, aren't they? Maybe it was a family smell in that the young dobie was related or lives within the family circle of the other dobe she plays with?

[Paige]

Shelby, my dead doggie, was very age picky. Any dog under the age of two she hated. Older dogs she loved. She had always been that way too.

Spanky and Bandit are both afraid of little dogs. That is my fault for not introducing them to a lot of small dogs. I took them over to my friends house who has two toy mutts and the one licked Spanky's nose and he started yelping. It was pretty amusing. Bandit was hiding from the other one and even jumped into my lap to get away from the little creature.

They grew up around my sheltie, but she hated them so maybe they just think all little dogs are snobs?

[jess2416]

Chloe used to be VERY VERY leary of yellow dogs (mostly retrievers) but since "playing" with Biscuit a little she has gotten a LOT better than she used to be :)

[stevinski]

Harley hates toy dogs except pugs

[~Jessie~]

Chihuahuas also prefer chihuahuas :D

[MafiaPrincess]

Cider will play with most dogs, but has an infinity to spaniels. She can be cranky with dogs she even knows well.. Strange spaniel? We are good to go...

[hbwright]

Hum, very interesting and I'm glad I asked. I don't know about the smell either. I really thought that was very odd. I can not explain how excited she was. This dog was from New York and ours was from North Carolina but I guess I could find out a pedigree out of curiosity.

Maybe I'll see if I can find a doberman friend to come play and visit every now and then until we are ready to bring home another family member.

[happyhound]

My young GSP loves, loves, LOVES beagles. He goes out of his way to play with and annoy them at the dog park.

[Toller_08]

Tango gets along best with herding breeds and a couple of the sporting breeds. She get's very excited to see a Border Collie, especially. She doesn't often meet other Tollers, but she gets about as equally as excited to see them. She either hates most other breeds or couldn't care less about them (except Dobes and Rotties, as she's grown up around them and likes them).

[BostonBanker]

Meg is very partial to the more playful herding breeds - BC and shelties expecially. I think it is related to playing style for her - she doesn't like dogs who come on strong and want to play with physical contact. She's more of the "tag and run" type.

Needless to say, labs and goldens are usually her "trigger" dogs. She especially has issues with black labs.

[Zoom]

Sawyer is never so happy as when he has a group of Aussies to play with.

White dogs he just *has* to herd.

He hates yellow female dogs. Yup, he's a racist. :lol-sign:

[Doberluv]

My Doberman seems to throw a fit every time he sees a Golden Retriever. I don't know what it is. But he can get temperamental with a lot of dogs, just that GR set him off more. And male to male doesn't always make a difference with him. We happened on a black male mix....maybe a retriever and something else mix. He had a little bit longish hair and medium sized. And the two of them had a wee of a time playing.

My Chi's don't seem to single dogs out too much, but I have read that they frequently seem to stick with their own kind. Mine are too used to a variety of breeds. In fact, they seem to trust bigger dogs better and Lyric, my Dobe seems to prefer toy breeds when we meet new dogs, of all things.

Toker (Tokequilla) seems to be "anything goes." It may well have something to do with what they grew up with....what dogs they played with the most or liked the most as pups. Hard to say.

[chowchow186]

Richie's a chow. He don't seem to have any racism. But, he loves any and all dogs he meet. He just smell and chase after any dog he meets.

[~Dixie's_Mom~]

Dixie seems to cower away from most larger dogs. She gets snappish around any other smaller breeds. Even the 2 we have [Silky Terrier mix and Shih Tzu]. Although, she seems much more content with our Silky Mix [who is half Yorkie] than our Shih Tzu....Maybe she only likes other Yorkies! She's never met another Yorkie except our mixed girl, Lucy....Who knows! Our training class starts next month, and I'll update with her reaction to the other dogs in the group. =]

[Momof2Pups]

My dogs aren't too bad with singling out other dogs by breed.

Lucy love mostly all dogs.

Millie tends to prefer dogs about her size, though. She doesn't care much for "intrusive" intact males either (can't blame her, though).

[Gempress]

I think that SummerRiot's dog Riot is obsessed with Shelties, LOL.

Voodoo absolutely adores puppies and big dogs, but doesn't like toy dogs very much. Not aggressive, just unsure what to do. He gets this confused look: "It smells like a dog...but it's too small!"

Zeus is the opposite. He sometimes gets annoyed by young puppies and doesn't always get along with large male dogs, but he loves all toy dogs.

[Melissa_W]

I think Kai mostly looks for dogs that are around his size. He seems to really like Beagles... his BFF is a Beagle. He also likes other Shelties, and smaller sized Aussies, Border Collies and mixed breeds. Even though they are larger, he seems to like Goldens as well. He is intimidated by larger dogs, especially St. Bernards.

[Amstaffer]

Athena clearly prefers Bassett Hounds. If we go to the dog park she will walk through 20 other dogs of all types to go hang out with Bassett hounds. She doesn't really play with them...she just follows them around and "hangs out" with them. Kinda strange, I always tell people that Athena has a favorite breed :p


Sal prefers females of course but otherwise doesn't care. His favorite two dogs to play with are a GSP and a APBT, but I think he just likes them as individuals because he doesn't seem to favor other dogs of that breed.

[BlackPuppy]

My black male just loves Poodles! If there's a poodle at agility night. I have to hang on to him, and later, get his attention for the agility part.

[BlackPuppy]

Chihuahuas also prefer chihuahuas :D

There was pretty little long haired Chihuahua girl at my last agility trial that was flirting with my big black dog. He was very interested. Dunno know, but maybe he was hungry? :)

[hbwright]

Thanks for all the responses. I don't feel so foolish now. My fault, I should have socialized her with different dogs other then "her" dobies. We have made somewhat friends with a curly haired, med size dog down the road and then my neighbors shih-tsu who she knows from the backyard across from the fence has been looking for her and she has walked back there a few times with me looking over there so we walked with him yesterday. She seems to be really submissive to him though which is odd because she's always been the "queen of the castle" with the dobies. Maybe the smaller dogs look too much like cats and we all know how scary cats can be.

Another funny observation is that she can't stand the doberman/shephard mix that lived down the road and couldn't even stand the sight of him. Maybe she's not only prejudice but also a snob.

[showpug]

My pugs could care less about other dogs. They aren't partial one way or another but what I have found is that many other breeds discriminate against pugs. It seems that other breeds don't recongnize that it's a dog right away. My old boss had pointers and GWP's and the second they would see a pug they would start growling very aggressively. They never acted that way around other breeds...

[oc_spirit]

My boys seek out primitive laika-type breeds so all the nordic breeds and the LGDs and then on to some spitzes who though arent too primitive, still have that laika look