Dog Bit my dog (and strange behavior) help

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lostshowfan86

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Okay I am watching a dog right now and that dog and my dogs have been playing anyways.

Its a Jack Russell. His name is actually Wishbone (pretty funny) (and I have a Jack Russell mix Sasha and a Poodle Zack) heres the thing. My poodle Zack was laying near me and my JRT mix Sasha was asleep by the window and the Jack Wishbone (not my jack) grabbed and bit down on my poodles leg (not hard and not even hard enough to leave a mark) and he wouldn't let go and I got him seperated (I don't even think my poodle realized what happened)

Once I got my poodle and had him in my arms I scolded Wishbone and heres the thing, I don't even think he gets he did something wrong because as I scolded him he just stood there wagging his tail.

Is that normal for a dog to not realize when they are in trouble or did something wrong?

It just seems like strange behavior to me

(I am a very treat happy pet owner when it comes to training and behavior and its rare I've had to scold my dogs I try to avoid it but I was not going to let this dog just bite my dog and it go unnoticed)

I'm going to talk to his owner when she gets back but doesn't it seem strange that he didn't even realize he was doing wrong?


(I have him seperated from my dogs at the moment)


It just seemed wierd to me

Don't get me wrong I'm not upset I mean these things happen I just find it strange (And I'm curious because Sasha is kind of like that too not realizing when we are upset and just wagging her tail but I just let it go thinking she is just a very happy dog)
 
Were they actually fighting? Sounds like the dog maybe wanted to play...

Sam goes up and bites the ankles on just about any dog in his reach when he wants to play. Tis why we call him an ankle biter.
 
Okay well first off, I'd venture a guess that this wasn't a real bite. A real bite would have left a mark. This was something else (annoying play? some form of dominance behavior? I don't know, I wasn't there).

As far as the scolding: it depends on the dog's temperament and it depends on how they're "scolded" at home. Some dogs get yelled at constantly so it just turns into background noise, others rarely are scolded and when they are they crumble. My old dog Mike would get aggressive if scolded, so other ways were learned to deal with his issues. Truthfully I will correct my dogs, but I do not scold them as I don't think they really "get it" the way a human does. In cases where a well timed correction cannot be delivered, or is not necessary, my dogs are given time outs or have things taken away.

I'd say there are about 8 million different variables to what happened in this situation and unfortunately no one is going to be able to give you a good solid answer to what just happened and why. Talk to the owner and see if the dog has done this before and what the context was. That's your best bet.
 
Zack was asleep next to me when Wishbone grabbed his leg and he just pulled at his leg and didn't let go.and I grabbed Zack up because I was afraid he was going to hurt him. Zacks only reaction was to growl at him before i grabbed him up. there would have been a fight had I not seperated them

Its not so much that he did that but the fact he had no idea when I scolded him that he was in trouble I find that strange.

(especially since Sasha is the same way as far as being in trouble it seems she doesn't care whats going on she is happy as long as you are talking to her)
 
Tallulah and Kharma (especially Tallulah, lol) have been known to grab a leg and tug on it to annoy each other until they'll get up and play. Could that be what was going on?
 
So you find it strange this other dog wags it tail when you scold it, but Sasha does the exact same thing and you find that okay?
 
MericoX said:
So you find it strange this other dog wags it tail when you scold it, but Sasha does the exact same thing and you find that okay?
Click to expand...

No I find it strange when she does it too but I just let it go until now.....and now another Jack Russell has the same response. Is it a jack russell thing or is a happy dog thing (could this be a problem in the future)


What I'm saying is now I'm concerned

(luckily Sasha is a good dog and obeys all her commands and has only ever been scolded over peeing in the house which she doesn't do anymore....I when I say scold I don't mean yell....I mean letting them know is a firm serious voice that I'm dissapointed)
 
Dogs don't know right and wrong. They know consequences ~ pleasant or unpleasant.

When "scolded" - some dogs see an unhappy owner and offer appeasement gestures - crouching, licking, turning away - which is mistaken for "knowing they were wrong" and "being sorry". Some dogs see an unhappy owner and don't care, some dogs see an unhappy owner and try to initiate play, some dogs don't see an unhappy owner period.
 
The thing that gets me after that he went and started bugging Sasha, like nothing ever happened......Sasha wasn't happy with him so we separated them. He will be going home in about an hour

(normally Zack and Sasha are very good with their playmates but I guess the day wore on all of them, plus this is a new playmate)
 
Sounds like the dog simply wanted to play and was tugging on the ankle. I wouldn't have 'scolded' him, period. And the dog was probably wagging its tail because it had no idea why it was being scolded. To him, he was just simply trying to play most likely, and he was being reprimanded for it.
 
FluffyZooCrew said:
Sounds like the dog simply wanted to play and was tugging on the ankle. I wouldn't have 'scolded' him, period. And the dog was probably wagging its tail because it had no idea why it was being scolded. To him, he was just simply trying to play most likely, and he was being reprimanded for it.
Click to expand...


Well is may not have been what you would do but he bit my poodle and I wasn't going to have a fight on my hands.....and it was uncalled for. So i did scold him. And it concerns me not so much that he just stood there wagging his tail but now that I've seen another dog do this I'm a little concerned about Sasha.
 
Why on earth does it concern you? Multiple people in this thread have told you dogs have no idea when they've done something right or wrong, and scolding a dog doesn't mean a darn thing to them.
 
Why are you concerned?? Good grief. We told you, it's because they are DOGS and do not know why they are being scolded. So yes, they are going to sit there and wag their tails.
 
JRT owner here. confident dogs don't care if you yell.. esp if you don't normally do it. Why should he care if you are making loud noises...?

Dogs don't 'yell' at each other when angry.. so its not like they should 'know' that yelling means should be upset.

It could have been play.. or it could have been something else. JRTs when they fight tend not to let go.. they tend to be a bite and hold breed.
 
When I keep Hunter and Maggie May here , legs are fair game . Maggie has a lot of " Terror " in her and will go after Ollie's legs . I don't think a Poodle is quite as tolerant and I can see snapping an issue .
 
FluffyZooCrew said:
We told you, it's because they are DOGS and do not know why they are being scolded. So yes, they are going to sit there and wag their tails.
Click to expand...

It's not that they don't know WHY they're being scolded (which they don't), it's that they don't know THAT they're being scolded. They know there's a lot of noise. Some will pick up on the person's unhappiness, some won't.
 
Some dogs are very sensitive. My paps will start trying to appease if there's even the slightest edge in my voice. Trey on the other hand is indifferent. You could yell until you are blue in the face and he'd sit there wagging his tail going 'Oh yay, attention!'.
 
Your Trey sounds like Triumph. The louder you get, the harder his tail wags. :rolleyes:
 
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