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Originally posted by DragonMage:
The way he reacted to the boy who had taken him in and then abandoned him (in the dog's eyes anyway) is understandable. He didn't trust the child anymore. All the pup knows is "one day the boy was nice, the next he told me to get lost!"
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Yeah I agree with you there. He definitely did not like that kid anymore and he is a deeply sensitive little dog. Seeing him lost across the street, I could see the emotion in his eyes, the confusion, the lonliness. That is the only reason I went and got him, because of the depth of feeling his eyes showed.
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And the way he's reacting to your Grandfather has nothing to do with anything you have done wrong. He CAN be trained out of it. With time, he will come to accept your Grandpa. Mostly, your Grandpa needs to show NO FEAR. I know it's an old saying, but they CAN "smell" fear. If a dog senses someone is afraid, they see that person as a potential threat (when a dog is afraid of another dog, it usually attacks rather than runs). If a dog runs from another dog, it is chased. Either way, fear means fight. He needs to also be slowly brought closer and closer to your Grandpa, but on a restraint or even with a "soft muzzle". If Grandpa is frail, your dog may sense his weakness. The old and weak are often driven out to die in pack society.
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I agree with this too. he knows he is loved and safe here and i have learned from past experiences with dogs about showing them fear and how they may or may not react depending on how "wild" they are.
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The way he reacts to other men is probably due to two things: the first, men have been "bad" to him (and animals do know the difference between the sexes). The second seems to be a tendency for one sex of dog to bond with opposite sex humans. If your pup likes women, he will be protective of them. If he gets along okay with your husband, then you have properly shown him who is "alpha-male" and as long as he knows who is boss (but who also loves him), he will continue to respect that male.
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I agree with you here too...the kid that owned him abandoning him and the scars on his hind foot have me thinking that his owner prior to the kid was more than likely a man.
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As far as your puppy "knowing how you feel about someone else"...hmm - as much as I feel that our pets are our family and that we should all give them more credit than most do, there are still limits to his understanding of emotion only. They understand tone-of-voice and body language, scents and volume of noise. I don't know if they ALL pick up on "emotion". Fear is an emotion, true, but when you are afraid, you give off a strong scent.
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Maybe I give animals more credit than most people but I do believe they can sense our emotions on all levels. I even consider most wilder animals to even be a bit telepathic if not in a manner that has them knowing what we are literally thinking, then at least one in which they know what we are feeling or what our intentions toward them are. I have handled a lot of wild birds for example that were stressed until I let them know I was there to help them escape (my cats). A few of them were even content to remain sitting in my hand after I opened it up to allow them their freedom once I got them outside...one (a cactus wren) even came back to my bird feeder with his mate everyday and would set his food down in front of me (if I was outside) and then "nod" at me before taking it and leaving with her...sort of a "thank you" as I understood it to be.
I also used to hand-feed the wild squirrels that lived under the shed in my backyard. A couple of the females were content to sit down right next to me and stay there for a while, but as soon as I even thought of petting them or touching them, they would get up and move away, beyond arms reach and they'd keep a close eye on me before settling back down to just chill out in my yard with me.
Your post was quite a bit of help to me! I will be sure to follow your advise with grandpa (even the not petting grandpa part
) and I thank you for taking all the time you did to talk to me about it! We have had him for four months now so he is very well adjusted to me and Rex. It is just grandpa misses his own dogs and he
is so frail that I have feared the pup reacting violently to grandpa's fear of him, as has grandpa.
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And, sorry for getting off the original topic. Just trying to help make the world a better place.  (Can't we all just get along?)
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Again, Thank you! Your help is much appreciated!
I'll end my post with Rex's vote for a favorite breed of canine:
"If I knew what Hercules was I'd say his breed LOL but since we can't figure him out I'll say Old English Bulldog"
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You know childhood is over when a puddle seems like an obstacle instead of an opportunity.
Is Too! Is Not! Is Too! Is Not!
[This message has been edited by Moni (edited 09-08-2001).]