The lone dog.. Will he attack?

I started digging through the archives (I love the feel of soft dirt in my claws) and found this old article written by Chris. I remember this night well. That Husky is SO lucky he didn’t mess with me! Anyways, it appears that this one, and a few others, were removed a while back by mistake. While I chew a good bone, enjoy the article!

Shadow the Fearless

The lone dog.. The scared dog.. Will he attack?

A few nights ago, Shadow and I went on our evening walk before bed. About halfway through our walk, we spotted a Siberian Husky about 30 feet away from us in the middle of the road. Fortunately, it was late and there weren’t any cars, so the dog was not in danger of being run over. The Husky simply stared at us and didn’t move. I had never seen this dog in our neighborhood and wasn’t sure how he would react. Over the years, I’ve learned a few of the visual cues that people can use to tell if a dog is likely to be friendly, but while this dog did not show aggression, it wasn’t being very friendly either.

As we kept walking, I tried not to stare directly at the dog, because I didn’t want to be outwardly aggressive toward it.  However, I wanted to keep it in sight. When we passed the dog, he started to follow us.

Shadow is an 11 month-old lab that weighs around 50 pounds. He’s very friendly with other dogs, but I wasn’t sure what the Husky would do once our backs were turned.

After we turned a dark corner, the Husky was gone. This, however, made me start wondering what I would have done if the Husky had been aggressive. Would I have stepped between the dogs or let them work it out between themselves? My wife and I have had to pull fighting dogs apart before and it took both of us to do it.

Body Language

In hindsight, did I read the situation wrong? According to Paws Across America’s article on “How To Interpret Your Dog’s Body Language, Facial Expressions, and Vocalizations, the Husky appeared to be in an anxious state with its ears partially back and tail lowered. He was completely silent , but was watching us intently. I could see tags on the dog, but didn’t want to approach it in fear of scaring the animal or causing it to be aggressive.

How do you know if a dog may be aggressive?

The Dog Owner’s Guide has an excellent page on types of dog aggression and how to prevent it. According to their site, I was fortunate and did the correct things:

• Stay on the road to avoid invading the dog’s territory.

• Keep an eye on the dog, but not make direct eye contact.

• Keep still and remain calm.

I was lucky because, while I believe this was a scared dog, he did not appear to be aggressive. I hope his owner was able to find him and return him to his home.