Dog people, please explain this

[Anonymous]

OP here. This is interesting. Other than this, dog is not aggressive. It's a small dog and it hadn't occurred to me that dog is not ok with kids. Clearly, a bite from a small dog is no good, but I hadn't thought that was a possibility. Dog is totally find around everyone else and fine around husband during the day. It's just when husband comes home from work at night (often/usually the rest of the house is asleep by then and husband is trying to do the last walk of the night).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This is interesting. Other than this, dog is not aggressive. It's a small dog and it hadn't occurred to me that dog is not ok with kids. Clearly, a bite from a small dog is no good, but I hadn't thought that was a possibility. Dog is totally find around everyone else and fine around husband during the day. It's just when husband comes home from work at night (often/usually the rest of the house is asleep by then and husband is trying to do the last walk of the night).

I know a lot of dogs also don't like men very much. So maybe thats it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This is interesting. Other than this, dog is not aggressive. It's a small dog and it hadn't occurred to me that dog is not ok with kids. Clearly, a bite from a small dog is no good, but I hadn't thought that was a possibility. Dog is totally find around everyone else and fine around husband during the day. It's just when husband comes home from work at night (often/usually the rest of the house is asleep by then and husband is trying to do the last walk of the night).

Perhaps your husband carries in a smell your dog doesn't like. Does his workplace allow pets, or does his coworkers have animals at home? My dog does a sniff inspection on all of us when we come in to find out where we've been and who we've been with He gets particularly interested after we come home from the weekly violin lesson, because DD's teacher has 3 cats.

Or perhaps the dog just doesn't like to be disturbed at night. Does he react the same way if YOU walk him at night?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m a big dog person but I don’t think I’d let a dog cuddle up with my kids if I didn’t 100% have a handle on their dog psychology and whether/when they are upset/angry.

I agree. I love dogs but I would also be careful about this.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This is interesting. Other than this, dog is not aggressive. It's a small dog and it hadn't occurred to me that dog is not ok with kids. Clearly, a bite from a small dog is no good, but I hadn't thought that was a possibility. Dog is totally find around everyone else and fine around husband during the day. It's just when husband comes home from work at night (often/usually the rest of the house is asleep by then and husband is trying to do the last walk of the night).

Not an expert on this but I've always heard that small dogs are more likely to react aggressively because they are worried about being stomped on. We have had large dogs in my family for years but my kid got bit by a pouffy little dog at a friend's house when the kids were running around and somehow the dog got excited or felt threatened. You gotta worry just as much if not more about small dogs and kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This is interesting. Other than this, dog is not aggressive. It's a small dog and it hadn't occurred to me that dog is not ok with kids. Clearly, a bite from a small dog is no good, but I hadn't thought that was a possibility. Dog is totally find around everyone else and fine around husband during the day. It's just when husband comes home from work at night (often/usually the rest of the house is asleep by then and husband is trying to do the last walk of the night).

Perhaps your husband carries in a smell your dog doesn't like. Does his workplace allow pets, or does his coworkers have animals at home? My dog does a sniff inspection on all of us when we come in to find out where we've been and who we've been with He gets particularly interested after we come home from the weekly violin lesson, because DD's teacher has 3 cats.

Or perhaps the dog just doesn't like to be disturbed at night. Does he react the same way if YOU walk him at night?

Maybe he does smell differently at night. That's an interesting theory that might get at it. No animals in workplace but I do not know if his coworkers have animals. I hope he's not getting close enough to coworkers to start carrying their animal scents, though! However, he does take the metro and the bus. I don't try to walk the dog after the kids go to sleep. But I did walk the dog last night a bit earlier than that and while we were out we saw my husband coming home. Dog goes up to my husband and crouches down for a pet, while growling. The common denominators are that it's directed at only my husband, and only at night.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This is interesting. Other than this, dog is not aggressive. It's a small dog and it hadn't occurred to me that dog is not ok with kids. Clearly, a bite from a small dog is no good, but I hadn't thought that was a possibility. Dog is totally find around everyone else and fine around husband during the day. It's just when husband comes home from work at night (often/usually the rest of the house is asleep by then and husband is trying to do the last walk of the night).

Perhaps your husband carries in a smell your dog doesn't like. Does his workplace allow pets, or does his coworkers have animals at home? My dog does a sniff inspection on all of us when we come in to find out where we've been and who we've been with He gets particularly interested after we come home from the weekly violin lesson, because DD's teacher has 3 cats.

Or perhaps the dog just doesn't like to be disturbed at night. Does he react the same way if YOU walk him at night?

Maybe he does smell differently at night. That's an interesting theory that might get at it. No animals in workplace but I do not know if his coworkers have animals. I hope he's not getting close enough to coworkers to start carrying their animal scents, though! However, he does take the metro and the bus. I don't try to walk the dog after the kids go to sleep. But I did walk the dog last night a bit earlier than that and while we were out we saw my husband coming home. Dog goes up to my husband and crouches down for a pet, while growling. The common denominators are that it's directed at only my husband, and only at night.

Crouching down is not typically a solicitation for petting.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This is interesting. Other than this, dog is not aggressive. It's a small dog and it hadn't occurred to me that dog is not ok with kids. Clearly, a bite from a small dog is no good, but I hadn't thought that was a possibility. Dog is totally find around everyone else and fine around husband during the day. It's just when husband comes home from work at night (often/usually the rest of the house is asleep by then and husband is trying to do the last walk of the night).

Perhaps your husband carries in a smell your dog doesn't like. Does his workplace allow pets, or does his coworkers have animals at home? My dog does a sniff inspection on all of us when we come in to find out where we've been and who we've been with He gets particularly interested after we come home from the weekly violin lesson, because DD's teacher has 3 cats.

Or perhaps the dog just doesn't like to be disturbed at night. Does he react the same way if YOU walk him at night?

+1. Perhaps the scent is confusing him and making him anxious or on guard, since it's night and he's trying to protect you and the kids.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:OP here. This is interesting. Other than this, dog is not aggressive. It's a small dog and it hadn't occurred to me that dog is not ok with kids. Clearly, a bite from a small dog is no good, but I hadn't thought that was a possibility. Dog is totally find around everyone else and fine around husband during the day. It's just when husband comes home from work at night (often/usually the rest of the house is asleep by then and husband is trying to do the last walk of the night).

Perhaps your husband carries in a smell your dog doesn't like. Does his workplace allow pets, or does his coworkers have animals at home? My dog does a sniff inspection on all of us when we come in to find out where we've been and who we've been with He gets particularly interested after we come home from the weekly violin lesson, because DD's teacher has 3 cats.

Or perhaps the dog just doesn't like to be disturbed at night. Does he react the same way if YOU walk him at night?

Maybe he does smell differently at night. That's an interesting theory that might get at it. No animals in workplace but I do not know if his coworkers have animals. I hope he's not getting close enough to coworkers to start carrying their animal scents, though! However, he does take the metro and the bus. I don't try to walk the dog after the kids go to sleep. But I did walk the dog last night a bit earlier than that and while we were out we saw my husband coming home. Dog goes up to my husband and crouches down for a pet, while growling. The common denominators are that it's directed at only my husband, and only at night.

Crouching down is not typically a solicitation for petting.

NP. OP, explain what you mean by crouching. My current dog comes running to me wagging and sniffing, then flops down for a belly rub. Previous dogs came to sniff and to demand a head rub.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:We dogsit an approx 10 year old male dog who is not fixed. At night, this dog growls at my husband. Only at night, and only my husband. The dog will run to my husband and get into the crouch he does when he's going to be pet, and let my husband pet him, all while growling at the same time. Or my husband will get ready to walk him, and the dog is growling while husband puts the leash on. I wonder if he was abused as a puppy by someone who looks like my husband? But then why is the dog fine during the day?

Perhaps he's in "guard" mode and doesn't want to be disturbed.

[Anonymous]

Small dogs were bred as lap dogs largely. A lot of them have a breed instinct to attach to someone and get pissed off if someone else tries to get between them and their special someone. A male friend dated a woman with a Maltese — if the Maltese was in the woman’s lap, the dog would get super pissed if the guy even sat in the couch next to them and would growl a back off warning. It may be the dog is perceiving your husband as a threat to his attachment to the kids and/or you, who he now perceives as his new “lap” in the absence of his regular owner. I’ve met chihuahuas with the same issue.

[Anonymous]

Professional dog trainer:

This dog is giving very clear signals that it doesn’t want whatever is currently happening to continue. Husband should not do whatever is causing the dog to growl, or risk it escalating. If he must touch the dog for some reason, he should approach with high value treats to counteract the stress. If the dog can’t even take the treat, then he is way over stressed and I’d put him behind a barrier to allow him a chance to relax.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Small dogs were bred as lap dogs largely. A lot of them have a breed instinct to attach to someone and get pissed off if someone else tries to get between them and their special someone. A male friend dated a woman with a Maltese — if the Maltese was in the woman’s lap, the dog would get super pissed if the guy even sat in the couch next to them and would growl a back off warning. It may be the dog is perceiving your husband as a threat to his attachment to the kids and/or you, who he now perceives as his new “lap” in the absence of his regular owner. I’ve met chihuahuas with the same issue.

OP here. But the dog is perfectly friendly to him during the day. He’s perfectly happy to lay in his lap lot sit at his feet during daytime hours. The “crouching” is definitely what he does while he’s being petted but maybe that’s not the right word. His bottom is up and his head is down close to the floor and kind of rubbing against the leg of whoever is scratching him.

[Anonymous]

Ours growls constantly but he’s just very vocal and concerned about being squished. But, he is the same with everyone and not at all aggressive. Every dog is different and you should put safety procedures in place for kids and leave the dog alone (no petting if any growling).

[Anonymous]

My parents’ jack russell would do the nastiest growling if you tried to move her after she had settled into a comfy spot for the night. It’s not ideal but sounds like it’s just a strong-wiled dog.