Dogs With Unusually Good Social Skills

[corvus]

We were down at the beach this afternoon. Erik had made friends with a young dog and they were having a good time until the young dog started trying to mouth Erik's head while they were running. Erik HATES this from dogs he doesn't know very well and he stopped the game and stood there tongue flicking and giving lots of "please don't" signals. Unfortunately the young dog didn't respond to the signals and Erik said it a bit louder vocally. At this point we decided to leave, but before we get anywhere Kivi launches himself at Erik and buffets him from every side until Erik runs to get away from him, then they charge up and down the beach and every time Erik tries to see where the other dog is Kivi jumps on him and wrestles with him. Kivi and Erik are such firm pals that Erik can't help but enjoy even this rough treatment and he forgets about the other dog, all his attention on his game with Kivi. Kivi looked like all his attention was on Erik, and I thought I would have to body block the other dog as it was still trying to get at Erik's face, but every time it darted towards Erik Kivi's butt would somehow appear in front of it, even if he had to jump in the air and swing himself around 180 degrees to achieve it. Now that's body blocking! Kivi is a lot better at it than I am. He's got a better body plan for it. :D

Anyway, two things impressed me. Kivi's quick and very effective intervention, and the power of trusting play to turn an unpleasant situation around. It's not the first time Kivi has intervened in a canine social situation to alleviate tension or draw one dog away from another, and it fascinates me who he gives all his attention to. It's not always Erik. A few times he's ignored Erik and focused on the other dog. How does he know so quickly both where to focus his attention and what to do? It's different every time. He's very decisive and even if I've already made a move to intervene, he always beats me. A trainer once joked to us that he was as good as another staff member at play groups.

And as I watched this scenario play out this afternoon (while we were quickly moving the dogs to another part of the beach), it struck me how strong the trust between Erik and Kivi is. Erik was trying to be vigilant, but by practically forcing him into a game, Kivi distracted him from that mindset completely. I do not think that would have been successful if Erik didn't trust Kivi so much. I think Erik would have struck out at Kivi instead, because he was being really pushy, physically preventing Erik from even looking at the other dog. I realised there's no way I could have done the same thing with play. I have a lot of work to do!

[Danois]

No offence but do you always over analyse your dogs' behaviour this much?

I have seen dogs do this frequently - intervening to divert attention or 'rescue' another dog.

An ocassional playmate of my dog has intervened before when my dog was being hassled by a small dog and herded it away from my dog. On another ocassion, my dog intervened and engaged a GSD in play that was starting to harass the same playmate and I don't think my dog has unusually good social skills or is overly decisive.

[koalathebear]

Corvus - as you already know, I always enjoy your posts - they're thoughtful and well-written so I hope you aren't deterred or put off in any way ...

Given that none of us are Dr Dolittle and none of us speak Dog, there's nothing to say that your interpretation of your doggies' behaviour is any less valid than anyone else's here on DOL ... It's like how I know that dogs aren't supposed to be capable of feeling remorse/shame and they are just using appeasement behaviour but sometimes I could swear Elbie gets instant 'guilty face' whenever he does something naughty

Edited December 31, 2010 by koalathebear

[corvus]

No offence but do you always over analyse your dogs' behaviour this much?

Yes! It's my job. :D I do actually make a living off it at the moment. Kind of. I pay attention to them and they teach me stuff. It's very interesting. Putting meaning to it is only speculation, but fun speculation.

I have seen dogs do this frequently - intervening to divert attention or 'rescue' another dog.

An ocassional playmate of my dog has intervened before when my dog was being hassled by a small dog and herded it away from my dog. On another ocassion, my dog intervened and engaged a GSD in play that was starting to harass the same playmate and I don't think my dog has unusually good social skills or is overly decisive.

Can you be "overly decisive"?

I find a lot of dog behaviour we take for granted is quite interesting. I haven't seen this commonly and I'm sure that's a factor of experience or whatever, but it's a side issue whether I subjectively think it's common or not, so let's say it is. Why should they intervene? Have you ever thought about the confidence required to intervene in a tense situation where a wrong step could land them in hot water? It is a teeny bit risky to walk into that, don't you think? What's the pay-off? Especially if they are intervening between two dogs they don't know. I think it's extremely cool that Kivi not only intervenes, but he adjusts the way he does it to suit dogs he doesn't know and dynamics he's never seen before. It's a nice reminder of how rich canine body language is. He is decisive in that he doesn't hesitate. He tends to be more cautious at other times. Is he confident because he knows what to do, or is he confident because he's learnt to act that way? Or does he act cautiously without actually feeling cautious, kind of like acting submissive as a means of communicating a no-threat signal?

Incidentally, there's a cool paper that suggests that free-living dog packs where there is a lot of affiliative behaviour (social bonding type stuff) tend to have more favourable outcomes when they have aggressive encounters over resources with dog packs that have a more rigid social structure with someone at the top controlling everyone else. When the pressure is on, those packs tend to disintegrate, whereas the others hold. Isn't that interesting? Might be the answer to the evolutionary pay-off question.

Thanks KtB. Not everyone is gonna care about my idle musings. I assume someone out there at least finds it of passing interest, though.

[Skruffy n Flea]

i've seen and been able to acknowledge this behaviour over the past few months but the first occasion, about 12 or so months ago, it was how i'd read about it and i was absolutely fascinated by it...

a 4-yo kelpie [rosie] and a very timid maltese from the same household, and bella, my dog, had tried to elicit some play with the timid maltese --- rosie and bella had played for a few minutes beforehand...

some short time later the maltese became involved with bella's play with rosie and she kept a close eye but she seemed reasonably happy with bella and the maltese playing the way together...

not long after that, another family with a mix of 3 small dogs, one too tiny so stayed held in the arms of it's owner, entered the park and the other two started mixing it up with bella and the maltese --- one of the new dogs continued playing but it became a tad too robust for rosie's liking and she 'herded' between her maltese and the one newcomer...

it seemed to us that rosie had accepted bella into her pack because rosie herded between the newcomer and her also...

my oh and i were aghast, having read about this only in the past few months and now, here we both were witnessing it firsthand with our own eyes --- it was magnificent!!! and beautiful...

rosie shielded her playmate from what she perceived to be rough play and with bella and that small amount of time bella and her played, shielded her also from a dog that was becoming too robust!

it is a kelpie trait to herd but this was episode was absolutely protection in it's purest form --- incredible and beautiful to watch...

[koalathebear]

Thanks KtB. Not everyone is gonna care about my idle musings. I assume someone out there at least finds it of passing interest, though.

But of course! :D My favourite posts are the ones that talk and think about our dogs. Although you could of course post another productive "other dog owners are stupid/inconsiderate/evil" post because there's always a dearth of such posts around here and they always end so well ... I always roll my eyes when I read another post ostensibly bagging out other stupid dog owners but are actually just implying that all dog owners should behave like the OP of that post ... I'm constantly picking my eyeballs off of the ground from all the rolling

But to go back on point, I know that as dog lovers we're always at risk of being accused of anthropomorphising our dogs and attributing to them motivations/emotions/thought processes that they don't actually possess but I do believe that some dogs are capable of quite a lot of situation analysis. For instance, Elbie's the much more hyper of our two dogs but he's much more savvy and good about reading us than Hoover. He anticipates very accurately and he's usually more polite and respectful. I haven't decided if it's something he observed and learned along the way or if he came pre-programmed with this ability. Then again, Hoover's younger so perhaps he'll pick it up as he gets older.

[wuffles]

Satchmo is a really interesting dog to watch because he is a good mediator and also a calm leader. He's extremely protective of Ava (even though he's the one being tough on her most of the time). Sometimes he'll intervene and engage the other dog in play but like your story, sometimes he will engage Ava in play instead.

Another thing about him is that other dogs follow him everywhere, even ones we don't know. In a dog park, if he wanders somewhere, he always has a bunch of other dogs (mainly males) following him. In our usual morning walk 'pack', two other large males in particular follow him wherever he goes, even if it is over the hill and far away from their owners

He does have good social skills, but I wouldn't say he's brilliant -- he still takes part in 'ganging up' behaviour sometimes and doesn't always get the 'stop chasing me' signals.

[sparkycat]

Corvus - I always enjoy the way you look at dog behaviour and it is a pleasant change from the norm.

I think some dogs are just born to be peace makers and maybe some breeds are more attuned to this than others. Lappies seem to be one of the peace making breeds.

Then first time my stepD brought her SWF around Keely decided straight away that she would kill it on the other hand Jaana decided that it would be more fun if they could all play together. Under my very close supervision I watched as Jaana got the best toys and gave them to Keely while all the time blocking the SWF from Keely. After 10 minutes or so the 3 of them were all happily playing together and everytime they get together now they are all best friends. This is a huge step for Keely as she does not normally feel safe with other dogs.

[Vickie]

Shine is my dog with really great social skills, although they are all pretty good. We have only ever encountered one dog who doesn't like her. Most dogs who don't like other dogs seem happy to hang out with her. She has a bunch of dogs who turn themselves inside out when they see her at trials. Not really sure why as she can be quite bossy. She is aunty to many agility puppies & makes it her job to meet every new puppy at trials & let each crawl all over her.

She keeps everyone in line here & will discipline the other dogs if I'm not around.

Even the cat we inherited (who swipes at any other dog who comes close) seems to feel totally secure with her & allows her to lay beside it & nudge it. If any of our other dogs so much as look at the cat the wrong way, she places herself in between & tells the dog to bugger off.

[TsarsMum]

what a lovely story.

my pup has been going to the dog park when i was away. apprently it as going well til a german shep was there and he was not a good play dog. he hurt a greyhound and then decided to target my dog (the owners of the other dog where lucky it was not me and it was my brother).

apprently he took a nip at my boy so he hid and a lovely bull terrier ended up putting himself between the dog and mine. my bother had to keep pushing it away as well as it just keept coming back.

took a few people having a go at the german shep owners before they took there dog out.

but that bull terrier was trying to protect tsar and is deffantly worth his weight in gold

[corvus]

I'm enjoying the stories. There's a dog we know from the dog park that is like Shine. She is every dog's best friend. Every new puppy that comes to the park is brought into the fold via her. She usually likes boisterous play, but she tones it right down for the puppies and quickly becomes a favourite. She gets special greetings from most dogs that have grown up around her. Lots of circle tail wags and wriggles and C-curves. She's the only dog Erik still greets the same way he did as a puppy.

We know a Malamute from the park as well that seems to turn my dogs into grovelling puppies. They don't see him often, but every time they do both of them act like he's some kind of canine celebrity. It's ridiculous. He does tend to walk around like he owns the place and he's so self-assured we never see him posture or threaten. But we come across other dogs with the same bearing sometimes and they don't get fawned over like this dog does.