SUMMARY: Dogs see shapes.
Tika goes nuts when she sees another dog while we're out on a leash. She makes a ruckus, but in fact she really does just want to go check it out and then she's happy. She just doesn't often *get* to go check it out, dang Human Mom.
Photos from the web--things that Tika has actually mistaken from a distance for a person walking a dog on a leash (motion vs blurry vision)--suitcase with long handle, person pulling wagon, man using string trimmer:
Tika also is ready to take off like a rocket--from 0 to 60 in a nanosecond--if she thinks some critter is running. Image of something that almost got my arm ripped off--shoulder hurt for days-- because I was thinking, "innocuous inanimate thing blowing in the wind that dogs would have no interest in" and Tika was thinking, "Thing run! Me chase!"
Now she has cataracts, which the vet noticed yesterday are getting a bit thicker, so who knows what she's going to mistake for something else.
Oh man I got a good laugh out of that! Scooter goes nuts when he sees a dog, too, wants to bark his fool head off. If I'm walking Lucy and Walter at the same time I can't let him go say hi (dog issues -- sigh), but if it's just him and me then we can. From the way he barks you'd think he had major aggression issues (it doesn't come across as the happy-wiggly-let'splayyyyy kind of bark some social dogs do), but once he's allowed to meet the dog, that's that and all is well and quiet again. I'm still trying to figure out what it means exactly... Anyway.
ReplyDeleteSo yes, Scooter when he seems someone while we're on a walk, I can totally tell he's checking them out to see if a dog is attached, and any of those things you pictured would totally fool him, I'm sure.
Well sorry for how long this comment ended up being, but thanks for the chuckle. Sorry about the cataracts, though :-(
Tika does exactly what Scooter does, and she's a lot bigger. I think everyone in the area thinks that I have a vicious dog. I keep meaning to try to videotape it--I might be running out of time on that. Maybe it's just as well I haven't.
DeleteOf course, if we are at a place Where There Are Lots of Dogs (dog park, trial, etc.), the barking thing doesn't happen. Is Tika like that too? Funny how some behaviours can be so totally contextual.
ReplyDeleteYes, that is *exactly* what Tika is like. Also, hiking with a bunch of other dog friends she's fine, even out for a walk if we're following behind another dog some distance ahead of us, she might whine for a little bit but then I think decides that we must be with the other dog and stops doing that.
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