{"id":22254,"date":"2025-04-16T00:27:33","date_gmt":"2025-04-16T06:27:33","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=22254"},"modified":"2025-04-14T14:29:15","modified_gmt":"2025-04-14T20:29:15","slug":"is-your-dog-an-obnoxious-greeter-3","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2025\/04\/16\/is-your-dog-an-obnoxious-greeter-3\/","title":{"rendered":"Is Your Dog an Obnoxious Greeter?"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"
Greeting manners should be taught to every dog. Even frisky puppies can learn to have good manners without constantly jumping all over each other every moment. Photo credit: Fran Jewell<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s friendly!\u201d or, \u201cHe\u2019s only a puppy!\u201d is the common chant among those who do not seem to recognize that their dog is about to offend another dog. When a dog or puppy runs up to another dog quickly, barking or then jumping on the other dog, he is an obnoxious greeter without greeting manners.\u00a0 <\/span>Those chants are excuses for lack of training. Even a young puppy can learn to greet other dogs nicely.<\/p>\n

All dogs have the need for personal space just like people do. Some need more space than others. That can be driven by breed or the individual dog. Goldens and Labradors often have no concern at all for anyone\u2019s personal space\u2014dog or human. On the other hand, many of the herding breeds DO have concern, especially border collies, Aussies and German shepherds. When the two breeds collide, it can cause a conflict, sometimes more severe than others. When a Labrador retriever invades the personal space of another dog by jumping up in the dog\u2019s face or putting his head over another dog\u2019s shoulder, the other dog may respond with a growl or snap, or worse.\u00a0 <\/span>\u2018Most of the time, we humans then blame the growler and call them aggressive when, in fact, the invader was NOT being friendly but is an obnoxious greeter.<\/p>\n

Put yourself in their paws. If you were sitting on a park bench and some stranger came along, sat right next to you, touching you, then put his\/her arm around you or on your leg, you would be offended. How would you react? Do you allow it or do you respond in a negative manner?<\/p>\n

We all, including our dogs, have a right to personal space. This becomes especially important when an adult obnoxious greeter offends a shy puppy, pushing that puppy to defend himself with a bite or nip. That now sets the puppy up for behaving like that the rest of his life when he is offended by other dogs. It may even be difficult for that puppy to have happy relationships with other dogs forever, especially if that happens during the puppy\u2019s fear period.<\/p>\n

If you have an obnoxious greeter, it is extremely important that you do not accept this behavior as acceptable, \u201cfriendly\u201d or just saying \u201chello,\u201d especially with young puppies. It is not any dog\u2019s right to greet in this manner. Teaching your dog to wait, ESPECIALLY as a puppy, for permission from you to greet another dog, is imperative. Ask another dog\u2019s owner if the greeting is okay. Stop the interaction if your dog becomes too pushy with another dog, or if you see the other dog is afraid, showing hackles, dipping his head, closed mouth, or tail tucked. Your dog\u2019s behavior in public is your responsibility. Be respectful and courteous.<\/p>\n

Fran Jewell is a dog behavior consultant, NADOI-certified instructor and vice president.\u00a0She owns Positive Puppy Dog Training\u00a0LLC and can be reached at
\n(208) 721-7221.<\/i><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cHe\u2019s friendly!\u201d or, \u201cHe\u2019s only a puppy!\u201d is the common chant among those who do not seem to recognize that their dog is about to offend another dog. When a dog or puppy runs up to another dog quickly, barking or then jumping on the other dog, he is an obnoxious greeter without greeting manners.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":22256,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,19],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-22254","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"category-no-bones-about-it"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22254","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22254"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22254\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22257,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22254\/revisions\/22257"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/22256"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22254"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22254"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22254"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}