Has your dog ever barked at a stranger who was acting weird but you thought “fair enough. I’d bark too.” 🤔

[michael972]

@msjosie My rescue is human shy, she likes to say hi at her pace and does not want people reaching over her head (she gets mad scared).

I had only had her for a few months (she was 6 mo ish) and a kinda strange (very odd) man approached us on our walk (Cambridge ma). He told me he thought she was really pretty and I said thanks and kind of kept waking, he stepped infront of us and my dog decided that was a nope. She wouldn't let him get closer to her or me, she puffed up, showed teeth it was super odd. We got out of there as the guy was still rambling about how he was a dog trainer and knew all this shit. We saw him one other time and she did the same thing but from across the street. I've never seen her react like that towards any other human since (2 years since)...

My dog only ever puffs her back up when she's scared of a dog barking at her (never with humans even if she's scared, and she isn't a show her teeth kind of girl more of a run away behind me kind of fighter)... I've just decided she hated that guy for a reason I couldn't tell... and I'm glad we haven't seen him or similar people since...

 

[hopeville]

@msjosie While not at a confirmed stranger, one evening I was walking my dog by the creek that boarders our neighborhood. At a certain point he got really really antsy and wouldn't keep walking forward. This was uncharacteristic and we turned around and went home.

Turns out that night someone in the neighborhood was murdered (husband paid someone to kill his wife). I'll never know what vibe my dog was picking up that night while we were walking, but after I found out about the murder I'm glad I trusted his instincts.

 

[faithjoyhope]

@hopeville Holy shit.

 

[zakalwe]

@msjosie I was walking my dogs (golden retriever male and pointer mastiff bitch). A weird young dude carrying a walking stick with a metal handle started talking to me. My pointer doggy went nuts and started barking at him.

The guy gave me bad vibes and I'm pretty sure he was on ice and his walking stick was a weapon.

 

[mohamedrageh]

@msjosie Only time my dog has barked at a person was a dude who was suuuuper aggressively cat calling me while walking her.

Good girl, good girl. Lol.

 

[getupjohnnyboy]

@msjosie 100%

My dog is reactive, mostly with men who approach when he's on lead. But there have been a few times that stand out in my mind where I really just thought to myself goddamn, I think you just made a good call.

The time I remember the most, I was walking him alone on a canal tow path. I hadn't seen anyone else for 40+ minutes, and I was starting to feel uneasy. I'd expected to see exits off the path here and there, but I realised that it was fully enclosed with no way out.

My dog was off lead ahead of me. All of a sudden he whipped around and ran straight behind me, barking frantically. A guy had just appeared out of nowhere. I hadn't even heard him, which is unusual because I'm normally super aware of my surroundings. Partly because I'm female, partly because I always re-leash my dog if I see someone wanting to pass by.

I called my dog to me and stood aside to let the guy get past. Instead of staying with me to have his lead put on, like he normally would, my dog suddenly pulled out of my grip and went back for the guy, snapping around his legs. The guy threw his hands above his head, didn't say anything, and hurried away.

The guy could have been totally innocent and just in a rush to get somewhere. But I've always wondered about it and just honestly have this gut feeling that my dog totally had my back that day.

 

[crescima]

@msjosie My daughter rescued an anxiety ridden Malinois. Riddick is literally a shaking bundle of nerves around anything new … people, places, noises. One afternoon they were on a short walk on our Main Street. She stopped at the atm to pull $20. Riddick was jammed up between her and the machine. A man began walking very quickly toward her with his hand in the pocket of his hoodie. I tell you what, that bundle of nerves became a confident fur missile.! He quickly put himself between her and the perceived danger and barked, growled, and kept lunging. The man quickly made a 180 and took off down a side street. Riddick proved himself that day!

 

[paulliu]

@msjosie 100% yes. I had a pit/lab mix who was a total people pup. Loved everyone. Greeted everyone like he hadn't seen them in years even to strangers. I used to joke that he would happily go home with whoever was petting him at the moment. Then, one night he surprised us. My wife and I had just brought our daughter home after she was born and she wasn't the best sleeper. My wife was a stay at home mom so she was up with our daughter watching TV downstairs late one night. A group of guys tried breaking in and my super friendly goofy ass dog chases them away barking and snarling. He did this on 2 more occasions before we moved to a much safer area. I've never been more proud of that pup. He's been gone for about a year now and I miss him every day.

 

[gail17]

@msjosie Growled, but yes.

At the end of a hike, which is a very unpopulated hike, we ran i to one guy who had just parked his motorcycle and then asked some we questions about the hike. He was totally cool and my adolescent puppy was totally cool about it.

Then we got to my car and I was about to give him one last drink of water when a car rolled up playing super loud music and 5 young "gangster" looking boys got out of the car... I got nervous as a female without any protection. They had "gangster-esque" energy, body language, and verbal language, and were all holding beer cans, so I was nervous. But they ended up just being regular ol' young people who were doing young people things.

One of them asked if they could pet my dog and I could already tell by my dogs body language that he was nervous too (probably because he could tell that I was nervous). I told the guy to let my dog smell him first to see if he would let him. Je heald out his hand and approached my dog and my dog backed away and growled at the dude and I quickly said "never mind!!! He is a little nervous, he is still a puppy and working on social skills" as I opened my car door and let my dog get inside to prevent any incidents.

My dog has never growled at a person before or since then. Im 99% sure it was because he could tell that I felt nervous in that situation.

I feel kinda bad for stereotyping them and feeling fearful but... again I'm a woman, alone, with nothing to protect myself and it was a car load of young gangster looking boys with beer.... so... you know.. im glad they were nice kids but it also scared the shit out of me that my dog growled at them...

 

[joshy9403]

@gail17 this could be the smell of alcohol. ive noticed almost every time mines had a near miss like this, the person has had the smell of alcohol on them. i think my dogs correlated the smell of alcohol with a needy person - hes not really into pats and being a love toy so i think hes figured out that alcohol = needy human that wants to give me too many pats.

 

[gtfox26]

@msjosie Our dog trainer told us dogs will pick up on different or abnormal behavior and learn when to bark/alert the owner. I didn’t want to train our reactive dog not to bark at all because I wanted my dog to alert me in the event there was an intruder/attacker. Trainer told us that we could scold him for barking at our normal mailman, neighbors that always walk by etc… but when there was a new/strange person or someone giving “creepy” vibes, to actually praise our dog so he’d learn it’s ok to alert us in these situations. It’s worked well for us and our boy definitely picks up on when I am creeped out/nervous about another person or when someone is doing something out of the ordinary and will alert us.

 

[lunacy]

@msjosie Every night. We live beach-adjacent and this guy walks back and forth talking quite loud Real Housewives style on his phone and my Boxsky loses his composure utterly and totally. Most of the time I try to distract him and calm him down, but this guy is so annoying and distracting, I think, “fair play, big guy. Do your most viscous barkies!”

 

[legacy3566]

@msjosie The other day, we were coming back from the vets and my wife needed to buy something at the hardware store on the way back, so I waited in the car with our dog. While waiting a colleague that I barely know and had absolutely no desire to chat with walked by our car and tried to engage in awkward conversation. My dog, in the backseat began to bark like crazy and after a few seconds of awkward exchanges and me telling the dog to chill out, the guy just left. I was happy that she barked and got rid of his presence

 

[neoinarien]

@msjosie I have an acquaintance/friend that came over one night and my dog just would not stop barking or slightly growling at him. It can sometimes take him up to 30 seconds to greet a new person and calm down a little when new people come over but he just would not settle for 15 minutes before I asked the friend to leave.

Talked about it w the friend later and he said I might have stepped on his paw accidentally, I’d love to meet him again on neutral spot.

Ran into him at a bar w my dog. My dog was perfectly calm and fine with everyone, friends and strangers. As soon as that friend walked in, he started barking and would not settle down again. I was planning on leaving at that time so good timing to avoid awkward conversation but wow, my dog knows something I don’t.

My dog is not aggressive. He doesn’t do “angry” barks. Mostly just warning like “hey mom there’s a stranger outside the house”. Relatively easily called off. Crazy

 

[imagebeastmarkbeast]

@msjosie An old drunk man was trying to talk to me/get closer to me/grab my hand etc while I was waiting for my small dog to poop. My bigger Staffordshire bull terrier mix started growling and barking at the man standing between us being very weird. The man eventually left after mumbling something about my dog being aggressive/mean. I told my boy he'd been a good boy and hurried back to the house. Normally I don't condone growling/barking at people but this guy was all up in my personal space and smelled like piss/booze i was very very uncomfortable and my dog could probably tell.

 

[beeman2014]

@msjosie My dog barks at everyone who comes to, walks past or just looks at our house but out in the world he never does. Last night walking through a forest with my mum a guy who looked as high as a kite and was staring at me weirdly and then stared at my dog who growled at him the whole time we passed and he stopped and stared/grumbled until the man was out of sight. This dog is scared of his own damn tail, cats, weird noises. The guy looked absolutely harmless and looked like Napoleon Dynamite tbh. The whole thing was hilarious to mum and I.

 

[iamcalledqueen]

@msjosie Yes. My chihuahua is non-reactive towards most people and dogs, aside from the handful of dogs we live by he decided he doesn’t like. There have been a couple of occasions we’ve passed a person acting sketchy end he growled and barked as deep as he possibly can.

 

[tlkimme]

@msjosie Yeah our 4 year old GSD is basically a silent girl but very rarely will warn me something is wrong with a person we pass.

I said good morning to a guy out smoking on his front porch one day and her entire back went up and she growled at him! I was amazed and shocked, she's never had that reaction since so he must have had some bad intentions.

 

[onanewpath]

@msjosie Only time mine has barked at someone so far was when she saw someone doing sit ups on a bench for the first time, she was obviously freaked out haha

 

[momisabuser]

@msjosie My dog will freak out at people who bike on the sidewalk. I let her do that, because it’s rude to bike on the sidewalk.

I don’t think she cares about pedestrians or rules or anything. I think she’s like “why are you moving so fast, you witch.” But still, I allow it.