I was wondering yesterday what causes dogs to form friendships with other
dogs. I picked up Queenie from daycare, and they told me that she had
been playing all day long with a lot of dogs. I had seen her in the past
play with a dog named Zellie, so I asked if they had played together and
the person said "oh yes, Queenie and Zellie are BEST friends." Now,
they've been this way ever since they first met. Zellie looks like a
smaller St Bernard, so nothing like Queenie and probably doesn't share
any of the breeds that make up Q (if all the guesses are correct). They
do both like to play and play, and I know that play style goes a long way
toward making dogs friends, but do you think that's all there is to it?
Do you think there are other elements? What would they be? Does
intelligence enter into it? Outlook on life (both Q and Zellie are very
friendly, cheerful dogs)?

What do you think?

--
Catherine
& Zoe, Queenie, & Max, 3 black dogs of varying sizes
& Rosalie the calico cat
www.ourladyofperfection.blogspot.com

In article ,
ceb wrote:
What do you think?

I've been trying to figure it out and I haven't been able to
come up with anything. Eclipse and Crow and Slick are BFF,
and you could figure that it has to do something with play
style or energy level or attitude or *something*, but Cinder
and Emmett don't play with them and they're pretty much the
same age, activity level, and so on. On the other hand
Emmett *lurves* Saber (and vice versa), but aside from the
fact that Saber is a lot older, badly socialized, and blind,
pretty much every other dog who's met him *hates* Saber.
Like, HATES. Image doesn't really play with the other dogs
but she's happy to hang out with nearly anybody. I'm not
sure what it is. In humans there's sometimes chemistry
between people that really can't be explained, either, and I
figure it's something like that.
--
Melinda Shore - Software longa, hardware brevis -

Prouder than ever to be a member of the reality-based community

ceb wrote:
I was wondering yesterday what causes dogs to form friendships with
other dogs. I picked up Queenie from daycare, and they told me that
she had been playing all day long with a lot of dogs. I had seen her
in the past play with a dog named Zellie, so I asked if they had
played together and the person said "oh yes, Queenie and Zellie are
BEST friends." Now, they've been this way ever since they first met.
Zellie looks like a smaller St Bernard, so nothing like Queenie and
probably doesn't share any of the breeds that make up Q (if all the
guesses are correct). They do both like to play and play, and I know
that play style goes a long way toward making dogs friends, but do
you think that's all there is to it? Do you think there are other
elements? What would they be? Does intelligence enter into it?
Outlook on life (both Q and Zellie are very friendly, cheerful dogs)?


What do you think?

It's a mystery to me. I posted this a couple of years ago; Stormy and
Schemer still recognize my daughter from a distance (black cowboy hat)
and have been known to drag their handlers across a room full of dogs to
come over and play with Scully:

They also apparently have crushes, too. Scully, female BC, age 5,
has two admirers on teams from opposite ends of the region. She
knows these dogs only from flyball tournaments, her contact with them
has been brief - a few minutes at a time every few months - and
strictly supervised. Both are male BCs, unneutered. She was spayed
around age 2.5 yrs and is healthy. No chance of her being in season
or harboring some sort of lurking infection. And these guys find her
fascinating. She afflicts them with a major case of the tuckbutt
zoomies, and there is much silliness and gamboling around.

With one of the dogs, she reciprocates in full. She is less
enthusiastic about the other. She tolerates him but when he tries
the "let me duck me head and tuck my neck under your chin" maneuver
(which she allows from the other guy), she barks her outrage and
drives him off. He is, apparently, the lesser bobka. The owners of
both males are as flummoxed by their behavior as we are.

I'm just amazed that they single each other out, of the dozens of
similar encounters, for such intense interaction. Most of the time a
polite sniff is the only acknowledgement that there is another dog
very close by.

"ceb" wrote in message:

What do you think?

I don't think there is any one constant. That's what I can say after
watching a lot of dogs over a length of time.

Khan's best friends at the dog park are almost always female. And young.
There are certain breeds he shows affinity towards, but that's pretty much
it. As much as Pan worships Khan, I seriously doubt he reciprocates it -
for him, she's a roommate, and the dog he can play with if no one else is
around.

I've seen lots of strange little relationships. A particularly striking one
was a young boy Doberman who absolutely was in love with Isabelle, and would
just be her shadow, barking in her face, and generally being a total
nuisance. The surprising thing was that Isabelle has a short fuse with
annoying, in-your-face dogs, but was totally unperturbed by the fixated
dorky boydog. In her good moments, she'd even condescend enough to throw a
playbow or two his way. Any other dog doing the same thing, she would've
tried to behead. Maybe she just realized that he was "special"

Suja

"ceb" wrote in message
...
I was wondering yesterday what causes dogs to form friendships with other
dogs. I picked up Queenie from daycare, and they told me that she had
been playing all day long with a lot of dogs. I had seen her in the past
play with a dog named Zellie, so I asked if they had played together and
the person said "oh yes, Queenie and Zellie are BEST friends." Now,
they've been this way ever since they first met. Zellie looks like a
smaller St Bernard, so nothing like Queenie and probably doesn't share
any of the breeds that make up Q (if all the guesses are correct). They
do both like to play and play, and I know that play style goes a long way
toward making dogs friends, but do you think that's all there is to it?
Do you think there are other elements? What would they be? Does
intelligence enter into it? Outlook on life (both Q and Zellie are very
friendly, cheerful dogs)?


Kavik was always drawn towards all white dogs. He loved them - eskies,
westies, pyrs, other sammies. They must have reminded him of his mommy.

in rec.pets.dogs.behavior, "Suja" wrote in
:

Khan's best friends at the dog park are almost always female. And young.

So you're saying that Khan is a dirty old man??

--
Marcel Beaudoin and Moogli

BethInAK wrote:


"ceb" wrote in message
...

I was wondering yesterday what causes dogs to form friendships with other
dogs. I picked up Queenie from daycare, and they told me that she had
been playing all day long with a lot of dogs. I had seen her in the past
play with a dog named Zellie, so I asked if they had played together and
the person said "oh yes, Queenie and Zellie are BEST friends." Now,
they've been this way ever since they first met. Zellie looks like a
smaller St Bernard, so nothing like Queenie and probably doesn't share
any of the breeds that make up Q (if all the guesses are correct). They
do both like to play and play, and I know that play style goes a long way
toward making dogs friends, but do you think that's all there is to it?
Do you think there are other elements? What would they be? Does
intelligence enter into it? Outlook on life (both Q and Zellie are very
friendly, cheerful dogs)?



Kavik was always drawn towards all white dogs. He loved them - eskies,
westies, pyrs, other sammies. They must have reminded him of his mommy.

Cooper singles out other JRTs for an extra dose of attitude.

ceb said in rec.pets.dogs.behavior:

What do you think?

Consistency is the main thing, I think. I no longer accept new
daycare clients unless the dog is going to come at least two
days a week - the once-a-week dogs don't seem to "pack up" as
easily.

OTOH, there's Friday. He doesn't play with any dog, yet
whenever one of my first clients shows up (Eenah, who moved from
town and only needs daycare on the odd weekend when her owner is
visiting family), Friday goes crazy with play lust. Weird.

--
--Matt. Rocky's a Dog.

ceb spoke these words of wisdom in
:

I was wondering yesterday what causes dogs to form friendships with other
dogs. I picked up Queenie from daycare, and they told me that she had
been playing all day long with a lot of dogs. I had seen her in the past
play with a dog named Zellie, so I asked if they had played together and
the person said "oh yes, Queenie and Zellie are BEST friends." Now,
they've been this way ever since they first met. Zellie looks like a
smaller St Bernard, so nothing like Queenie and probably doesn't share
any of the breeds that make up Q (if all the guesses are correct). They
do both like to play and play, and I know that play style goes a long way
toward making dogs friends, but do you think that's all there is to it?
Do you think there are other elements? What would they be? Does
intelligence enter into it? Outlook on life (both Q and Zellie are very
friendly, cheerful dogs)?

What do you think?


I have no idea. Tuck's very best friend is an intact 5yo male Belgian
Tervuren. He's in Tuck's tracking classes, Tuck's obedience classes, Tuck's
agility classes, and in the READ program with Tuck. I assume because he
sees so much of him, and share common interests, they naturally became best
pals and play buddies.

"Marcel Beaudoin" wrote in message:

So you're saying that Khan is a dirty old man??

Is there any other kind?

Suja