Dog crouches/stalks when other dogs approach? Behavioral question.

[FleabittenGray]

Hey y’all, so as the name of the thread implies I have a behavioral question about my dog, Maple, a one and a half year old shepherd mix I adopted from the local shelter six months ago. She is such a great dog—super sweet, very friendly, and gets along well other dogs. However, when I’m walking her in the park and she sees another dog coming towards us, she’ll crouch down and stare at the dog intently; if I don’t keep pulling her forward she’ll lay down like this. Since I make her continue walking, she ends up walking like this, like she’s stalking prey… staring intently with her belly almost on the ground. When we actually get up to the other dog and they meet, she straightens up, wags her tail, and tries to play. I’ve never seen her act aggressively towards other dogs, not even growl. Sometimes when she sees joggers, bikers, rollerbladers, etc off in the distance she’ll do the same thing, only not as severely and she’ll relax as soon as they’re close enough where she can tell what they are. I don’t remember her doing this when I first adopted her. The first time I remember her showing the crouching/stalking behavior was probably a month or two after I got her, when I was taking her to the bathroom outside my apartment and a neighbor was doing the same thing with her teacup Yorkie. It was starting to get dark, and I think Maple honestly didn’t know what it was since it was so tiny. Upon actually meeting the little dog she wagged her tail and the two tried to play together. So can anyone explain to me why she does this? To me it doesn’t seem like aggression or submission, but more like cautiousness/alertness? Also, how should a treat the behavior? Ignore it? Discourage it? Any insight and advice would be appreciated. Thanks!

ETA: Also, when y’all are walking your dogs do you allow them to “meet and greet” other dogs or make them keep walking?

[Coyoteco]

Do you think she is part or all Border Collie? I’m just wondering because you described her crouching and focusing.
For my very shy border collie, we supplement her food with iodine to boost her thyroid. It clearly helps her.

[Sswor]

It’s a game. The crouch/stalk/pounce is a great fun game for a lot of dogs, usually the younger set ambushing the older set. Apparently your dog likes to play this game but isn’t confident enough with her new friends (acquaintances) to follow it through to the ‘punchline’.

Pretty much every pup I have raised has “ambushed” the older dog in the house–I have a mature dog that still ambushes me. It’s great fun when I pretend to be startled by him. The ending pounce always comes with a play bow.

None have been BCs btw–terriers, a husky mix, lab, a golden, all ambush play. Cracks me up every time.

[threedogpack]

As the other 2 have said, it might be a pre programed behavior (B Collie ish) or it might be play, or…it might be something less desirable. Due to the fact she straightens when meeting I’d probably go with the first two though. My male Corgi and my Cattle Dog do the ambush across the yard thing, they have a great time together.

[Big_Grey_hunter]

I’ve met a few dogs who do that. It might get them into a bit of trouble if the other dog sees it as threatening, but otherwise it isn’t a problem. My dog sinks to his belly, then launches straight in the air when the dog is close enough :lol: It works well for us, because every time he sees a dog he crouches, so we know to call him back or tell him to stay.

[LauraKY]

Sounds like a herder, but my brother’s lab used to do that when she was stalking bunnies.

[csaper58]

Maple looks like what we call a Plott Hound. Google images, and see what you think. I had a female catahoola cross that did this. As Sswor said, for her, it was a game. It met with mixed reactions. Her friends got it, some strange dogs (esp. older dogs) were ticked off by it. She out grew it as she became more confident.

I would suggest reading up on the Plott Hound temperament.

[Canaqua]

[QUOTE=Coyoteco;7500075]
Do you think she is part or all Border Collie? I’m just wondering because you described her crouching and focusing.
For my very shy border collie, we supplement her food with iodine to boost her thyroid. It clearly helps her.[/QUOTE]

Yep. My young black/white mutt is mostly Border Collie and she “stalks” and gives the eye to other dogs too…particularly those smaller than she is.

On the sidebar, no I don’t let my dogs meet and greet other dogs while walking. They are supposed to be paying attention to me and so many other dogs are not properly socialized and will jump on them to play right away without following proper doggie protocol…which greatly offends both of mine (BC mix and ACD mix, they are big on rules). They’ll try to discipline the other dog for rudeness, which comes across to the owner as aggression, so we just avoid having any interaction with strange dogs.

[Lone]

She’s cute!

I used to take my dog on hikes along an old logging road before I moved and he was pretty much always off-leash. There was only one other guy who used the road regularly and his dog would do the crouching/staring maneuver. His dog would crouch down as soon as she saw my dog and I coming, my dog would run and bound towards her at top speed and at the last second she’d leap up in the air and they’d wrestle and tumble around running back and forth between me and the other owner until we met up on the road- they loved each other. FWIW, she was a boarder collie -lab cross. I’ve known a few other dogs who did that too and it was always playful.

And no, for the most part I don’t let my dog do meet and greets when we’re out walking. Mostly because he used to get way overly excited when he saw other dogs, I’ve been trying to get him more focused on me. But also because other people’s dogs are often rude and annoying and I don’t want to deal with them jumping all over me

[pezk]

I have a dobie female that stalks. She’s done it ever since she was a tiny puppy. Reminds me more of a cat stalking. It’s a play behavior. The object is to cause the other dog to run so a chase can ensue. At first some dogs are very unsure of this behavior but usually they figure it out and either join in the game or ignore her.