Every stranger is a danger!

When dogs, like most social species, encounter unfamiliar animals, including other dogs, the situation is often hostile and tense. It’s a different story with people though.

Last month brought a big change in our lives: we moved from a bustling megacity to a quiet town on an island known for its charm. Of course, Pippi came along, enduring a three-hour flight locked up in his crate. While we are still coping with the transition, and everything that comes with it, Pippi has been extremely quick to feel at home in his new home. He’s no stranger to moving, having crisscrossed continents, climates and cultures with us. But each time, he surprises us with his resilience. No matter how big or small the place is, he’s quick to find his favourite nook, take stock of things around and just settle in without fuss — except when there are strangers.

Pippi is an excellent guard dog always on the lookout for anything unusual — be it on his walk, in the car, around the house and perhaps even in his dreams (we sometimes hear cute mellowed-down barks when he’s in a slumber!). His ears are always perked up, like an antenna, trying to hear the faintest noise, and those shimmering eyes are wide open looking for humans, dogs, noisy gulls or trucks. His first reaction to anything unrecognised is to stand tall, make himself appear big, and bark. A senior resident in our previous apartment once remarked she felt safer with Pippi’s watchful eyes and ears. I’m not sure our other neighbours shared the same vibe!

But, what most people don’t see behind a medium-sized, well-built, loud-barker-and-sometimes-lunger dog is fear. Often, Pippi’s barking does not end once his humans acknowledge they are aware of the strangeness around them. As long as the strange thing or person is in sight, the ‘stranger-danger’ mode gets intense over time, with more barking and sometimes teeth-blaring lunges. Well, is it really fear, some might ask because often fearful dogs are seen as cowering behind their parents and vanishing into oblivion. But, like all emotions, fear takes various forms, including aggression. If you are one of those offended by a barking dog, thinking that the dog is ‘mean’ or ‘vicious’ to you, here’s why you may be wrong.

When dogs, like most social species, encounter unfamiliar animals, including other dogs, the situation is often hostile and tense. It’s wired in their DNA and any amount of training will only suppress dogs from expressing those emotions. Like babies, when confronted with something strange, dogs resort to ‘social referencing’—a process where they look at their parents, or other dogs in their pack, to get more information about the situation and decide on how to react. When a stranger walks on your street, you may have seen the resident street dogs look up to a leader-like figure in their pack and decide their next move based on what that dog does.

But for fearful dogs, like Pippi, this learning phase is hard to factor in before they react because the sympathetic nervous system in their brain is on overdrive. A rush of adrenaline and noradrenaline hormones, coupled with soaring blood pressure and a thumping heart makes any such social learning challenging. No matter how many times I say “it’s okay”, Pippi cannot stop barking at the garbage truck: his fear of strange things turns into full-blown aggression. The best thing I can do is to either walk away as soon as possible or with a little thinking, avoid the confrontation altogether. When he comes across smaller, not-so-dangerous-sounding things, like a big rock on the sidewalk, he lets out a couple of barks, curves around it, approaches and sniffs it, before peeing on it and moving on.

It’s a different story with people, though. Studies show dogs can actually read facial expressions and are sensitive to the tone of our voice: they prefer smiling faces and a gentle tone to engage with and walk away otherwise. So, when Pippi meets people who smile at him and talk in their baby voices, he’s all wags for them. Despite having his ‘stranger-danger’ mode on, he melts like butter and earns a ‘good boy’ praise. If the same people were to zip past us in their SUV, he’d bark and lunge at them, no doubt!

Being a parent of a fearful dog, I’d say, don’t dismiss them as ‘mean’; rather give them a chance to win you over. Smile and they will smile back at you in their way, but possibly from a distance. If the dog is still barking or lunging, give him space and back off — that’s all he wants you to do.

Tailspin is your monthly column on everything that’s heartwarming and annoying about pet parenting.

The writer is a science communicator and mom to Pippi, a five-year-old rescued Indie, who is behind her drive to understand dogs better. She tweets @RamanSpoorthy