Is there any truth to this?

[dreamparkingspace]

At a recent dog class, this guy had an Australian Cattle Dog that seemed pretty friendly, however, occasionally another dog in the class would lunge at it and then the Cattle Dog would lunge back. Nobody ever got hurt or anything like that. But, the guy who owned the Cattle Dog said something to the trainer like, "Don't worry. A lot of dogs hate my dog just 'cause he's an Australian Cattle Dog." Then the trainer said something like, "Oh yea. I've heard of that. The same applies to Huskies sometimes." She explained how for some reason Australian Cattle Dogs and Siberian Huskies have an appearance that other dogs sometimes just plain don't like, even if the dogs are friendly. And she also said something which I found even more interesting. She said that when you get a Border Collie and a Doberman Pinscher near each other, they almost always get into a fight. She said something like almost every Doberman absolutely hates the Border Collie stare, er something like that, and that in show rings Border Collies and Dobermans are always kept as far apart as possible. Is there truth to any of this stuff? It sounded odd to me, but they sounded convincing.

[luvofallhorses]

It probably happens with the same gender dog, not neccessarily the breed IMO. Opposite genders are definately workable but I have 3 males and 2 females and they all have their moments but get along. None of those breeds though.

[Karen]

There's no truth to that - dogs generally don't seem to care what breed other dogs are ... they aren't nearly as discriminatory as people. Some dogs feel like they have to herd to challenge any other dog based on size, or based on gender - same genders are more likely to squabble than opposite genders.

[Jessika]

Dogs don't stereotype breeds; they may have different reactions to different looking dogs, however. I know that my Charlie has been approached by a large, solid black great dane before and he freaked out, but he's ok around other smaller, black, or larger dogs, just not big black dogs (when I say big, I mean HUGE black dogs). He was just never around them and it spooked him to have this giant black dog bound up to him.

[dreamparkingspace]

I know I've also read that some breeds naturally select to spend time with their own breed usually. Like, for example, if their was a breeding farm that bred German Shepherds and Rottweilers, more often than not the German Shepherds would socialize primarily with the German Shepherds and the Rottweilers would socialize primarily with the Rottweilers. I think I've read or heard something like that a few times. Maybe that's a dumb example though. I don't know...maybe there isn't much truth to that either. I just found all of this pretty interesting, if it's true.

"Hey! tell you're Border Collie to quit starin' at my Doberman. It's rude, and it's pissin' him off!" J/K

[leansnslobbers]

I think that has to do with the whole pricked ears misconception - meaning a dog with pricked ears is more likely to appear like an aggressor which sets the other dog off on a defensive tangent.

I've heard that many times over the years...of course I've also heard that my great danes would turn on me and kill me too.