Forget cats, dogs are the mean ones!

Just today I was walking home from a restaurant when I saw a dog sitting outside a Starbucks. It looked so eager and cute that, against my common sense, I approached it. The moment my hand touched its head it went completely insane and barked/snarled like crazy. I felt so embarrassed and stupid that I left in a hurry. I guess I've been around cats so much (I'm an avid cat person by the way) that I assumed dogs would act like cats, which would either run away or make a warning growl/hiss if they didn't want to be touched.

It probably had rabies or something, dude. My cat is always attacking me, while my dog loves me to death and has always been loyal. Cats are sociopaths as far as im concerned .

edited 22nd Dec '10 10:46:47 PM by cutewithoutthe

You have to hold out your hand for a sniff first. The dog doesn't want to feel too easy by letting you go straight on to second base.

Well, if you're used to cats you're probably not good at reading dog body language. I'm the same but the other way around - I'm not good with cats because I've never been around them much.

With dogs, usually the best course is to crouch down on their level, hold your hand out and let them come to you if they want to.

Yeah like Bur mentioned, you kinda failed basic dog etiquette first. The procedure for greeting a dog is simple.

1. Hold out your hand with palm facing inward  ^*
   ^{This is so if the dog decides to go psycho and try to bite your hand, he can't fuck it up anywhere near as bad}
   for the dog to sniff.
2. Wait for the dog to sniff. Pay attention to the dog's reaction.
3. If it backs away and/or looks scared, then just leave the dog alone. Fear is the main thing that makes a dog go nuts.
4. If it approaches and wags tail, then it likes you. Feel free to give it a pat on the head, most dogs like being scratched behind the ears, but make sure they've warmed up to you first.

So it's not so much that dogs are meaner than cats. It's just that a scared cat prefers to run because they are fast and nimble. A scared dog is more likely to try to bite you. As I said, fear is the main thing that causes a dog to lose its shit. You really have to go out of your way to actively provoke a dog into attacking for any other reason.

Also, many dogs bark when they're being friendly, too. Barking is sort of a generic excitement thing. To judge what the barking means, you need to look at the dog's tail and ears. Ears pointed back is a bad sign, ears pointed forward is a good sign. Tail curled between legs means fear, tail up and stiff or only tip wagging means aggression, tail medium height and fully wagging means happy/submissive.

My lab cross used to go nuts barking whenever she met anyone new. She'd be making these really ferocious sounding barks, but her tail would be wagging madly and we could easily tell that she was really happy.

Kind of like usually when a cat swishes their tail, it means anger, but an excited kitten about to pounce will swish too.

edited 23rd Dec '10 12:13:29 PM by Ettina

There's also the barking speed depending on the breed. A rapid fire machine gun barbarbarbarbark or howling bark is aggression, bark bark bark is excited, bark... bark... bark or some variant is "I want attention".