 She snaps at men after she lets them pet her
I'm new to this group but have been reading a lot of the threads. It's reassuring to know that I've been doing right by my rotties. But I have an issue that I'm not sure how to deal with and I didn't see it discussed in any of the threads.
I have an almost 3 year old female Rottie, Justice. She's been in obedience classes since she was three months old and has been socialized all of her life. I take her almost everywhere with me and she's very well-behaved. Except - she's always been less accepting of men than women, but she responds well to most people when they approach her calmly and let her sniff them. She's never bitten anyone and usually just barks at someone if she doesn't seem to like them. The other day we were outside of a store and a young man (early 20s) came over to her, let her sniff him, and began to pet her. She was fine for a minute and then snapped at him out of the blue. I thought it might be that he had a cigarette in his other hand (no one smokes around her), so I chastised her but explained to him that his cigarette might be bothering her. We then went in to the store and another man did the same thing - let her sniff him and then petted her. Again, after a minute or so of him petting her, she snapped at him. I couldn't see anything that might have provoked this behavior. This time I was very firm with her, chastised her, and made her sit quietly next to me. Shortly after that, two men came over at once. They had recently lost their female Rottie and wanted to pet Justice. I cautioned them that she doesn't take to all men. They were very good with her, and she was wonderful with them.
Her behavior is worrying because while she's never been unconditionally accepting of strangers, she's never snapped like this. As I said, the most she's ever done is bark. I want to be able to take her out with me, but the snapping has to stop. She never snaps at any other time, so I don't know how to correct the behavior without putting her in an environment where it might occur. And people always seem to want to come over to her when we are out.
I appreciate any help.  |