My son has a border collie who comes over to play with Molly from time to time and recently Molly has learned from him to do that crouch down and stare thing that border collies do. In the yard, they will stare each other down for a few seconds and then run at each other and somewhere along the line a decision is made concerning who is going to be the chaser and who is the chasee. Very cute, very fun and makes one very tired dog.
HOWEVER, now Molly has decided to take this little game with her out on our walks. In her mind, any dog we encounter has been elected to be in the game. No one wants to face a crouching rottweiler trying to stare their dog down.
She's always had a very solid "watch me", but when this happens, it's like her brain freezes. Obviously, if I see the dog before she does we take an alternate route, but I feel like I'm just avoiding the problem. If I physically get in her line-of-sight (I usually have to add a tap on the head), I can get that stare broken and we can proceed. She is not dog aggressive, but it rightly freaks people out to see her do that posture. I'm trying to figure out if this is more a perception problem on my part ("Oh, I don't want other people to think she's going to attack their dog!") or is it a behavior problem? She's on leash, she doesn't threaten to lunge -- she continues to walk though it may take an additional "heel" command from me, but she's in this stupid-looking crouch staring at the other dog. One lady said to me today, "I hope that dog never gets away from you!" This is a new thing she's just started and I feel like I'm in brain freeze.
