Ooops...he did it again.

[Wrath]

At the end of class tonight, Jaxom and I were standing by another classmate and her yellow lab, Annie. Jaxom and Annie have been in classes since they were puppies, and when they were very young we used to kid that they boyfriend and girlfriend because after puppy classes they would wallow all over each other and lick each other's faces. Oddly enough, after our 2nd class at Petsmart my wife and I decided to start taking classes at the local dog training club instead, so we enrolled in the Wednsday evening class and were completely surprised to find 2 of our Petsmart classmates in the same class.

Anyhow, after some play bowing, whining, and hoping around it was pretty evident these two wanted to play a bit, so we allowed them to get together and after some typical greeting (sniffing, etc.) they started lapping at each other's face again. Again, this was after class and most of the other dogs had already left the area. I was talking to Kate (Annie's owner) about how 2 weeks ago Jaxom had snapped at a Weimaraner while doing the exact same thing and I swear to god, no sooner had I finished my sentence then Jaxom let out a growl and snapped at Annie. He didn't connect, because a half second later he was practically suspended from the end of my leash.

I am totally baffled by this, I just finished a great book on dog communication and don't recall anything about licking muzzles being anything other than rather benign and submissive greeting behavior. Is it possible that Jaxom just has a quirk in his personality that this particular behavior REALLY really sends him into a dominant frenzy?

Sometimes he drives me crazy, he'll go from obvious play invitations (bowing, whining, tail waggling) to very dominant fronts (stiff legged staring and deep growling) in a matter of seconds, with the same dog...back and forth, back and forth...like he can't make up his mind if he wants to be a bully or a playmate.

I've been really working on staying focused on Jaxom and his behavior, keeping a sharp eye out for warning signs (from him and other dogs) that he might be headed for trouble and I've been able to steer him away from a lot of potential confrontations, half of which were being instigated by other dogs (why do little dogs think they're so tough?). I'm sure we would've been blamed just the same.

So, my plan is further restrict his access to other dogs (which I hate doing) and to watch for any inadvertant muzzle licking and to divert him away. Just to be safe, I gave his mouth a thorough once over, poking and prodding to see if he possibly has a sore tooth or something else that might be setting him off and he didn't flinch.

[mickeymichellie]

Dog communication can be very hard to understand sometimes. If I were you I would go to a behaviorist and try to set up the same scenario, and see what that person thinks. This is something that none of us can really give you advice on unless we were to see it ourselves.