Who do dogs trust ?? - Page 1

My wife had a repairman come to her house and her GSD was on high alert the second she saw this man.  She followed him wherever he went and was standing and staring at him but not in a friendly way ( she just watched him intently ) the entire time he was there.  The message from the dog was you can't trust this man .. watch out.  Dogs seem to know who they can trust.  Don't misunderstand .. anyone can earn the trust and respect of a dog by their actions.  One of the reason the "prison dog" programs are so useful is that those in prison for crimes learn from the dogs that good actions can earn trust and respect and if repeated long enough can become a habit for the inmate.

http://healthypets.mercola.com/sites/healthypets/archive/2016/06/03/dogs-can-detect-liars.aspx?utm_source=petsnl&utm_medium=email&utm_content=art1&utm_campaign=20160603Z1&et_cid=DM107024&et_rid=1510242434

I tell people that dogs can smell what you think which may not be as far fetched as it seems.

I have often been struck by the apparent power

of dogs to suss out somebody they distrust, over

other visitors or acquaintances they accept without

bothering about.

 

Problem is one can so rarely find a way to verify

whether the dog was right, or not !

At least we know that dogs are sussing with a different tool set. Despite what was once accepted as truth about dogs vision we now know that dogs can see into the UV spectrum and of course their hearing is said to be 4X human and with a much broader frequency spectrum reaching into the higher frequencies. Likewise dogs have some very sophisticated smell and scent discrimination tools so at very least with different or better sight, sound, and smell abilities it should not be surprising that they can interpret their world in ways different form the balding monkeys known a humans.

Ok I'll agree that - (except, who's balding ?); still does not
necessarily mean they'd be right though, cos we don't
know exactly what they are using their enhanced senses
to detect.
Consider the opposite: that sometimes the humes KNOW
a tradesperson or someone isn't to be trusted ... but the
dog likes that person. It happens ...

Hund; maybe they're just a misunderstood butterfly? Lol.

@Reliya   Who is the  'misunderstood butterfly' -

the dog, the tradesperson, or the balding human ?

The person that the dog trusts but the person does not.

Sorry! I'm not good at jokes. :(

Well I am sure that may often be the case !
But in the instances I was thinking of there was no
misunderstanding about it - two occasions, two guys
who were definitely crooks, two different dogs.

One day my neighbor and her two young children were home when a crew came to paint their house (hired by her landlord).  The minute the crew arrived, Loki wanted outside NOW.  He would watch the crew and when a particular individual came close to my neighbor or her daughter, Loki went on high alert and when that individual touched the daughter, Loki came unglued and growled like I have never heard him before.  The individual started to run and Loki jumped the hedge and herded the guy into a corner and held him there by growling until the police arrived (my husband had called when we saw how Loki was acting).  The police ran the crew, two were on suspicion of domestic violence, one (the individual Loki cornered) had fled from Tennessee and was wanted on multiple charges of rape and murder.  His violence so great that the authorities were stunned by what he had done to the women and girls.......ALWAYS trust my dogs........

Not saying they never get it right !

 

Its just that there is something of the "urban myth"*

status around this whole question.  We WANT to

believe it, and that it is infallible, so 'we' do,  Mindhunt,

you must have a professional take on that ?

 

* & Why are these tales called 'urban' when they are

seldom restricted to folk who live in towns ???