Barking dogs

markru wrote:

Hi

Can you stop dogs barking in Hungary.

If a dog barks constantly in the UK, you can have it stopped by your local council as it is classed as a nuisance.....

...... but I would love to be able to do something about the noise.

You can get collars which shock the dog if it barks and that conditions it not to bark at all. However, people use dogs as alarms as the police are mostly seen as ineffective, so a dog is the first line of defence, window shutters second and for some, even guns. So, silencing the dog effectively silences the burglar alarm. An average burglar would think twice about going up against the very attractive but rather threatening Kuvasz (it's a type of Hungarian guard dog).

Chances of getting the local government to do something about it are almost zero I expect. The number of dogs we see chained up in people's holiday house gardens around here is incredible. Many people leave their dogs alone all week and only go and see them at weekends. Pretty bad stuff.

To the original question:

Yes there are laws of course, the noise that interferes with your use of your property (sleeping in your bedroom, resting on your lawn) is a form of "birtokháborítás", but...

Big "but", please read :-)

In our village dogs that needlessly bark are considered a nuisance by the public, and owners are pressured into doing something about it. Ones that bark when someone passes on the street and throw a fit if you stop by the gate are OK. (we don't have much traffic.)

The only person in our village with a bunch of constantly whining, barking dogs is the crazy dog-lady right next door to us. Think "crazy cat lady" from the Simpsons. Coincidentally she's the one lurking around, peeking into other people's homes and turning them in any chance she gets for anything "illegal". Luckily most authorities already know she's crazy and just makes up most of the charges, but those who know Hungarian bureaucracy will not be surprised to hear she can always find new and new authorities ...
She lives in complete isolation, everyone hates her, she does not dare go out in public, drives everywhere even within the village. Her house is for sale if anyone wants to move to this otherwise lovely place, and a lot of us neighbors would chip in to discount the price just to get rid of her :-)

Which brings us to my main point:

(only applies if this a traditional rural community, and your neighbor is a native villager)

These communities run on customs and ethics more or less in line with the law of the day, but there can be deviations. The community will have an established sense of justice on issues like old man Janos going down to his field on the public road in his home-made tractor (strictly illegal by law, but that's how it has always been, probably the road was established where his grandfather drew his home-made ox cart before there were any roads...)

So ask around among the other neighbors about the dog situation.
Most likely they'll agree and you can take action together, but don't risk becoming the snitch who ratted out old man Janos and his tractor! That would destroy all your blossoming social ties and turn you into the sue-happy crazy-woman in the eyes of the village!


While we are at dogs and guns and other stuff as defense against home invasion, here's how I see it:

The dogs deter the opportunist burglars as long as there are alternative prospective targets without a dog.
Determined criminals targeting a specific house however will just poison the dog and do the burglary on the same night, so the effectiveness is limited.

Keeping guns (especially illegally, loaded, without basic training and regular practice in its use) is more a source of accidents and self esteem: robberies with physical confrontation are rare and make the news. Burglars just sneak in while the owners are away and asleep, and invariably flee when noticed. When properly stored, in the 99.9% case it's just another item of value to steal :-)

I'm also a bit at loss regarding cameras too: You can spend millions on the megapixels, UV illumination, recording equipment just to be sure it was a human of average size without disabilities in plain clothes and something covering his face. Recording the street while legally problematic, might reveal they drove a red Lada with the license plate removed or covered. But it's good business for those who install them :-)

Alarms are a hassle for the owner every time he comes and goes. In most areas the ratio of false alarms is so high noone will ever assume it's an actual robbery, and even if someone did, the what? Most of the damage (doors/windows) is already done, you scared them away before they could take the TV!

The currency exchange booth was robbed at gunpoint in Szentendre one morning. One in a million thing, it was in the news the whole week. 10 of us just arrived with the ferry and walked right into it. The siren was blaring, but everyone assumed it's just another false alarm, and took the other route to avoid the noise! The only reason I realized something is wrong and chased him a bit is because there was this completely unfamiliar guy trying to mingle and look inconspicuous among our group in the middle of the empty town!
The teller lady was screaming at the top of her voice (trying to out-scream the siren...), but I wasn't too sure whom to believe right away: I can't just trip some pedestrian just because someone else screams "robber" :-)

szocske wrote:

To the original question:
...So ask around among the other neighbors about the dog situation.
Most likely they'll agree and you can take action together, but don't risk becoming the snitch who ratted out old man Janos and his tractor! That would destroy all your blossoming social ties and turn you into the sue-happy crazy-woman in the eyes of the village!

Yes, you said it better than me Grasshopper.

That's the thing really, no-one wants to rat on their neighbours as everyone knows each other in a small village. If they did, they'll get the same intensely uncomfortable cold shoulder that your Dog-woman gets. People don't forget and everyone knows the mayor usually so maybe, after trying the neighbours, bringing in the mayor (who knows old Janos with the home made tractor anyway), might get some successful mediation with some palinka lubrication.

Coming from a large city, I'd never really known about that small community stuff/behaviour until I came to Hungary. Peer pressure seems to go a long way in small places. Contrast that with everyone ignoring each other in the big city.

But anyway, I agree, robbery with violence is very unusual in Hungary, but it does happen, but much less so that in say, the UK (or the USA?). They'll oppprtunistically take your stuff here but run away if confronted accidentally. In the UK, they'd gun you down or stick you with a knife. In that case, better to run away yourself.

Would be shame to poison the Kuvasz just to grab a TV set. Poison would need to be fast acting. Burglars like to be in and out. 

Kuvasz looks like a nice dog. Looks nicer than a Komodor or even a Pulli (types of Hungarian doggies). Anyone got a Kuvasz? Are they really that unfriendly?

More of a problem than noisy dogs here in Sirok are the church bells at 5am! They ring at an increased volume over 200 times and I live directly acroos from the church. We spoke to the priest and he fobbed us off with "tradition". That I can repsect but turn the bloody volume down, please. I don't usually here them but in the summer it's a guest house and our guests do.

ps, my dog doen't bark at all which suits us fine. Burglars should be far more afraid of me than what my dog could do to them ;o)

Hi everyone

Thanks for the replies. The dogs do annoy me but I would not put our relationships with the villagers at risk as they treat us so well. I do believe it is a naivety thing and that Hungarians do not understand that barking dogs are a problem or that anything can be done. They seem to believe that dogs bark "ipso facto" and why would you want to stop them.

The dog I have a problem with belongs to the Mayor's son and the Mayor's dog also barks. I am on a hiding to nothing really but it is good to moan once in a while.

I think i will buy a tazor.

Majors and other public roles come and go every 4 years. In small communities, they strive on earned respect. Cronyism may put them above the letter of the written law, but they will listen to reason to prevent gossips about their uncooperativeness. (my browser says there's no such word, well I say there should be!)

Talk to the other neighbors about it. That in itself might get the ball rolling.

szocske wrote:

.....
Talk to the other neighbors about it. That in itself might get the ball rolling.

This is one thing I don't quite get in Hungary. Same sort of thing goes on elsewhere. Usually, in the UK, we would talk directly to the person responsible, but in HU, it seems rumour, mistruths and gossip abound! I think in itself, this causes more problems than the actual thing (e.g. the barking dog) etc, as the message doesn't come across sufficiently or with sincerity.

But on the other hand, a lot of village life seems to thrive on gossip.

szocske wrote:

Majors and other public roles come and go every 4 years. In small communities, they strive on earned respect. Cronyism may put them above the letter of the written law, but they will listen to reason to prevent gossips about their uncooperativeness. (my browser says there's no such word, well I say there should be!)

Talk to the other neighbors about it. That in itself might get the ball rolling.

Unfortunately our Mayor has been in office for 21 years now so there is nothing to hold over him. He does not care about niceties or what is right or wrong. The villagers took him to task over a raise in community tax for this year and his answer to them was "tough". Him and his council had made mistakes and we all had to pay for them.

Uncooperativeness should exist but grammatically it is wrong. I, as a native English speaker, would use it just for fun though.

markru wrote:

........
Unfortunately our Mayor has been in office for 21 years now so there is nothing to hold over him. He does not care about niceties or what is right or wrong. The villagers took him to task over a raise in community tax for this year and his answer to them was "tough". Him and his council had made mistakes and we all had to pay for them...

You could always stand for Mayor on an anti-barking dogs platform.  If everyone is annoyed at the Community Tax, then maybe this is the time for present fella to be shown the door.

There are some unusal Mayors around in Europe, including foreign born black mayors in Slovenia and Poland. There was also a Spanish town with a British mayor. He was known as the accidental mayor because the incumbent was arrested during a corruption investigation and powers passed to him by default. His original election as a councillor was on a platform for better services on finding lost pets! Maybe this is the way to launch of a potential manifesto (anti-manifesto?), all barking mad dogs should actually become lost.

Update: I just found a web site which says a town in Arizona elected a dead man as mayor. Presumably his name was on the ballot and couldn't be removed. Reminds me of the 1992 movie, The Distinguished Gentleman with Eddie Murphy.

Just to set the record straight:
He said he's past step one, talking to the owner directly.

I advise to talk to the neighbors to gauge the situation, not to start any gossip :-)

But talking about it might reveal a level of agreement and determination in the community that was not known before: people might have thought it's only them and no one else cares.


(when facing the kind of roundabout gossips you mention, I find them pretty easy to defeat by saying "well, there must be some misunderstanding afoot, because he never complained to me.")

My aunt back in England had a problem with neighbour's dogs barking. She regularly posted squares of Ex-Lax chocolate through the letter box until the owner got rid of them. This is probably not much help to you as I suppose it is in the garden.
Seriously though, if it is just one dog consider getting your neighbour another dog as a gift. Possibly it is lonely and another would cheer it up and stop the noise.
There is a danger that there would be two barking dogs and then earplugs will be your only hope.

@fluffy2560 What a load of Nonsense, the vast majority of dogs in Hungary outside of Budapest city are stuck in a garden and allowed to bark at anything and everything that is in the neighbourhood, one dog barks and within moments the whole street goes crazy.

As for guard dogs, that is rubbish. No body goes out to check why the dog is barking, the same as no one goes out to check the neighbours house if their alarm goes off.

Near to us is a dog in a garden that nobody would want to enter for fear of catching some highly contagious disease is a dog permanently chained, 24/7. Why?

Our neighbours x 2 both have dogs that bark constantly and are ruining our sleep and general living, we watch TV but hear the dogs above the sound of the TV.

It is nothing short of sheer ignorance!

Neighbours should be neighbourly and respect their close neighbours.

By the way, we have a dog but it has been trained not to bark or go crazy if someone or something passes by.

On the other extreme there seems to be this infatuation and again sheer ignorance by those who feel that i want to go and meet their dogs in Ikea or some other shopping emporium. Again? Why?

In my opinion there is nothing worse than the Dolce & Gabbana couple wandering around the Buffet with Cynthia the Schitzu... Pathetic

@fluffy2560 What a load of Nonsense, the vast majority of dogs in Hungary outside of Budapest city are stuck in a garden and allowed to bark at anything and everything that is in the neighbourhood, one dog barks and within moments the whole street goes crazy.
As for guard dogs, that is rubbish. No body goes out to check why the dog is barking, the same as no one goes out to check the neighbours house if their alarm goes off.
Near to us is a dog in a garden that nobody would want to enter for fear of catching some highly contagious disease is a dog permanently chained, 24/7. Why?
Our neighbours x 2 both have dogs that bark constantly and are ruining our sleep and general living, we watch TV but hear the dogs above the sound of the TV.
It is nothing short of sheer ignorance!
Neighbours should be neighbourly and respect their close neighbours.
By the way, we have a dog but it has been trained not to bark or go crazy if someone or something passes by.
On the other extreme there seems to be this infatuation and again sheer ignorance by those who feel that i want to go and meet their dogs in Ikea or some other shopping emporium. Again? Why?
In my opinion there is nothing worse than the Dolce & Gabbana couple wandering around the Buffet with Cynthia the Schitzu... Pathetic

That post was 11 years ago. Bit late to the party. And only 1 post.  Sounds like potential trolling to me.

But all that time ago, I didn't have a dog but I do now. 

The dog is really useful. She barks when people pass which is useful to us humans to keep an eye on the street and garden. We always find out why she's barking. And we certainly investigate if the alarm goes off.

The dog barks because she wants attention, not because she's aggressive. It's natural for her to make a noise if someone is in her territory, even if it's just looking for love.

She's really popular with the school children passing. She's super friendly and loves people.  Neighbours with small kids drop by and even borrow her for walks.  It's good for the dog, good for us and good for them.

Chaining up dog is ignorance and bad training. We have invested lots of time training her. If people socialised and trained their dogs then the animal would not need to be chained up.  I take our dog on walks 4 x week. We meet so many other people. Dogs meeting is a great ice breaker. We often meet the same owners and same dogs while walking - we know the names of the dogs but not the owners!

I do not even have the dog on a lead when she's walking with me in the forest. She never goes more than about 30ft away. I just whistle and she comes back. It's just training.

Pocket dogs I'm not a fan of.  You hardly see people with children and pocket dogs.  But I can understand it's company for some people.

Over the past couple of weeks I heard a dog barking in our building.

It is coming from across the building so if I didn't tune in I'd not be bothered much.

I would however have an issue if I lived near or next dor to the poor thing.

It's bored outta it's mind!

I loved my dog but lately I'm not a super fan of city dogs.

I think it is cruel to keep them indoors all day long.

Not to mention the mess they leave on building and walkways when they finally get outside.

You'd think these owners could figure out how not to leave stains on the pavement even if they pick up after their dog.

It's easy enough t do. I had my,"system" when I had a huge Doberman, never messed up the public walkways. They give warning before they do their call of nature.

Just put some paper underneath them then your hands and sidewalks are clean, put it a plastic bag and take to trash can.

I knew a lady here from the states who had a Great Dane. She said one morning when her female Dane was urinating a man stopped his car and yelled at her. I supose such a large dog in the city is not a great idea . Must of been a lake left on the sidwalk. Not sure how to solve that problem, maybe bring a bottle of water and at least try to wash it away into the st. or sewer?

I know dogs give a warning before they releive  themselves. I could make my Doberman move at least 20 feet to another location before he let losse.. I never can understand how some people in the city let their dog go infront of the doors of complexes, just selfish and rude, thoughtless and mean.

My HU BIL visited us in Ca. He insisted he walk my dog once.

I gave him the supply kit for clean up and he asked if I was suppose to wipe my dogs bottom! What, was he kidding or what?

Guess cleaning up after ones pet never crossed his mind before.

I told him he couldn't walk my dog unless he cleaned up after him. Guess that's why he only walked him once!

My dog does exactly what I pay him for; he barks at strangers.  Barking is what dogs do to warn their pack of strangers; shortly before they sink their teeth into them.

My dog does exactly what I pay him for; he barks at strangers. Barking is what dogs do to warn their pack of strangers; shortly before they sink their teeth into them.
-@Cynic

Yes dogs should ward off intruders but these apt. dogs are just bored out of their minds.Loney and bored to death.

My Hippie ( crazy at times) sister and her husband had 2 dogs and he was stationed in Ca. at the USMC base for training.

They rented a apt. in a very strange area. My sister had a knack for finding off beat places to live.

Well, as a 13-14 year old girl I stayed with them for about a week in the summertime.

He was on base during the day and my sister was at work.

I was alone with a huge black Lab and a brindel Great Dane.

I was slightly terrified of them. Nice dogs but bored to death being inside all day long.

I held up in the bedroom most of the day, they were running free inside the living room/kitchen area. I was jumped on if i dared try to get a meal.

I don't know why they choice that place because those big guys needed a yard. They pooped inside on newspapers. The smell was overwhelming.

I walked them sometimes but I wasn't their owner and at 13-14 wasn't really into being a dog wlaker.

Once my sister told me she and her husband took a long weekend away and left the 2 dogs alone in the apt.

They locked themm up in the bathrom with a full tub of water and a open bag of dog food!

I was shocked, that is abuse too me.

I think my BIL was behind this odd treatment.

The 2 dogs got so upset that they chewed through the door and got loose inside. They ate everything in sight, couch, kitchen counters, doors, the bed just destroyed the place, oh yes, even my BIL fave record covers were chewed up.

Revenge of the muts!!

I never visited them again until they moved to a 40 acre horse ranch where those guys could run and explore.

My only reasoning of why they did that to their dogs was they both must of been on drugs, it was the late 1960's.

I know when I stayed with them their kitchen had no real food, I was straving, only thing they had in the shelves were ,"munchies". Junk food.

I know whenever I visited my older siblings my mother always gave them cash to make sure i was feed and not a burden on them. I never saw a penny of it.

My eldest sister cooked like a groumet but this other one.. well she never ate or cooked.

My dog does exactly what I pay him for; he barks at strangers. Barking is what dogs do to warn their pack of strangers; shortly before they sink their teeth into them.
-@Cynic

You pay your dog?!

Don't let that get out otherwise they'll all want in on it.

Our dog gets benefits in kind.  She hasn't realised we've been conning her all this time.  No salary but obviously gets food and biscuits and walks and tummy rubs.   Bordering on exploitation.

Downing Street cat has a salary but I don't know if it's performance related.

@markru no, unfortunately not. I am listening to the dogs also.They can't train their dogs or do not understand it how.

My dog would bark  he would be out.

I am from the USA you could call the police there and they issued a ticket.

Not here.

My HU in-laws had a German Sheppard that lived in a dog house ourside. He was really my husband's step-fathrs dog. My MIL had 2 of her wn dogs that were allowed in the house.

The Sheppard was firece, scared me half to death, he was put on a chain when we went outside.

I hated that but as a house guest there wasn't much I could say or do.

That was in the 1970's.

That dog only barked when someone was reaching over the fence, people liked to grab from their walnut trees.

He was poisoned and were several other dogs over the year s and many cats as well.

They couldn't prive but suspected the old widown across the way.

She made it know to everyone that she hated animals.

In fact she must of also hated her husband because he died from some odd stomach aliment...

It is very possible to teach a dog not not bark at every movement or noise.

We trained our Doberman to do that.

He was much loved and had free access to his own room in the house with one of the best views to the outdoors that we had. He had windown he could look out of from his bed.He had his own doggie dog to outdoors.

No need to ever tie a dog up if they are trained and not abused.

It takes so work but is worth it.

You must check everytime they bark at anything and tell them with postive reinforcement that they did a good job but tell them to stop barking too.

Our Doberman would only bark when something odd was going on outdoors, not everytime someone walked by the house.

He would go out to check what was up but hardly ever found the need to bark.

Perhaps people are chosing the wrong type of dog to be a guard?

Dogs bred to be guards do not bark at the wind or every little movement.

Dobermans are not known to be barkers but thinkers.

Just because a dog is large doesn't mean they are fit to be guards.

Great Danes  don't bark at every thing, Rotties don't or Sheppards and Dobermans.

People might wish to learn more about a breed before getting a dog and expecting it to fit all of their needs.

There is a well respected bred , the Basengi. It doesn't even bark but is known to be a fearless hunter and guard.

My HU in-laws had a German Sheppard that lived in a dog house ourside. He was really my husband's step-fathrs dog. My MIL had 2 of her wn dogs that were allowed in the house.
The Sheppard was firece, scared me half to death, he was put on a chain when we went outside.
I hated that but as a house guest there wasn't much I could say or do.
That was in the 1970's.
....
People might wish to learn more about a breed before getting a dog and expecting it to fit all of their needs.
There is a well respected bred , the Basengi. It doesn't even bark but is known to be a fearless hunter and guard.
-@Marilyn Tassy

Agree with that.   Dogs and cats were things, not living creatures back then.   Just chain them up forever in the garden and never really care for them.  It's a hard thing for some HU people to give up that attitude.   

We know someone who had a very large dog, chained up in the garden all the time, no shade and perhaps no water.  Dropped dead of heart failure during the hot weather.   I saw that dog several times, it was a big breed, needed huge attention and above all, proper training, care and attention.   People lavish more time on their cars than their dogs but it's changing, people are looking after their dogs more than their kids.   But anyways, proper training means a happier dog and happier humans.  People just need to spend enough time working on it.

Basengi dogs look very proud.  I hadn't heard of that breed before.  The only thing about that is I don't like dogs with curly tails as you can see their rear end a bit too much.   

Too funny, my mother was a very down to earth soul and once she made a comment about the back side of my Doberman that had us all busting in laughter.

He was docked and cropped and had his dew claws remeoved. All showy looking.

My mother asked why we didn't leave his tail Bob a bit longer to cover up his "area".

It's funny to even remember. She said she didn't like looking at his Butt H***when she was eating.

They have certain breed standards for cropping, and docking some breeds are chopped at the second vertebre of the tailmand others the 4th.

Dobbies are at number 2.

The reason being it is suppose to make them look mre fierce. Dogs wag when they are happy and raise their tails when angry. With a Dobbies tail being so short you can't judge their mood.

Plus any thug can't grab them by the tail end.

I know it is illegal in most countries to dock and crop. I did it ut of love , hard to understand but I thought that if fr any reason we couldn't keep him he wuld appeal more if he looked like the breed standard in the US. We had him go under during his surgery in hopes it wouldn't hurt too much.

His ears looked so cool, really they did , like radar attentans.

His harsh looks didn't give away what a baby he really was.

I just looked up the vet clinic where we had his ,"plastic surgery" done.

I'm surpirsed they are still in operation because the 2 vets were not all that young back in 1986.

Tully and Labounty. They are famous in the USA for doing all the show dogs work across the entire USA.

I was lucky their office was just about 5 miles from our home .

My sister's friend used them and said there was no other place to get the work done.

They have a signiture cut. Known for their long show cuts with a slight little turn at the top. No sharp edges.

Amazing I got my beautiful Dobie from a Dobie rescue and he was able to get such nice work done.

In fact his surgery cost more at the time then he did.

@fluffy2560 Hi.. i am certainly not trolling nor looking for an argument but hey, i see that you have joined the neighborhood dog barking scheme and openly admit that your dog barks when someone walks down the street. Why? You claim the dog wants love and to talk.

Well, the fact is it is you that is the problem because no individual really wants their conversation or peace and quiet ruined by your untrained canine.

If someone is trying to enter your property that is different.

As for the post being 11 years old, it is clearly still relevant today to all these dog possessers (Not responsible owners) who allow this highly antisocial behaviour hour by hour and day by day.

@fluffy2560 Hi.. i am certainly not trolling nor looking for an argument but hey, i see that you have joined the neighborhood dog barking scheme and openly admit that your dog barks when someone walks down the street. Why? You claim the dog wants love and to talk.
Well, the fact is it is you that is the problem because no individual really wants their conversation or peace and quiet ruined by your untrained canine.
If someone is trying to enter your property that is different.
As for the post being 11 years old, it is clearly still relevant today to all these dog possessers (Not responsible owners) who allow this highly antisocial behaviour hour by hour and day by day.
-@Mike Oxlong

It does sounds a bit trolling.  Chill.  It's what happens here and it's just the way it is. No-one is going to change.

Just about everyone in my street has a barking dog so I could hardly complain about it - not that I care.  You can hear the focus of dogs barking change as a passerby progresses down the street. It's the neighbourhood alarm system.  We have no problem with her barking when someone passes.  At night, we keep her in the hallway now it's a bit colder but she spends most of the day outside.  If she's inside, she doesn't bark unless she can see or hear someone out of the window or in the garden. We're not going to stop her natural behaviour of protecting her territory (or at least making a noise about it).    She's rather well trained compared to others (we've even trained her to bark if she wants to go out or come in). 

Dogs are really great icebreakers. As a Golden Retriever, she's super friendly, loves everyone and all the kids going to and from school stop to say hello. Even the neighbours come over and give her treats.  We enjoy their interest. We even lend her out to neighbours who like to take her for walks with their kids.   Everyone is happy. Fundamentally, what's not to like?

Too funny, my mother was a very down to earth soul and once she made a comment about the back side of my Doberman that had us all busting in laughter.
He was docked and cropped and had his dew claws removed. All showy looking.
My mother asked why we didn't leave his tail Bob a bit longer to cover up his "area".
It's funny to even remember. She said she didn't like looking at his Butt H***when she was eating.
They have certain breed standards for cropping, and docking some breeds are chopped at the second vertebre of the tailmand others the 4th.
Dobbies are at number 2.
...
I know it is illegal in most countries to dock and crop. I did it out of love , hard to understand but I thought that if fr any reason we couldn't keep him he would appeal more if he looked like the breed standard in the US. We had him go under during his surgery in hopes it wouldn't hurt too much.
His ears looked so cool, really they did , like radar atennas.
...
-@Marilyn Tassy

I'm with your Mum on exposed dogs rear ends! I thought it was just me! 

We saw some dobermans walking in the forest once. They had elastic bands on their ears to make them stick up. Looked cruel to me to make the dog look like that.  They were friendly but they were super young, yet were walking off lead.  So possibly trained already.

Not really keen on docking dogs tails.  It's a bit like mutilation for cosmetic reasons.

I bet your Dobie dog was not that friendly with strangers. They are definitely intimidating.  The most intimidating trained dog I've ever seen is the Belgian Malinois. Favoured by some special forces they really are quite something. It's the same kind of dog they took to capture Bin Laden.

My Doberman was almost embarrassing because he loved just about eveyrone.

He only got upset 2 times in 12 years.

Once while we walked past a nasty loking older man with his German Sheppard, the 2 dogs almost got into it, god thing they were on leads.The man was sprting a large stick as well so things would of gotten bad if I hadn't pulled my dog away.

My Max did turn to lok over his shoulder and let out another warning bark as we exited stage left.

Then he went off after the plice had arrested a nealry naked man from running up a neighobrs tree around midnight after he had already walked into another neighbors living rm through an open glass dor and started a fist fight with the neighbor in his own home.

Otherwise he was a sweetie, he just loked a bit dangerous.

Yes, the ear cropping is not nice. I might not of done it if I had the internet back then and knew more about it beside it being the breed standard in the US.

My vets that did his ears had/have their own patented way of doing the job. Different then putting them straight up right away with paper cups or tape.

They actually taped them flat across the skull for weeks, Had to commit to taking him to the vet once a week for a couple of months for them to rewrap the ears while they healed. It looked like he had a toothache they way the wrappings were on his head. Poor baby, we all felt sorry after it was done, he looked so sad.

I had the nasty task of taking the tape off each week befre ging to the vet...I hated myself.

The last 2 weeks or so they set them up striaght over head with loads of wrappings, looked like my dog had a cast over his head. They waited for the stitches to heal before setting the ears upright. The ears stretch tight while healing to avoid any ugly looking scars or thickness on the ears. I thought they just cut the ears but no, they actually reconstruct them.

Turned out perfect though.

Now that I'm thinking about it, at the time we were just going to do his tail and dew claws. They usually do those 2 things when they are a few days old but since I got him frm a rescue whoever had the litter didn't bother.'He had to be under during surgery because he was already 5 months old.

The vet actually threw in the ear for the same cost as the tail and claws to be removed.

He said he's look like a ,"Coonhound" otherwise.

We decided to remove his tail because Dobie thin long tails are like whips, they hurt and can be broken the way they wag them so much.

They really are a sweet breed if trained and loved as they should be. They have a bad rep because they will do anything to protect their family.

My Doberman was almost embarrassing because he loved just about eveyrone.
He only got upset 2 times in 12 years.
Once while we walked past a nasty loking older man with his German Sheppard, the 2 dogs almost got into it, god thing they were on leads.The man was sprting a large stick as well so things would of gotten bad if I hadn't pulled my dog away.
...
They actually taped them flat across the skull for weeks, Had to commit to taking him to the vet once a week for a couple of months for them to rewrap the ears while they healed. It looked like he had a toothache they way the wrappings were on his head. Poor baby, we all felt sorry after it was done, he looked so sad.
I had the nasty task of taking the tape off each week befre ging to the vet...I hated myself.
The last 2 weeks or so they set them up striaght over head with loads of wrappings, looked like my dog had a cast over his head. They waited for the stitches to heal before setting the ears upright. The ears stretch tight while healing to avoid any ugly looking scars or thickness on the ears. I thought they just cut the ears but no, they actually reconstruct them.
Turned out perfect though.
Now that I'm thinking about it, at the time we were just going to do his tail and dew claws. They usually do those 2 things when they are a few days old but since I got him frm a rescue whoever had the litter didn't bother.'He had to be under during surgery because he was already 5 months old.
The vet actually threw in the ear for the same cost as the tail and claws to be removed.
He said he's look like a ,"Coonhound" otherwise.
We decided to remove his tail because Dobie thin long tails are like whips, they hurt and can be broken the way they wag them so much.
They really are a sweet breed if trained and loved as they should be. They have a bad rep because they will do anything to protect their family.
-@Marilyn Tassy

Dogs show their submission by rolling on their backs to "surrender" to the aggressor.  What we find is the smaller the dog, the more yappy and aggressive they are. I suppose that's some kind of fear factor coming in. Giant dogs come in trying to be friendly and the smaller dog is intimidated by the giant dog shoving its face in.

I did see some large cats on a wildlife documentary and they did the same when they met - one rolls over to show it isn't a threat. Our Goldie is so predictable. She surrenders at the drop of a hat. It'd surrender to a sheep or a cow given the opportunity.   

We've been trying to get our dog to roll over and we've hit a barrier because I think the dog believes it's showing submission inappropriately. Even bribing it with snacks isn't working.  Have to think of another way of encouraging her.

I don't know if dog ears are a signalling method like tails. 

Perhaps having your doggy ears reorganised is like having your ears pierced - doesn't hurt that much in the fleshy bits. Our Fluffyette here has numerous earrings and says it really hurts in the cartilage. I had a pierced ear when I was much younger but I kind of forgot about it and it healed up. Maybe too old now to resurrect my biker persona. No bike or leather jacket anyway and not about to get either. Used to love my bike though. But impractical for family life.

In my experience my Doberman would actually sort of whine when he met a tea cup sized dog while on ur walks. The little thing barely was as tall as my dogs ankle joint but my dog was shivering in fear of the tiny dog.

Perhaps he was afraid to step on it?

My Doberman had such a large deep chest and narrow back side that he never was able to roll over or lay on his back. He would topple over.

This is also embarrassing to mention but other dogs wouldn't show their subbmission when they greeted my dog( large ones that is) they would do something else, I'd rather not mention but it was rude. They would lick him in a certain area, I'd have to pull his chain and break it up.

I had no idea male dogs would be so ,"friendly" with each other!

There was a Great Dane in our hood,( He actually had his ears done by the same vet as we used) who was pretty much equal t my dog. They just sort of rubbed noses, muzzles.

Otherwise it was my dog being afraid of tiny dogs or being very aloof and not even sniffing the other dogs.

It's interesting to read up on personality traits of different breeds. Dobermans can take it or leave it, they generally are very aloof unless they are with family.

Our HU freinds in Ca. had a female Dobie, she could be a bit mean at times.Very bossy with my boy, she would steal every bone from a BBQ and attack him if he took even one bone to nibble on.He let her get away with it even though she was half his size.

Dogs do communicatre with their ears and tails and head movements all sorts of ways to know what they want or what they are thinking.

Even though our boy had cropped ears that always stood up he would make them rigged and longer when he heard something and move them around like a radar tower.

Even the hairs on their backs can cange if they are excited or angry.

Different barks as well.

I don't know about "dog whispers" but just about anyone can read their pets if they want to.

My sister was great at reading animals. Horses were her thing.

She followed a dream of her before she passed away.

She wanted to wrk with horses again. Moved to NM for about 6 months and got a job at the race track.

Worked in the cafe and also did some horse groming. She loved it, the money wasn't great but she loved being there at the races and all the activity behind the sence.

She would mention to some owners that their horses didn't want to run but no one really listened to her, well their bets never did come in.

6 months of that was enough but at least she followed her dreams.

simply show love to a barking dog, they bark because they want to smell your hand. otherwise forget it.... i tried for 10 years and gave up.

simply show love to a barking dog, they bark because they want to smell your hand. otherwise forget it.... i tried for 10 years and gave up.
-@ant0nwax

IDK, yes bored dogs do bark. I'd never offer my hand to a strange dog from the get go. My sister did that in France while on a vacation there. She got bit.

It's all about a pet having something to do to keep themselves busy. Every breed needs different stimulation.

Some pets are not made to be sitting in a flat all day long while others are happy to do that.

Training a dog is very important, you can train them to not bark unless there is a good reason to do so.

Most people are not willing to spend the months training their pets to be happy and good doogs.

All these people living in otherwise quiet seemingly safe towns and villages yet with fierce barking guard dogs. Are these towns and villages actually not so safe that those dogs are necessary?