Ultra submissive ex breeding dog in the dog park
This is not completely uncommon behaviour, but it is when the dog is reasonably large and it is doing it out of perceived fear, trying its best to be liked.
Don’t get me wrong, the world needs dominant and submissive dogs, they are just a regular part of any pack. However this fear based submission can be difficult in dog parks as some dogs (even those moderately social) can misinterpret extreme submission as a weakness and try to be overly dominant with the dog, potentially leading to a fight.
No, this is not the dogs fault, but something that the owner might like to consider trying to get the dog out of. They are taking a great first step in getting the dog to an off lead dog park, but they would probably improve the dogs understanding of how things work by encouraging the dog to get up around other dogs.
The dog that visited us looked like an ex breeding dog, a rescue dog. It had probably been kept in bad conditions and abused by the ‘owner’. Dogs like this can take a long time to psychologically recover, if they do so at all. The mistreatment has it think that all dogs and humans are threats and rolling over, the ultimate submission, will stop it getting abused further.
Ironically some dogs take this as a sign of weakenss to abuse a dog further. Its like the dog has given up all of its stake in the pack and will be of no benefit to the pack in a hunt.
This is not my view of the dog, but this is why more walks, and encouraging the dog to stay upright would really benefit it in becoming fully social ..
Article by Bruce Dwyer. If you wish to use any of this information please refer to the article as a reference and provide a link to www.healthydogtreats.com.au
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