You ever wonder why your dog likes certain breeds or maybe other ones really get under his skin?  It turns out this is pretty normal.  For example, our husky Griffey beelines straight to any Poodle that walks into a dog park...and yea maybe the other dog Dad's give me a weird look like "...why the Poodle?", but at least he knows what he likes!

The reason behind this can stem from a few different reasons...all of which take into account their primal instincts.  

Breed

Dogs can certainly tell if other dogs are like them...and scientists have proved that breeds naturally gravitate to other dogs of their kind.  As far as liking other dogs outside of their breed, scientists have said certain circumstantial evidence may make a dog more or less likely to like certain breeds.  In other words, if a pug is attacked by a Siberian Husky, he might forever have a distaste towards huskies...he might even assimilate any dog with husky features (pointy ears, long hair, long snout) like a German Shepherd and apply that same sort of distain.  On the contrary, if your dog has a Notebook moment with another dog at a young age and falls in love with a random Poodle at a dog park...he may forever love Poodles. 

Sense

Like we've pointed out in other blog posts, dogs' senses are heighten to an extent that we as humans can't understand.  For example, their sense of smell is 10,000 - 100,000 times more acute than that of humans.  Scientists have pointed out that these senses in some cases may give a dog all he needs to know about a dog or a breed of dog. It could be the way the dog walks or how tall the dog is relative to another dog...it could be their how vocal they are, their energy level, a particular odor, an arrogant stance, or the dog may be too submissive/aggressive to tolerate.  Dogs use their instinctive judgement, make the decision, and move on.

Gender

Wether it's male of female, Alphas tend to fight with their own gender...similarly, they enjoy dogs of the opposite sex.  Most dogs try to avoid confrontation for the most part, but Alphas will go out of their way to protect their buddies.  You'll need to do a little extra conditioning, repetition, and a bunch of TLC with these guys to break any of these "instincts". 

Disinterest

Just like plenty of us, there are people you meet who are cool people...nothing against them, but nothing that you write home about.  Dogs are no different.  Sometimes they just don't particularly love a certain dog, which again doesn't mean he doesn't want to be aggressive or confrontational, but simply that he doesn't want to go frolic through the dog park with that dog. 

Does your dog like or dislike a certain breed of dog? Let us know in the comments below.