• saltesc@lemmy.world
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    6 months ago

    I believe it. I used to have a small dog that grew up with big working breeds, never being treated like a prince, etc., I wouldn’t have him in the small dog area at dog parks because they all mostly have terrible behaviours borne of terrible owners.

    So in with the big dogs like he knows.

    Within five minutes he’s running around with a massive group of dogs following him, copying him. Apart from a “Hello” butt sniff, he wouldn’t interact much more and just went and sniffed stuff here, or explored a new stick there, not reacting or paying attention to bigger dogs wanting to play.or chase. Just kept plodding along indifferently. It turns out, that oozed some sort of pack leadership confidence, like he was doing more interesting and important things than paying attention to other dogs. So wherever he’d go and what he’d do, the group of dogs in tow would stop and join in, until moved on and they’d follow wondering what’s next.