I walked into my room last week with a tshirt half on my head, my head accidentally went into the sleeve n I walked into the room (kinda quickly as I was in a hurry to get dressed n go out, while saying "hey cujo" in a muffled-by-tshirt voice like I usually do when I come back into the room), Cujo backs up 5 ft n starts barking at me like crazy, hairs on the back of his neck up, I put the tshirt on correctly n he was fine again instantly, like I hit the "off switch". Yesterday I walk into my room with a towel on my head covering most of my face with a big enough gap for me to see him thru 1 eye - he stares at me funny n cautiously walks up to me, i take the towel off my head n he gets SUPER excited, like he hasn't seen me for half the day.... now, anytime I cover my face with a tshirt or a towel or whatever, he'll start wagging his tail slowly, I uncover my face n his tail wags 10x faster, his ears go back n he wants to jump up to lick my face n run around n be completely hyper like he hasn't seen me all day again. Everytime I do this, no matter how long I wait between doing this, it has the same effect on him. If I crawl under the comforter on my bed n leave a gap, he'll come n stick his head under the comforter to see if he can find me, then when I emerge - same hyper happy reaction.

Does this mean anything? If so, what??? It's actually a very effective way into putting him into drive, he's suddenly filled with energy n wants to play tug n run around. I feel like I'm playing Peek-a-Boo with my a 2 year old.

I dunno what happened there, I meant to type "my friends 2 year old" not "my a 2 year old" haha, no I don't have a 2 year old.

I don't know what it means but it's funny

Aside from how funny this is..........

Maybe he's so relieved that it really IS you in there that he's excited with relief and the release of anxiety/fear/tension/suspicion........

So at first he might be wagging his tail slowly because he THINKS it's you.....smells like you.......shaped like you........but what's with the different head? Is it a trick?

Then it IS you! Yahoo! Whew! Wag wag wag wag!

Years ago I had a Bichon, very elderly, and one day just for fun, not in any way trying to frighten or upset her, I imitated the witch in "Oz" who says "And your little dog, too," in a terrible evil voice. I must've done a great imitation because the Bichon made the first aggressive sound and movement she had ever done in her 18 years of life! She leaped to her feet, growled, hackles up......until I spoke again in my normal voice. Then she sat back down slowly, still looking at me a little suspiciously, until she was back to normal.....MINUTES later! I never did that again. I guess maybe I seemed to be a fake Connie: right shape; right face; right place; TOTALLY wrong voice! LOL!

Normal reaction he doesn't recognise you. A standart test is to cover your head with a cardboard box and the result is the same as you're dogs reaction


Greetings


Johan

I'm actually surprised by your dogs reaction here - it isn't normal in my experience. Dogs live primarily in a world of smell and sound, with sight as a sense to them being a distant third place.
The reaction that you describe from your dog sounds like something from the "Shower test" in which the dog is deprived of it's main ability to recognize you via scent ( a lot of dogs get uncomfortable in that test ).

Lets hope the next burglar that breaks into your home doesnt wear a towel on his head... !!!

try it with you're dog and see the reaction.

 Quote:

Will:
it isn't normal in my experience

So, is that a bad thing? Or just an unusual thing?

 Quote:

Ahmed:
Lets hope the next burglar that breaks into your home doesnt wear a towel on his head... !!!

If anything I think that put him into defense the first time he saw me with the tshirt covering my face lol, poor puppy, that bark was enough to scare any idiot that broke into my house. And if the guy is wearing a white towel on his arm... that towel will get stolen faster than you can blink! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/tongue.gif" alt="" /> He's a lil white towel thief, they're his favorite toy. And don't get me started about vacuum cleaners... if someone breaks into my house and tries to steel the vacuum cleaner, my boy will have a death grip on that thing trying to save my property!

I did try it Jan - no response at all from my dog ( who's sharp ).
I also tried it on a ppd here for training. Didn't fool that dog either. The basis of just covering your head to fool a dog doesn't work - dogs identify you via smell and sound at close range. Again, I don't think most dogs will react to this, the test is fudamentaly flawed, it shouldn't work based on canine behavior.

However, with the shower test I can get my dog to look very uncomfortable, and he looks totally relieved when I end the test by speaking. Which is what I would expect with basic canine behavior.