Hello,
I had a gathering at my home saturday and my dog has never seen more then just my close family which is 3 people she has seen people at the park but only walking by. I had about 8 new people to my home. she barked liked crazy at first but then was ok and alowed everyone to pet her. There was one person that she was extreemly scared of but then she was ok with this person after about 20 min later. It seems when the person walked away or made movements she would bark visiously but at nobody else. Can anyone tell me if its normal to just pick out certion people and not trust them? she had already goton use to everyone and was ok or so I thought. the person was not a threat to anyone <img src="http://www.leerburg.com/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

I have seen this before myself and just kind of figured that my dog was picking up on vibs or as Cesar would call it energy that the dog just did not feel comfortable with. I had my dog at a baseball game of my sons, he was great with every one but one kid and he just never would allow that kid very close to him or allow him to really pet him. I did not know the kid so can not tell you what kind of person that he may have been. Dogs sense more about folks that we can ever see. So your dog may have been picking up on something that you would never see. Perhaps it was something as simple as fear from that person, perhaps it was something else. I know one thing I have learned, if my dog does not trust you then in most cases I would not either. I am not an expert like Will or Ed or Cindy, but that is just what I have seen within my own dog and other dogs in the past. So it may have just been your dog picking up on something he did not like about this person. I know that really does not answer your question, but I trust my dog more than I do people... LOL

My dog does the same thing once in a while but I have not figured out why. One day my neighbor came over and pet the dog, everything was fine. Then he went home to get something and came back over, my dog barked at him. He ignored the dog, and a few minutes later, my dog was fine with him again. I've noticed certain things that seem to set him off:
-people wearing hats or lots of accessories (e.g. tool belt)
-people in uniforms (e.g. police officer)
-people who appear suddenly from around the corner or "out of nowhwere"
-people who are especially large/tall

I chalk it up to certain people/situations make him nervous sometimes and he reacts. My dog is a rescued border collie (mix?) and his nerves are not exactly stellar.

Bacchus, now since passed, used to bark at the following kinds of people. We lived in NYC at the time, so there were many different kinds of people for him to encounter.

1-People who were clearly on drugs
2 -People who were clearly were or were finished drinking
3- People who were fighting or wrestling with each other (even in a friendly way)
4- Couples holding hands.
5- People laying on the streets, homeless people, etc.

I have to say, most the people he barked at were people I would bark at if I were a dog, with the exception of hte couple holding hands (but then again, maybe he knew the relationship was doomed ) :-)

I have the same thing with my GSD.He is by no means vicious or aggressive at all and well trained.Has his CGC and is tolerant of everyone,but on a few occasions has displayed aggression toward people for no reason.I had him at the woods one day on leash just walking with a friend,there were a lot of people around and he didn't seem to care.Then a man walked by with his fishing gear not paying any attention to us and my boy went nuts.I'd never seen him like this. I had to pull him back on his leash and calm him down.The guy walking just looked at me like I was nuts and kept walking.Then the dog was fine.About a couple of hours later the same guy walked past us again going back the other way and he did it again.No idea why and it's only happened a couple of times with various people so I wasn't concerned, but I would like to know why this happens.

Dogs can view paraphernalia as if it were a weapon -- My Akita sometimes alerts over people swinging golf clubs or baseball bats (did the guy's fishing pole look anything like a stick?)...