Why would a dog growl and bark only at certain people????

[TrevorDoodle]

My Doodle is just as goofy and friendly as they come....however, at Easter dinner yesterday I noticed something that really made wonder....

Up until yesterday, my dog had only barked (like a scared backing away from someone while barking) at 2 people. One was my male cousin, who likes dogs and has a dog, and the other was an really nice looking old man at Petsmart who wanted to pet him. Well at dinner yesterday he barked at my brother and another cousin(brother to other cousin above). It was like he was scared of them and all they did was walk into the room. My brother was even throwing him pieces of ham and he would eat the ham and then go back barking at him. None of these people did anything to him. He is not scared of men, because he LOVES my BF and my dad - and he has been around tons of different men.
Does anyone have any ideas of maybe what is going on with him??

[Noble Vestal Labradoodles]

Do they wear glasses, have facial hair, wear hats? Delicate but dogs notice... do they smell funny? Are they sick? Do they smoke? These are all things that a lot of dogs have issues with.

When we visit nursing homes sometimes my dogs will stay away from someone, usually they have soiled themselves~ I am sure you cousin didn't soil himself~ : )

Did the people bend over the dog to greet him? Dogs find this act very intimidating~

Don't force it...

[Deena Womack]

Cali tends to bark at men when they come in. She will bark and bark at my FIL and my DD boyfriend everytime they come in. And they both come over quite a bit. She usually calms down after a few minutes, now I understand the FIL, he is not fond of dogs. Not that he is ever been mean to Cali, but he doesn't have that warm fuzzy feeling towards Cali and I am sure she senses that. But Thomas, my DD's boyfriend is very friendly towards Cali and will love on her and play with her, so I don't get that one at all. But she calms down pretty quickly...

[Janie]

I cannot add any thing but I agree with Ann. If my dogs do not like someone I pay real close attention. I think they are very good at judging character.

[TrevorDoodle]

The cousins are brothers and I think they were both wearing a baseball hat, but I know my brother was not.
I also forgot to add that the cousin was there with his GF of many years
and my dog got between them and was backing toward the GF while barking - like to seperate them. It
was the first time he met both of them. The GF really loves dogs and animals and my cousin does not really
like animals. There were no stare downs from either my brother or cousin - he freaked out right when they
walked into the room. None are smokers either. I would really love to know what that was all about..........

[Debbie and Thomas]

I am no expert... and you may never find out what the problem is, but even the best behaved dogs have an immediate dislike for certain people. I believe it is a chemistry thing-like smell or the energy that certain people give off. If they were wearing black clothing, most dogs react to this. I think your dog was behaving normally though with "fear agression". Something about these vistors scared him and he was barking in his natural instinct to ward off what he thought was not right in his doggy mind. Keep an eye on him though-I knew nothing about this years ago, but my last dog started this at the age of two. We never thought too much about it-but it continued and got worse as he grew older. He just did NOT LIKE CERTAIN PEOPLE. We never knew why. One person he barked at constantly was my own sister, who was a dog lover and had two labs and a cat. With our new doodle who is almost 7 months old, sometimes I wait for him to start this, hoping he will not ever do it. So far-he is the friendliest big goof we have ever seen and loves everyone. But who knows....

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

My lab mix has always barked more at males but it decreased during his middle years and has increased now that he is almost 11. I have a husband and two sons who had friends around all of the time so it wasn't a lack of socialization with males. I did find that the guys who ignored Simon and had no eye contact with him when they came into the house, didn't ever get barked at. Simon is a little skittish and anxious at new things and I also think that deeper male voices and larger movements bother him.

[Tamara & Giada]

I don't have an answer either............the others are brobably are on to something. It would be interesting to know how he acts the next time he meets them. I know my SIL does not like animals and is severely allergic, but both of my dogs LOVE her and always try very hard to get her attention to the point I need to hold them or put them away while she is visiting......wierd, huh??

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

That is really interesting. Our lab mix, Simon just barks at people entering our house - mostly males so this is in character for him. BUT we had an experience with a former dog when I was growing up. Someone knocked on our door and our totally friendly non-barking Samoyed went growling to the front door with his hackles up fully ready to spring at whoever was there. We were so shocked that we didn't open the door and found out later that there had been a really strange ( I was too young to be told - molester) guy in the neighborhood who assaulted someone! I truly trust out of character behavior in our pets.