...but I'm not really sure.
Lately I've noticed that when we go to the dog park, Riley will sometimes growl at a certain dog (not the same one every time, but rather one dog out of the group that is there that day) and the hair on his back will go up. This doesn't happen everytime we go, and I don't know why he does this. It's usually another male dog. Even when we went to the Irish Fest a couple weeks ago, there was this lovely Irish R & W Setter male there, and he came over to sniff Riley and Riley growled at him. There were a bunch of other dogs there too, but Riley was fine with most of them. Later on the same dog came near and Riley again growled. Then there were these 2 Irish Setters there that he has met before, but on that day he growled at them too, at least the male. I don't get it. There were no toys or treats to be won over.
Another issue we seem to be having is he is guardy over his tennis balls. He LOVES them and is a nut about playing fetch. While at the dog park, if another dog tries to take his ball away he will growl loudly and it is just very obvious that he is PO'ed. Even if the tennis ball is not in his mouth and is a few feet away, if he sees another dog going for it he will run, growl, and grab it before the other dog can. Any advice on this issue? How serious of an issue is it, and what should I do to stop it?
Thanks for any help anyone can give. I don't want to show Riley in a bad light, he's a sweetheart and is right now lying next to me chewing a teddy bear, lol. But I want to curb this behavior of his before it escalates into more than growling.
Oh ~ and I just wanted to add that I have *never* had a problem with Cadie and him. They are great buddies. He has never, ever growled at her (except for playing) and if he did, she would "put him in his place" I'm quite sure. So this isn't a dangerous thing at home, just a behavior that occurs with other dogs.