Bark when humans pretend to hit each other?
 

Jack used to throw a fit when I pretended to hit someone like my wife, his mama. She'd say "ouch" and Jack would bark, bark, bark at me in her defense. He'd do the same thing if she pretended to hit me. But my current pack could care less. I think it's because they know it's a joke. But it makes me wonder why Jack did it. He was a rescue, had he seen some violence in his day? Or can any dog do this?

mine have never witness violence
but my female gidget will go off on anyone that even looks like they want to hurt me..or the kids...she has a high pitch bark, about 10lbs and will bite but has never broken the skin on anyone ..my husband smacked me on the rump one morning before leaving for work and got bit but he was ok...and he never gets upset with them about it..
my quiet shy little male HATES my dad now because he was joking with me and smacking me on the arm one night and teddy freaked out snarling and growing and biting and now hates men with boots on..(and my dad is a great guy never hurt our dogs) and my husbands dog doesnt like anyone to hit him..shes 8 and will snarl and snap if anyone pretends to hurt him..my youngest bella doesnt give a hoot..=) she just wiggles and is like "can i play" "huh huh"

None of the current dogs do- but our poodle growing up would do that- she was from a BYB and came home too early- so I doubt she saw much violence in her life- she never saw any real violence with us. She would get really vicious and try to attack the person doing the "hitting". She would even get upset if you came up to someone too fast and hugged them. Anything she perceived as hurting the other person and she was on attack.

Mine will bark as if angry with the person that isn't being nice to me. The only one that will attack is the tiniest one, Gidget.

Yes, Sammy does that. He is my little protector!! My aunt had a poodle years ago, and if you went to kiss her goodbye he would nip your ankles. So my uncle would cover the dog's eyes so we could give my aunt a kiss!!

I think dogs can probably smell aggression, and if a dog is around aggressive people and then sees the hitting, he associates that with the aggression. So barking to hitting is a learned response. We can't forget that dog's noses are 1000 times more sensitive than humans, and even in humans, smells are powerful things that bring back a flood of memories. Nobody ever pretends to hit me, but Joey barks if someone yells at me. :D

Tibbe is the Security Officer in this house and brooks no play-agressive behavior without a tirade from him. He seems himself as the keeper-of-the peace. So funny.

Hah this is funny! bf always does this to tease Uni. She will come flying over to defend me! He also teases her with pretending to try to steal her bullysticks and chews. Uni gets aggressive when we hype her up for it. The fake hitting is the easiest to do, but for some reason if I fake a yelp or two, then she knows its my bad acting and she doesn't respond in the same way anymore. She is smart. :)

Interesting answers, everyone, thanks! Nancy, I hadn't thought about that but it makes a lot of sense. It doesn't explain why they'd attack when we're play-fighting, but perhaps as you say they learned the response and are making it to just one of the cues that comes with aggression, the visual one.

Molly has never seen anyone try to hit me whether pretend or for real.

She lives in a non- violent home.

Thor has never seen anyone hit me, even as a joke. I guess we're unconventional in that way.

I imagine we all live in nonviolent homes.

Lily will do it most of the time. She isn't really angry though, just doesn't like it. My boyfriend pretends to hit me just to see her do it because he thinks it's funny. :p

Now, my poodle I used to have... he actually bit my uncle when he did it to me once. He wasn't messin' around. :cool:

I don't know if "love taps" count, but Kaji doesn't seem to give a rats behind about it. It's like his motto is, "better her than me."

Moe is the midget bully! He barks at some chosen people, even for no apparent reason, even if they are just passing by. Could it be face value? I guess he senses excitement and tries to counter this by being protective. He especially likes to bark at our maids who are always yelping and yelping in a tremendously high shrieking pitch, or speaking so fast. He greets people who arrive relaxed and calm. But my car and my bed are extreme off limits. But he recognizes my 2 daughters and allows them entry to his lair anytime. Moe has never seen aggression, but even our vet says he's such an alpha. Good thing he is tiny. At 1 year and 2 months, he pounces and wags his teeny-weeny tail as he barks. He also runs to me or my kids, or the nannies if he barks as if telling us "hey. there's someone at the gate."

I call Sasha the sheriff around here. If me and my brother would "play" beat each other up, she thought we were serious and will bark and would go after him. She has never bit him but it makes me wonder what she would do if an actual real fight ever occured.

Under control at last
 

My son and his buddies would rough-house quite a bit here in the house when I had my first Yorkie, Scotty, and he just did not get playing like that. He would bounce down in the floor, careful to stay well back from them, and chew them out the whole time they were playing around! Danny also liked to tweak Scotty by jumping up vertically and slapping the flat of his hand three times on the den ceiling just to get a rise out of Scotty and that set him off, too. Once Scotty would bark him out for doing it, Danny would go and sit down as if Scotty had made him stop and then Scotty would run over and cover him with kisses and the occasional left-over snort. Today during ballgames when we jump up and the guys punch each other playfully and high-five each other and slap each other on the back, Tibbe becomes Security Officer and works hard to return the group to sanity, barking quite earnestly until everyone quietens down again. My second Yorkie, Jilly, was the same way. They just do not get play aggression and we-just-scored celebratory antics! But Yorkies are Cheshire Cat satisfied once they have restored order and look around the room as if to say, "Well, I got this bunch back under control at last".

Nini plays tug of war with me, but she snurls and barks so loud that Nicky thinks she's being rude with mommy, so he barks at her and does his 'angry macho' dance around her :p

I don't think Jackson has ever done this... not entirely sure though. He barks a lot in play if I get him goin' and start barking at him. He's very talkative and makes all sorts of noises. But my German Shepherd that I got when I was 10, she was VERY protective over me (and it ended up costing her her life). If anyone pretended to hit me or anything, she would go after them.

I have wondered if mine would defend me but I can't get anyone in tne family to help me find out. Just one or two pretend smacks is all I want, it's not like I'm asking to wind up in the morgue. But something tells me they would just mind their own business.

You are too funny :p

I have a three part answer to this poll.

Doodlebug will bark and get into the play fighting.

Bogey will run away and hide.

Pebbles does not like anyone to fight playing or real. She does a very high pitch bark and at least twice pinched me. Not bite there was no blood not even a mark. I guess it would be more like when a momma dog is getting her puppies in order. Knock it off and listen up type of thing. :rolleyes:

Chip goes nuts, but I think he wants to join in on the fun, because he does the same thing when Adam and I hug. Smokey could care less about 90% of the time.

yeah, with so much love for these angels, it's hard to imagine otherwise ;)

But my little ones, especially Nini, learns her violence where most kids do...T.V. :eek:

She's an addict, a die-hard T.V. aficionado, a couch-potato :eek: I have literally dozens of these as proof :p

Oh, how cute! Reminds me of Tibbe watching that TV! He, too, is a TV addict and watches TV regularly, usually right in front of me! We watch a lot of sports and he really loves to see people darting around on screen a lot. He loves the Animal Planet, Nat Geo, Nat Geo Wild and all the kids stations, too. He loves cartoons, I guess, due to the funny voices. Between sports, animal shows and cartoons, plus "the news", and some of the shows like NCIS, etc., there is a lot of violence on TV. I have to close my eyes for some scenes but Tibbe watches it all!!!

Those pictures of your Yorkies watching their TV shows are just the cutest things!!! Those little pricked up ears show how into the show each is. I love pictures of Yorkies living their lives, a large part of which seems to be partaking of a good deal of whatever their family is doing! So cute. I wish YT would collect all of these pictures and the best stories and put them all in a book! Thanks for sharing - made my day!!! :)

Wouldn't that be nice, all photos and stories in a collection :thumbup: I'm glad this one made your day :D It does my hb's too. I send him pics when he's at work and he says it gives him the energy to finish the bad days ;)

Nini's like father-like daughter, her daddy's a couch-potato too. He used to complain because I didn't watch T.V. with him and used to say he wished someone would. He got his wish :p. Problem is, she hates when he plays with the remote for to long :mad:
Sooo funny :animal-pa

We call Elvis the fun police
...in fact when Dad and the kids do "karate" (hm Dad is an' MMA fighter' so he gets all cheesed off with me calling it karate-and the kids do tye something-something classes-I do muay thai but whatever saying karate is easier) any-who...I have to hold Evlis...the other dogs know it is pretend we don't allow violence it's all slow motion or practice but Elvis goes ballistic!
...he even chases Dad down when he tries to tickle the kids...a child squeals even in laughter and Elvis is on it..."what are you doing to that kid fun police here to bust you"...it would be funny if it didn't actually seem to stress Elvis so much, he's normally so very mellow & passive and if he hadn't actually nipped Dad's pant leg...

My DH and I will play fight and Couver barks like crazy. He doesn't attack or anything, but I don't think he likes DH getting so close to me. He also will bark if I play hit DH. I just don't think he likes the 'violence'. Khloe couldn't care any less... lol

:eyetearss Tooooo funny, lol