Can I Trust Larry’s Instincts?

Junebug is a lovebug. It’s one of the best parts of her personality. The only thing she discriminates on is how long it takes you to pet her. Larry, on the other hand, is much more discerning. But with a little bit of time, patience, the generous application of treats and some attention, we have always been able to get him to accept new people.

Until recently.

It is only one person he is not accepting, but that person is a kid, which makes it a bit of an issue. Since Pop Tart* came to stay with us, there have been many kids in and out of the house, and as long as we have gotten them to behave in a reasonable manner (ie not try to outrun him from the front door to Pop Tart’s room) and greet him, things have been fine. But now pop tart has a friend who is a boy, and Larry is having none of that.

It has always been more difficult to get Larry to accept men than women, so, despite this being a child, we were not surprised it seemed to be taking him longer to warm up to the boy. But it is beyond the “taking a while” point, and Larry doesn’t merely dislike this kid, he hates him.

We have done everything we can think of. Most recently, C took Larry outside (in the front yard, where Larry pretty much never gets to go) to meet the boy outside of Larry’s territory. He gave the boy lots of treats to give Larry and had him pet Larry while giving him treats. Larry tolerated it while he was getting food, but as soon as it was over, he tried to attack the kid again.

Now, C had him on a leash and had put the muzzle we bought for Moree on him (it is “too big” for Larry in that it allows him to move his mouth enough eat treats, but it still prevents him from opening his mouth wide enough to bite anyone), so the kid was not in any real danger, but Larry still scared him.

We are not exactly sure what to think. We know Larry has more issues with males than females. The kid has a darker complexion, and we know that Larry will often react to men with darker colored skin when just walking past them, and that dogs can be “racist”. (He reacts badly to about 2/3 of dark skinned men we come across and only to about 1/10 light skinned men, though he has been getting better in general.) Larry is also quite protective of Pop Tart, and this is the only male friend she has.

At the same time, C and I are both the kind of people that want to trust our dogs’ instincts. If we still had Smokey, and he were reacting this way, I would probably never be able to trust this boy. But Larry is more high strung. I don’t know if he’s reacting to something he is sensing in the kid that I need to be worried about, or if Larry is just being crazy.

For now, it serves as a reminder to Pop Tart that she cannot have friends over when we are not home. And it has stopped the boy from asking if he can come inside and play video games at our house. So I’ll take the good, such as it is, but also know that I’ll never truly be able to relax when pop tart is playing with the boy, out of concern both for Larry’s reaction and because of it.

*in previous posts, Pop Tart has been referred to as Small Person or SP. However, she is referred to as Pop Tart on facebook, and I am trying to cut down to just one pseudonym per person