Dog afraid of women?

[MonaLyssa33]

I took my puppy, Poppy, to the dog park yesterday to help her get more socialized because she isn't around dogs a lot and she isn't around people a lot either. She did great with the other dogs after she understood how to interact with them, but anytime a woman would put her hand out to let Poppy sniff them, she took a sniff and then cowered. When a man would do it, she was ALL over them. I find it really strange since I'm a woman and her only owner. I don't get a lot of visitors to my house and when I do, they are usually my dad (and Poppy LOVES my dad), sister (and her husband and daughters) and a few female friends. She's always been timid and she was born into foster care, so she never experienced anything traumatic like abuse. Has anyone experienced their dog having a strong preference toward a specific gender?

 

[fionasmom]

I have a friend with a therapy Cavalier spaniel who adores men. Biggest flirt in the world and only friendly to women despite being owned by a woman. Given that you can rule out the "man in the baseball cap who beat the dog" scenario, I suppose that it could be a scent on the hand if they might have touched something unpleasant or even handled their own dogs. As you said, she is not around dogs so she might have some level of fear of them and smelling an unfamiliar one is enough to make her turn away from a friendly human. Preference for one gender is possible I suppose. Jamie, my cat, is very close to my husband, almost like a little dog, but at the vet's, any vet, he can only be handled by women. At his last US the ultrasonographer was a male vet and they had to knock him out.

 

[Maria Bayote]

I read somewhere gender fear by dogs is not rare, but common cause is abuse, or has some traumatic experience with a specific gender during early years.

She seems to be a very sweet girl. I hope she overcomes her fears.

 

[CatladyJan]

Not knowing this puppy's history I would say there could be a gender fear for whatever reason. I would continue to carefully expose this puppy to women as the cowering may turn to aggression which you do not want. The more the puppy is desensitized to women the better.

 

[Willowy]

Many people attribute this kind of thing to past abuse, when most of the time it's just a matter of socialization or hierarchy, etc. Dogs are highly social and hierarchical animals (though the whole "alpha wolf" thing that was popular in the '90s has been disproved). So she may see women as being above her in the hierarchy, but men are just playmates, or something like that.

Or just chalk it up to "dogs are weird", lol. I have one dog who HATES men. She may have been abused, who knows. But wow. And I have a little Chihuahua who very much prefers men, though he doesn't hate women. I don't know his background either. But usually male dogs prefer women, and small dogs often are scared by men, so he's kind of unusual in that preference.

 

[klunick]

We inherited a Dalmatian from my sister in law. He was never abused by her or anyone who visited. But for some reason, he loved me but would attack my husband daily. He would go outside and come back in a couple minutes later and it was like the dog had no idea who he was and would lunge at him. Very strange but thankfully my husband put up with it. God bless his soul.