Pretending to be dignified

Here's Finley pretending that he is a noble and dignified animal who doesn't do things like miss the top step on the deck and land on his butt so that his front legs are left scrabbling on the deck while his rear legs slide under the steps, or wear embarrassing hats or pink collars. Because he is noble and dignified and manly. Right? Right. I mean, look at that face. Definitely dignified.

I took him out for a walk the other morning. Before the husband and son wake is about the only time of day that I can get some alone time or sneak out of the house with just one dog, without the others whining and crying like life is a terribly unfair tragedy and they can no longer bear the loneliness and injustice so they are just going to chew their way out the front door so that they, too, can be free. Which, my poor door! My beautiful front door! It is slowly being splintered! Not happy.

Anyway, I digress.

When I took Finley for a walk, it was before he'd had his breakfast, which in retrospect made him a little frantic for the training treats I'd slipped into my pocket, and probably made him a little more crazy in general. We were walking towards that house where they keep the pet goats, and the man let his two Boston Terriers out into the yard. Fin started hackling and barking at them. He also hackled and barked at the Mutt Strut, but there were supposed to be about 500 dogs there, and I figure that situation is more on the extraordinary end of the greeting new friends spectrum, so I wasn't too concerned about that.

I was surprised when he barked at the Bostons, though. He has not shown any animal aggression or reactivity in the time that I've had him. Even when he was surprised by a Shiba behind a gate, he was somewhat phlegmatic. He seems slightly uncomfortable around new dogs, but his response to uncomfortable situations has been to immediately submit and do whatever the other dog says. He was even attacked and punctured by a strange dog when he was in foster care, and he had no defensive response. So, for him to react to a dog in the distance by barking and pulling is definitely somewhat surprising.

Is it me? Do I somehow make reactive dogs out of normal ones? Do I not provide enough input on how the dog should behave when it sees another dog, and leave them hanging, with no clear guidance? Has his previous lack of response been due to the behavior suppression that you tend to see from dogs who are in shelters or new homes (AKA "the honeymoon period")? Is it his real personality, finally coming out? Lack of manners? Excitement? Animal aggression? Learned response, from watching UberBitch Polly bark out the front door every time a dog passes?

Whatever the cause, I've got plenty of experience with reactive dogs, so it's not particularly problematic. But it does leave me to wonder if, you know, the problem is ME. o_O