Jasper ignored her - as she was a lurcher he would have said hello if she'd stayed in one place for a moment, but she didn't
Later we bumped into her by the lake, where her owners were throwing a large stick a long way out for her to retrieve. She would do a running jump into the water, and thrash her way across to the stick.Jasper got really worked up by this. He stared at her, very alert, as she swam out, and then ran up & down the bank barking at her. When she got out he ran up to her and barked. There was no aggression, and I don't think there was contact, but he was really excited/upset. He did this each time she was thown the stick.
I've seen him bark at labs in water before, but thought it was just him wanting to goad them into chasing them and thought that they were cheating by going in deeper than he would (he doesn't swim). But this was a new level, and though it wasn't bad, i.e. a problem behaviour (the other lurcher ignored him and carried on running around with her stick
), it was very uncharacteristic.Could he actually have been concerned for her safety, and was he telling her it wasn't safe (or telling her off)? I'm not sure if a dog would have that level of understanding, but then you do hear of dogs 'rescuing' people from water when the person wasn't in any difficulty. And was he particularly concerned because she was a lurcher, even if she was behaving like a spaniel?
that it was the thrashing about that excited him. This dog is in distress. Might there be danger for me too? I'll shout at her because she upset me.