My Dog Can See Into Your Soul

I want to share a little story about my dog Jax. He's a black Labrador Retriever and getting close to 8 years old already. I still remember the first day we got him.

The plan was to crate train him and not have him sleep on the bed with us. That lasted about 2 days. He would be howling, whimpering, and crying all night. We were staying in a house with two other room mates so we couldn't keep him anywhere besides our room with us. So, after the second night of crying, we let him sleep up on the bed with us. I'm sort of glad we didn't crate train him in the end. He usually just goes and sleeps on his own now anyway, but he does like to sleep in the bed too and hog it from time to time.

Jax is a super confident dog. He is an Alpha for sure. He doesn't take a whole lot of shit from other dogs. He's not overly aggressive, but he has no problem finishing a fight if one starts and he hasn't lost too many little scraps in his day. He's also full of energy. As long as you're throwing that ball or frisbee, he'll go and get it every time and bring it back for more.

I've noticed this happen a few times through his life but there is one incident in particulate that really sticks with me. I had him out to my Grandparents cottage one night when my brother was having a little party with a number of his friends there. We were down visiting so I was staying out at the cottage with them and was there for the party with Jax.

Everything seemed fine. Jax is really social and gets along with everyone and as long as you pet him, play with him, or feed him, he'll be your best friend. There were a number of people there and Jax was getting along with everyone. It was noisy and people were laughing and talking pretty loud with music going and it all didn't bother Jax.

Except for this one guy that showed up.

As soon as he arrived, Jax lost his shit. His fur stood up on his back, his tail stopped wagging, and his teeth came out. Jax turned from the friendly black lab to this ferocious, menacing ball of muscle that wanted to kill in a blink of an eye. I had to grab him and hold him back because he was actually going to attack. I had never seen him do that before to a person. Of course with other male dogs there have been fights but never with a person, especially for no reason.

We tried letting this guy pet him while I held Jax's collar. We tried letting him give some treats, sniffing his hand, talking to him and trying to calm him. There was no use. There was something about this guy that Jax didn't like and there wasn't anything we could do about it. I ended up having to put the dog in the bedroom for the rest of the evening because he was being very unpredictable with what he was going to do.

Jax is also very obedient. He does have some impulse control issues because he's always so "Go Go Go" but he listens very well and can control himself for the most part.

So that was just a weird incident. We didn't think much of it afterwards. The party ended and Jax was back to himself the next day with no issues. He was good around everyone else the entire time I've had him.

Except this one other time.

There was this other time, a few years later that we were back out at the cottage again. It just so happened that the same person came by one day. It wasn't the same kind of party situation where there was a lot of noise or anything. Just a few of my brothers friends had stopped by and me and Jax happened to be there.

Well, Jax lost it again at the same guy in the exact same way. The fur went up, teeth back, and the growling dog came out again and he was ready for a fight. I had to get ahold of Jax again and hold him back.

It's really amazes me that Jax can see something wrong with that guy. Nobody knew what it was either time. The guy wasn't being mean to the dog and seemed like an alright guy. Jax just saw right through him. Something that a person just cannot see, I guess.

So, that's my dog Jax. He can see deep into your soul and he knows if you're a good person or not. It's a good thing most people are good by his standards. I wouldn't want to mess with him if he wanted to fight and no one else was around. He's so fast and strong he'd do a good bit of damage on just about anyone.

Has anyone else ever experience anything like this before?

Has a dog not liked you for some reason or have you witnessed a dog not like someone no matter what they did?