Molly (nearly seven months now) constantly barks at other dogs, but it is a strange kind of bark & whine together.  I hope people know what i mean as it's dificult to explain, but she basically will bark then whine then bark all in a row????  also this is whilst wagging her tail.

This is always when there is an animal - especially dog - on the TV.  It doesn't even have to make a noise (for example the dog on the HMV advert) but she will still go into one.  apart from it being a tad annoying I wasn't too concerned, but then yesterday I opened the front door to take her out for a walk and there was a lab across the road.  She went through this crying/whining routine and by the time we got to the dog and Molly wanted to say hello he was growling at her.

She is never viscious with other dogs - just barks from a distance but is super friendly when she gets up close.  I can understand the barking, but not the whining, and this barking seems to put other dogs off as they then feel they need to growl back etc as they're not sure what she's going to do.

Is this just her way of saying hello?  I don't want her to spoil any chance of meeting doogy friends with this behaviour.  any suggestions as to why she does this?

Does she do it when she's off lead and can get to the other dog?  If not I'd suspect it's mostly frustration.

Hi Digger

We've never actually encountered another dog off-lead when walking yet - always when she's on lead.  Having said that, my husband took her to the woods about a month ago and a lady with a lab asked if she could walk with him and Molly was fine - no barking or anything just had a really good time.

So do you think she's frustrated as she wants to get to the other dog, or is she frustrated with something else?  Is it something we've done? I don't want other people and their dogs to think she's unapproachable as I think she would really like to make friends.

I'd agree with Digger that she sounds frustrated, and possibly excited as well.  It sounds like she could do with some more socialisation around other dogs.  Do you take her to a training club?

I did - we went o puppy classes which we both enjoyed.  But since we have moved I've had a bit of a nightmare trying to find a new club I like.  I've tried two but didn't like either and haven't had much luck with finding any others (I'm keen to continue with clicker training but nobody seems to do it or their class is full!)