Dog acting as 'peacekeeper'?!?

aonb

so I have a medium JRT X. Hes a bit anxious and clingy. He grew up in the shadow of two much older dogs, which we had put to sleep last year at age 17. Lovely little dog, great temperament. Introduced our first cat (rescue kitten), shes nuts about him. Then recently we adopted another stray cat. Shes absolutely super-nuts about him. So, when the original cat sees the newer arrival and hisses/growls/launches herself at the newer arrival, the dog gets between them and gets worried about the 'aggro'. When the original cat jumps up on a counter, or claws the rugs, or scratches armchairs, he gets all worried, and runs at her (not aggressively) as if to say "no no dont do that". Its like if the orignal cat does something "naughty" - stuff that I would say NO! to her for doing, the dog has taken on the responsibility for 'policing' naughtiness. Whats going on doggie-wise do you think??

tk123

Oh Bailey does the same thing! I have to be careful around any troublemaker dogs in case they kick off and United Nations peace keeper Bailey tries to step in. There’s a couple of dogs we often see in the mornings who are leash reactive (my diagnosis - their owners don’t realise) and have snapped at Lucy in the past - Bailey will bark the place down at them if they get too close to her now! Same if there’s a pushy dog around bullying other dogs Bailey will try and get involved and literally push the other dog over. I do my best NOT to let him get involved - except telling those 2 others to get lost and leave Lucy alone as she’ll walk onto the road to avoid them!

A funny thing happened one morning lol ....a friends dog got spooked by somebody who was afraid of dogs and started barking ... ie the dog was walking past at a fair distance away nose in grass oblivious until she flipped out he was ‘near’ her... friend freaked out calling they dog which escalated matters with him barking and woman screaming (obviously this is bad and not the funny part)... what was funny was that Bailey reacted to our friend screaming the place down and barked at her lol... I called him to me and left my friend to control her dog lol (that dog had made me late too many times helping catch him so I stopped helping!). So it’s not just dogs he does it to! Come to think of it another friends sister gave out to my friend’s dog for weeing in flowers she just planted and Bailey barked at her - friend’s husband doesn’t like the sister in law and was delighted

DBB

Well spotted aonb!
It is a recognised thing alright, The Peacekeeper. Dogs who do this are worth their weight in gold... I have one too She's the most perfect dog I've ever known, I adore the ground she walks on!
Whilst The Peacekeeper will usually place themselves between the two animals that are getting aggro with each other, the way they go about it is variable enough. My lady walks or trots between the two dogs, flashes both of them the most disarmingly friendly face, first towards one, then turning her head 180 to face the other, as she walks between them.
I've never seen it fail, as it completely lowers the tension and often draws at least one of the aggro dogs away to interact with her. It took me a while to spot what she was at, but once you cop what's going on, it really does make you realise that we too often underestimate what dogs are capable of, communication-wise

razorblunt

Our dog plays this role too, even with dogs she doesn't know and in their own house!

She's already tried to stop our friends dog from digging as he'd get in trouble. We still haven't identified if its the fighting or just the silence being ruined she doesn't like.
She'll be off to Kosovo next.

njs030

Oh yes I have one of these too! He will get in between a brewing row and distract one to go and play with him or cuddle the nervous dog.
If it kicks off into a fight he barks into their ears to distract them.... Not sure what that is meant to do tbh!!

Or if I'm cross he comes over and gives his paw and blinks at me until I stop complaining