Dogs and dolls

That is interesting. I haven't had an animal react to my dolls other than our newest addition. He tried to steal a wig once when we left him home alone (he had a sitter that came over every few hours to check on him but that apparently wasn't enough) and decided it needed to take a tour around the house. I will say he doesn't go near the table where I have them set up, he side-eyes the table now and runs away. The time he grabbed the wig it was because that doll was all by itself. Perhaps it is the size of your doll that spooked the pooch? I know my corgi dislikes smaller children and a 68cm boy would be about small child size. He's too old to really bark or throw a fit now but I imagine he might be upset if I had one standing somewhere on the floor. Then again, I'm terrified of taking my doll outside for anything (agoraphobic in general) so I've never tested it with strange dogs. I do know there are a few dogs on the block who seem creeped out by the Halloween decorations, even the silly ones that barely have a human form, so maybe it is just the appearance of a human that riled the dog up?

 

As an owner of a doggie, my dog has never taken an interest or mistaken them for anything other than inanimate objects. Even when posed on the ground, she'll come around to gently take a whiff of the wig/clothes but then she continues on her merry way devoid of any interest.

I think there are a few factors why some dogs react differently than others. My dog is a larger breed (60lbs), so my two foot doll isn't that threatening to her. I imagine for a smaller dog a large 68cm BJD may seem more threatening and therefore the dog may need to bark to establish it's presence and alert their humans about the strange thing they are seeing. Additionally because all dogs vary in levels of intelligence some dogs may quickly deduce the doll is non-living vs. a living thing. My dog is an Aussie Cattle Dog which are supposedly very smart dogs so she's never been curious about my BJDs. She's always behaved in a way that leads me to believe she knows they are an object.

It's interesting to hear of other dog's reactions. I'm not implying btw that if if anyone's dog reacts a certain way that it's not smart. Some dogs just figure things out more quickly than others. Naturally, dogs are pack animals and protective of their loved ones so it's not too surprising they may react with some barks and hesitation when we bust out our dollies

 

I have a rat terrier and she is so well behaved around the dolls! Actually, she never bothers anything that isn't hers since being trained, but I can leave a doll sitting on the couch and she won't bother it at all. The cutest thing she ever did was pull a blanket over one of my boys, like she was tucking him in. I wouldn't leave my dolls in her reach unattended, she's a good dog and I trust her, but just to keep her safe, I wouldn't risk it. She's never seemed to feel scared or threatened by a doll at all.

 

Signe is just curious about my dolls, but I don't let her do more than sniff them, because the next step of bestowing her approval is to lick the sniffed object. She doesn't seem to have the possibly Uncanny Valley reaction OP saw.

 

My dogs couldn't care less about my dolls! I've even had them take pictures with the dolls leaning on them and the dogs won't even move. Sometimes when I pose them on the floor, dogs will sniff them and then go on with their lives.

 

It really depends on the pet, I think. I have one dog who could care less about dolls and the other has learned that if I have a camera in one hand and a doll in the other when I come downstairs IT IS PLAYING IN THE YARD TIME (ie - I photograph them while she runs around us in circles).

My cats are the same way. One loves them (and tries to sit on them) and the other wants to knock them over because they are taking HER attention. I think animals just react to us reacting to the dolls, more than they react to the dolls themselves.

 

I have dogs and they don’t pay no mind to my dolls. I don’t usually have them around them but on rare occasion they may be around the area I take them to in my house or out in the shade to take photos.

 

Depends on the dog but I would be careful around any animal with a doll. Some dogs like to play and might see the doll as a fun toy and will take it and run away with it. Or if they do see the doll as a threat for whatever reason they might be aggressive with it and try to tear it apart.

And not every person is good about keeping their dogs on a leash either or the dog might get off their leash somehow so I would def be wary outdoors when dogs approach.

Even well trained dogs I just wouldn’t trust with dolls or toys that mean a lot to me. Every dog has its day and I don’t want one of those days to be the day the dog decides to suddenly chew up my collection!

 

I keep my dolls out of reach of my dog (she's a samoyed *points at userpic*) just because. She doesn't seem interested in them anyway. Although one time when she was young (around 6 months old) I was walking her by some shops, and she got excited by the mannequins in the window because she thought they were people and wanted pets. XD So, I guess a dog could mistake a large doll for a small person?

If you don't have a dog, it can be hard to tell what a bark means. With mine, if she's barking high pitched it's because she's excited or asking for something (like, "waff waff waff" or "squee squee squee" if super hyped.) If she's scared of something, she'll give just one or two low barks to warn there's danger. Dunno if that helps decipher the dog's reaction...

 

My cats have stolen doll wigs off of one doll. I nearly blamed them for the recent fall my Karsh took but I think that might have been gravity and not an overly adventurous cat.

Not sure about a dog though. When I take pictures of my dolls in the park, the dogs being walked don't seem to care about me or my dolls.

 

I haven't had any dogs react strongly to dolls. My old dog had poor sight and never was very playful, but sometimes he would approach a doll I was holding with clear intent to grab it. I think he wanted to check if the thighs were edible and he only did this with SD size. I'm guessing they just resemble the size and shape of chew bones so he got curious now and then.
My current dog hasn't shown any interest in dolls, but I'm 90% sure if we ran into a large doll while on a walk, she would react. She hates it when people stand around "staring at her" and has been known to bark at snowmen (and large pieces of trash etc...) until she gets close enough to check the "threat". Some dogs just spook really easily.

 

I have 3 dogs. When the body for my Sandor Clegane doll came in - my big dog was really freaked out by him - wouldn't get near it and kept growling at it. My cockapoo on the other hand gave him a kiss and I have an amusing pic of her just hanging out with the shirtless doll. She has also been know to kiss baby dolls like she thinks they're real. Our dachshund was completely Indifferent.

 

My dog thinks they're neat for about thirty seconds and then ignores them. She was obsessed with my Blythe dolls though.

 

I normally never let my dogs near my doll, as they're normally outside dogs. the other day though, my sister brought her little dog in for a bath and was indoors all day. I was tinkering around with my doll and figure I'd see how he'd react to a doll petting his head! I guess he thought she was just a small human bc he loved the tiny pats, and kept trying to lick her face
/which I did not let him lol

 

I think the biggest consideration for a dog with a doll (or anything else) is smell. My dogs haven't cared about my dolls more or less than they care about any other object as a group of items. But when they're more interested I think the driver is a new or interesting smell, and not that the doll is human-shaped. If a doll arrives and smells like another human (or like another dog or other animal), that's going to grab their interest much more.


And the dogs general behaviour will make a massive difference. A dog that's been trained not to bark at other people/objects usually follows their training. The dog in this photo (my old Pointer) was trained to ignore things, and he almost always did (if you were a squirrel or a pheasant though... ). But my current (recently rescued) dog might well sniff or bark at a doll or other unfamiliar item just because she's a former stray and that's how she reacts to everything new (she barked at the paintbrush that my neighbour was using yesterday!). We're going through training now, and hopefully soon she won't be barking at things. It's possible that the dog that barked at your doll just hasn't been trained not to bark at unfamiliar things.

 

I have a small chihuahua that has no interest in my dolls, and our old dachshund at my parents’ place didn’t care for them either. I would be curious to meet a dog that did react to them tbh.