Winnie & Spike

When I arrived at the dog park today, Winnie was there. Winnie is a young Frenchie bitch that behaves strangely around Spike. I was curious to see how she would react to him. Initially, they were fine together, albeit somewhat testy. Once Winnie’s owner started petting Spike, things went awry. Winnie started barking at Spike, furiously. My guess is that she was jealous and didn’t want Spike around, stealing her mistress’ affections.

She continued to bark and turn around Spike for a while. It was funny when it started out, because she kept at it, even when Spike chased her away. As a full blown male Frenchie, the dominant one of his litter, meaning that he was also the largest, Spike rarely backs down, unless it’s from significantly larger dogs. I’ve seen him cower only a few times, and that was when he was facing an adult Rottweiler.

After a while, it stopped being funny. I could see that Spike was getting weary. In fact, he got quickly tired and started walking home. That was definitely a first. He will usually indicate when he’s finished and ask me to go home, but this time, he started walking away. I went after him and put the leash on. We continued our walk and left Winnie in peace.

Spike is a pretty laid back dog. He’s very friendly to everyone, and has never bitten anyone either. He will defend himself though, even against larger dogs. None of the Frenchies that I have seen in Taiwan are breed standard. Their chests aren’t large enough, which makes me think that they have been interbred with Boston Terriers, but I’m not sure of this. None of them have papers from the AKC or CKC. Spike does, as a purebred championship French Bulldog.