Dogs and mailmen. For many people, this instantly conjures up images of the traditional cartoon dog chasing the letter carrier down the street. Thankfully, most dogs don’t actually chase delivery people nearly as often as they do in cartoons, but people often ask, “Why do dogs hate mailmen?”
The answer lies in dog language. Body language more specifically, which is how dogs communicate. The mystery is solved once you understand how dogs think.
When a letter carrier, UPS driver, or other delivery person approaches a home, they are facing the house (and the dog who is inside watching) with the front of their body. Facing a dog with the front of your body is dominant body language.
The dog, instinctively being a guardian of the home, barks.
Next, the person deposits the package, turns around, and walks away from the house. In a dog’s mind, walking away with your back to him is submissive body language.
Do you see the connection? The dog, who originally started out barking simply because someone was there, is now under the impression that his courageous barking scared the delivery person away! He doesn’t realize that the person would be leaving anyway to continue to their next stop.
Over time, with this occurring on a regular basis, several more things may happen. One is that the dog, who now thinks that he is scaring away the mailman, has more confidence in this situation. His bark may begin to sound a bit more menacing.
The mailman, who notices that the dog’s barking now sounds truly threatening, may begin to use additional body language which reveals his discomfort to the dog. Once this cycle is in place, it can continue along these lines until there actually is a problem between the dog and the mailman.
The other issue is that dogs are very intelligent, and many make the connection that whenever a uniformed person comes, this same thing occurs. That’s why the problem can escalate to include other uniformed people.
Of course, humans don’t have to sit idly by and allow this to develop. If your dog is beginning to take issue with your mailman, you can work with your dog on some obedience to correct the barking. It can also be very helpful to bring your pet outside on a leash to meet and socialize with the mailman before things get to a dangerous level.
Wise letter carriers and delivery people are usually very happy to make friends with the dogs on their route (in a controlled environment, such as on a leash). In fact, the local UPS driver who services our neighborhood is always armed with treats, and the dogs in our neighborhood look forward to his arrival with gleeful anticipation. Sometimes he even leaves a treat on top of the package when our dog is not even around. I guess he prefers to be the “pied piper” rather than the “cartoon mailman.” Smart guy!
