"Snitch" Dogs

"Snitching" Behaviour in Dogs

(Couldn't think of a better word...tattletale perhaps? lol)


It's becoming increasingly apparent that Rigby is a bit of a snitch-dog.

I first noticed it when the 3 other dogs were let outside and promptly chased a squirrel beyond their trained boundary line (no e-collar, just training). Rigby came bolting back whining and pawing at me as if requesting me to follow her.
So I complied and followed her as she ran and stopped about 2 feet from the line and barked at the others whom were standing over the squirrel - which sadly (or not, depending on who you are) had lost the chase.

I figured it was a fluke.

Tonight, someone foolishly left a fresh batch of little butter-tarts too close to the edge of the counter. They just happened to be within reach of a certain terrible terrier, whom is a known counter surfer.
Rigby comes bounding to me with one of the foil tart pans carefully held in her mouth. She promptly dropped it on my leg and started pacing and whining. Again, I follow her and she leads me to the crate which is littered with chewed up foil with bits of blood. And within seconds a sulking terrier with a cut up mouth returns to the scene.



I dunno. There are times I feel like I put too much human emotion into dogs, but I'm pretty sure this dog is a rat lol.

In the spirit of adding new topics, anyone else have any stories to share or even insight on Rigby's behaviour?

Happy was a tattle-tale. Back when my sister and ex-BIL were living with us, I was back in the downstairs office. They left and left the dogs out as is usual. I heard this "thump" after they had been gone for about five minutes or so, but didn't think anything of it...

until Happy comes skittering into the office, looking terrified. He hid under the desk and I was like "What's wrong, Hap? Happy, what's the matter?" and he stood under the desk looking at me like OMG OMG OMG. So I walk out into the other room to see what's up...

and Kota had knocked down a can of soda somebody left on the table and was sitting there drinking it as it spilled out slowly onto the floor.

"KOTA!" I said.
And he looked up like "What?! OMG. I DIDN'T... I DIDN'T KNOW ANYBODY WAS HERE."
Meanwhile Happy starts prancing around, suddenly happy as a clam...

Growing up we had two mini schnauzers, littermates. I swear that schnauzers are so into rules in general - they make their own rules about things, and then follow them. The male didn't care what our rules were, but he absolutely had his own rules that he lived by.

So the male, Dusty, was a terrible puppy, chewed up everything and had a blast doing it. His sister, Cindy, was Miss Perfect and never did a single thing wrong in her life.

One day we were upstairs and heard Cindy barking, so we came downstairs and she was barking at him as he chewed up something important. I'm not sure if she was telling on him, or just really upset that he was doing something naughty.

Not only did she never do anything wrong, but she didn't like when Dusty did anything wrong either. Rules were rules and she was going to enforce them! There were a couple other times when she came and found us, and led us to him, Lassie-style, to show us how bad he was being.

Love all these stories!

Hannah loved to tattle and tell other dogs off. She was the police in the house. If any of the dogs thought about counter surfing or touching something she decided was against the rules or doing something she decided was against the rules she would give a sharp bark or two and look for us. All the dogs listened to her too, which was sooo nice

If Wesley gets into the trash or does something 'bad', Feist will indeed run to someone like little Lassie and lead them to the trouble lol. She is very much a stickler for the rules and is incredibly disturbed if another dog breaks a stay.

Not only is Chloe the kitty police force, she also LOVED to tattle on Rose.

When we were gone, Rose was gated in the back hallway and Chloe was loose. One day we got home and Chloe met us at the door barking. She ran upstairs barking, then came down to us, then ran upstairs again. Rinse and repeat a few times, until I finally followed her up. She made a beeline to my brother's bedroom...where Rose was happily sleeping on his bed. LOL Chloe was so mad that Rose was upstairs and not where she "belonged". Hahaha

Summer is a tattle. She gets this horrified look and then runs to me and gives me the big eyed look when Mia is doing something bad. It started the second day Mia came home and Summer ran up to me like that. Sure enough baby Mia was peeing in the floor.

Pip tattles on Squash all the time. For which I am grateful, actually. It usually goes something like... I am preoccupied doing something and realize Pip is making a fuss, get annoyed at him but then realize Squash is nowhere in sight, then investigate and discover shenanigans.

Gwen has no one to tattle on. Besides Fiora. Which she occasionally does. What Gwen really can't stand is rough play. She referees play all the time. You can't have too much fun with Gwen around. She also doesn't like dogs barking. I'm not sure if it's because we don't allow it or because she wants to join in.

She is a baby. All the way.

Cobain does the same. We call him the "fun police" lol


Loving all these stories!

Corvus is most definitely a snitch, and he is also the self-appointed scolder. If he sees Ditto doing something wrong, he will fuss at her and then come to tell me. He is also the Cat Alert System - if there is a cat in our yard that belongs to someone else, he will tell me..most likely in the hopes that I will let him out to chase it off.

I don't own a second dog, but I definitely think Leo would be a snitch dog. One of my housemates friends came over with her dog. He liked to wander, and honestly in my opinion they weren't really doing a good enough job watching him (if I brought Leo to someone elses house, I would not let him get out of sight).

Anyways, Leo decided that stranger dog was not allowed in the hall way. I was reading in my room, and every once in a while Leo would come hurdling into the room staring at me. Peeked around the corner, and sure enough there is the dog slowly sniffing his way into the hall.