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I used the search and this didn't come up, so I figured I'd bring it up.

Dogs have a reputation for bring able to detect if something is "wrong" about a person. Would that extend to lycanthropy?

Depends...
they actually might like the werewolf better than other humans. Also known as, "Oh, i'm good with dogs. They always seem to like me..."
If the dog's an alpha, there might be problems if said werewolf is the same gender...

(Which is exactly the reason you make friends with all the dogs in the neighborhood first... then you don't have to worry... plus, you're right when you say they can smell problems with people... but werewolves are similar to dogs... the dogs might not have problems with the werewolves...)

Keep in mind that there are breeds of dogs especially bred to hunt wolves, and perhaps by extension; Werewolves.

That's why you make friends with both the dogs and their owners; that way if the wolf-hunters alert around you, you can pass it off as "must have been one of the other dogs I've been around that they don't like."

Misdirection is all if you're a Wolf in Smooth's clothing...

Not all dogs will think a werewolf as another dog, they'll probably see them as just another human being, sometimes even in lupine form.

Dogs bark at alot of things. Barking at the girl next door won't directly indicate a werewolf.

Windigo wrote:Dogs bark at alot of things. Barking at the girl next door won't directly indicate a werewolf.

(True... but if it's a male dog... I'm kidding... sorta... And about RedEye's post. We actually didn't know that... well, we kinda did, but... eh... anyway... if you plead your case with said dog, might make it easier for them to not bark at you. Plus there is always the "Dog's don't really seem to like me" thing... that usually works... or should. Never actually tried that. BEsides, most of the dogs the human's around like him.)
You're a pervert, you know that?
(What? So i suggested a male dog might take a liking to a female werewolf. I didn't suggest anything else, thank you very much...)
Mmm... but you insiuated...
(DOn't start on me about insinuations. You've made plenty yourself at times....)
I know, i know... sorry...
(No you're not... you still want to argue with me about something... i can feel it...)
it's just... that kind of joke might not fly around here...
(Look... i kept it clean... besides... at one time or another, all females see guys as...)
DON'T!
(Dogs. )
Oh... that was just... horrid...
(But true... just as some guys view women as something else i can't say, if they've had their heart stomped on. Males and females are pretty much the same, no matter the species...

And back to the posted topic...
I have a question: WOuld it better if a werewolf made friends with the dogs first, and then the owners, or the reverse?)

I don't think the dogs are gonna care, really. *shrug*

WerewolfKeeper3 wrote: And back to the posted topic...
I have a question: WOuld it better if a werewolf made friends with the dogs first, and then the owners, or the reverse?)

Dogs first, I say. Easier access to them, plus people tend to follow their dog's lead on wether a person is good or bad.

Own question: Assuming dogs could detect something "wrong" about a person, could a were?

(Implied question: are weres our best defence against alien invasion? )

We did actually talk about dogs extensively before, but I couldn't find the thread where we did so.

I remember it being argued, however, that dogs have a tendency to bark at just about anything, so there's really no way to tell and most people would brush it off as just a dog being a dog.

Maybe the owner of said dog will claim it's odd that their dog is suddenly barking up a storm, but that's it. But you know what I've noticed? Most dog owners will insist that their dogs are well behaved, no matter how obvious to the contrary it is, and insist that they don't know what's wrong today. Most people will brush off the owner of the dog just as readily as they will the dog itself.

Yeah I remember this from before, it was something about how in several werewolf movies they make a big deal about dogs barking at werewolves when in human form.

but dogs bark at everything, my neighbor's dogs will bark at me when I'm inside my house (I have windows running parallel to thier yard where they have these little Jack Russels tied up.)

so realistically no one should put any emphasis on a dog barking at a stranger on the street, and a werewolf shouldn't worry that that would work to reveal its true nature.

Rhuen wrote:Yeah I remember this from before, it was something about how in several werewolf movies they make a big deal about dogs barking at werewolves when in human form.

but dogs bark at everything, my neighbor's dogs will bark at me when I'm inside my house (I have windows running parallel to thier yard where they have these little Jack Russels tied up.)

so realistically no one should put any emphasis on a dog barking at a stranger on the street, and a werewolf shouldn't worry that that would work to reveal its true nature.

True... but it would still be helpful to be friends with the dogs in the neighborhood. If dogs start barking at midnight, people will still look out and yell at them. I don't think any werewolf would want anyone to see "a very large dog running outside. No, he doesn't have a collar, or tags..." i don't know about you, but i don't think a werewolf wants to spend a night in the pound...

I always imagined werewolves as having a unique werewolf odor. Not human, not wolf, werewolf. Obviously, this is simply what I imagine, but either way I think I dog should be capable of sniffing out a werewolf. Whereas, on the same level, werewolves would be able to detect other werewolves even in human form.

Otherwise, how the dog acts towards the werewolf is simply up to the dog. Some dogs are simply more agressive, passive, trusting, or suspicious than others. I can't see using dogs as a 'reliable' means to tract down werewolves.

WerewolfKeeper3 wrote:

Rhuen wrote:Yeah I remember this from before, it was something about how in several werewolf movies they make a big deal about dogs barking at werewolves when in human form.

but dogs bark at everything, my neighbor's dogs will bark at me when I'm inside my house (I have windows running parallel to thier yard where they have these little Jack Russels tied up.)

so realistically no one should put any emphasis on a dog barking at a stranger on the street, and a werewolf shouldn't worry that that would work to reveal its true nature.

True... but it would still be helpful to be friends with the dogs in the neighborhood. If dogs start barking at midnight, people will still look out and yell at them. I don't think any werewolf would want anyone to see "a very large dog running outside. No, he doesn't have a collar, or tags..." i don't know about you, but i don't think a werewolf wants to spend a night in the pound...

They really shouldn't be running around at night in wolf form anyway, and if they were, priority #1 should be getting back inside or at a safe alternative location ASAP.

Plus, dogs will bark even at someone they are familiar and on good terms with. It'd be pretty pointless to try and befriend a dog if your motive was to keep it from barking, because chances are it will bark no matter how much it likes you.

What I figure regarding back yard traveling is that a person's yard should either be small enough that a gestalt or full wolf could jump one fence, sprint and jump the other side before a resident takes the time to investigate (keep in mind that the resident likely won't think there's something wrong, so he won't come running to tell his dog to shut up), and if the yard is too big to sprint across in one trip, there should be something in that yard that he can take cover behind if need be.

So that's dogs barking at them in wolf form. As for dogs barking at them in human form, while I wouldn't count out the possibility that a dog could tell by a person's scent if he is a werewolf or not, I don't think it would matter much. For one thing, as we already discussed, people can never really tell why their dogs are barking, so while a dog might be able to tell if someone is a werewolf, its owner would have no way of knowing that. Secondly, just because someone is a werewolf doesn't necessarily mean a dog will be upset by them either.

The only real trouble that could come from dogs barking at weres in human form would be from an obsessive owner that insists "he's never done this before," "he's usually so well behaved" or "I don't know what's wrong with him today." But you know what I've noticed? No matter how stupid, vicious or spoiled rotten a dog is, and no matter how obvious that is, most obsessive dog owners will insist that it's unusual for them to behave this way. The dog owner might think there's something wrong with the werewolf, but most people will brush him off as just another nut, and chances are he'll think the same way about the werewolf that he thinks about half the other people on his block as well: that they're up to something or that there's something wrong with them.