Dog snaps at certain children

Question
My german shephard/border collie mix was a rescue dog from Louisiana. She is an absolute loveable cuddly dog and very protective. There are "certain" children and young adults that she will not let go near her. She snaps at them. A complete adult stranger can go up to her male or female and she will not snap at them, yet she snaps at my 18 yr old nephew and wont go near him, and my 3 kids have lots of friends that come over and she jumps all over some of them licking playing with them yet there is a "certain" few that she snaps at. Is it their smell? Just seems really strange that she picks out a certain few that she just does not like.

Answer
Hi, Jackie,

You've asked one of the most interesting questions about canine behavior out there. There's an old saying that "dogs can smell fear," and that may be true. There may be some telltale odor given off by people (or animal's) whose adrenal glands (the body's fear/stress glands) are active. I don't think that's ever been proven, scientifically, though.

Here's what I think. I think dogs are very sensitive to changes in the emotional energy of any situation they're in. Some dogs are more sensitive than others. Most dogs, in their most natural state, actually become more social when there's a spike in energy. Others, usually those who've either been treated roughly, or even if they're not given a satisfying outlet for their instinctual hunting or herding energy, seem to become LESS social. To my way of thinking the smell may be a factor with your dog. There's no way to know for sure one way or the other. But I think it has to do with the possibility that she has trouble accommodating certain types of energy. They throw her off-balance emotionally.

I hope this helps,

LCK

By the way, you know the song "Good Vibrations" by the Beach Boys? Brian Wilson, who wrote it, said he got the idea for the song from something his mother told him and his brothers when they were kids. She said that dogs can sense whether a person has a "good vibration or a bad vibration."

I don't think that's necessarily the case here. (There's no such thing as a bad vibration; energy is just energy.) But you might want to look at the kind of energy the types of people she reacts to have, and see if you can find any similarities between them. It would be an interesting experiment.