Why do dogs do this?

It’s called mouthing and dogs do it in exploration but a strange dog shouldn’t be allowed to do it to you by its owner. How are they coming so close to you?

Just out walking. They come up and decide to walk with me.

Do you live somewhere that stray dogs wandering the street is normal?

I don’t think they’re strays. They cone running out of yards. I’m talking of isolated incidents that happened over a period of a few years. Only it happened twice in the past couple months.

Mouthing is motivated by several different factors.

Exploration, as stated above, is one.

Some dogs resort to mouthing as a displacement behavior, when they just don’t know what to do with themselves. My old dog loves visitors, and she goes to grab a toy for the same reason.

In a calm context, like an evening cuddle of a dog and his owner, mouthing can mean affection. Similarly, two dogs who are close will often lie down to play an open-mouthed game of this when calm and relaxed around each other.

And then, there’s the warning mouthing. When a dog is holding your wrist while standing stiffly and staring at you, you’d be wise to back off.

The dogs in your examples were most likely warning you, or exhibiting displacement behavior. There is no way to know which one it is, though loose vs. stiff body language would have offered a clue.

If it bothers you, put your hands in your pockets.

^ Wow. Since I said that it was kind of nice like a privelege I can’t imagine why you would think that it “bothered me”. Or why you believe that I would be wearing articles of clothing that would make such advice practicable. Not even going to try to figure out what about the question provoked the hostility behind such a dismissive response.

Haha, what an extraordinary outburst.
You said you found it disconcerting, that’s all, relax a little or maybe the dogs will pick up on it.

No no no. When I’m in the moment I’m totally enjoying being in their company. I was positive that one in particular felt like he was showing me the way somewhere. It’s like they hold my hand and guide to the right or left like they want me to go wherever. “You say Timmy fell in the well?” It doesn’t feel like a threat or warning. Just kind of odd. More like something over there they want me to check out.

@Jak There was no hostility there at all – you definitely read that wrong.

Only other thing I can think of is that the dogs might be smelling some kind of sickness. Which I highly doubt is the case, but it’s possible.

I don’t know if this is related, but one time many years ago I was jogging and a dog ran in front of me. It matched my pace for a block or two and then turned back to look at me, as if it was saying, It’s been fun pokie, but I got places to go. It then shot ahead.

@Jak I thought @ucme‘s comment was a little unnecessarily pissy, too, considering you asked the question out of curiosity, not annoyance.

My mother used to be deathly afraid of dogs.
After she and my dad divorced she moved to Washington State. She took up jogging for a time. One day she was out jogging when suddenly there were two very large dogs at the edge of a yard next to the sidewalk she was running on. They were acting very protective of their territory, which, apparently, included the sidewalk. They were growling and barking.
Mom froze in terror. Suddenly she felt something nuzzle her hand. She looked down, and there was a yellow lab at her side.
The lab gently took her hand in his mouth, and started walking with her. The dog walked her past the two mean dogs. After they got about a block past them the lab released her hand and disappeared.

Mom never forgot that moment.

Who let the fuckin dogs out?
Brainless stupidity

I agree with @ucme. In general, dogs should not be running free. These were harmless seemingly but others could bite.

And FWIW, I didn’t think his first comment was hostile; I saw it as a typical practical Northern England solution; the kind my intelligent ex-husband would have come up with.

@Dutchess III Your story is lovely.

@Dutchess_III It really didn’t come across as pissy to me at all. I genuinely just saw it as a suggestion. “In case it bothers you ____”. Exactly why so many people hate typing, I guess. Precisely because things can be interpreted differently when there are no tones to hear. But yeah, it didn’t look pissy to me at all.