fear of strangers

[Ginny Nightingale]

I have been working with Lyric in obedience class and she has no problem with the other people in the class or on the street, but home is another story. When someone comes to the house, she barks and guards the yard--she has a HUGE deep bark, so it is intimidating. We do not want a guard dog, so i have been using a small squirt bottle and hitting her with water from a distance while saying "no bark"--this seems to work on the barking, but she is still very intimidated by the stranger even after I introduce them and calm her down. Today, she was afraid of a man who delivered something--he was a dog person, so he spent some time down at her level greeting her and got her to sniff him. BUT, the minute he started to leave, she went into guard mode and ran BEHIND him barking. She was still very afraid, though, so she darted away when he turned. I just don't want her thinking she can behave this way. I am hoping to get some help from some neighbors that she doesn't know--maybe having them come over and help me to give her positive reinforcement for friendly behavior might help...what do you all think?

[Lynne B]

I would not squirt water on a fearful dog, you are just reinforcing their fear. What you need to do is desensitize her to what she is afraid of. It takes quite a while to do, and getting her used to one person will not guarantee that she will not be fearful around another person; unfortunately dog's don't generalize about people and a number of things can trigger their fear; a hat, a beard, dark skin color, plaid shirt you name it.

To put it as simply as I can: If this is happening with people in your house, keep a short lead (2 feet) on her collar. When the person is in your house & she starts to bark, calmly grab the lead and turn her the other direction, walk her away from the person until she gets far enough away that she calms down. Then when she is calm, have the person throw a treat to her, if she is calm enough to take the treat, have the person take a step forward and throw another treat..try to narrow the distance between her and the person but don't take her any closer than she is comfortable, you want to get a success out of this exercise, not a failure. Here's a good website for you to take a look at: http://fearfuldog.com/

Have you talked to the obedience class instructor? If he/she is adpt, or cdpt certified they should be able to help you with his, perhaps by bringing a person into the class that she doesn't know, or even spending some time working with you in your home.

[HANNAH 8/2/07 & HONEY 7/2/08]

Sounds like a great plan to work with Lyric, by chance could have someone done something to Lyric to frighten her and act this way. When I was a kid my first dog was klunked over the head with a wash pole by a garbage man collecting the trash from our yard. Rippy never bit anyone until that day, and after that the only two people who could go near him was my Dad and myself. Sometimes we don't see things going on when our dogs are outside in yards, we also had a neighbor kid who would hit my female husky. Don't know why he did this, but because of it, she didn't trust or like kids. I couldn't understand why all of a sudden she didn't like my son, and two weeks later caught this kid tormenting her. Just an idea to keep an eye out for, when she is in your yard. Best of luck with training

[Barbara Baumgarten]

Lyric looks so much like Dunkin............could help. With Dunkin it is excitement and his bark is very loud too. My neighbors have helped me and I keep him away from them until they sit down and when he is calm I let him go and after 1 or 2 minutes he just goes and lays down. You can put him on a short leash and hold on to him until he calms down. See if that works

[Chris & Boys]

I have the same problem with Fozzy. I have been working on it for several months. I have really seen no improvement. I do the treat thing with people he barks at. He calms down, but it is only a temporary fix. Or, he gets comfortable with JUST THAT PERSON. I am becoming leary of taking him to parks and to the boys' games etc. I have tried all the tricks. This started with Fozzy when he was about 4 months old. I even took a private trainer to a park to see how he reacts to people. He behaved like a perfect angel. He reacted great to strangers. I don't know if it is because she was with, and he knows her as his trainer or what but it really pissed me off. He will exhibit this behavior with my dad, my sister, strangers at parks, at my home and on and on. He barks and growls, backs off, then approaches them with sniffs, then backs off barking and growling and repeat, repeat, repeat. Sometimes we warms up sometimes he doesn't. It seems the more people ignore him, the better he reacts. I hope you have luck getting this behavior turned around.

[Ginny Nightingale]

Thanks to all--great advice. I am having a graduation party here on Sunday with 60 people. I will keep her on a lead and try to introduce her the the group slowly. I should clarify that the way the trainer taught me to use the water bottle is non-threatening. I hide it under my arm and spray little squirts from above her head--she looks around to see where the water is coming from and it distracts her from the behavior. Its not done in a threatening way--or at least it is not supposed to be threatening. My other dog, who is super obedient is too smart for this trick. She knows the water bottle is there and stops whatever she is doing immediately--but I am usually picking it up to correct the OTHER dog! I will take your advice, Lynne, and not use it with Lyric. it could very well be making her more anxious. I think she really wants to be a guard dog but doesn't have the nerve---if there was just some way i could tell her that we don't want a guard dog! The trainer has given me some articles on the training method Lynne described with the treats and gradual introduction. I will have to be more patient and keep trying to get it to work. Thanks!

[Ginny Nightingale]

PS I got Lyric at 8 months and she was already exhibiting the fearful behavior (she has actually really improved) The breeder hoped i could "fix" this by taking her out more, etc, but it hasn't helped with the fear at home. I think she did not get out much as a young pup.

[Lynne B]

If it's not a large volume of water being sprayed and just enough to cause a distraction, then your trainer's advice might be sound. My concern with anything like that is that if the dog is already anxious and something happens to make it uncomfortable it will associate the discomfort with the source of it's fear and it will make them even more anxious.

I guess an analogy would be if you are afraid of dentists. If you go to the dentist and the experience is comfortable your anxiety lessens so you are a bit more ok about returning to the dentist, but if you go to the dentist and it hurts like hell, your brain tells you "see you had a real good reason to be afraid of dentists" and you will probably either not return, or will have a tough time talking yourself in to going back.

[Ginny Nightingale]

I will be very sure not to use the water in a punishing way-I see now that could do more damage than its worth. Thanks for pointing that out.

[Kyoko]

I like your analogy. It makes sense to me. Charlie's trainer always say "Don't do what you would not do to your kids to your dog".

[shelly]

Oh My Gosh! I am so happy I saw this group and post. I was beginning to think I somehow failed our aussiedoodle! Our girl too has these guarding/fear barking frenzies. People have told me it's because she is part aussie???? I haven't socialized her well ??? ( probably true), but now I am so glad to hear that there are more of you out there with the same problem and I am sure now that it's not all OUR fault. THANK YOU!!!. I have heard to use a spray bottle, but now after reading, I won't. I have kept her on the leash, but I found that only makes it worse. If I leave her to approach the 'guest' she's fine after the first couple of barks, but that ONLY works if the guest is not afraid. And believe me - if I didn't know her, I would think her bark meant she was ready to attack. She's all of 35 pounds who barks this terribly ferocious bark. We have worked on "go to your mat", giving treats, but it's like all brains are lost when she's in this state. I have spoken to behaviorists, but they want at least $600.00 and honestly, that's not in our budget now. Other than these outbursts with SOME guests, she's a delight. She's trained, lovable, sweet. It's like she gets possessed by "CUJO" LOL I appreciate reading more on this and any suggestions anyone can give!