Fearful Barking

[Sooner Mom]

I've read through several posts on here about barking that emerged around the same age as our female golden doodle, 10 months.  One of the things we love about this puppy is that she does not bark unless there is a significant reason.  However recently, whenever men come to our home she barks very loudly at them and stays very close to us.  The barking seems intense as in loud and prolonged unless we intervene but not aggressive.  It took us some time to figure out that this seems to be rooted in some way in fear because even if they know how to approach dogs she seems fearful and stays with us until they have been in the home for quite some time.  We don't notice this with females or children and she never barks at males outside of our home.  She goes to the dog park and to doggie daycare and around the community with us and we never see this behavior anywhere else.  Even if the male visitors have high value treats she may or may not go to them for the treat at first and she takes a long time to warm up to them.  She is so friendly in other settings.  In fact almost overly so, to the point that we had to really work on correct greeting behaviors.  Is this anything to be concerned about or just part of this developmental stage? She will stop barking if redirected/on command but then seems really to need to be near us.  

[Karen, Jasper and Jackdoodle]

This is very common in dogs of this age, which is the second fear imprint stage. Read the responses to this recent similar discussion here, you'll get some good ideas on how to handle it. The main thing is to neither reinforce the behavior nor to punish it. 

http://www.doodlekisses.com/group/trainingmindsets/forum/topics/sta...

[Jane, Guinness and Murphy]

As Karen points out this could be just part of going through a fear stage.  It also could be that she's beginning to see her home as a territory to protect.  It's difficult to know the exact driving factor for the behavior.  The fact that she's staying close to you when there are strange men in the home could be because she is frightened and looking for you to "keep her safe" or she is guarding you.  In either case I think the response is the same.  You need to show her that you are in charge of the situation and there is no need for her to either be frightened or territorial.  I have a Doodle who has always been this way with men coming into the house.  If I know in advance I gate him in another room during the arrival.  I let him hear me greet the guests and then I have them come in and sit down.  At that point I let Murph out and I let him see that I am comfortable by standing between him and the visitor.  That's usually enough and he relaxes and actually acts excited to see the person.  If it's a surprise and I don't have time to "stage" the greeting, I go to the door, back Murph away from the door (and he's usually barking) by walking right into him, put him in a down/stay, and let the person in.  I make him stay in that down position while he watches me greet the person and when he shows me calm body language I release him.  For these dogs having a foolproof down/stay is so important. 

[Sooner Mom]

Yes, thank you for the insight.  I think I have not been consistent with using her down/stay in these situations.  We were very strict about it when she was jumping but once that behavior was under control we got lax.  This took us by surprise and at first we did not think it was going to be more than one person.  We only recently realized she has generalized this to all our male visitors.  It has become a distraction when we are trying to greet visitors.  All of the sudden this weekend I realized we have allowed this to become a bothersome behavior.  Thanks for the suggestions.  We probably have inadvertently done some reinforcing of it that will have to be done.  Somehow this seemed a little different than the link Karen had posted, which I had read but after rereading I think it is really the same.  Thank you both again.  

[Cynthia Shoe]

At 6 months, our puppy started barking at anything that moved. It made going on walks a nightmare. He was barking at a blowing leaf, a person running, the cars, other dogs, etc. People were crossing the street so they didn't have to pass him, which made me really sad! We enrolled him in another training class (round 3), which is mostly a review of the basics he knows but a few new tricks. I think it is helping bring a training consistency to him and to us with our training. It is always good to have homework and goals for the next week to keep us all on top of his training. And in the past week, we have had MUCH better walks. He has only had two issues in the past week of excessive barking (with 1-2 walks per day) that I couldn't regain his focus quickly. He is still doing some inappropriate barking in our back yard, but I believe that staying on top of the training is helping us overall. He is a little over 7 months now, so still a long road to go, but day by day, I see improvement!