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So we have a rescue 2.5 y/o dog, part terrier, part herder (we think bearded collie) that is doing much better but we are still having some problems. The first year was somewhat rough with destruction, peeing in the house, dominance aggression with our old very beta dog. We've cleared up those problems. We are left with her basic fear aggression of strangers, especially men and food stealing/counter cruising. The first is the bigger problem by far.
When taking her with us in the car we kennel her because I am concerned that she might bite a grocery boy or passer-by with the windows down for air. In her cage she barks aggressively, growls and snaps when people get too close to the car or when someone is helping to load things. Outside the cage in the car she sees someone that she doesn't like the look of and she claws at the doors growling and biting the door frame. Not good. We scold her but it's like she doesn't hear us so she's in the kennel in the car.
She's as sweet as pie with us and people that she eventually gets to know but that takes a while. We can take her to the groomer and the vet because she's out of her "area" and is pretty meek, if not tense. All of our past dogs were raised from pups and none of them have ever met a stranger to the point that they were/are almost too friendly so we are clueless as to how to loosen her up with strangers. We thought about having a stranger feed her a treat upon introduction but she takes the treat and returns to "devil" dog, growling and staring. When people come to the house we hold or leash her until she settles down.
Any ideas? We'd like her to be as sweet with others as she is with us. So far we've had little success.
I would certainly suggest a trainer who specializes in behavior issues. In a sense the car is like a kennel to her, her territory, but she doesn't seem well socialized?
So we have a rescue 2.5 y/o dog, part terrier, part herder (we think bearded collie) that is doing much better but we are still having some problems. The first year was somewhat rough with destruction, peeing in the house, dominance aggression with our old very beta dog. We've cleared up those problems. We are left with her basic fear aggression of strangers, especially men and food stealing/counter cruising. The first is the bigger problem by far.
When taking her with us in the car we kennel her because I am concerned that she might bite a grocery boy or passer-by with the windows down for air. In her cage she barks aggressively, growls and snaps when people get too close to the car or when someone is helping to load things. Outside the cage in the car she sees someone that she doesn't like the look of and she claws at the doors growling and biting the door frame. Not good. We scold her but it's like she doesn't hear us so she's in the kennel in the car.
She's as sweet as pie with us and people that she eventually gets to know but that takes a while. We can take her to the groomer and the vet because she's out of her "area" and is pretty meek, if not tense. All of our past dogs were raised from pups and none of them have ever met a stranger to the point that they were/are almost too friendly so we are clueless as to how to loosen her up with strangers. We thought about having a stranger feed her a treat upon introduction but she takes the treat and returns to "devil" dog, growling and staring. When people come to the house we hold or leash her until she settles down.
Any ideas? We'd like her to be as sweet with others as she is with us. So far we've had little success.
Sounds as though some demons are bothering her.
Thanks for rescuing her and being such a good owner.
You really need a behaviorist to deal with this. If you do have people give her treats, make sure she sits for them rather than just getting them "for free". Otherwise she may think her bad behavior is a way to intimidate people into making offerings to her.
That is a fact. We got her from a rescue group at about 10-11 months old. She was rescued from a pound by the group. No one knows her story beyond this but her "stranger" fear aggression on her "turf" was present when we got her.
We have deduced a few things along the way:
1) She is suspicious and afraid of males or people that project a lot of masculine energy specifically, strangers in general.
2) She was kenneled a great deal at some point because she immediately accepted the kennel in the car, seemed relieved to go inside actually and also at first she soiled inside the house on or near her bed even immediately after coming indoors. A tough problem that is fixed.
3) She went hungry at some point though she is not food aggressive, she is fixated on food and getting more of it. She eats kale and lettuce from our garden...sigh. She could get fat if we don't watch her intake.
4) When we first got her she was very anxious. She had submissive body language that indicted that she had perhaps been hollered at a great deal and that she had not had the benefit of a routine or much attention. She was anxious until she figured out what was normal for our household, what the routine and rules were, what was and wasn't hers. We were hoping that she would learn some things from mellow and friendly old dog and she has but not as much as we had hoped.
5) She is meek outside of her "territory" and submits to the program at the groomer's, the vet's office and even Petco when we elect to bring her in.
6) She really hates billed hats. She finally came to love my mother but Mom put on a billed hat to do some yard work and the dog went berserk, snapping and growling like she saw the devil. I asked mom to take off the hat and talk to her and Annie was as sweet as pie again, with that groveling "I'm sorry" body language. Weird. I don't think we own a billed hat, maybe DH has one stashed somewhere so we never saw that before. We've seen it since though.
I suspect more people coming to the house might help but when we spent some time at my Mom's house last winter with people coming and going, she still resisted meeting and accepting new people. When she gets comfortable with someone and she doesn't see them for a while it's like she forgets them and needs to start over again with them. We are a bit at wit's end. Like I said in my first post, we've never had an unfriendly dog. Everyone of our dogs wanted to meet, greet and park their heads on every new person's lap for a scratch. Any insight, suggestions will be appreciated.
BTW, we have canine training, obedience classes and the like, one charlatan claiming to be a behaviorist that has people writing scathing reviews which she rebuts gracelessly, and various service providers that list under "behaviorists" locally but are not. We used to have a very good behaviorist years ago that we consulted about excessive outdoor barking who's suggestions solved the problem but he is no longer here.
My dog that's afraid of strangers, if someone is coming over, I just put him in the bedroom. My barrier aggression boy does go nuts if someone approaches the car. He even barks at people when I stop for red lights. I guess I don't see it as a problem, but then, I'm used to living with multiple dogs who have bad backgrounds, and I accommodate them. No one else has to concern themselves.
There was a time that my dog spent a great deal of his time in the car. I took him with me everywhere. He became very protective of the car. Biting at the glass and growling. As soon as he got out of the car, he was tail wags and friendly. Nobody could get near my car. If I got the dog out, let a person get in, then put the dog in, he was fine.
My dog loved the car, it literally was home for a short time. I got a friend to help out, went to a big parking lot (an empty one) I would drive real slow, my friend would approach the car, if he went nuts, I would tell him "ut oh" I would stop the car and he would have to get out of the car. Eventually he connected barking and biting the glass at people with the car ride ending.
Sort of the same way I taught him to walk on a loose leash, when the leash got tight, I said "ut oh" and I stopped, he had to sit. He learned that tight leash, no walk.
There are still some people he won't let near the car, but for the most part, people can just walk by or stop to talk and he is fine.
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