My dog and guests..

[freakylime]

My dog is a nice dog. Not harmful, always playful... But playful is sort of the problem. It's like shes overactive. Whenever a leave falls in our front lawn she stands and barks at it. Whenever someone knocks on the front door she goes absolutely BALLISTIC. When we let them in she will not leave them alone for a good 10 minutes and always be shaking around knocking stuff. Most of the time we just put her in our bedroom and shut the door.

Any simple way to calm her down? Besides drugs of course

 

[Jean Cote]

The only way she is going to obey you and behave better with the barking and annoying your guests is when you create rules about what is acceptable and what isn't.

Both of my dogs do not bark whatsoever, even if a stranger walks into my house. All I did was create a rule that anytime they would bark inside the house for no good reasons, then I would correct them with a scruff on the neck. I only needed to do this when they were puppies and to this day they learned not to bark.

Now the biggest problem you will have to face is that she has been doing this for months, maybe years! So the habits are deeply programmed into her. It's kind of like stopping biting your finger nails when you've been doing it for years, it takes time.

But you can do it, if you do not know how to correct your dog, a reputable dog behaviorist or trainer can teach you, and I strongly suggest that you seek a consultation with one. Not that your dog is bad or anything, it's just that a correction has to be timed properly otherwise it won't work and may make things worse.

 

[freakylime]

My mum suggested that we give her a treat everytime she does it as if she's "warning" us. I'll try your way, as you own the site

Sigh, It might take a while seeing as she's been doing it for so long. I personally think she suffers from seperation anxiety because whenever we go out and come home she is shaking and whimpering. Know anything about that?

 

[Jean Cote]

It all depends on what you want. If you want a dog that barks when she hears a noise as a type of defense or warning dog, then giving her a treat will reinforce the behavior and she will it do it more often.

On the other hand, if you don't want her to bark then giving her a treat is the worst thing you can do.

 

[harry]

To calm you dog, try to give him more attention and love because in this cases sometimes dogs feel very depressed and they start barking on every visitor

 

[Jean Cote]

Actually, he is barking because he seeks attention. I would suggest ignoring him and to have your guests pet him only when he calms down. He must learn that barking isn't going to get him anything.

My two cents - It's still hard to know why, without seeing it.

 

[cturner37]

Jeans right with ignoring her. And ensuring your guests ignore her. When you come home, do you make a big fuss of her cause shes been left for a few hours on her own?

Start with you and other household members. When you come down in the morning, ignore her. When you come home from work/shopping ignore her. When she finally flops to the floor cause nobody is looking at her, then make a fuss of her. More often than not, excitable behaviour has been enforced by owners 'returning' and saying an overly affectionate hello.

I walk thru my kitchen door 30 times a day. Its a normal occurance. Im not going to condition my dogs to expect a greeting every time I come thru the door after visiting the loo. You would comfortably ignore her for the 10 minutes whilst you pop upstairs to get your jacket, come back in the kitchen and carry on with the washing up. There is no difference to how you should walk into your kitchen after a 6 hour working day. Apart from guilt. Dogs dont do guilt. Stop the greeting/leaving routine, just come and go as a normal occurance, and she'll soon settle.

You mention a 10 minute time span. This could be that youve already tried ignoring her, but have broken at around 10 minutes? You must ignore her for as long as it takes for her to stop, and if she doesnt stop, you leave the room, not her. Come back in and try again. It'll only take a few occasions for her to realise she gets petted and your attention, when shes lying down and calm. Caro xx