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In this Discussion
- lml__0_0__lml July 2011
- MirandaJuly July 2011
- YoursTruly July 2011
More Dog Tips
What if your snoopy is very protective and nervous when people come to the door? He sometimes gives one gruff bark and then calms himself down, but other times he can't calm down and barks and growls and paces while your poor visitor stands there all wide-eyed, like, is this dog gonna fucking bite me or what?
I am not one of those people with the shitty yapping chihuahua who thinks this kind of behavior is "funny" or "even remotely acceptable." I've been reading what crazy people on yahoo answers say about this, but what do the dog posse of UHX say?
We make him sit before we answer the door but it doesn't help. Once the visitor is inside the house we tell them to ignore him completely, which helps a lot (and he warms up very quickly), but it doesn't solve the problem of the initial barking when they are knocking on the door/just coming through the door.
I think he feels it's his job to protect the house and it stresses him out, and I need some way to show him that it's actually MY job and he can be "off duty" whenever I open the door myself.
????
I am not one of those people with the shitty yapping chihuahua who thinks this kind of behavior is "funny" or "even remotely acceptable." I've been reading what crazy people on yahoo answers say about this, but what do the dog posse of UHX say?
We make him sit before we answer the door but it doesn't help. Once the visitor is inside the house we tell them to ignore him completely, which helps a lot (and he warms up very quickly), but it doesn't solve the problem of the initial barking when they are knocking on the door/just coming through the door.
I think he feels it's his job to protect the house and it stresses him out, and I need some way to show him that it's actually MY job and he can be "off duty" whenever I open the door myself.
????
Comments
These are our dogs: they want to protect the house, that is their assumed "job". If your animal doesnt have a job, some will overact elsewhere (chewing on stuff, getting into trouble, etc.). If you can try to teach snoopy that he doesn't have to be on patrol all the time, that might be best BUT if something isn't normal (an actual creep tries to get in) he may not act. it is a tough habit to break but you're going to have to do the treat/positive reinforcement training and even then it might be difficult.
something we've been doing is telling our friends to call before they step on the porch so we can expect them and try it out. Also, I've trained gretta to start reading my expression (i use "watch" as my call to look at my face, then happy or frowny) and sometimes I kind of jest/make fun of her when she does things we don't want. it's working...i guess?
I think if we specifically train him around the KNOCKING ON THE DOOR SOUND, that will mean he will still bark if there is a creep or intruder.
Or even, I'm cool with him giving a bark even when he hears a knock, because that often is the only way we know someone's there! But then somehow we want to seriously train him that once we say "zip it" and put our hand on the door knob, there is no more barking.
I guess for me the problem is not the "alert" barking but the "continued" barking once someone comes in.
I like the idea of having guests call before knocking so we can work on it.
People rarely come over. He's always like "HUH? WHAAA?"
I think there is a chance he will get more used to it. Also, whenever it is someone he actually knows/likes, he doesn't bark, so hopefully as he gets to know our friends it will mellow out.
God I hope.
It's not like psychotic hysterical barking or anything, he ALWAYS stops after like 10 seconds (if it's a friend) or a minute (if a new stranger).
?!