Barking At Strangers

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JacksonTheShihTzu
Posts: 1
Joined: Fri Feb 10, 2017 5:24 pm

Barking At Strangers

Post by JacksonTheShihTzu »

Hi There! I'm here in search of advice for my recently adopted dog Jackson. He is a Shih Tzu and was 1 year old when we adopted him 4 months ago. After taking him home we had a stressful few weeks getting him comfortable with the house, our 3 year old dog and us. After a couple months most of his problems were ironed out and his confidence was much greater. From the start it seemed obvious that men made him nervous but now we are having an ongoing struggle with his behaviours towards all strangers, men and woman.

When strangers come into the house he doesn't stop barking at them, even the distraction of treats and commands go out the window. When he does appear to be settling down a movement or eye contact from the stranger can set him off again. He seems to bark more at strangers in the house when I'm present opposed to it being other family members which is something I'm even less sure at how to solve. Could this be protective barking?

He is much closer to me than my other family members as I took charge of his settling in period so he has a much closer bond to me and this seems to pose another problem. If family members come into my room while I'm in there he often gets tense and growls, especially if they approach or lean over the bed if I'm on it. Note, he has slept in my room since his arrival so it could be a territorial reaction. His chances and level of reaction are much higher if he's asleep when people enter the room. I've stopped the habit of letting him sleep on my bed which seems to have helped slightly but should I work on permanently keeping him off the bed?

During walks he'll bark at anyone we stop and talk to but although he does show interest in people we past, he often never barks unless the person shows us or him attention. We take both the dogs to a big field nearby where they can have a run off the lead and he seen a jogger at quite a distance and ran straight to the man and stood and barked until put back on his lead. We ask people not pay him attention or try and touch him when he shows his warning signs but on two occasions kids have ignored this and he's nipped them. The good thing is that he shows very clear warnings and on these two isolated occasions of nipping people he's not caused any harm. I want help him before anything escalates further and he starts biting harder or sooner.

I've read a lot about how to tackle these problems but i still feel at such a loss and the stress of feeling like i'm failing him doesn't help. I want him to see no threat in the people he meets and be happier and more confident.

I'd love to hear people's advice or pointers in the right direction, Thank you!
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Nettle
Posts: 10753
Joined: Sun Apr 13, 2008 1:40 pm

Re: Barking At Strangers

Post by Nettle »

Change your perception and it will all come easily. :)

Don't try to kid him people are no threat because as far as he is concerned they are. They TOUCH HIM without permission. Think how freaked you'd be. So you commit 100% to keeping people from touching him, bending over him, waking him when he's asleep and bothering him in any other way. If you tell people and they ignore you, it's important that you continue to protect him and absolutely do not let them touch him. He will let you know when he is ready to accept touch from people and it isn't yet.

It's fine for him to sleep on your bed. What you have to work on is keeping people away from him when he is in your room. He is a watchdog breed, so he guards and barks.

As he becomes more secure in the level of safety you give him (keeping other people away) so he will begin to relax and feel okay about other people.

ATM visitors upset him, so make sure he has had a really good walk, then put him in your/his room with something nice to occupy him, such as a stuffed kong. We can help you with the visitor acceptance, but I don't want to overwhelm you all at once. Stop the commands and treat-giving because he isn't at that stage yet. He needs to be away from the visitors before they arrive. The time will come when he can be in the same room on a lead on a dog bed beside you, and the visitors must ignore him. No eye contact, no vocals, nothing. But that time is not yet.
A dog is never bad or naughty - it is simply being a dog

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