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Our sweet dog’s name is Petie. She was a rescue and we have had her for about 3 years. I am wondering about a behavior issue with her. She sometimes lunges at people, and hits them with her nose! She will viciously bark at them just one time before the “fake attach”. It is always at someone who she does not know that is visiting us in our home. Usually after she has swoon them into not being afraid of her and when they are getting ready to leave. This does not happen often, but it has got me scared, I do not want her too hurt ANYONE! I know that if she wanted to she could really cause some damage! How worried should we be about this? We scold her ( bad girl! Go to your cage!) and put her in her crate afterword. What else should we do? She has not bitten anyone (except an intruder who tried to shove her into her crate, that was years ago). Any advise would be a help.
Thank you!I would definately not use her crate as punishment. Especially if you use it for kenneling her when you are not home. She will begin to associate it with a bad place.
As far as what to do, I am unsure as to what to exactly suggest. Your best bet is to try and predict her behavior, and before she lunges put a stop to it before it happens. I’m sorry I cannot be more help.
I would also suggest leashing her, have acouple random people stop by, be calm and tell her to sit and stay, then once she see’s that this is how you have to behave around guests then try without the leash, make sure you tell whoever is coming to ‘visit’ to be calm and dont greet her. Also, if you’ve noticed a pattern right before she lounges (ex; the person was in her face to much, maybe they greeted you with a big hug) then maybe it will be helpful in preventing this habit.
I had a pitty that use to do the same thing, but he wasnt aggressive, he was just trying to protect me, so he would just make noise and move towards them. He was abused and was used as a bait dog at one time so im pretty sure thats where he learned that habit, but im sure with just acouple good corrections this will go away.Do NOT utilize the crate as a punishment tool! It is meant to be a positive item, and by using it any other way could be deterimental to the dog.
If you are expecting people over, put your dog on a leash so that YOU have control over her behavior. You want her to associate people who are coming over with a POSIVITVE thing, and not a negative thing (yelling at her and putting her in a crate). Teach the dog an alternative behavior, such as sit, when you open the door. (The dog already needs to know alternative behaviors before you attempt to utilize them.) If someone else can have her on a leash away from the door, that would be helpful too in the beginning.
One way to start working on this is to set up fake meetings. Get some people together and have them one by one come over and go through the normal routine. Make sure they have yummy high value treats to give to Petie. When they come in the door, just have them ignore Petie, and toss some treats down in her direction (that way there is no hands close to her mouth), and walk inside. You may need to do this over and over until Petie understands that person coming over=YUMMY treats. This may take several days, weeks, and months. You just have to be patient. Once people are in and Petie has calmed down, release her, and THEN they can greet her and she can interact.
Have the people wear different things (long coats, ball hats, sunglasses, etc.) so that Petie gets used to people looking “odd”. Always utilize treats to the best of your ability. If she isn’t food driven, then use a favorite toy. Have these items OUTSIDE the door when people come over so they are already to go.
Each time Petie reacts less, praise and treat her like there is no tomorrow!!! She will then put two and two together. People coming over=treats=praise from my mom. She will eventaully associate people coming over as a positive thing, and that is what you want. You may need to continue doing this for the rest of her life, but you will be able to minimize how often you provide treats. She will perform in anticipation of treats.
By yelling at her and being rough (putting her in the crate), that will only escalate the situation at hand. She will then associate people coming over with you getting angry and she will try even harder to get them to go away, which could then mean biting. This is the scenario you are heading to.
You need to train a dog positively, or you won’t get much out of your dog. Be gentle, patient, and consistent. Those are keys. You need to be relaxed and calm. Dogs can read us better than we will ever be able to read them. If you show tension, Petie will know it, and will react accordingly. Just be as calm as you can and work through the exercises often. There may be set backs, but just know that they can and will occur. You just start back from sqaure one.
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