Hi, I'm new here and I really need your help. We got our 14 months old pup (english cocker spaniel), two months ago. They said they were giving him away, because one of the owners was on a wheelchair and unable to take care of him when home alone. When we came to get the dog, we saw the guy on a wheelchair, so we believed that this was a genuine reason. The dog was sweet, playful, we were able to pick him up and everything. Fisrt days at home he was great with everyone, but then the problems started. He wasn't trained at all before, so we started basic training which he picked up on very quickly (sit, paw, lay down, come, leave). But when the mailman passes our house or enters, or any other motorcycle, bike, runnin person... he goes crazy. He barks, grolws and gets overstimulated. He doesn't listen to any commands, barks at us and tries to redirect his 'aggression' towards us. When I wanted to pull him back from the mailman, affraid that he was gonna lunge at him, he turned around and snarled and growled at me. Thankfully he didn't bite, but he could've. Is there anyone who could help me with this? His previous owners obviously hid te real reason they gave him away, but I really love him already and don't want to give him away, because he can be so so sweet and loving otherwise. And changing homes for the rest of his live feels unacceptable to be, but I don't want to live in fear of him hurting anyone in my familly. Please help, thank you.
Help, redirected aggression towards me
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The first thing would be to keep everyone safe so make sure he can't actually get to the passers by.
Then, a slow and gradual process of changing his reaction through desensitisation and counter conditioning. And, you probably can make good progress, at least up to a point. He may never be friendly to strangers but hopefully you can get him to a point of being tolerant.
A few questions first. Can you describe your property in terms of his access to these people - do you have a fenced yard, do people have access to enter it, where would the dog typically be, does he do this in the house or only outside, if indoors too is that because he sees them through windows? Are there any other patterns like being tired, hungry? Any items around that he might want to protect like food bowls or toys?
Sorry for all the questions but the more detail we get, the easier it is to offer effective help.
Then, a slow and gradual process of changing his reaction through desensitisation and counter conditioning. And, you probably can make good progress, at least up to a point. He may never be friendly to strangers but hopefully you can get him to a point of being tolerant.
A few questions first. Can you describe your property in terms of his access to these people - do you have a fenced yard, do people have access to enter it, where would the dog typically be, does he do this in the house or only outside, if indoors too is that because he sees them through windows? Are there any other patterns like being tired, hungry? Any items around that he might want to protect like food bowls or toys?
Sorry for all the questions but the more detail we get, the easier it is to offer effective help.
Thank you for the fast reply. No, he doesn't really guard any food or toys, because he shares them and likes to play with strangers after he barks at them for some time. And that's a thing, he only does that at home. Wherever else, he is very friendly and approaches the strangers, lets them to pat him and he's also great with dogs. I think he's guarding our home, I don't know. We don't have a fenced yard, because we kind of live on a farm, so it's hard to make it work. But he's usually with us wherever we work, but when we're inside, he is on our balcony (which is big, all around the house) or inside. He reacts to every loud sound and starts barking. He once wanted to follow a motorcycle, so I'm affraid to have him off leash on walks in the forest, where he always sticks to me, until he hears a motorcycle. Thank you.
And yes, he can't reach them, at least not anymore. We tie him on a tie out when we're outside, while we are working on making a fenced area form him. It won't be able to be all around our land, but at least something big enough for him to run around while we are out. And about exercising... he gets two 45 min walks a day, I think that's enough, right? Plus all the playing, and I feel he gets real tired in the end of the day. Just this reactivity at home and him redirecting this excitement and anger on us, makes me very worried. He used to be so excited for walks that growled and bit his leash, while jumping in happiness and wiggling his tail. We got over that now, and whener he tries to do so, he just looks at me and I give him a look and he stops.
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Yes, his walking sounds enough. It might be guarding the house or it might be something like barrier frustration. You could use management and block his view of people but that doesn't really fix it. It could take a lot of work but if you can anticipate when people are arriving, before they get so close that he is reacting (you want him aware, but not kicking off) feed him lots of tiny pieces of frankfurter sausage to change his perception to 'strangers = good things'. It would be great if you could ask the postman to text you 5 minutes before he arrives - I don't know how you'd accomplish this but ideally, the mail man would text, you'd have the dog on lead, as soon as he becomes aware you feed him sausages and the mail man would leave your mail and go. The next day, you try for him to get a little closer. The idea is that you are keeping your dog under his reactivity threshold while gradually exposing him to what he sees as the 'risk' more and more, but always at his pace. You want to prevent the reaction, not have to deal with it.
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I've got a rescue at home that has many of the same issues. It's an uphill battle at times, but it is manageable. Don't give up.
Good luck!
It takes a dog a few days to settle in and start to feel like they belong. You probably started seeing the problem once they established that your home was their new territory. For all you know, defending it was normal or expected before, and you may have to teach a new set of expectations.
In the case of barking at passers-by, assuming the cause is reactivity, I've found that it helps to respond as follows: they bark, you say "I'm coming" (so they know you're taking charge of the situation), walk to the window and playact looking both ways (so they see you taking the threat as seriously as they are), turn back to the dog and say "It's okay" and pet them for reassurance if you can do so safely (letting them know the threat is gone), and walk away to go back to whatever you were doing before. If you can, make them sit back from the door or window before you look - you can work up to a point where having you go look can actually be treated as their reward for sitting calmly. Expect to feel like a jack-in-the-box for the first few days, though.
Pulling on the leash suddenly can cause fear - which then displays as aggression. I'd suggest a verbal cue when practicing sudden direction changes on walks. Doing so allows you to redirect them away from things they will likely react to, without having to pull on the leash.
Good luck!
Thank you so much, I've been trying with treets when I can see the postman from a far. I also try to walk him in the city, so he can hear and see all the sounds and bikes, people, animals... but the thing is, he doesn't react then. I'll keep trying, thank you.
Thank you, like... sooo much. I will try that, good idea. Yeah, I know. I panicked, soI grabbed him, I'll try to talk with him rather than pulling him. Tha same happend with the bunny he was trying to chase, while the bunny was outside in the cage. He was so concentrated on her and barking, that he turned around and growled when my grandma tried to pull him away. She probably spooked him, or he redirected the 'aggression' towards her. I'm trying to tell my family to stop touching him when in situations like that, but it's almost harder to train them than the dog haha.
Yeah and one thing. It's interesting to me that he didn't bark when we came to get him, like at all. That's why his behaviour surprises me that much. I think maybe he didn't because we parked the car first, walked in the fenced yard and then they brought him out and introduced him. I think they knew what they were doing, and probably had the same problems.
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The people are almost always harder to train than the animals. 😅
Lots of practice on direction-switching should help. It's usually used as a technique for leash-pulling, but if it's well-reinforced it works for reactive dogs and ones that want to chase things too. Though keep in mind that you're still the first line of defense on noticing and avoiding things that will cause your dog to react. The goal is to avoid the reaction, because once they've reacted the stress hormone, cortisol, comes into play and makes future interactions more difficult for a few days. It's actually possible that being in a new environment and the stress that causes is part of why he's reacting to things now that seemed to pose no problem in his old home.
Yeah you're right. Do you think it's gonna get better with time, when the stress goes away? He likes to chase things as well, but when they stop, he stops as well.
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Every dog is different, but most dogs settle in by about the third week. After three months or so, daily routines and behaviours are pretty well set. As long as you work on de-escalating reactivity, it shouldn't become part of the permanent routine.
Well, thank you. You all made me feel a bit better and confident to continue.
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Sometimes that's all it takes.
Looking for advice is how I found the forum too. I felt a bit out of my depth with a severely reactive dog, and reading others' comments helped reassure me that I was on the right track and just had to be a bit more patient.
Totally. Thank you, and I wish all the best to you and your dog
So a quick update after a few days. We walked him in the city, bikes were driving past us, people were walking, some were even greeting him, motorcycles were driving past and he didn't react at all (maybe different smells). At home, when a mailman came, I offered him treets and he was quiet the whole time. I was so happy, but when there was no sign of a postman anymore, he started barking and growling at him, probably from "a far", I guess he remembered he was there and wanted to bark at him anyway. So, there goes my happiness 🤦♀️. But I guess it's better that way than stressing himself out when the postman is actaully here, I don't know. And I realised he is very inpatient. When he doesn't get what he wants or can't get past the obsticle, he starts barking and getting frustrated. When he can't reach the cat or the toys, he starts getting all nerved-up and barks. I don't really know how to help him with that. For toys I make him go quiet before he gets them, but he can't get everything tho.
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I'd start by saying it's still early with the new regime, maybe don't expect too much too soon.
That said, there's a couple of things you might want to try.
I think most dogs benefit from training in impulse control and it could help yours. This video explains it well.
For the barking, you could try this. Get a yoghurt pot, and smear the inside with wet dog food, squeezy cheese, yoghurt or anything else your dog likes. When he starts to bark, you can offer the pot to lick - he can't bark and lick at the same time.
As he is doing that, repeat the word that will become your ”quiet” cue.
After some repetitions and you think he has got it, give the cue and if he stops barking, give the pot as a reward (if he doesn't stop barking, stay at step 1 for longer).
When he is stopping on cue, gradually increase the delay between the cue and reward.
Once it is reliable, you can start fading the reward to something more convenient.
That said, there's a couple of things you might want to try.
I think most dogs benefit from training in impulse control and it could help yours. This video explains it well.
For the barking, you could try this. Get a yoghurt pot, and smear the inside with wet dog food, squeezy cheese, yoghurt or anything else your dog likes. When he starts to bark, you can offer the pot to lick - he can't bark and lick at the same time.
As he is doing that, repeat the word that will become your ”quiet” cue.
After some repetitions and you think he has got it, give the cue and if he stops barking, give the pot as a reward (if he doesn't stop barking, stay at step 1 for longer).
When he is stopping on cue, gradually increase the delay between the cue and reward.
Once it is reliable, you can start fading the reward to something more convenient.
Thank you, yes I know it's too soon, I guess I was just overly excited that treets worked. But I know that it's a work in progress and this today was definitely better than the other days. I also think he has separation anxiety. He howls and barks, scratches the doors when we are not with him all the time. When he doesn't see me when we're outside, but I can see him, he almost gets a panick atack until he finally spots me or I call his name. He just seems like an anxious and nervous pup overal. I just can't help but worry for him, because I don't want to give him up, so it stresses me out as well, because I live with some people that don't really feel the same as me for the dog, so if he hurts them, god I can't imagine. So, that's why I'm asking so much, I hope I'm not being a bother.
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It's no bother, it's why we are all here.
To build some independence, I really like Emma Judson's Flitting Game. It's described about ⅔ of the way down this page.
www.thecanineconsultants.co.uk
To build some independence, I really like Emma Judson's Flitting Game. It's described about ⅔ of the way down this page.
Separation Anxiety - Fact vs Fiction
Separation anxiety is something of a hot topic, something many trainers and behaviourists avoid like the plague and something widely misunderstood by the majority! So what IS it, and what ISN’T it. Separation Anxiety is used as an umbrella term to cover any anxiety based issues regarding...
www.thecanineconsultants.co.uk
Thank you soo much for everything, really. I guess I'm just not used to owning the dogs that have that many issues, previous cocker didn't even bark or leave any sound, never. And the one before too. They both lived 15-16 years, that's why it feels different with this one. I thought that getting one with a pedigree would make him better, but I guess it's not all about that at all.It's no bother, it's why we are all here.
To build some independence, I really like Emma Judson's Flitting Game. It's described about ⅔ of the way down this page.
Separation Anxiety - Fact vs Fiction
Separation anxiety is something of a hot topic, something many trainers and behaviourists avoid like the plague and something widely misunderstood by the majority! So what IS it, and what ISN’T it. Separation Anxiety is used as an umbrella term to cover any anxiety based issues regarding...
Anyways, thank you, a lot.
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