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Nervous & overly protective dog

  • 28-08-2012 11:03am
    #1
    clint_eastman
    Registered Users, Registered Users 2 Posts: 308 ✭✭


    Hi,
    We have a 14 month old labrador/spaniel mix. We've had him in training and puppy socialisation and he's doing well but there is one area that we are having great difficulty with.
    So on a normal day he'll be outside running around the fields with the neighbours small dog, happy out with a bit of play fighting along the way. But if at any stage myself or my wife are standing close to them, their play fight can become more serious due to our dog's behaviour, he seems to get jealous or over protective of us. Similarly, if we are out for a walk in the park with him on a lead, he's great to walk along and pass other dogs, but if we stop to chat to someone who also has a dog on a lead, within 10 secs he'll be going nuts, barking and growling, again it just seems to be when we are stopped close by him and another dog. He's met plenty of other friends dogs and played with them in their gardens.
    We think it might all stem back to one day 6 months ago when he was attacked by a rottweiler in the park, he was on a lead, the rottweiller wasn't.
    I just wanted to see if their was any opinions or experience out there that you might be willing to share to see can we help this problem?
    Cheers,
    Clint


Comments

  • #2
    tony81
    Closed Accounts Posts: 595 ✭✭✭tony81


    I shared a house with a guy who had a dog.

    When the dog's owner was there, the dog went mad barking at me. The owner would say "oh, Dogsname!" and pull the dog in, and petted it until it calmed down.

    When the owner wasn't there this never happened.

    The owner didn't realise that he was rewarding the dog for barking at me by giving it attention, petting, talking to it... the dog was obviously stressed out that it was forced to bark at me even though it was slightly afraid of me..

    actually, it wasn't afraid of me. I just did all the usual dog-training things, like not let a dog run through a door in front of me, sit higher than me, beg for food, etc. Therefore one minute I was in charge, the next minute the owner was in charge and the owner seemed to want the dog to bark at me!!

    Maybe this is something similar to what's happening with your dog?


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