I've fostered a little dog who's generally very friendly towards people away from home ground, but as soon as she has decided somewhere is her territory (e.g. all the streets around the home, around any pub chair or table we're sitting at, or park benches we're sitting at) her behaviour is quite unpredictable: from being friendly to growling, barking and lunging. I'd felt that people, like barmaids, etc., who'd previously given her treats before she'd set up her zone seemed to come in for worse behaviour, possibly because she noticed them more, so I decided to stop people from petting her or giving her treats, so she stops noticing people to the same extent.

I also started to keep her on a shorter lead in walks around the streets near my home, and to try to distract her when people go past. She is getting better, but she's started to really whine to go over to anyone she sees. If I allowed her nearer, she'd start to bark and lunge, so I ignore the whining and briskly keep her moving in a different direction, but if she does start to bark at someone, I find it difficult to turn her around or distract her, and find myself shushing her or saying "No" (gently), which I have been told is negative and I shouldn't do.

I personally think it's territorial behaviour, but when I described it to an animal behaviourist, she thought it might be other factors, like her eyesight. Her eyesight seems quite good to me. She can see trees and countryside when we're in the car, spot a dog at about 30 metres, and can see if I'm holding something in my hand from across the room, etc. I personally think the problem is that she's not used to having people inside her territory, but I'd be grateful if anyone would share any thoughts or suggestions. I've been told to use treats to reward positive behaviour, but I'm a wee bit worried that the treats will make her more excited and aware of others, as they did before. She does respond very well to praise and attention, so that's how I've been approaching it till now.

Her behaviour has improved a lot already, especially towards visitors to the home.

Any tips would be appreciated.

The moment she acts up, I would take her home - silently. So not scolding and no attention. Eventually she should learn.

Thanks for that suggestion. I did that when she barked at people in the house, and it did help till yesterday, but she seems to have regressed. I guess I Just have to keep being consistent and accept it's going to take time.

The trick is to reward desireable behaviour and give negative connotations to the undesirable behaviour. It might speed things along if you can co-opt friends into training sessions.

Thank you.

Could you make any suggestion about the type of ways I could co-opt others?

When she acts up, snap your fingers and give the command 'QUIET'. Make sure you sound commanding when you say it. If she stops, give her a reward in the form of a small treat. If she does not stop, repeat it, and give a little tug on the lead or a gentle poke with a finger to get her attention/snap her out of her focus. Again, when she stops, give her a treat.

Eventually she will learn that this type of behaviour is unwanted, and the vast majority of dogs are out to please their owner. They just need to know what you want or don't want from them.

My guess is she is taking the initiative in guarding. It's natural. She just needs to learn that everything is OK, and that you don't need her to do that. Once she has learned that, she will be happier as she won't have the responsibility.

Thanks for this. It sounds workable to me, as long as she's not in a total frenzy. At least she'll know what I'm expecting of her. The animal behaviour person with the charity wants everything to be positive, but a positive approach isn't really communicating to her what's required.

We just need to keep trying and not get discouraged.

I had a dog like this. She was in every way the calmest, sweetest natured, gentlest dog but after we'd had her a while, became incredibly territorial - not so uch with people, but other dogs.

The eyesight thing is a good point.

It was a while after this that she went blind (very suddenly, or so we thought). Now I read OP's post am wondering if her eyesight was failing and we didn't realise.

So I would get that checked out. When she was fully blind, she was less aggressive to other dogs and eventually, we managed to cure her of this entirely.

Ask your mates if they will be available for an hour or so to role play. It might cost you a drink or two

Sorry Mrs. Grumpy.. I was asking what exercises I could get people to do? I have people I can draft in to help, but I am not sure what they might do which would help.. However, it's far too cold up here in Edinburgh to do anything out of doors for any length of time, so we'd have to wait until much better weather to manage that.

Thanks for this guidance. It's early days, but I think this is already getting the message across. We'll have to see how it pans out over time, but so far, it's good to see that she is understanding what we want of her.

Hi there, thanks for the reply. Her eyesight isn't that bad yet - she has cataracts forming, but she's still distinguishing things very well. I definitely think it's territorial, because the bad behaviour only occurs around the home area - she's like a different dog if we take her somewhere unfamiliar. Her behaviour would probably improve if she was blind, as she reacts more to visual triggers than noises, but I hope she'll have a few good years to enjoy her sighted life before her eyesight fails to that extent.

I'm very pleased to hear this Flora. Keep up the good work.

I had a King Shepherd who was fine when she (does that make her a Queen Shepherd) was off her lead, but moment she had her lead on she reverted to the guard training her previous owner had used her for. She was fine with kids, but if I met a friend in the street and they got too close she would go for them. I found with her that if I forced her to ground and held her there with a firm "No!" it worked wonders for a while, then she'd regress and then I'd have to do that a few times.

Something else that works, especially with a dominance challenge is to flip the dog onto it's back and hold it down with one hand on your throat, although maybe not a great idea with a small dog. It's asserting your dominance over the dog and the way that wolf packs will settle a dominance challenge IIRC. Don't do it so you're restricting the airway or anything to hurt it, but it lets them know who is in charge and they really don't like it so expect a sulky dog for a couple of hours. If you do this with a dominance challenge remember to make sure that the dog has got the message (be prepared to wait like this a little bit) otherwise if you do it for a few seconds they just see it as a back down.

Well you wrote
and to try to distract her when people go past. She is getting better, but she's started to really whine to go over to anyone she sees. If I allowed her nearer, she'd start to bark and lunge, so I ignore the whining and briskly keep her moving in a different direction, but if she does start to bark at someone, I find it difficult to turn her around or distract her

So I would try to socialise her by maximising the people contact. Have a few people 'planted' on your route. People who won't either be fazed by any growling or make overtures when you don't want them to.. They should just ignore her and you should ignore them.

That's all they have to do. It's not 'an exercise' as such. More a way of increasing her exposure to people who will react as you want them till she gets the message.

Another thing to ad Flora:

Try not to change your own behaviour at all when you are in a situation where you think she might go off on one. An example of change in your own behaviour is to hold her lead tighter, or shorten it. She might also even pick up on tension if you get worried or tense, and that will compound the situation as she will think something is wrong. You must try to remain calm and in control at all times. If she is unsure she may look at you for guidance. If she sees you are relaxed, and unworried she will conclude that there's nothing to worry about.

Dogs are great at pre-empting things. It's a survival instinct. They want to protect themselves and their pack.

Thanks for all this advice.. I am glad to say that teaching her "quiet" and being very firm about it (sometimes to the point of raising my voice), then rewarding obedience, is working great.. She is far more manageable and has been successfully introduced to children of about 10 upwards.. She isn't perfect by any means, but there is a huge improvement in manageability. A friend who's met her four times now said she's like a different dog. I'm hoping to have her here for another month or so to consolidate the progress, but that'll depend on the charity agreeing with me.

Many thanks again..

Excellent news Flora.

Well done.

A little tug on the lead is ok but never poke a dog to get its attention! That is a sure fire way of startling it or provoking it to bite! This is how most little kids end up getting nipped or bitten, by jabbing or poking at a dog to get it to react to them, if your dog is yapping away in a frenzy at the end of a lead, all poking him is going to do is antagonise and wind him up even more. It is not going to 'snap him out of it' if he's such a hyped state, what it is far more likely to do is make him think something is attacking him - and snap or bite back. Much better and safer is to instantly turn and walk away in the opposite direction the second he starts making a racket , only turning back around when he's calm. This way he'll learn that all kicking off does is take him away from what he want whereas being calm and quiet gets him exactly what he's after.


And NEVER EVER do this! Flipping a dog onto its back and holding it there by the throat is going to get you seriously hurt and seriously screw up your training and relationship with your dog. Rolling your dog if he growls or snaps at something will not teach him that your the 'boss', all it will teach him is that growling gets a very unpleasant reaction which means next time he's more likely to go straight to bite mode.

Growling and snapping are warnings that the dog is going to bite if you don't back down. If a dog growls and its ignored, it will do so again, louder, with or without a snarl depending how tolerant a dog it is. If you ignore that, it will try with a snap. A snap isn't a bite which missed, a snap is your second and last warning to stop. If you still persist the dog will think 'well you had enough warnings and still ignored me' and bite. A dog has two reactions when cornered, fight or flight. Given the choice, most will choose flight but if you force one on its back you are preventing it from running away so it has no other option but to fight back.

Rolling your dog is incredibly dangerous, stupid and will achieve nothing other than further damaging what is already likely to be an insecure dog and teaching him that his owner is completetly unpredictable which is not a recipe for a happy, confident, secure dog and will almost certainly give you more problems than you were trying to cure in the first place.

Thanks again for all the replies. Teaching the dog "quiet" and rewarding good conduct is working wonders. She's still not great with having people in the house, but increasingly in the streets around the house, she's like a different dog. She's been around children down to the age of about three, and has coped. Before we go out, she sees me packing the treats in my bag, and I explain that they are for being good and quiet... then in any situations where she might feel a bit threatened, such as strangers coming over to pet her, or even with slightly skittish dogs, I waggle the treats near her so she's reminded that good things will come if she's quiet. She tries so hard! She's incredibly cute at times - tolerating people whom she feels a bit threatened by, and immediately looking up at me expecting a treat for not barking.

I'd appreciate further tips regarding the best way to keep her in check when people come into the house. I used to put her out of the room till she'd calmed down, but it's more of a reaction, rather than pre-empting and preventing the barking in the first place.

Thanks again for all the replies. Teaching the dog "quiet" and rewarding good conduct is working wonders. She's still not great with having people in the house, but increasingly in the streets around the house, she's like a different dog. She's been around children down to the age of about three, and has coped. Before we go out, she sees me packing the treats in my bag, and I explain that they are for being good and quiet... then in any situations where she might feel a bit threatened, such as strangers coming over to pet her, or even with slightly skittish dogs, I waggle the treats near her so she's reminded that good things will come if she's quiet. She tries so hard! She's incredibly cute at times - tolerating people whom she feels a bit threatened by, and immediately looking up at me expecting a treat for not barking.

I'd appreciate further tips regarding the best way to keep her in check when people come into the house. I used to put her out of the room till she'd calmed down, but that's more of a reaction, rather than pre-empting and preventing the barking in the first place.

No dis - respect to your experience but Alpha roll techniques can back-fire.
( I did try this way back in the 90's - I regret it now.- I just took advice from a forum )
other posters - just be aware to research the downsides too before deciding to go this way as a training method.

Hi to everyone.. Just wanted to post an update. We continued to use the command "Quiet" along with rewarding good behaviour, and worked hard to socialise her as well as we could with people of all ages, sizes, etc. I found that bringing her closer if someone or something she might construe as threatening approached, because this made her feel more secure and protected by me, so it guaranteed better behaviour. She blossomed into a great little dog - very happy and playful - and quite welcoming of visitors in the home, after an initial "wuff" or two. She was re-homed to a permanent home last week. Thanks very much for the good advice which worked a treat.

What a great end to the story.

Congratulations Flora, and very well done to you for helping that little dog.