Fear-aggressive rescue

[KerrieKeller]

Hi -

We adopted a Jack Russell/Chihuahua mix about four months ago. She definitely has bonded with me, but is fearful of men, especially my teenage son! Every time he walks down the hall or walking around in general, she barks aggressively. If he's sitting on the couch, she will jump up on the couch and smell him, even though you can tell she's scared, but she'll let him pet her a bit mostly if he's sitting down.

 

Our dog, Sara, is pretty good with my fiance. He's more gentle and I think more predictable in his movements in general. Whereas, my son walks around the house faster and might make more noises that could startle her. His schedule is unpredictable, so he's in and out a lot, and it drives me nuts, because Sara barks nearly every time. So basically, since the dog is always with me, my son can't even come into my room to ask a question without the barking, so it's pushing him farther away from trying to have the relationship with the dog because her barking is pretty annoying.

 

We just started her in basic obedience, and it's going well! She's very smart. I want to also get her into agility, because she's very athletic, and I think she needs a lot more physical activity. She has the capacity to be a really great dog, but the fear is the biggest issue right now, along w/ the fearful barking.

 

Any advice? I'm not sure how to employ the conditioning concept with an erratic schedule. And how do you keep her under her fear threshold when she constantly sees him? I can't ask him not to walk around the house. When we leave, we do crate her in the bedroom and leave the TV on w/ the door mostly closed. Thanks in advance!!

[Adrienne Farricelli]

Hello Kerrie,

Welcome to the forum.

I am not sure if you already stumbled on several reads that can be helpful in your situation. In case you haven't, I will be posting them here. These may also turn to be helpful to other future forum members who may be facing a similar problem.

 

Here is a behavior modification protocol to reduce barking when somebody enters a room or other areas that trigger the barking:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/dog-barking-someone-enters-room/

 

This is the article on threshold:

https://www.braintraining4dogs.com/members/archive/threshold-levels/

 

Many dogs just like yours seem to be more accepting when people are sitting on the couch. Indeed, when dealing with dogs reactive towards guests, I often ask dog owners to close their fearful dogs in the farthest room and have the guests quietly enter the home (no knocking or door bells) and sit on the couch. Then, I ask the owner to let the dog out and have the guests ignore the dog for a few minutes (no talking, no eye contact, no movements). When the dog comes near to sniff and investigate the guests, treats are dropped on the floor from the guest's hands or the owner provides them while lavishingly praising. It would be great if when your dog jumps on the couch, your son could give casually drop her some treats.

 

You are correct to be concerned about the erratic schedule interfering with potential progress. Indeed, when dealing with fearful dogs, it's necessary to use the total opposite of erratic which is systematic. With a systematic approach we work on creating a predictable schedule with organized setups so we have control over the trigger and the dogs's environment. This paves the path to relaxation and a history of more safety. Ideally, if one knows that a dog reacts in a specific situation, one would avoid putting a dog in that specific situation for some time until one has the oportunity to gradually desensitize/countercondition and teach alternate behaviors. This may not always be possible though. There are several options you can try for such a situation.

 

1) Over the course of several days when your son has time and is at home, you can attempt to work in a systematic way by rehearsing some "mock" arrivals. You would therefore split your dog's triggers into smaller sub-triggers and create positive associations with them. For example, if your dog barks when your son opens the door and comes inside, you would start on working on having your son slightly opening the door when you are in another room with your dog leashed and you would give a treat, the son would be opening the door more/treat, opening the door and one step inside/treat, opening the door, entering and closing the door/treat etc.

 

This should be done over the course of several days until you start seeing some progress. At some point, you can try having your son enter the home, walk towards your dog and then drop some treats himself. Make sure to leave a dish of treats by the entrance so that your son can enter and drop your dog some treats everytime he arrives so that your dog associates his arrival with treats. You dog may bark a bit at the entrance when she hears the door but the barking should then at some point subside a bit and hopefully turn into happy anticipation once she sees it's him.

 

2) Another option is to keep your dog closed in the fartherst room when you are not practicing (or in the yard if feasible) so your dog doesn't rehearse the barking at him behavior. Keeping the TV on or some form of white noise may help make his entrance less intense. Then, when you have time to practice as your son is coming home, it would be best if he could ring you a few minutes prior so that you can be ready ( keep plenty of high-value treats in the treat pouch!) so to practic some arrivals.

 

3) A more "raw" form of behavior modification (although much less preferable) is to skip practicing the systematic arrivals and just go straight to counterconditioning, having your son come home, and drop your dog treats every time. This though may not work well because again, we're missing the systematic approach and the history of positive associations/safety. So your dog may end up barking and then possibly eating which may lead to a less desirable response.

 

Of course, you can't ask your son to not walk around the house, but it would help if your son was a bit more attentive to what triggers the barking. Example, he can try walking with less heavy foot steps and avoid making lots of noises so to help keep your dog a bit under threshold as your fiance seems pretty good at doing. Making a list of the dog's triggers can help so to reduce their intensity.

 

Creating as many positive associations with your son as possible is important. Maybe have him feed your dog, walk your dog and play with your dog always being careful to move very slowly and calmly.

 

Having your son involved in training your dog can also be a big perk that can help instill more confidence. When she learns to associate treats with your son sitting on the couch, that's a good time for him to say "Sara come!" (in a calm tone for now ) and praise giving treats.

 

Another great thing you can do is you can practice the recall at home with Sara along the hallway, squat down say "Sara Come!" praise and give treats and then swap with yor son practicing as well. Make this very fluent. Perhaps a day may come when your son can call her and drop treats when he enters the door each day.

 

Your son can also practice a safety cue he can say before entering the home or when entering the room. You can start training this as such: When sitting on the couch, your son can try using a short phrase like "hello, it's me!" and drop treats. Repeat several times. Then, he can use this safe cue when he is standing and drop treats, then when moving and drop treats and then to announce his arrival and drop treats.

 

This safe cue though will need to protected. This means that extra care must be taken so not to "poison" it causing negative connotations. In other words, if your son comes inside says "it''s me" and then drops items on the floor that startle your dog, the safe cue may soon lose its potency and turn into something the dog dreads, not something you want as it may trigger the barking.

 

The solution for fearful dogs who react in such situations requires these important steps: 1) finding exactly what triggers the barking, 2) reducing the intensity of such triggers 3) creating positive associations with such triggers 4) preventing rehearsal of barking to triggers as much as possible.

 

When reducing the intensity is not feasible, then focus can still be given to creating positive associations, but this may take longer and the results may be not as desirable. However, if that's all that's possible it is worth a try and see how it goes. Of course, a disclaimer is warranted here: if your dog at any time has shown aggressive tendencies towards your son, your best bet is to have a professional guide you though a behavior modification program for safety and correct implementation. Behavior modification comes with risks so this is ultimately the ideal option.

I hope this helps!

 

Keep me posted,

Best regards,

Adrienne

Edited June 12, 2018 by Adrienne Farricelli