HELP! Territorial at home!

[arnebchgrl]

Sadly, she was treated poorly by her previous owner. She was starved and definitely had trust issues with people. I do agree that she may have weak nerves but I think her sketchy past doesn't help, either..

[chelle]

Originally Posted by arnebchgrl

That is a good idea that I need to be better about.. the whole desensitizing to the door thing. I need some understanding friends that can come practice with us and don't mind waiting outside until she is sitting and STAYING. She sits well, it's the whole staying part that is difficult when she is excited/anxious that someone is coming in.

Yup, try it! It only takes five minutes a day! You don't even need friends to help - just your partner/roommate coning home can do it. You may be surprised after five or ten sessions. At first, I though, oh my.. this really isn't working.. but we kept at it and voila,,, progress! These dogs are smart! Now granted, I am standing there *enforcing* the sit/stay. I hope in our future I can move beyond having to do that. It's the goal, anyway. If he breaks his sit/stay, he's put right back into it. When he focuses on ME, he's treated as long as he's honestly focused on me and not crazy doggy. I keep repeating until I have a nice, calm sit/stay and then I tell the bf to come in. Now that we're getting better, I tell the bf to knock again after a good, calm sit/stay. Where we are weak is if someone other than the bf comes in the door.... Yeah, we have work to do there.

Originally Posted by arnebchgrl

Sadly, she was treated poorly by her previous owner. She was starved and definitely had trust issues with people. I do agree that she may have weak nerves but I think her sketchy past doesn't help, either..

She may have the deck stacked a bit against her, as my dog does as he's quite a little mutt boy (but my BELOVED MUTT BOY ) --

[BowWowMeow]

This sounds like my Basu. He was also mistreated and was extremely fearful when we adopted him. As he gained confidence he became fear aggressive, especially in our home, yard and in the truck. He honestly looked and sounded like Cujo!

What we did was to train him to go to his bed first. Then we asked people he knew to come over and saved very yummy treats just for people coming over. When people came over we would send him to his bed and reward him with treats. We told our guests what to expect when they came over and also asked them to ignore him (as in, do not look at or try to pet him).

Until we were sure he was reliable he was leashed. Eventually he was reliable enough to be off leash when guests were over but we never, ever trusted him to make his own decisions. He knew the routine but he never did stop with the crazy barking.