Kira charged a guest in my home

[Mrs.K]

The main point I got out of this story is that she stopped. Kira stopped, she didn't go through with the charge. So she heard your daughter, thought she was threatened, went to intervene, saw that there was no threat and immediately stopped.

[Anthony8858]

[quote=Lilie;2905690]

Originally Posted by Anthony8858

I won't say it's normal either way. She does interact, and will sit amongst our guests. Many times, she would even make an offering to play with her ball.

Otherwise....

This is where you'll find Kira 99% of her day.



I don't have any answers for you Anthony. I am really just curious. So it's safe to say the ottoman is Kira's "crate". Her comfort zone.

If Kira is hanging out with guests, then she is comfortable. If she goes to her ottoman, (when strangers are present) would it be an assumption that she isn't comfortable and is seeking comfort?

Whereas most of the time my dogs are where ever we are. In what ever room we are in. But I wouldn't find it strange if I was in the bedroom and hubby was in the kitchen, to find our dogs in the living room. In the middle of both of us. But if we had a guest, the dogs would pretty much be in their space. So I'm curious as to why Kira would seperate herself.

If I were the dog whisperer, my theory would be as follows; the tone in the room with Wife, Daughter & Guest was a heavy tone. I suspect emotions were high. I suspect it even made you uneasy, which is why you were in another room and let the 'girls' talk it out.

As in the past, Kira picks up on heavy emotions. It stresses her out. The tone in the room with Wife, Daughter & Friend came to a head - to the point where Friend got up to comfort Daughter. What ever happened at that moment caused Kira to react. (Same as she did when the party got too loud.) Stressed, she went into the room to try and change the tone. Stressed, she saw the Friend over her girl and reacted aggressively.

Kira has an open crate in the family room. Her ottoman is her view to the outside world. She waits and waits for birds and cats.
When she's there, she's relaxed. She lays on that ottoman, with one eye open at all times.
I won't suspect that she removes herself because of stress. She will go there whether I'm home watching a movie, or company is over, or if we're alone. It's nothing more than a part of the house, we she can see outside. She loves it there.

If we have guests, she will always interact, then remove herself, and go to sleep on her ottoman. I haven't seen stress in quite some time. She really has been great. No issues with guests whatsoever.

I do believe that your assessment about the emotions are accurate. It was an uneasy subject, and my daughter was getting defensive. I DID leave the room, because I felt it was better suited for the "girls" to talk it out. My wife was also getting tense, because my daughter refuse to see her point (typical of any teenager, parent talk).
SO yes, not neccessarily loud, but never the less there was emotion.

[Lilie]

[QUOTE=Anthony8858;2905898 I do believe that your assessment about the emotions are accurate. It was an uneasy subject, and my daughter was getting defensive. I DID leave the room, because I felt it was better suited for the "girls" to talk it out. My wife was also getting tense, because my daughter refuse to see her point (typical of any teenager, parent talk).
SO yes, not neccessarily loud, but never the less there was emotion.[/quote]

I could easily read this part without using my crystal ball as I too have a daughter. Been there, done that.

[carmspack]

Anthony "And once again, it involved her not being comfortable with people in my home." Things are not going to change with the dog . How many so far , the kids' guests, the party , now this . Crystal ball not needed to see that if you don't remove dog safely to crate or kennel or room with door closed that one day , she will get excited , pushed too far and bite . You were lucky you were there to stop her in the nick of time , lucky that the guest did not act in a way to get her more excited. Humans are emotional -- there will always be emotion - this dog can't handle it , so , you have to handle the dog , protect your guests, your dog , reduce risk and protect your assests against lawsuit and liability.

[msvette2u]

1) it's a GSDs "job" to protect it's home and family
2) It's said that females are more "person oriented" to protect, and males tent to protect the home itself
3) It's our job as owners to be aware of that and help the dogs understand that this person isn't a threat.

How you choose to help dog be aware of that is up to you. Mainly we need to protect guests in our home, to some extent or another, that is, depending on the dog, the dog may need a crate, or to go outside, etc. Or may just need to be told, "Hey, pupper, this is Jane and she's a friend". It depends on the dog and how serious they are about their home/people.

My dad walked in one day without knocking. My GSD at the time grabbed his arm (bit him)...and stopped him. My dad turned swiftly and went out the door.

I told my dad, after all the adrenalin quit flowing, this is why we have a GSD. Don't just walk into my house!!

[Mrs.K]

Originally Posted by carmspack

Anthony "And once again, it involved her not being comfortable with people in my home." Things are not going to change with the dog . How many so far , the kids' guests, the party , now this . Crystal ball not needed to see that if you don't remove dog safely to crate or kennel or room with door closed that one day , she will get excited , pushed too far and bite . You were lucky you were there to stop her in the nick of time , lucky that the guest did not act in a way to get her more excited. Humans are emotional -- there will always be emotion - this dog can't handle it , so , you have to handle the dog , protect your guests, your dog , reduce risk and protect your assests against lawsuit and liability.

Didn't he say that she came in and then stopped and then he removed her?

That does make a difference, rather than "stopped her in the nick of time." because that means that she didn't go through with it and didn't have to be stopped.

HOWEVER, this is the point where I'd start keeping her in a different room.

[bryant88]

Crating anytime you have company is a BAD IDEA. I learned the hard way. The dog will start to hate people coming over knowing she will have to go to her crate. I would think twice about doing this. I have made this mistake and it completely changed my dog and he hated everybody that came over!!!!

[Jax08]

Originally Posted by Anthony8858

A complete oversight on my part. My daughter did raise her voice prior to the woman walking over. I didn't make the connection. The reason the woman walked over, is because my wife was telling her something my daughter didn't want to hear. She walked over, when my daughter started to get agitated.

I won't say she was loud, but she did change her emotion.
The woman wanted to console her.

And there you go....a stranger is in the house, voices are raised, family member is agitated and the dog reacts. And as Mrs. K points out...Kira stopped when she realized there was no threat.

If this were a dog that had never had an incident with strangers in the house, I bet the responses would be quite different.

However, because she has had incidences prior to this and she has been noted to be uncomfortable with strangers, I would still make sure her interactions are limited and only positive.

I do not recommend putting her in a closed room because we did that in an emergency situation once with Banshee. All she knew was we left upset and with her litter mate who was hurt, she was locked in a room, some stranger came and took her kids and we came home with her dead litter mate. Anyone she didn't know before can not come thru our front door. And anytime we've put her in a room when people were over, she became even more worked up. Crate where she can still see or leashed would be my suggestion.

If you make her crate her safe spot then the pressure is off her and she won't resent it.

[Mrs.K]

Originally Posted by bryant88

Crating anytime you have company is a BAD IDEA. I learned the hard way. The dog will start to hate people coming over knowing she will have to go to her crate. I would think twice about doing this. I have made this mistake and it completely changed my dog and he hated everybody that came over!!!!

It depends on how you do it! If you do crate games with the dog and make the crate a good place to be, than it's not a problem to take the dog to his/her crate.

[msvette2u]

Kongs with treats is a nice way to get dogs accustomed to staying in crates while people visit.