My dog barks at family. What I should do when my family comes back and she starts barking / growling at my husband again?

Hi Cindy,



I wrote to you some time ago with questions regarding my 2-year-old (about) GSD, which I adopted about 4 months ago. Briefly, Dyna (the dog) is from a working GSD kennel and was unwanted because of one floppy ear. She was kept at the breeder's kennel until she was about 7 months old (he wanted to retain her as a breeding bitch) and then sold to a family as a pet-only dog (as her ear didn't stand up). She stayed with this family for about 10 months or so and then was returned to the breeder as they were moving overseas and did not want to take the dog with them. I adopted her when she was 18-months-old. The breeder told me that she was pretty stressed out when she returned to the kennel and could not fit in the the other dogs - apparently she was extremely submissive and at the bottom of the pecking order. When we got her she was fine with me, but seemed afraid of my husband. Looking at the information in your training videos (I have bought the basic four recommended for new owners) I've made all the possible mistakes: I was very nice and interactive with her, I took her off the leash within the first week and introduced a lot of playing. She seemed to be very easy within the first 2 weeks (therefore I did all these things): followed me on the walks, didn't pull on a leash, ignored other dogs...etc.



The only problem was my husband: she was scared of him from the very beginning and it seemed to have moved from running away from him to charging him with growling/barking. We also have an 8-year-old daughter, and Dyna has been very good with her so far (no barking/growling, most of the time she ignores her, but she'd also follow basic commands (e.g. sit, down) if my daughter has some food for reward). Slowly the situation started to change and it seemed like Dyna was gaining confidence and now I understand that I inadvertently elevated her in her ranks. She started to be very territorial not only towards my husband, but any visitors. She also started charging at other dogs and she would run and hunt any creatures if allowed to do so (she is never loose anymore, but the other day while on a beach walk on a leash she jumped into the bushes can came back with a possum in her mouth). I did explain all this in my previous email, so sorry for the repetition, but I am sure you get hundreds of emails and won't remember the details. Your advise was to start from scratch and put her through the groundwork program. I tried to do that, with only part success, as it is really hard to enforce on an 8-year-old a total ignorance of the dog that she really likes... However, my husband and my daughter went away for a few days, so I took this opportunity to follow your advise on "social isolation" more fully. Dyna has been in her crate for 2 days now without any interactions from me, other than taking her for some short walks to a nearby green area and feeding. She is submissive in her create (although she's always been like that with me alone), she also doesn't pull on a leash anymore when I take her out and in general she is very good with me. She goes into the crate when I just point at it and she sits before I open the crate.



My question is what I should do when my family comes back and she starts barking/ growling at my husband again? It usually happens when he first enters the house, at which point she gets very agitated in her crate. If ignored, she eventually settles down and if I take her out of the crate (on a leash) she is fine around him. She is also fine around my husband (and other people) outside her home environment. Going through your website/videos it seems to me that I should correct her for being aggressive towards a family member (or our visitors), but I can't correct her while she is in her crate unless I start using an e-collar (which I have purchased so this is an option). However, if the crate is meant to be a safe place for her, should I correct her while she is inside or just ignore her while she is barking her heart out? Could you clarify this point to me? It may be that she will not bark at my husband again when he gets back from his holidays in two-days time (which would be great), but I'd like to have a plan on what to do if she does....We are also expecting my husband's 16-year-old son to come for a visit in about a month time, so I need to make sure that I know how to deal with this situation. Obviously, she won't be loose at any point in the presence of my husband's son, but it will be extremely distracting to have a crated dog that barks/growls constantly at our visitor (for a week). Dyna also has an outside kennel, and we are planning to built an enclosure around it (she is an a 4-meter cable at the moment whenever outside), but I can't leave her outside during the night, as she barks at all the creatures and that's not fair to our neighbors.



Many thanks and a Happy New Year!
Magda