I take my dog to work. He lays by my desk during the day and gets along OK with most people. He has one person who he will not tolerate. He stands up and growls at this sales person. What's going on?

Question

Hi there,

I read through a lot of your Q&A articles, but did not find anything that fit to my situation. I have a 3 yr old black lab that I found at a Lab Rescue organization. He is a wonderful dog and is very smart. He has trained well and is very obedient. When we first got him, he had separation anxiety. We have been working with him on this for about 7 months. He was on a 3 month course of Clomocalm which has seemed to really help along with the training that goes with it. We can now leave him for 4-5 hours by himself in our house without him doing too much damage. (He seems to be less concerned with us leaving now, which gives him more time to think about getting into the garbage can, etc.). He seems to be getting much better with us leaving him.

The real reason for the e-mail is his strange and kind of unpredictable behavior when he growls at certain people. I am lucky enough to have a 'dog friendly' office that I work at and bring Riley to work almost every day. For the most part he does great and is friendly to everyone. He is also always friendly to strangers when we invite them into the house or strangers we meet on our walks. However, sometimes if I am in my office and he is lying beside my desk and a stranger to the office or 1 person in particular (a sales person that comes in occasionally) starts coming into my office, he jumps up and starts growling. He gets into a stooped position and actually approaches them, but is growling and showing teeth. I always quickly call him sternly and tell him 'no'. and he responds, but is clearly uncomfortable and upset. As soon as I get up out of my seat and approach the person, he stops the growling and then turns friendly. He has never done this anywhere other than at work with the exception of one time recently at my Mother's house recently. I was sitting at a dinner table with by back to a wall and the table in front of me. A similar look and feel of my office. My 8 yr old niece started approaching my side of the table and he let out a few low growls. We quickly reprimanded him and he stopped. He came and lied down next to me and was fine.

He does not bark ferociously, but more of a scared growl. If the person stops at the door way and calls his name, he becomes confused and growls and wags his tail at the same time. It does not happen with all strangers that come into my office, just some. It always happens with that one particular sales person. I am not sure why he does this and am not sure how to correct the problem. Any ideas?

Thanks so much,
Van

Accepted Answer

Dogs are pack animals. The average person does not realize how strong the pack instinct is in the dog. In a wolf pack if a strange wolf comes into their territory they kill it. Some dogs have stronger pack drive than others, some dogs have weak nerved and can't tolerate strange situations and noises. Weak nerve dogs can become fear biters if they get bad enough and ARE NOT TRAINED PROPERLY.

I never allow people to pet my dogs, not anyone, not for any reason. Why should I? It does not make the dog feel any better. A dog that goes to a stranger for petting is exhibiting a dominance behavior, it thinks "PET ME! I AM MORE IMPORTANT THAN YOU REALIZE." This has nothing to do with breed, age, size or sex. It's a pack thing.

With this said, I also train my dogs that unwarranted aggression brings the wrath of GOD DOWN ON THEIR HEAD. They learn that this is inappropriate behavior and they control themselves because they know that I am not going to allow anyone to pet them, therefore hence I NEVER have the problems you describe. The reality is that this is a handler problem and not a dog problem.

Change the way you handle the dog and get a prong collar and train this dog. My Basic Dog Obedience DVD will cover these issues and is an excellent tape.