Hello, I'd like clarification on a behavior, and how to deal with it (if it has to be dealt with at all)

I got a 3months and a 18 months old babies. My dog cannot tolerate people taking them away.

For example my mother will take the kids for a walk, he'll whine and bark persistently as he watches then take off. If my father takes her granddaughter in his arms to, for example, get across the street. He'll whine and bark as if she's getting kidnapped.

Is this protectionism or possessiveness ? This dog is a JRT... I never trained him in guarding anything.

When my baby arrived, I always taught my dog that "baby = don't touch". I always made sure that he respected her "bubble" by shooing him away with a Caesar Millan style "Psssht" when he got closer than 2-3 feet to sniff her. Could he be applying and "enforcing" my own rules?

At Christmas time we put a Santa-Claus on my baby's door. When we closed the door (which revealed the big red guy) my dog barked and growled at it like he was an intruder coming out of nowhere...

 Quote: francis daigle

... When my baby arrived, I always taught my dog that "baby = don't touch". ... Could he be applying and "enforcing" my own rules?

No. He is being possessive.

*&£$¢@!

Okay... great, that's what I thought. Another pack structure issue.

How do I fix this one now?

Does he have a 'no bark' or 'quiet' command? What do you do about his whining/barking right now?

He does have a "quiet" command.

But obeying is naturally out of question when he tunnel visions my babies going away.

He only has done this a couple time so far, and I went against correcting it because I was unsure if it was a undesired behavior or not.

As in, with all the crap that's going on these days, I sure as hell would like to know if anyone bails out with my children. But it would be nice if he could register that I gave them permission when I tell him to shut up... And also, I don't want him to believe he's higher ranked than them.

I'd try to stop viewing this as protective behavior. Everything in your post seems to show that.

If you look at this as a part of a slightly larger picture, you will see that if the dog saw you as the calm and protecting decision-maker in the pack, then the fact that you are there, handing over the children, would be sufficient for the dog. But it's not.

Regardless of the dog's intentions when he protests, if he viewed you properly as the pack leader, then he would indeed protest only in your absence until you appeared to assure him that you were in charge.

That is, MHO is that I wouldn't be looking so much for a correction or other action to take when this happens as I would be looking for better pack structure and trust overall.

This is the dog who is anxious on walks, right? Again, he is failing in distracting situations to see you as his calm protector and person in charge. All part of the same picture.

Of course, we can't see the dog, but what you post really falls in line with dogs who perceive the leadership role as being unfilled (or uncertainly filled) and needing his intervention. He is anxious on walks and he is afraid to see part of "his" pack taken away.

This sounds kind of broad-brush, and it is. We aren't there. There could be other factors and other anxiety triggers. But in general, this kind of situation is helped a lot by pack structure, by the dog starting to shift his perception of you as he realizes that you are between him and the scary world out on the sidewalk, that you are absolutely in charge and to be trusted to make all decisions, etc.


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All the work that you are starting to do with the dog's fears/anxiety/reactivity outdoors is going to reflect here.

Also, I'd pay attention to my upbeat, in-charge, calm manner when handing off the kids. I'd probably ignore the dog; I'm interested to hear what others think.

I second Connie. This guy sounds much more insecure than protective ... this is not a confident behavior, it's panic.

 Quote: connie sutherland

Of course, we can't see the dog, but what you post really falls in line with dogs who perceive the leadership role as being unfilled (or uncertainly filled) and needing his intervention. He is anxious on walks and he is afraid to see part of "his" pack taken away.

This is similar to how my youngest GSD, Porter, would behave when I initially acquired him. I babysit my friends and coworkers dogs on a regular basis, after a new dog had stayed with us for a few days Porter considered it part of our pack. When the owners came to pick their dogs up Porter initially exhibited behavior similar to your dog's.

As Connie suggests, pack structure work eventually eliminated Porter's "need" to intervene in these type situations. (Porter was also frightened and distrustful of people in general) IMHO, the most important concept to convey to insecure dogs like ours is that we, as capable pack leaders, control everything in the dog's environment, including the dog

You mentioned that you've used a Cesar Millan type correction/approach to teach this guy to respect your babies' space ... This is precisely how I would handle the dog's behavior when you've allowed someone to take your kids. Don't allow him to stand at the door/window/etc and whine/stress/bark. Control the dog control the situation. Then ignore the dog. Personally, if I have to "discuss" this with the dog more than twice, the dog is then removed, via leash and unemotionally, from the situation entirely (i.e. crate) until calm is resumed.

As far as the dog is concerned, You control the environment, You control the kids, You control the people, You control the dog ... you are the pack leader. The rest of the world falls into place when you are able to prove this to an insecure dog

What I've ended up with is a pack of dogs that will let anybody walk up and into our front yard (we basically live on our 100yo wrap around porch) when I'm with my pack. If I'm not visible to my dogs and someone comes up to the curb they tend to stop and wait at the curb ... when I walk into sight everyone goes back to be happy, goofy mutts.

Connie,

I'm glad this additional post helped you point at the actual cause of my problems with this dog.

 Quote:

Also, I'd pay attention to my upbeat, in-charge, calm manner when handing off the kids. I'd probably ignore the dog; I'm interested to hear what others think.

Could you please elaborate on this ?

I mean that I would be present, that I would be obviously aware of the kid-transfer, that I would be calm and upbeat, and that I would ignore the dog.

I agree with Connie; the only thing I would do is work on the 'quiet' command so it could be used in that situation - however, right now I would say it needs to be proofed further - maybe something you can work on specifically, setting up situations etc.