I need some advice, we just rescued a 3 year old Weimaraner from a local rescue shelter and took her home to our other two dogs, a German shorthaired pointer, and a black lab. Winnie has had a rough life as she was taken from her owners by animal control because she was chained up outside, was not being fed and was forced to have litters of puppies. When we got her you could see every rib and bone. Winnie gets along great with our other two dogs, and she loves my husband and I, the problem is with guest that come over. Last week my brother came to visit and she growled and turned into a different dog. I stayed with her and thought I had calmed her down, he even gave her a treat to show he was friendly and pet her a little. As soon as I let go of her and walked away she charged him and bit him on the leg, not breaking any skin, but enough to scare us both. Since then I haven't dared have any other people in the house. I try to socialize her by taking her to the park, or in the car with me and she seems to do great outside the home. Does anyone have any tips or pointers as to how to make her less protective when it comes to inside the home? I would really appreciate it, I just love this dog and can't give her up.

Why not just put the do into a crate or lock it in a bedroom when you have company over? Do you have some important reason why this dog must be allowed to interact with company?

It sounds like your dog is fine with the exception of this particular problem - and it's a problem that's more easily prevented than fixed ( and it will never be "fixed" 100%, so avoiding the situation gives you the highest chance of success )

Think about what you're asking of the dog, with all of it's insecurities from a past life of abuse. Why stress the animal out further if it's uncomfortable with visitors? Remove the dog from the situation, and everyone wins. The dog is safe and secure, your visitors don't get bitten, and your insurance company won't have to eventually raise your rates due to a dog bite.

Thats good advice Will, and I've thought about that. One concern I have about crating her is that if I hide her from company in the home I'm afraid that it will change her interaction with people in public as well. Do think that by taking her out of the social interaction that has potential at home that it will hinder her interaction in public as well?

The last rescue that I fostered was afraid of people due to a lack of socialization.

Whenever I had company, I put him in his crate in the kitchen/dining room and told whoever was over to ignore him and not go near the crate. This allowed him to see that people coming over where not a threat while in a safe enviroment. I had him for 6 months before he was adopted and he got to the point where I could let him out to say hello shortly after someone arrived and he had calmed down.

As long as you are not dealing with children coming over, this is a possible solution to your problem.

Natalie
http://alikamalinois.tripod.com

Most dog will react differently on their home turf as opposed to a more neutral area, which you had already noticed during her trips to the park.

I don't think that crating/ isolating a dog during home visits by company will change the dynamics of the dog's behavior in a more neutral area.

Thank you for your suggestions. I have my mother coming over tomorrow and I'm going to try putting her in her crate in the kitchen and see if she growls at her. I know that crating is the solution for now, I just hope that I can train her so that in the future she can be around guest. We have neices and nephews that occassionally stay over and I don't want to crate her for long periods of time. Any other training tips on aggression would be most helpful, thanks again!

I don't think what you are seeing is protectiveness or aggression as you described it. It is fear. the dog was on a chain, abused, never socialized. You haven't had him very long so he needs time to adjust and become more comfortable. That said, I don't think it will ever be safe to have nieces and nephews running around. Too much history in this dogs early life. Others will be much more qualified to give you training advice but I don't think you should trust this dog especially around children at any point. Hope I'm wrong.

 Quote:

Originally posted by Dawn Phillips:
I Last week my brother came to visit and she growled and turned into a different dog. I stayed with her and thought I had calmed her down, he even gave her a treat to show he was friendly and pet her a little.

BIG MISTAKE, it is probably the most common mistake I see people make with problem dogs.

Lets analyze what you did (as I envision it, correct me if I'm wrong).

The dog growls and acts unfriendly towards someone it does not know. You respond by "calming the dog down". By that I take it you showed the dog lots of love and affection. Petted her and talked to her sweetly. Then to top it off you have the visitor be sweet to her too.

From the dog's point of view, you have just rewarded it for doing the very thing you are trying to stop it. You actions will encourage the dog to continue to act that way.


Inregards to the story the rescue told you, take it with a grain of salt. Often rescues will tell you what you need to hear to take the dog. I swear that a good number of rescue people suffer what I call Munchausen By Rescue Syndrome. The more grandiose they can make their "rescue" sound the better they feel about themselves. Unless the "rescue" gave you the dog's history in writting, I would be careful about using anything they told you as a rationale for doing anything with the dog. That said, adult dogs in rescue are usually their for a reason. I wager you have discovered what that reason is.

The good news about your dog is that it has not had its warning ability bred out of it, atleast the dog is telling you where things stand and knowing that you can train to address those issues. Compare that to some show dogs like the Rottweiler that have had the warning abiity bred out of them and may infact act quite sweet when they are under duress. Those kinds of dogs go from sweet to attack with no warning. That is a much worse kind of dog to have. So don't write off your dog yet, think about what you are teaching it. One thing you might try is showing the dog lots of affection when it does things right and the instant it growls inapproriately have everyone shun the dog and walk away from it (for a short period of time). The key is to figure out what you are actually telling the dog to do, from now on I would avoid the "calming down" and replace it with a short period shunning. Depending on how the dog reacts you may have to adjust your technique.

Hope that helps

Thomas

Thank you Thomas,
When I calmed the dog down I wasn't sweet to her as it may have sounded like I was. My definition of calming one of my dogs down kneel down to their level, take it by the collar, make the dog sit keep constant eye contact with it until the dog looks away first and then I had my brother leave the room so to take away her upset. I have been trying to be very selective with my praise as I know shes in a crucial part of training as we have only had her for 2 weeks. One thing we are trying, and please feel free to tell me if this is a bad idea, whenever one of gets home (take into consideration the other person is in the home with the dogs) we will ring the door bell or knock on the door. If she charges the door barking or growling we walk inside and make her sit and stare at her until she looks away, letting her know that this was not correct behavior. When we've come to the door and knocked and she has not growled or barked we have rewarded her with a cookie. We are hoping that by doing this she will learn that not all people at the door are here to hurt her and that when she acts appropriatly she is rewarded. good idea or bad?

From my point of view it depends on what you want the dog to do and what the dog has been bred to do, ie what instinct has been bred into it.

I personally like the dogs to alert us if someone is at the door, ie barking. But I do not want the dog being aggressive at the door (growling). Further more, I want the dog to figure out who is on the other side of the door. If its a stranger than by all means alert, if it is a family member then I want the dog at the door happy. I use my dogs as the first line of defense at my house. The key issue I see is that I do not want my dogs to "over alert" once I am aware of what is going on they should wait quietly.

So again a lot depends on what you want your dog to do and what is in its nature to do. Make a plan based on getting that result. You do that by figuring out what you are in reality telling the dog to do and judging what the dogs response is to what you are telling it. Since I am not in your shoes I can not tell you exactly what to do, but I am going to assume that you want the dog at the door happy.

So is what you are doing now accomplishing that goal? Depending on how you deliver it and the dog takes it, your technique may make things better or worse. Here is how it may make it worse, you are taking a negative approach if the dog starts linking the door with a negative response it may make things worse. If the dog is smart enough to understand and you are clever enough to tell it that it is only getting punished for its behavior then you might have some success.

What I would do is try to make the door as happy and joyful as an experience as possible for the dog. ie good things happen when people come to the door. If I could make the dog tie its bad behavior to the punishment I am giving it then I might try that too. But again, if you punish the dog at the door, is it learning that bad things happen to it when people are at the door or is it learning that is acting badly?. If it is the former you will make things worse, it is the latter you may make things somewhat better. I wager however it is the former. You are probably going to have to slowly lead the dog to the proper behavior, take it step by step.

The hard thing to do is untrain a dog that has been improperly socialized, and you have to be careful that you are not making it worse. I would suggest that the best course of action in your situation is to find someone in your area who is a skilled trainer and who leans to the positive reinforcement side of things (but who is not a nazi about using negative reinforcement either)
A person skilled in clicker training might be a good choice. Don't follow any trainer blindly, try to follow the "logic" behind the training techniques and judge its effectiveness.