I recently moved into an apartment complex until my family and my house can be built. Lobo who is a month shy of being 2 yrs old and unaltered male, has been socialized and never had a problem with strangers, except for one guy at comfirmation class who gave him the feel down, and once he got to his balls, well he wasn't too happy when he grabbed them and he has never ever shown any signs of aggression-except for now.

The problem I am facing now is at night and only at night, if a man approaches me from behind, Lobo will bark very aggressively-I of course will tell him no with a good correction on his prong collar and he then is quite and goes about his business with no further barking, if the males stranger talks to him first he does absolutely nothing and is fine with them-whines wanting to go over to him.

What has me Really concerned is what happpend this Friday. The Schwans man approached Lobo and I from behind as we were walking back to the apt complex, Lobo Very aggressively started barking at him, shackels way up, I gave Lobo a firm NO, and put him in a sit and stay, which he did-a few grumbles now and again at the Schwans man, but nothing really major, but then the Schwans man reach for me to hand me a slip for the next time he would be out, and boom Lobo lunged, that god I had a good grip on him, otherwise he would have nailed him and of course I corrected him for this.

Now here is my fear, could this be the early warning signs of more aggressions to come-(I know at roughly 2 years old you see the type of dog you are going to have because they have mentally matured)? And what is causing it, and why is it only at men? Could it me due to stress of moving (we have been at the complex for about a month now)-and why is he fine with these people during the day <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> , the ONLY time he is displaying this behavior is at NIGHT. What should I do differently-my husband wants me to start to muzzel him at night when I take him for walks. I need some help here because I am lost as to what is causing it and how to correct it without making it worse-I am not fearful when these people approach so he isn't sensing anything down the leash.

Any suggestions <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

Dee Dee

What I would do is start controlling the situation, better and start work on a relax command or a "Cut off" command like "Its ok".

I'd do it like this, in the Schwan man incident, I would tell Lobo "its ok" as he approached (of course sit him and causually shorten up on the leash) when the Schwan man has finished his conversation, you step toward him keeping an eye on Lobo and you take the receipt. What the dog sees is you moving toward the guy, not him moving toward you.

I've seen dogs change in training when approached at night rather then in daylight hours.

More control and communication from you is needed, you have to reassure the dog that you have the situation under control. Its sort normal for the dog to raise his level of protection when he is alone with the female Alpha of the family. My dogs (the female too) does the same thing with my wife no one can approach her at night outside the house, without them warning her. With me it more of a serious attentive look, if the person or persons approach within 10-15 yrds, if they are within 7-3 yrds and I don't see them they will get barked at them. Like "Hey, who are you"!
At about 10 yrds they will charge and make a stand if the wife out at night.

I think you should control and guide him every step of the way at night, and control the persons movement toward you. Use words like "Becareful, slow down don't approach me too fast, he doesn't like that." or "Is that for me, would you mind, placing it on the car or ground and walk away". If it needs to be sign, placing on the car with ink pen to weigh it down, he steps away. You sign it and you step away. I know this sounds like a lot stuff to do to keep people safe, but thats part of being responcible dog owner. Until you can get your "Its Ok or Cut off" command proofed and stable. I'd be careful and in control at night, it will stop someone from getting bit, by accident. Lobo sounds serious about protecting you, you gotta help him out.

I won't muzzle him because you might need him at night, we still live in a very dangerous world, especailly at night.

Obedience, obedience, obedience...

I had a girlfriend who had a VERY similar problem: "My dog is great during the day, but at night yada yada yada"....followed by, "and it never happened before!"
I don't know your dog, but I think I would approach it something like this...
When it's night, and someone is approaching (from front or behind), I would pull the treats from my pocket and when the dog notices the newcomer...say "good boy" (or whatever happy phrase the dog knows) and treat....with a greater frequency of treats as the stranger approaches. Give the dog only upbeat signals...start goofing around with him on these occasions with the best treats occuring at the closest distance to the stranger.
This sort of conditioning goes much faster if you can contrive a multitude of these scenarios in quick order, but smart dogs can catch on quick.
So, the presence or approach of strangers at night should always signal "party time!" to the dog during this conditioning process. If the dog gets reliable, you can graduate to having strangers feed the dog very tastey treats on all sorts of occasions (flip the treats to the dog). The muzzle option is up to you. These are only suggestions and do them at your own risk! (of course!)
Don't brace for the stranger's approach by saying stuff like "eeeeasy, boy".....or that sort of thing. Instead, something more like...."hey! look at that guy! yahoo! do you wanna treat!"
Dogs are keen discriminators of subtle differences in stimulus conditions, so your new environment may very well send your dog into a world of new behaviors (and insecurities).
There is the possibility that leash corrections will exacerbate the problem..."the approach of a stranger always leads to my neck getting a jerk! Now I'm REAL nervous!". You can even have the stranger give your dog an easy command ("sit") and then they can flip a treat to the dog. If not, then you can do some easy obedience with treats as the stranger approaches.
Having said all that, I sure hope your dog likes treats!

Personally Keeton, I don't like strangers touching or commanding my dogs, they don't like it either. A stranger approaching my wife at night to pet him or giving commands would probally be a bad idea even if we staged it.

She could command them to sit and stay and the guy and her talk as longs he didn't approach her, aburtly.

A friend of the family can pet them, a child in the neighborhood can pet them, but a stranger at night can forget it. Unless its me, I can give the "Its Ok' command and they will let a guy pet them. In the same incident if I decide that I want them watched I can give the "watchem" command and he can't even get close. I know my male dog would ignore treats if he thought it was time to work.

We all seem to have different needs and train for different things, If you want a good pet that likes everybody, you might be able to turn this 2 yr old around, it would have been easier making him like everybody when he was younger. If thats what you want. He seems to have a eye on protection, work his strong points, Ob and then bite training would be the way to go.

I like to tell most newbies, bite training teaches the dog when you think its approipate, not just how to do it.

<img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Don that is my feelings exactly- I don't want him to love everyone in my neighborhood, especially because I have a nine year old little girl, and there are so many perverts out there-but I also don't want him to bite someone when they don't deserve it. Lobo is very serious about protecting my entire family, and he hasn't taken too far or to the point of me getting worried, but this night behavior does have me concerned. Do you think the stress of change could also be amplifying this, and the fact that our family is still under stress? I know they can sense these things. I will start to talk to him more work on the commands and show him I am in control and do not feel threatened-he is very smart and easily trainable. I too have to be trained because I am not used to people coming out of no where,these crazy b@$tards that want to "pet the cute doggy" they never like my answer, and people that can't pick up their dogs crap <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/mad.gif" alt="" /> But we will all adjust. What is the best way once this is all under control to go about training and what all is invovled in training bite work-is it safe to train this on your own or should I find a trainer?

Hi Dee Dee,
A lot of dogs are hypervigilant at night. I'm not sure why that is, but it's pretty common, so I don't see anything unusual in your dog's behavior.

Having been the subject of personal attack at night time by a male stranger who grabbed me from behind, I think your dog's vigilance is very nice. I wouldn't correct him for it, but instead would redirect him through obedience. Instead of "NO" (which generally means "That is NEVER acceptable") I would use something like "That's enough", which means "Thanks for the warning, but you can be done now.".

I have a black male Labrador who watches people, especially men, if we are walking at night, and I don't doubt that he would probably bark and charge if a man approached me in a threatening manner or made any quick movements toward me. While aggressive behavior is not a trait Labs are known or bred for, the average Joe doesn't know that, and even presumably nonthreatening strangers tend to keep a distance. I like that.

I agree with Don's initial comments and with Deanna. Also you could ask the Schwan's man to wait a minute while you put your dog in the house. Personally, I probably wouldn't as long as I knew I had enough control over my dog to prevent any unwarranted biting incidents. You never know if the Schwan's man is casing your place, thinking he could come back later in the middle of the night and break into your house to rob or rape you. A big scary protective dog would most likely make him think again. Of course, you may not be as suspicious of delivery people as I am. I always think it's a great idea that any delivery or repair guys know that there is a big scary dog at my house.

My Lab can be quite territorial; if someone that he doesn't know knocks on the door, he's good at making himself look scary. Therefore, if the person is someone that I want to invite inside and that I don't want to be intimidated by my dog, I put the dog out back first and then ask the person inside. After they've been there for a few minutes, I bring the dog inside and introduce him without the knocking-and-coming-in-the-door stimulus, which is what triggers his territorial behavior. If he comes in from outside and the person is already inside, he'll greet them with the trademark Lab full body wag, just like a nice labby should.

I feel really good about leaving my teenage daughters home alone with the Lab. While I have no illusions that he would defend them (I also don't completely dismiss the notion; dogs can surprise us), I do know that he can be scary enough to ward away 99% bad guys. That other 1%, well, we can't live our lives in fear; all we can do is use common sense and take reasonable precautions.

I wouldn't necessarily say that letting a person touch her dog (which I didn't recommend) or having the person give a command would be THE thing to do....these are all just options.
If your dog is trained with a good amount of positive reinforcement, by the way, the dog won't think of it as "being told what to do"...rather, the dog would think "wow! another opportunity to get a treat!"....it's not such a big deal at all. However, if the owner does not want the dog to take any direction from strangers, that's OK too. The point was: do whatever you can to make "approach of night time stranger" a predictor of something good.
Describing this dog's behavior (or any dog's similar behavior) as "protective" is, I think, taking liberties. This dog could very well be frightened and, given that he is on a leash, is given only one option....to fight. It's not necessarily a sign of courage or any such thing. Being frightened of common daily (or nightly) things, is not a very happy situation for the dog. Just talk to anyone who has ever suffered a phobia, it ain't pleasant.

I keep forgetting to ask: what the heck is a 'schwans man'? Never heard of that.

Whatever you wanna call it, Kelton, I dunno about Dee Dee, but I'm certainly not in the habit of approaching strange men at night time to ask them to feed my nice doggy a cookie. Ain't gonna happen. <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />