Quote: connie sutherland

I'd probably ignore the dog; I'm interested to hear what others think.

I think you're right And I would ignore it too.

Francis,if you or anyone else has inadvertently reinforced the behavior by paying attention to him it might not be as easy to distinguish by ignoring. And working on a "quiet" command as Jennifer has suggested may be more efficient. The work you are putting into leadership will reap rewards in all areas so hang in there and keep up the good work.

In the off chance this is a part of a larger issue of seperation anxiety; how is he when he is left home alone or if you have a sitter and go out? Again, even if that is the case; becoming a strong leader would be invaluable but I might make some further suggestions of increased physical and mental activity as well as some desensitizing etc.

The only problem with ignoring a behavior like this is that some dogs (the more wound-up, nervous types) will escalate over time when the unwanted behavior is not addressed directly.

I tried this with Porter's anxious and unfriendly vocalizations originally, only to find that he became more vocal and more anxious without my direct (brief) interventions. I've noticed this trend with many of my nervous/fearful/insecure/anxious canine students.

I have found that a quick interruption of the behavior (control of the dog himself), *then* ignoring the dog (going back to whatever you were doing as though the dog wasn't there and not making a big to-do around whatever situation upset him in the first place) seems to quickly convince an anxious dog that you not only have control of him, but the entire situation. This also a good exercise in pack structure and trust building (as in the dog trusts the owner to handle tough situations w/o the dog's help).

However, the OP's dog may not be the nervous/anxious dog that I'm envisioning. If ignoring the dog is enough to diminish the behavior, then of course that's the best action to take

Lots of great ideas from Connie et. al. I am less inclined to simply ignore his behavior though. My inclination would be to use a crate for a stop gap solution if you have even the slightest concern that he might become aggressive toward visiting family and friends when they interact with the children.

It's not my dogs' job to oversee my interactions with visitors so I crate them if they aren't reliable toward company. Until your training is to the point where you can control him when family and friends pick up your children, I would teach him to go to his place ( the crate)on command and stay there while the "kid transfer" is taking place. After the hub bub of the pick up/drop off is past, I would also try to break into his anxious state of mind by doing some fun training games.

Teaching him to kennel up or go to his place is easy and fun using the methods that Connie has given you.

 Quote:

However, the OP's dog may not be the nervous/anxious dog that I'm envisioning. If ignoring the dog is enough to diminish the behavior, then of course that's the best action to take

I think it's even worst than you think.

I've tried crating him without making any kind of a deal about the situation when he began to become agitated. Only to find out that he has much more persistence at endlessly barking than I can tolerate. I couldn't tell whether it's frustration or anxiousness there, but I'd bet it's a bit of both.

Here are other strange behaviors that could help you figure it out:

• More often than not he actually calms down and I can release him after several minutes when people come over. If, say, we're all sitting in the living room, he'll sit / lie on visitors' feet or right next to them.
  
  
• Any time we leave a piece of cloth or a pair of shoes on the ground, he'll rub himself on it (the back of his neck) like he really wants to put his odor on it or something (which he does, JRTs do have a strong smell). He even did this on a human turd in the wood once…
  
  
  
• If we go take a walk in the wood/prairies and I release him, he'll go wherever I'm facing, but run up to maybe 100ft ahead, constantly smelling, urinating, and looking back now and then to make sure I'm "following" him. If I turn around he'll run back to me then get 100ft ahead again. I tried constantly turning directions and he can do this all day. He always run ahead of me like he has to make sure everything is fine. This could explain why he's such a pain to walk on leash in areas he's not familiar with, while being a total charm in my backyard and basement when we generally train.

JRTs have no special odor. If yours does, I would ascertain where it's emanating from and then look for yeast (or even bacteria).

Rewarding a barking dog with attention is going to make it a thousand times worse. Once you have demonstrated that "I will not come and pay attention to you until you really really up the ante" ... well, that's what you have taught. Hard to un-teach that.

None of those behaviors fall into "strange" category. Odors to disguise themselves -- as predators, they have that hard-wired in order to be able to sneak up on prey.

Sitting on feet is dominance. Running ahead is the dog (again) demonstrating that he is compelled to be in charge because he sees that job as being unfilled, whether he likes it or not.

P.S. To a first-time dog raiser, some of the things dogs do are indeed strange.

But everything your dog does is really really common. Training the dog, instituting NILIF, protecting the dog and making it clear that you are the calm and decision-making pack leader who does not allow harm to befall your pack, consistency -- these are going to diminish these behaviors. And they will do it quickly, too!

When I was younger, I used to practice standing tall, carrying the leash casually but assuredly (no holding it out away from me, no clutching it, but maybe having it wrapped around my hand) -- all in front of a mirror before taking it "on the road."

Then later Cesar Millan (not the topic here, so I don't want to get off the subject, but the O.P. has mentioned him a few times) used to have small seminars where everyone could take his/her dog, and everyone got to work with CM, one on one. I would go home and practice just as I described, standing tall, "calming" my face, not chattering to the dog but giving one-word, calm commands, etc.

I can't tell you how much my own training and handling improved from such apparently unimportant attention to my demeanor.