I nix the barking with my dogs early on, I use a shake can with a firm "NUFF", maybe you could leave a can in the cup holder of your car and give it one good, loud shake, and verbal as soon as she starts. They always look at you when they hear the can, especially if it is a new sound. My 3.5 lb. dog would be my biggest offender, attention seeking only, and only when the hubby is home! Dogs acting up in the car are dangerous, I do know of someone seriously injured while dealing with this same type of situation, so the road is a first priority. Have someone else drive, so you can correct.

Niomi; Sierra is a Mastiff and just turned 2 in March so she is definitely *not* fully mature yet. She has never been left unattended in the car. If I have to go into a store for something, I make sure I can see the car at all times or I take her home first and go back later.

Barbara; When she is outside the car, she is super friendly and loves everybody she meets, which is why this new reaction caught me so off guard.
Great idea to go to a parking lot and practice there. We have a Walmart about 5 minutes from home. Sierra has just learned "touch" so we'll practice that when someone starts walking towards us.
I felt it was safe to drive around the park with the leash on my leg because the speed limit is 10 kms and there was no other traffic. I didn't have my foot on the gas, the car was just coasting. If I would have seen another car, I would have pulled over.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far guys. Anymore greatly appreciated. I'm going to try the Walmart parking lot tomorrow let you know how it goes.



Edited by Debbie Martin (05/09/2010 07:10 AM)
Edit reason: spelling

She hasn't done this while driving outside of the park?

That was the first time it's ever happened. That's why it is so important that I handle it correctly and get it stopped immediately. We were at the park the day before and she was fine. She had watched the people as we passed them but there was no reaction.

Strange, the only guess I have is that she may have been reacting to something she was seeing that was different, not just people walking, such as, biker, rollerblades, skateboard, strollers, something someone was wearing, food vendor cart. I had a GSD here for one year, she came here at 6 months, took her everywhere for socialization because she had missed out in her early months. She was a very sweet dog, loved everyone, one day I was at an event, and she suddenly started growling at a small group of people, It ended up being a T-shirt with a large Orka whale on it, worn by a lady about 4.5 ft. tall...guess she didn't like the whale looking at her!

I agree with you about controlling it now.

Tammy, I can see how a small lady with a huge Orca on her would be rather strange looking. I'm trying to imagine that and kind of chuckling to myself.

If Sierra had just reacted to only one person walking in the park, I would consider that, but it was 4 different people she reacted to. I've had Sierra since she was 8 weeks old and she was and still is very socialized. We go to busy downtown streets, small town parades, numerous soccer and baseball games, skateboard parks etc and pretty much anywhere else she is allowed, except for leash-free parks. I don't trust that the dogs there will behave appropriately.

I guess this is just something I will really have to work hard on. I'm going to be calling both my trainer and breeder tommorrow to see what their thoughts are. Unfortunately, they are both away on vacation right now. I'm really hoping this was a onetime thing and that Sierra was somehow just in a really bad mood or something.

Here's what I did. Find an area that gets her attention up to a controllable level, tell her "enough" and then mark/reward when she looks at you. Once you know she understands it, you can add a correction for failure to comply.

There are also zero tolerance, non-negotiables, that everyone has to decide for themselves.

 Quote: Spencer Martin

 Quote: Scott Garrett

Nobody gets near my car.

haha... enjoyable

It is, actually. I know my wife is safe when he's with her. People can walk past the car all they want as long as they don't make a sudden move towards the car or keep eye contact with him for more than a few seconds. He's highly territorial.

I did have a time with Basher and Lunk when they were in our van while I ran into a building for a couple minutes and a half dozen teenaged skateboarders decided to tease the big goofy dogs. I came out to the kids tapping windows with both Bullmastiffs going nuts. I told the dogs Enough (thankfully they did listen) and then explained that One...those dogs could break those windows and eat them (an exaggeration but useful). Two Their owner will hunt you down if I ever see that again. A couple of the kids did hang around and meet the dogs. The dogs were always fine if the family okayed something so they calmed right down. BUT after that time I could count on the Bullys to bark at people coming too close to the car. Not out of control but not calm. And this was useful once when after a fender bender with my dh the other driver wanted to get all in dh's face .....Basher didn't like that, stuck his head out a back window and woofed once and the guy went quietly back to his car where he belonged.

Guess that is my long winded way of wondering if your dog has been spooked in a car when you weren't right there? Or just going through a dorky puppy stage.

I have had to teach fosters how to ride in cars.....funny how many want to eat the windshield wipers! I don't like rain that well either...but get a grip!

Sonya, I'm laughing right now because I remember the first time I turned the windshield wipers when she was 10 weeks old and she was jumping up trying to grab them and fell on the floor. Thank goodness we were parked in the driveway working on "manners in the car". I still think it's funny, but it may not have been if I was on the highway at the time.

Scott, great suggestion. I'll start working on that tonight and I think I'll avoid the park until she knows the command well. She's smart; shouldn't take her too long to learn it. Would it reasonable to eventually add in a "quiet" and "down" to complete it?

This is definitely going to be one of those behaviours that I will not tolerate.

Sure, you can make the command whatever you want. If you want her to down in the car, work on that separately.

At the advice of Alyssa M., I use two different commands. "Leave it" for the times when I want him to not pay any attention to something and "enough" for the times when he can still be alert but not going bonkers.

Non-negotiables are hard corrections that let the dog know the sky will fall if (s)he engages in that activity again. Things like chasing cars, showing aggression to children, fence fighting, etc.. The same theory of corrections applies, if the dog shuts down you went too far. BUT, you also want the corrections to be hard enough that you don't have to use more than two. Exactly how hard that is will depend entirely on your dog. Personally, I wouldn't make this problem a non-negotiable or you might give her the impression that the car is a bad place to be.