I rescued my dog from the pound in December of last year. He is a 37 pound black lab mix who loves to play with me and my roomates. However, though he hasn't bit anyone yet, whenever someone comes into the house he will bark his ever loving head off. Occasionally he will bark at inanimate objects that he just noticed (e.g. a coat, a makeup case, a small viking ship...). He is definately an odd duck. However, he has gotten off his leash and chased after people barking and growling, if they face him in any way he runs and cowers, but I am sure it was scary to the chasees. How do I stop this behavior. We have been through basic obedience and still practice it, and I would like to be able to run him off leash, will I ever be able too?

Thanks for your help.

Heathea--

I was just about to reply to your post when I remembered something I had read in Ed Frawley's Q&A on fear biters and shy dogs. There's no way I could improve upon it, and this is Ed's bulletin board, so I am going to copy it here:

Your dog is a product of poor genetics and bad breeding. This is not meant as a slam on you, and not necessarily on your breeder. If the litter was the first litter from these parents it could have been an honest mistake. If it was a repeat breeding then the breeder is at fault.

These kinds of dogs only respond to obedience training. They find comfort in doing what is expected from them. They need to understand that there IS NO OPTION - they must mind and they will get copious amounts of praise when they do respond to commands that they know and understand. The concept is that these weak nerves dogs must fear the results of not minding more than it fears the boogiemen in their head. They also need to know that of they obey commands they will get praised.

That's the big picture, all right. As to the coats, the Viking ship model, etc.--dogs tend to be neophobic i.e. they are wary of unfamiliar things in familiar places (a trait of most predatory animals). Some domestic dogs handle neophobia better than others. But that isn't your big problem here. Your big problem is keeping some poor fleeing person from being bitten by your dog.

I would get busy with the obedience training ASAP.

Good luck--

Pete Felknor

Good post Pete!

Thanks, Vince. I will pass that along to Ed! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/wink.gif" alt="" />

Hi, This is my dog to a tee.
He was adopted from the pound as a 5 month old dog. Lab/bordercollie. He is now 41/2
I can't stress obedience enough. Also harsh corrections with him, may wreck him. I didn't know better then, and used a choke collar. I was forever reefing on him. That was a big mistake and made him more aggressive. As soon as I let up on the leash, he was much better. They read your body language like esp.
He has to look to you for everything.
food, ok to pass through the door, etc...
I would especially work on sit, down and stay. Don't let him get away with leaving when in a stay. This will save his life and your pocket book in a challenge. He has to know to stay when you say so.
I have heard that training them to bark on command and be quiet on command will help with the barking, but work on the "watch me" so that he is focussed on you when you need him to be. I trained my dog to "finish" walk around and sit in heel position. I changed that to "place" so that no matter where he is if I say "place" he will end up in heel position. This is very helpful at the door, or at the park. Don't let him be off leash at the park until you firm up the recall. He has to be 100% on a long-line before he is let off the lead. I hope this is helpful.