Bella's doing great at almost 8 months , only issue we are currently having ( in addition to scratching up the carpets) is that for the past month she has started barking at visitors. Not when they knock but when they enter the living room, she barks quite loudly and bows, it stops after about ten minutes but is embarrassing she never barks on walks but is timid and backs away if people try to stroke her. When she's used to people she's ok, eg family, dog walker. I've tried distraction ie give her something to chew just before someone arrives which works sometimes or a treat when she's quiet and lots of praise , i haven't tried click for quiet yet but I'm guessing that would be the next idea if she stops for breath!!!! I'm guessing it's a protection thing and she's feeling threatened? Sometimes she comes and stands by me as well I have also given some visitors treats to give her, but she won't always take them initially and keeps barking also some visitors aren't too keen..... Any other ideas I've not thought of? I'm guessing she probably won't just grow out of it?! We are moving soon so want to start as we mean to go on....
The other thing is she jumps up at my mum, a lot, no one else, never me!! Not barking tho. Again this started about a month ago...
Maybe you could put Bella in a different room before your visitors arrive and when she stops barking and calms down then she can come in a greet your visitors nicely. I always do this with my dogs but they don't bark a lot at all it's just for calmness and only takes a couple of minutes. You could train for quiet, a lot of us have As for jumping up at your mum, does she make Bella over excited when she arrives hence only jumping up at her? she needs to not pay Bella any attention at all until all four paws are on the ground then she can give her attention or give her a treat. x
Until you said she backs away from people on walks, I'd have said it was over excitement. But coupled with her being timid and backing away from people who approach her I'd say you might have a problem with socialisation. It very well may be the case that you say she was socialised to all sort of people when she was young - but it needs to be an ongoing process, particularly through the teenage years. So I'd think about gradual exposure to friendly strangers, and work on that a bit. Best of luck with it.
I think Bella is just nervous. I understand because we went through the exact same thing - barking and woofing at visitors. Not all visitors, just some. It has almost completely stopped now, but while it was going on I would make a point of greeting visitors; kissing them, hugging them etc so Pops knew it was all right. I also asked visitors to completely ignore her for the first five to ten minutes, until she got used to them. If all else failed, I just put her in another room until she had calmed down. Now, at three years old, she is friendly and welcoming. Don't make too much of a big thing of it; just let her know all is well and that you do not need or want her to bark at visitors to your house. The more good situations she experiences, the more she will realize that visitors pose no threat, and will learn to relax. With your mum, she also needs to ignore Bella for the first five to ten minutes. No squeaky voices, no bending down to chat to her, no eye contact, nothing until all is calm. Don't worry, you'll get there.
Dexter was very similar....he doesn't like being touched by strangers either. Lots of barking as soon as the doorbell went,continuing when visitors came in....especially as soon as he heard a mans voice.Id never want to stop his bark completely ,I don't mind a few barks but I needed to reduce the duration of it going on. I found it hard to work on this without help.I recruited my long suffering 'non doggy person ' sister in main . The doorbell would ring,I'd stand up with treats and walk to our utility/Dexter's room that is gated off the kitchen And shut him in there with the child gate closed and click and treat for quiet....seriously ,at first,you can only get that click in when they stop for a second to draw breath I was lucky to be able to practice a lot.... We then got to the stage where the doorbell became Dex's cue to run to his room and we've worked up,from there .Now if the doorbell goes and I'm on my own,Dex runs to his room, I chuck him a few kibble and close the gate and he's quiet.i open the door,he hears voices,he starts barking...I tell visitors, 'ignore the dog' I walk in and tell him to get down ( he will be standing up on the gate) treat when he does get down and say be 'quiet' ,I have finger on lips hand signal too ,he does and I open the gate,and put him on his bed and treat...if he murmurs he goes straight back in his room and gate closed,when he's quiet gate open ,back on bed,treat etc....this sounds a rigmarole but it isn't now,he's pretty good and if I have chris home or my dog sitter around ,it's hardly an issue. I'd love to be able to open the front door and have him sitting waiting next to me quietly but its too big an ask for my nervy boy,we practice with my sister because he knows her so well but he can't keep his bum down on the floor....she gets irritated with me opening and closing the front door in her face too trying to keep him on his spot....I best not even try now it's so hot and my front door gets full,on sun! Something else I also used to do while we had jumping up was to scatter some kibble on the floor round the feet of a visitor ...no jumping or barking....food is king in our house!
Thanks all Yes it is certainly not an excited bark at all... Today ten of us went on a walk, we were first, waiting, when 6 or so people approached us Bella started barking, first time ever outdoors, she had never met half of them to be fair, but when she saw another dog who was coming with us, she chilled out, then was fine rest of way, sniffing them all on her terms though. But also had a heart in mouth moment ... Amazing with recall, staying close, saying hello to dogs etc but half way around playing behind me she was with the spaniel who was also with us, a few minutes later , he then ran past, no Bella behind , odd, still no Bella .... Still No Bella , I called her, nothing, then blew my whistle , nothing, then panic set in, I went back, as everyone was on their merry way, a few minutes later calling and whistling , saw her , she had got stuck , she had jumped down a low ish rock but obviously couldn't get back up, in the woods in the water with cliffs etc, I climbed down and lifted her up eeekkkk first time I've had serious panic poor love....I bet she had heard the whistle cos she had her head and paws on the rock whining to me then she daren't go up the stairs so I had to carry her, and she split 2 nails but she's ok, and I've learnt a lesson to be more careful watching her. She carried on enjoying herself though so no lasting scars I hope...
Poor girl Bella . At least you found her and could lift her up . How is she today? I get the barking when people come to the door - I always have to hug or touch whoever comes in if Harley hasn't met them before, or she will keep barking at them. Usually I give visitors Harleys ball and she stops barking, sits and waits for them to throw it then she's ok. Only once did she keep up the barking - It was our plasterer, and he is a bit weird tbh
Scary! Hope Bella is ok now. Twice Charlie has jumped down a drop too steep to jump back up. Both times the drop was too great for me to follow him (I'm not very agile). The first time, he ran under a nearby bridge and found an alternative way back (clever boy) and the second time I managed to grab his collar on a jump up and he scrabbled with his paws until I got a grip of him and could help properly. Both times he was quite close by me and not running off - but I would never ignore a failed recall. He is much more likely to be stuck than ignore his recall anyway.
She is fine and dandy now thanks all, she was so good as well throughout , never going too far and coming back when called, so I knew something was wrong. I think it was a case of act first think second!!! But she stayed very close on today's walk Very scary though, I agree , would not want that to happen ever again! Had 3 guests over today , she barked for 5 minutes then they ignored her so she decided to take some of her toys over calmly, a work in progress!
Oh goodness,glad you found her and she was ok,big fright! Dexter got stuck in a man made lake once,the water level was really low,I whistled him and he didn't come,luckily I'd seen which direction he'd gone in and walked over.He was scrabbling on the rubber lining and just couldn't get a grip to get out.Of course I slipped on my bum hauling him out which my friend thought was hilairious. I have ,but you know mainly because I wanted to make him feel a bit happier.I felt like he was getting really worried about people coming in ,so I kind of wanted to give him a 'job' to do....ie when the door bell goes your 'job' is to go to your room and be quiet and then when you are nice things like yummy treats happen,He also seems to like there being a 'process' and if I'm dealing with it all in a particular order calmly,he's much less anxious about someone coming in and seems happier x Good luck
