I have an 18 month old female fox red lab, spayed, was very well socialised as a puppy and throughout her life with me. She’s a funny thing, she’s very excitable with people she knows or trusts (some people she seems happy with instantly, other it can take a while) and very very affectionate, loves to play etc. But she is quite a timid girl, scared of usual things like the vacuum, fireworks, but is also a little nervous around some people. When people come into our house, or knock at the door, she will bark. I dont mind her barking at people knocking as this can be useful, or if someone comes in the house and she barks before seeing/smelling that it’s someone she knows. But some people she will not stop barking at. I thought it was people who were nervous of dogs as a couple of them were but a couple of weeks ago a friend who absolutely loves dogs and has two of her own came over and my pup would not take to her at all. Now my biggest issue is that she’s started to bark at seemingly random people when on walks. Usually she will happily walk past everyone, if there’s a dog she’ll go and play or sniff them, when other walkers go to stroke her she does tend to duck away as if she’s scared of them. But now the odd person, she’ll bark at. Obviously an issue as lots of people are nervous of dogs and even if you aren’t then it would be worrying to have a dog (she’s not a big lab but I know some people still see her as big) barking at them and running towards them. The other day I parked up, got her out the car and she ran up to these guys barking at them, they looked annoyed and I was so embarrassed! I have no reason to believe she would ever bite, obviously you never know for sure, but people clearly imagine this when she’s barking at them. So, I really want to sort this out but I have absolutely no idea how! My guess is that it’s a fear thing but I don’t really know? She barks at more people when I walk her early morning and it’s still dark, so I don’t know if this is because they seem to come out of nowhere so surprise her more? Any advice would be much appreciated.
Welcome to the forum There are definitely training methods you an use to help with this. Have a read of this article: https://clickertraining.com/reducing-leash-reactivity-the-engage-disengage-game It explains a simple approach that is designed to change your dog’s mind about scary things and also to teach them an alternative to showing scared behaviour like barking. The alternative behaviour is looking at you. In that article the method is called the ‘engage-disengage’ game. This method is also sometimes called the ‘Look at That’ technique. I’d use this method for all people you see out on the street. Also, try to prevent people from trying to touch your dog (you can be very directive about this eg, hold your hand out like a traffic cop and say ‘Don’t approach, my dog is scared of people’).
Hi and welcome. The LAT that Rachael explains above is really good - I used it and still do on occasions as Harley (my fox red girl) doesn't like strange dogs running up to her full pelt so I use it as soon as I see another dog to get her attention on me. She now looks straight at me (95% of the time) if she sees a new dog for me to reward her attention.
