A protective dog barking aggressively at the door, window, or fence line may be giving you a sign of a real problem.

Discover how your dog’s aggressive behavior may be reinforced, even when you’re not at home!

Show Highlights

• Do not stick your arm or hand into a dog’s territory (over the fence line, into the car window when a dog is in there, etc.).
• Territorial aggression is one of the most common forms of aggression
  • It is a fear-based aggression.
  • This is a behavior that can (and MUST) be “nipped in the bud”
  • If left unaddressed, it may evolve from growling or barking into biting someone.
• Question to audience: if the UPS person is coming up the walkway and drops off a package and rings the doorbell then leaves all while your dog is barking. What do you think your dog is thinking?
  • Your dog made the person leave because they were protecting the house by barking or growling.
• Even when you are not home, these types of behaviors are reinforced by people walking by or someone on a bike, for example your dog barks and successfully defends their territory because the threat was driven off!
  • This reinforces the dog’s role as protector and encourages this type of behavior in the future
• If your dog is aggressive and is not improving, you need to get a professional behaviorist involved that will improve your dog’s confidence and teach you how to take a dominant role.
• Even if you take the dominant role, you need to teach your dog that they do not need to be your protector.
• Always remember, YOU are setting the rules and have to create the structure in your home so that you communicate well with your dog.
• If your dog is young when they are barking at the window, etc, you can do some basic training as a way to help build your dogs confidence.
• If someone is coming into your home after the dog has been aggressive towards them, put your dog on the leash  call them back.
  • In a situation like this you, do not want to physically touch your dog because this can be misconstrued as reinforcement of the bad behavior
• The leash should represent control to your dog
• Age is a factor as well
  • A dog who is very young will usually bark to protect their area.
  • When dogs enter adulthood (3-5 years of age), they have a feeling of needing to be the protector
  • This is generally the time the barking turns into biting if not handled at a young age

Homework

Teaching your dog to “Get Back”.

• This will be used when you or someone else are entering the house.
• Come up with a phrase “Watch Out,” “Get Back,” etc.
• Review episode 75 and make sure your dog is good at stopping at the threshold.
• Once this is mastered, you can start this homework.
• Put your dog on  the leash and as he reaches the threshold, tell your dog “get back” while using the leash 5-6 feet away from the door.
• Tell him to sit and let him hold it for 15-30 seconds (Ep 31) this is a casual command.
• Do this very consistently, so your dog walks back away from the door and sits or stands, and THEN the big praise can happen.
• Remember the 10-1 rule when doing this homework.
• Once your dog has mastered this via your command and stays, you can increase the distraction level slowly and repeat the above steps.

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