Wed 12 Nov 2008
Hi,
I have a 1 1/2 year old male who has an aggression problem, and of course barking. I have taken him to many training classes and at times he is well behaved and can do every trick in the book. But he hates people he doesn’t know and is very vicious sounding. He barks at pretty much every person he doesn’t know. I thought I was doing well with the training, but doesn’t seem to work. I have been very patient and persisitent, but he seems to be getting worse. I am not sure what else to do?? Any suggestions?? Thank you..
This sounds awfully familiar lol
I have a friend who’s husband is named Ricky and they have an extremely People aggressive dachshund. He will run across the room to attack their feet.
The key thing here is LACK of socialization. When the puppy is young, let tons of people hold/poke/prod the puppy and introduce him to lots of other dogs. Make him go into social situations where aggression WILL NOT be accepted.
But since this dog is no longer a pup, it is a bit late for that and I would suggest hiring a professional that has alot of experience with aggressive dogs.
Well, giving advice over the internet is hard. A good trainer will watch you and be able to see what you’re doing.
But know this, Dachshunds are like this, and they tend to appear aggressive. Try to have small successes with your dog. If he barks at people, have people come to your house to meet him and be sure to tell them just to ignore him. Let him get over it in his own time on his schedule. Then he can start dealing with people outside.
If your dog barks at people outside don’t throw him into a situation with lots of people. And if you are not completely calm, you’re not going to help. And you can’t force yourself to be calm, so make outings easy and you and your dog, by choosing places without a lot of people to walk. Go to other neighborhoods nearby if necessary.
If you see people and he barks, just turn around and go the other way. Him barking means you need to do something to stop it, and that usually means taking the pressure off. Yelling won’t work, jerking his collar won’t work, any form of punishment will reinforce his fear because now there’s not only the thing he’s afraid of, but your punishment too. Going the other way and remaining calm will make him think, “Oh, well that didn’t turn out so bad next time I maybe can get a little closer.” Once you’ve got that process started, he’ll slowly, and I mean slowly, start getting better.
Matt
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