My dog is scaring the neighbors.

paulinejjones · 07-07-2007, 02:21 PM

My big, black labrador's name is Chuckie; he never hurts or even touches anybody but if he sees anyone that is not family, whether it be on his own territory or not, he will hurtle up to them, screeching to a halt in front of their noses and will bark ferociously into their faces. He scared the living daylights out of a five year old boy the other day. As you can guess this does not make us flavor of the month with the neighbors. We thought this was a socialisation problem but he did it to a child that he knows well recently. Chuckie is a healthy three year old; we don't want to put him down and it would be unfair to try to pass him on to someone else. Someone suggested neutering him, does anyone know if this would do any good? Is there anything else we can do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

skelaki · 07-07-2007, 02:58 PM

While neutering is a good idea for many health reasons, it alone will do nothing for a behavior problem that you've let go on for three years. You need to find a good trainer immediately and let him/her help you teach your dog some manners before someone gets hurt and your family's in court facing a lawsuit.

One thing you can do is put the dog on nilif (nothing in life is free) immediately. There's a sticky about nilif on this forum. And, you can Google "alpha dog boot camp" (without the quotes) and click on the first item.

blackrose · 07-07-2007, 07:51 PM

From the sound of it, you could also try keeping him on a leash and not running loose so he doesn't have the opportunity to charge a five year old boy and bark into his face.

I think basic obedience would extreamly helpful. Teaching your dog to sit, down, stay, heel, come and stand on command 100% of the time would help a lot. That way, he is more focused on you and not on the people walking by.

After having a three year old unnuetered black Lab without any training....get him nuetered and get him trained. It will make such a big difference.

ToysHaveMyHeart · 07-07-2007, 08:03 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulinejjones

whether it be on his own territory or not, he will hurtle up to them, screeching to a halt in front of their noses and will bark ferociously into their faces. He scared the living daylights out of a five year old boy the other day. As you can guess this does not make us flavor of the month with the neighbors.

Is your dog let off leash, because that is what it sounds like. Please don't allow him to be unrestrained in public if that is the case.

I second Black Rose post...and would like to add that I think your probably going to have to find a behavioralist or a personal trainer. Your dog, most likey, would not be allowed in the common group class.

And get him neutered! While it might not fix the problem entirely, since he has been doing this for so long, there should be some degree of improvement.

kendallj · 07-08-2007, 12:09 AM

when he barks at the kid is his upper body lowered in a crouched position or is he bouncing up and down back and forth and is there growling involved?? because my friends boxer does the SAME thing... but it's not aggression.. it looks like it, but its not... he just wants to play. Watch his body language when he does it, sometimes its just frustration like "how dare you walk on my territory and not come right to me to play!" I would do this with an adult.. have them ignore the dog and you just watch body language... From what I am getting from you post all you say is that he runs up and barks at them...body language is key... the tone and sound of the bark doesn't play much into it... my dog has a really MEAN bark as her play bark.. at first I thought she was dog eggressive, but when the other dogs started playing with her and nothing happened I realized that was just her play bark and they all play really nice... just watch body language.. and yes getting him fixed will help in the training process because he then has no drive to listen to his hormones and more drive to please you. Become leader.... do some training... he needs to learn to greet nice... manners are important

Jen D · 07-08-2007, 08:56 AM

I think a neutered dog will mellow out some but not stop a behavior, I also agree with above keeping a leash on him when kids are around. Does he only do this with younger kids that are eye level with him?

paulinejjones · 07-08-2007, 12:41 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulinejjones

My big, black labrador's name is Chuckie; he never hurts or even touches anybody but if he sees anyone that is not family, whether it be on his own territory or not, he will hurtle up to them, screeching to a halt in front of their noses and will bark ferociously into their faces. He scared the living daylights out of a five year old boy the other day. As you can guess this does not make us flavor of the month with the neighbors. We thought this was a socialisation problem but he did it to a child that he knows well recently. Chuckie is a healthy three year old; we don't want to put him down and it would be unfair to try to pass him on to someone else. Someone suggested neutering him, does anyone know if this would do any good? Is there anything else we can do? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for all the advice; I didn't think I would have so many replies so quickly. Just to say that this behaviour seems to be relatively new, which is why, because we live in the country and we would be on our way past the last house down a country lane, I wouldn't always think of putting him on a lead. I don't think that he actually means to do any harm and I am doing my best to train him but I am starting from scratch because the previous owners didn't do much. I will certainly consider a trainer if I can find one in my area. Thanks, Pauline.

RedyreRottweilers · 07-08-2007, 12:54 PM

Why does the dog have opportunity to rush up to people like this? This is a lawsuit waiting to happen, regardless if the dog means harm or not. And yes, you should neuter him, temperament like this probably should not be passed on.

Get a leash, use it, and build a fence.

Training is also a good idea.

blackrose · 07-08-2007, 06:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paulinejjones

Thanks for all the advice; I didn't think I would have so many replies so quickly. Just to say that this behaviour seems to be relatively new, which is why, because we live in the country and we would be on our way past the last house down a country lane, I wouldn't always think of putting him on a lead. I don't think that he actually means to do any harm and I am doing my best to train him but I am starting from scratch because the previous owners didn't do much. I will certainly consider a trainer if I can find one in my area. Thanks, Pauline.

My guess is that it is a socliazation and training problem. If he never sees people, then he could be defending "his" territory against them. I have a neighbor dog named Pretty who has never been outside of her own yard before. When we dog sit her and I walk her out on the road, she will lunge and bark at other dogs, people, and cars, no matter how far away they are. The poor girl was terrified of a drain pipe we walked by. (I put a control harness on her and that helped SO much. She was like a totally different dog.)

If the previous owners didn't work with him, it could be also point to a socialization/training issue.

We'd all be more than happy to help with any training problems you might have.

I too live out in the country, and my dogs will be on high alert if I am walking them and we see another person in the distance just because people out walking is rare. (They both perk up and raise their hackles until they get a good look at the person; then they are fine and start wagging their tails. LOL)

On all of our walks, I always put my dogs on lead. Even if there aren't a lot of people around, there is plenty of wild life. If we stumbled across a fox, coon, rabbit, deer, or coyote, I wouldn't want my dogs running loose. If you start making a habit of leashing your dog, it will be better for everyone envolved. If you want your dog to have a freedom on the walks and sniff at things, then once he is trained a bit, you can try a retractable leash.
It is also becoming more populated out here and everyone and their mother's uncle allows their dog to run loose and it is SO ANNOYING. Not only do I not enjoy being bark/lunged at, my dogs are dog aggressive so when I'm walking them on leash and am being pestered by an offleash dog...it really ticks me off.

Jen D · 07-09-2007, 08:02 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by RedyreRottweilers

Why does the dog have opportunity to rush up to people like this? This is a lawsuit waiting to happen, regardless if the dog means harm or not. And yes, you should neuter him, temperament like this probably should not be passed on.

Get a leash, use it, and build a fence.

Training is also a good idea.

I agree with you 100% that is for sure, and I do have a question for you since you have Rotties I also have a dominant breed the AB's. I have had a few rescue through here over the year and I have noticed in the past with a few of them when a kid was looking at them head on with eye contact they would go nuts. They were on a leash and I had control of the dog but I started to use my friends kids to see how they were with kids because they knew how to stand and not stare into their eyes. Sorry this is so long but have you ran into anything like this with your dogs? I know it can happed with all breeds but I know the bigger ones do more damage.