[lexiamp]

My 16 month female rescue APBT is very protective over my bedroom, my bed in particular. She is very territorial of our home in general to strangers, but to ANYONE who comes into my room. We will be sitting in bed and for example, my brother will come in. As soon as she hears the door she starts to growl. When he comes in, she will stiffen up and bark, sometimes fly off the bed and bark towards him, lunge at him, she has even jumped up and nipped at him. But then there are times where he ignores her and makes his way onto the bed and lays down and she starts licking him and snuggling like it's fine, rolls onto her back and shows her belly in submission, despite all the barking she did. Even if she is not already laying on the bed, say she is laying in her crate and someone comes in the room, she will start barking and run and jump on the bed to protect it. I don't know if she does this because there have been plenty of times I have gotten annoyed/angry/raised my voice at my brother for just letting himself in my room, and she picked up on that? Maybe she associates someone coming in as bad and is just trying to protect me/my bed? I don't know what to do about this. She is a very sweet, affectionate, mellow dog otherwise. Very anxious though and has separation anxiety from me. She's very sensitive. Please, any pointers?

 

[Canyx]

Counter conditioning and desensitizing. If she growls when she hears the door, start marking and rewarding her for being calm as he is headed down the hall. Teach her that all the door sounds (shuffling, knocking, door knob, etc) mean treats. Of course, you want to have you or your brother or anyone else do it in a way that is gentle and not overwhelming. For example, if your brother starts by pounding on the door she is sure to bark. The sounds/motions (triggers) should be small enough that she notices but does not yet react, and then she is rewarded for being calm. Eventually she will learn that those triggers means food. Down the line, other people may be able to walk over and feed her a treat for being calm all the way. But it will take some amount of training to reach that point. The eventual goal is to teach her that others approaching means great things, so that she does not feel the need to guard that space.

The simpler answer is to just not allow her access to the bed at all so that she can't run over to guard it. But that is up to you.

 

[lexiamp]

Makes sense. We will work on that. She is not extremely treat motivated especially when she is distracted and on alert like that, but perhaps with the right ones.. Thank you! I considered not allowing her on the bed at all any more, but then the incident happened where she was in the crate and still jumped onto the bed to protect it/me since I was on it so I figured maybe that's not even necessary.

 

[Canyx]

Good luck! For rewards, try things like string cheese, meatballs, deli meats, hotdogs, liver, and other stinky human-grade goodies rather than processed "dog treats". Usually makes a world of difference
And remember to work with very small triggers first. It might mean having your brother just saying "Hi" from down the hall or something like that. The sweet spot is where your dog casually notices and is not full-blown ready to react (stiff, totally distracted, growling, etc.)