Overprotective dog

I have a 5 months old minI schnauzer and he is extremely sweet and pretty well mannerd...except with strangers. He is really protective of me and my family. When I took him to the groomer, he is was barking at her like crazy. As soon as she took the leash and walked away from me, he was extremely sweet and started licking her and playing with her. On walks, he doesn't bark at people unless the approach me or even start talking to me. He gets very tense and starts growling which quickly turns into a bark. I try to warn people but I would really like him to stop doing that. I never let him off the leash so no one is danger but all our neighborhs are getting iritated and he is scared a couple little kids in the neighborhood. The only people is he is nice to are other people with dogs.

He is also won't let anyone into the house. He has gotten a little better with my grandparents or people that come over often but any other guests get a pretty rude welcome. I try to get him to sit or do a trick and reward him with a treat but I don't want him to learn that he gets a treat after he barks. Plus sometimes he gets so riled up, he doesn't even pay attention to the treat. I just got a spray bottle so maybe that will work as punishment.

Any advice?

 

I would see a behaviorist asap. The protectiveness can quickly morph into aggression - and then you'll have a lot more problems on your hands. I worked at a humane society for 7 years, ans work at a vets now. Most trainers/behaviorist will give you a free consultation. Good luck.

 

A way to solve that is have your friends come over and let them get near you, but as they do give him a small sliver of cooked chicken meat. Have a different friend repeat the process.

You just keep getting friends to do this on a semI regular basis (a couple times a week) until he sees strangers as a good thing. He will still feed off of your emotions though, so if you were nervous he would probably be nervous also.

I agree with seeing a trainer. I would also make sure to have a muzzle for him to prevent him from biting someone or their pet to avoid being sued.

 

Good suggestions above. The big thing is socializing.
You may want to begin the socializing off of your own property, and gradually work your way into the yard and then the house. Many dogs, and especially small dogs, are more violent on what they consider to be "their turf."
It could be, however, that your dog will always bark at people when they arrive, even after he's been socialized. My grandma's dog barks his head off every time a new person arrives, until he's had a chance to sniff them and get a scratch behind the ear.

I agree that this could become worse. This is usually the reason that responsibly-raised pitbulls (as opposed to those trained to fight, as these attack because they've been taught to) hurt people. They have a very strong family instinct, and this can cause them to overreact to contact between "family" and "not-family." Thankfully, in your case, the potential for harm is much less, since your dog doesn't possess a pair of jaws capable of crushing a soup bone.

The muzzle is an iffy thing. There are times when they are useful, but they can also have the effect of making the dog feel cornered. My parents' dog doesn't like being groomed, and they used to use a muzzle to keep him from biting. He actually hurt my dad more with the muzzle on. However, my parents' dog also is a different case from yours, as his problem is born of self-defense, rather than defense of family, so this may be a moot point. Just wanted to bring up the possibility.

 

I agree that this could become worse. This is usually the reason that responsibly-raised pitbulls (as opposed to those trained to fight, as these attack because they've been taught to) hurt people. They have a very strong family instinct, and this can cause them to overreact to contact between "family" and "not-family." Thankfully, in your case, the potential for harm is much less, since your dog doesn't possess a pair of jaws capable of crushing a soup bone.

I just want to let it be known that I owned a Pit Bull, and he was the best dog I ever had. Would take him over my nasty dalmation anyday. As I stated before, I worked at a humane society for 7 years. I saw 2 viscious pits come in - one was fed gun powder, and the other was so scarred from fighting he had no hair what so ever. I know that this is not the point of this post, but it aggervates me that the Pit Bull is the first example on everyone's nasty dog list. And just for future reference, a Pit Bull's jaws cannot 'lock', and are no stronger than any other dog their size. A German Shepherd could do just as much-if not more damage.

 

Amanda, that was actually the point of that part of my post. People see pit bulls as vicious, but really, most attacks happen simply because the dog loves their family more than most dogs would and misunderstands the actions of a stranger, taking it to be a threat. Of every pit bull attack I've ever heard of (and I have studied them, because the topic interests me), the ones that aren't made by abused animals are made when a stranger is alone in a room in the dog's own house, or when a stranger makes a sudden or fast movement toward a member of the dog's family. By contrast, other dogs (we'll take German shepherds, because they are an excellent example of this) are more likely to bite a person for less immediately obvious reasons.

This is the reason I brought it up. Not because they are "vicious," but because they have a strong tendency to be overprotective.

Though their jaws are not necessarily stronger, shorter muzzles do afford more ability to crush, though there is less cutting harm, due to fewer teeth meant to shear/pierce.

 

Everyone has given you good advice so far. I can't think of anything else since all the information is very good. All I can say is this, don't wait to start socializing your dog. Begin doing everything above as soon as you can.

I say this because I had a dog that was overprotective when I was a kid. He was a Newfoundland. He was the best family dog, my sister (who was little at the time) even used to ride on his back around the yard. He used to bark a lot at strangers and we had to go down and slowly introduce him to anyone who came into our yard. One day my mom was receiving a package over the fence from the UPS man and my dog reached his head through the fence and bit the UPS man, because he felt like he was a threat to my mom. The man ended up with 18 stitches and we got sued and had to put the dog to sleep. If you socialize your dog now, it will save you a lot of heartbreak in the future. Sorry for the sad post. I don't mean to scare you....I just don't want the same thing to happen to anyone else.

 

As said above, you're looking at issues likely stemming from undersocialization up to this point. Without actually seeing the dog, it sounds like a combination of leash reactivity, "protectiveness", and fear aggression. So far you've been lucky and it sounds like your dog's growl/bark threshold is low and his bite threshold is rather higher.

Jerking back on the leash (if you do this), spray bottles, etc. are just likely to escalate the problem as they would affirm that yes...when I see people, bad stuff happens. I would strongly urge you to avoid using any sort of "positive punishment" like this while addressing the problem.

If he's trying to get the people to move away from him, you can use that to your advantage. Start at enough of a distance that he's not bothered by the other people, and get his attention on you...work on "fun" training stuff with lots of rewards (food, praise, games, whatever) for keeping his focus on you and staying calm. Slowly work closer to the person...when you are close enough to can even enlist people to walk toward him nonchalantly (not even looking at him), and toss him a treat without entering his "comfort zone", then continuing away...repeating until the approach of a person = treat and is welcomed.

The same method applies to people visiting. Start with people he knows by having people he knows come to the door. Get him to pay attention to you and relax before they even enter. Slowly build up to an actual entry to the house w/ this same person, then move on to another person.

That's all I can think of at the moment...rehabilitating an undersocialized dog takes a time committment, but is so worth it. And just think, at 5 months old, helping your dog become confident and welcoming will pay off for hopefully the next 15 years.

I try to get him to sit or do a trick and reward him with a treat but I don't want him to learn that he gets a treat after he barks. Plus sometimes he gets so riled up, he doesn't even pay attention to the treat.

Just a special note regarding this part...rewarding him for a trick doesn't mean you are rewarding him for the barking unless you are "bribing" him with the treat rather than using it as a reinforcer. Diverting him from barking and asking him to do something else, and rewarding him for doing so, is entirely appropriate...good job

In theory though, if you are to the point he is so riled up that he won't take the treat (assuming he is somewhat food-motivated, which it seems he is), then you are overstimulating (flooding) him and need to back off...letting him get that wound up does more damage than good.


Good luck


ETA: Found a great link that gives the basics of dog socialization...there are links at the bottom too for specific problems. Might want to check it out:

 

Thanks everyone for all your advice. What I did realize is that this is way over my head and it's too much for me to handle on my own so I signed him for private behavior training. I spent two days calling every trainer in the area and finally settled on one. It's $600 for 6 lessons but I figured it's worth it if I can sleep peacefully for the next 15 years. I am sure my neighborhs will thank me. She starts on Saturday so hopefully I got him help early enough to prevent anybody getting bit or any kids developing a permanent fear of dogs. Thanks again everyone.

 

Very interesting and relavant thread as many of us have dogs. Do keep us post on how her training goes.
Carol

 

Good luck!