aargh... puppy barking at my lodger... help!
Discussion
i have a 1yr old mini dachschund. we got him when he was 5 months old. he was living quite happily in our house with myself, the missus and my lodger (best mate from uni).
my lodger went away for 5 months to sail a yacht to australia, but is now back. in that time, our daxi appears to have established some form of territorial or pack issue where he sees my lodger as a threat and just barks/growls at him all the time. this is especially annoying at night where the daxi is on alert for any noises coming from my lodgers bedroom and barks/growls in reaction.
we obviously need to get the daxi to understand it's position within the pecking order of the house and accept my lodger as 'one of the pack', but how best to do this quickly?
my lodger went away for 5 months to sail a yacht to australia, but is now back. in that time, our daxi appears to have established some form of territorial or pack issue where he sees my lodger as a threat and just barks/growls at him all the time. this is especially annoying at night where the daxi is on alert for any noises coming from my lodgers bedroom and barks/growls in reaction.
we obviously need to get the daxi to understand it's position within the pecking order of the house and accept my lodger as 'one of the pack', but how best to do this quickly?
I am not a dog behavourist but what I see here all the time is that "back heirachy" is pretty much considered twoddle these days.
If it was me, I'd make sure the lodger always greets the litte hound with a treat and a pat on the head. Once it associates lodger with good things, it will be peaceful again.
Although, I'm sure someone with more knowledge will be along shortly to add to/correct me
If it was me, I'd make sure the lodger always greets the litte hound with a treat and a pat on the head. Once it associates lodger with good things, it will be peaceful again.
Although, I'm sure someone with more knowledge will be along shortly to add to/correct me
Your lodger is no longer the person you knew. Skynet has replaced him with a terminator and your dog is only looking after your best interests.
Check your phone book for anyone living locally called Sarah Connor and give them fair warning. Also suggest to your 'lodger' that you would like to visit a steel mill with him.
Good luck, all our futures are relying on you.
Check your phone book for anyone living locally called Sarah Connor and give them fair warning. Also suggest to your 'lodger' that you would like to visit a steel mill with him.
Good luck, all our futures are relying on you.
Neither am I a behaviourist - lots of things are trial and error to see what works for you and your dog. We're currently going through behaviour modification with our two.
Dachshund 1 barks a lot and is generally 'the policeman' neurotic.
Dachshund 2 is terrified of everything - started growling, lunging and snapping.
As part of working with the aggression behaviour in Dach 2 we had to significantly reduce the barking in Dach 1.
To be honest, no amount of 'a pat on the head' would have stopped him!!! We use 'ignore ignore ignore', whoever comes in the house. When he is quiet and walks away because he is not getting a result, we then reward him by greeting him. We also use a citronella spray it is very gentle and doesn't have the HISS that many do - he just doesn't like the smell and it helps to back this up with the ignore tactic.
It hasn't taken him long to work it outand is much better.
BexVN may have some other good tips!
Dachshund 1 barks a lot and is generally 'the policeman' neurotic.
Dachshund 2 is terrified of everything - started growling, lunging and snapping.
As part of working with the aggression behaviour in Dach 2 we had to significantly reduce the barking in Dach 1.
To be honest, no amount of 'a pat on the head' would have stopped him!!! We use 'ignore ignore ignore', whoever comes in the house. When he is quiet and walks away because he is not getting a result, we then reward him by greeting him. We also use a citronella spray it is very gentle and doesn't have the HISS that many do - he just doesn't like the smell and it helps to back this up with the ignore tactic.
It hasn't taken him long to work it outand is much better.
BexVN may have some other good tips!
This is going to sound a little.. crazy..
I have had experience at being at the bottom of the "pack".. my ex was top, then the dog, then me. I found getting "top dog" to repeat what I said helped, and also, not backing down. It's not always recommended, but I stared down the dog (rather large retriever that I had a lot of trust in, he just failed at listening to me), not looking away until he did. Also, saying a command, and staring at him until he backed down soon got me as 2nd in command, and him at the bottom of the pack. Once he knew I was taking no nonsense from him, and that he only got what he wanted when I decided, not when he wanted it, re-cemented it in his mind.
Even if it's something you're going to do anyway, like giving the dog food, get your lodger to do it, making the dog sit/do another command you yourself ask him to do.
If the dog barks/growls at the lodger when they're around, get everyone to ignore the dog and carry on as usual, once he realises you're not alarmed in any way by the lodger, he will stop feeling the need to "warn" you of the threat.
If the dog doesn't get his food/toy/treat/lead put on for walkies until he respects the food/toy holding giver, whether it be you/your lodger/the cat, then he will quickly pick up that they are higher in the pack than himself.
It may sound a little harsh, and I am by no means telling you to tease him to get him to do what you want, but just try to teach him his behaviour is unacceptable, and as you can't tell him, you have to show him. A lot of dogs actually find it incredibly stressful having to "care" for the lower members of the pack, and also teaching him to accept who you accept is always a good thing.
Best of luck! ^_^
- Just a random side note, I also found the best way to stop a dog doing something, is first to train it to do what it's doing on command, and then train it to stop on command. With my old dog, it was jumping up at people, we started with me rewarding him if he jumped up at me when when I said "Up up!", and then rewarding if I said "get down" pushed him away, and he was forced to "get down". He soon learnt that "Get down" meant being with all 4 paws on the floor, and got him a reward, so then if he ever did get over-excited and jumped up (whether asked or not) I had a way of stopping him, and also meant I didn't have to attempt to train all the humans who insisted on asking him to Jump up.. He was a very heavy and strong retriever, but I guess your daxi doesn't cause an issue with this, unless you are a Borrower
I have had experience at being at the bottom of the "pack".. my ex was top, then the dog, then me. I found getting "top dog" to repeat what I said helped, and also, not backing down. It's not always recommended, but I stared down the dog (rather large retriever that I had a lot of trust in, he just failed at listening to me), not looking away until he did. Also, saying a command, and staring at him until he backed down soon got me as 2nd in command, and him at the bottom of the pack. Once he knew I was taking no nonsense from him, and that he only got what he wanted when I decided, not when he wanted it, re-cemented it in his mind.
Even if it's something you're going to do anyway, like giving the dog food, get your lodger to do it, making the dog sit/do another command you yourself ask him to do.
If the dog barks/growls at the lodger when they're around, get everyone to ignore the dog and carry on as usual, once he realises you're not alarmed in any way by the lodger, he will stop feeling the need to "warn" you of the threat.
If the dog doesn't get his food/toy/treat/lead put on for walkies until he respects the food/toy holding giver, whether it be you/your lodger/the cat, then he will quickly pick up that they are higher in the pack than himself.
It may sound a little harsh, and I am by no means telling you to tease him to get him to do what you want, but just try to teach him his behaviour is unacceptable, and as you can't tell him, you have to show him. A lot of dogs actually find it incredibly stressful having to "care" for the lower members of the pack, and also teaching him to accept who you accept is always a good thing.
Best of luck! ^_^
- Just a random side note, I also found the best way to stop a dog doing something, is first to train it to do what it's doing on command, and then train it to stop on command. With my old dog, it was jumping up at people, we started with me rewarding him if he jumped up at me when when I said "Up up!", and then rewarding if I said "get down" pushed him away, and he was forced to "get down". He soon learnt that "Get down" meant being with all 4 paws on the floor, and got him a reward, so then if he ever did get over-excited and jumped up (whether asked or not) I had a way of stopping him, and also meant I didn't have to attempt to train all the humans who insisted on asking him to Jump up.. He was a very heavy and strong retriever, but I guess your daxi doesn't cause an issue with this, unless you are a Borrower
davepoth said:
Failing that the lodger could give him treats? Dogs aren't mercenary like cats - they like anybody that is nice to them in my experience.
Kinda agree with this one. My dog is one hell of a guard dog. She will greet new people to the house by barking and howling at them.My remedy is get tennis ball - give to stranger- stranger throw ball- dog and stranger now friends for life
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