Beagle - barking, not friendly while with other dog...fine when alone

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Beagle - barking, not friendly while with other dog...fine when alone

.stacer.

Posted : 4/25/2011 7:35:11 AM

So, I've come to you guys for help with Sadie. When we are out walking Timmy and Sadie together and they see another dog, Sadie starts barking her head off, not even the tastiest piece of cheese will get her quiet. It's horribly embarassing. I've been trying to re-direct her to watch me and have yummy treats available, she will take treats (in between barks) until the dog gets a cetain distance, then she will not focus on anything but barking at the other dog. You cannot get her attention.

Timmy is usually fine. If we are out hiking on a trail, DH will take him off into the bush a bit and put him in a sit/watch me until the other dog passes (which he does). Somehow there is always a comment of "oh, they have a Rottweiler" in these situations though - nevermind it's the beagle with the issue.

The barking also happens when we are in the car with the dogs - only in the car and they see another dog - BOTH of them start barking their heads off. We drive a small car and they ride in the backseat - not ideal, but for now it's what we have. In the next year or two the plan is to get an SUV or minivan and crate the dogs in the car - which would stop the problem, but not *fix* it.

Avoiding other dogs, is easy where we live now so we've been avoiding fixing the problem and just not dealing with it for the most part. We are planning a move though - and possibly to a city where other dogs will be unavoidable.

Also, when Sadie actually gets to meet other dogs when she is with Timmy, she will sniff them, and then snap at them. She is not friendly. Timmy, is perfectly happy to meet other dogs - if they are female, he just wants to play - if they are male, he really has no interest in them beyond an initial sniff. Before we got Timmy, Sadie absolutely LOVED all other dogs - she had tons of doggy friends. Now, when she is out by herself without Timmy, it's like she is scared and misses him. We took her to meet a friends Golden Retriever puppy and she refused to play with him - she wasn't agressive with the puppy, she just sat there and watched him and when he would come up to her, she would just simply ignore him. To me, that reaction was fine - I don't care if she wants to play with other dogs, I just don't want her to bark her little head off and snap at them. Also, the other recent alone dog meeting she's had was at the vet - she met a Great Dane puppy - they sniffed then play bowed at each other and played a tiny bit (both were on leash in the tiny waiting room), but Sadie appeared fine...she played and they got along for the short time they were together.

For the end result, I don't care about them liking/playing with other dogs - they have each other for that. I just want Sadie not to go crazy when she sees another dog.

JackieG

Posted : 4/25/2011 7:16:27 PM

.stacer.
Sadie starts barking her head off, not even the tastiest piece of cheese will get her quiet. It's horribly embarassing. I've been trying to re-direct her to watch me and have yummy treats available, she will take treats (in between barks) until the dog gets a cetain distance, then she will not focus on anything but barking at the other dog. You cannot get her attention.

The key is to keep the distance great enough that she doesn't bark, at all. It's best to work on this with her alone. You've got to keep her under the threshold, distance wise, so you can reward her for not barking. Once the other dog has gotten close enough to cause her to bark, you're not going to be able to keep her focused because the trigger has already been pulled in her mind. There are tons of great article and video clips on this very problem. karen pryor and kikopup are just two of the trainers with good, detailed advice on how to work on this. It comes under the general behavior issue of being dog reactive and can take different forms, such as barking and lunging and outright scary, aggresive seeming, reactions. You're going to have to condition her to believe that the sight of another dog is a great thing and the way to success is to set up and control the distance between Sadie and approaching dogs. There are numerous threads in this section and others in the behavior threads.

Patricia McConnell sums up what you're striving for in the training in her booklet 'The Cautious Canine". I quote "the basis of treatment is to introduce the dog to a very low intensity of the trigger (so that he's not really scared yet) while he's getting a very high intensity of the treat that he loves" The same principal will work in your situation. It's going to take some time and effort to set up the correct scenarios but it will be well worth it to have her not reacting when she sees another dog.

.stacer.

Posted : 4/26/2011 12:08:37 PM

I think our friend will let us set up scenarios with his Golden. I will have to pay extra attention to where her threshold is I guess. When she is inside and sees a dog walk by the window, she will bark but will shush when I tell her to and treat - she is easily distracted then. Is that a situation that would be beneficial for working on treating or because she barked is that over her threshold? It's when we are outside that the barking is uncontrollable, inside she will shush when told/treated. I guess what I am asking is the barking itself considered the threshold or the uncontrollable-ness of the barking?

I guess the good news part of this is, it should be easily workable where we live now to slowly introduce her in controlled scenarios, but the bad news is she will have to stay home when we go out hiking since that is where we have no control of who we run into and in often very tight spaces.