Kody
Kody doesn’t like people coming to her house and she makes that very clear with a lot of barking. White GSD Portia is less reactive to callers, but she will join in.
After a very noisy start in the sitting room with both dogs on lead barking at me, I went back outside, rang the doorbell and started again. The dogs were put in another room.
This time we went into the kitchen and sat at the breakfast bar with a bowl of tasty tit-bits prepared and to hand.
Then the dogs were then let in to join us.
Accustoming to callers and people
As you can see, both dogs are happy and this was achieved very quickly. Portia is sitting beside me waiting for another piece of cheese, and Kody also was eating out of my hand. Usually Kody would have been barking at someone’s slightest movement and she has nipped people in the house.
Portia
I go to a great number of German Shepherds in particular that behave in an aggressive to callers coming into their homes. I believe one very big part of it starts in early puppyhood. These dogs in particular need early accustoming to plenty of people (and dogs) from about six weeks of age. They need to get in as much habituation as possible before four months old.
I deliberately don’t use the word ‘socialising’. It’s not about a lot of ‘hellos’. It’s about calm acceptance.
Even then it’s never ‘job done’.
Maintenance is key.
Meeting people and other dogs needs to continue being a regular feature of the dog’s life else they will lose their acceptance of people and callers. Sometimes people who are at work all day simply don’t have time. They pay the price.
I have personal experience of all this with my own German Shepherd, Milly. She used to belong to a client who bought her from what was to all intents and purposes a puppy farm. The lady didn’t even see Milly’s mother, and Milly herself had met nobody at all until she was twelve weeks old, apart from the person who fed them all.
A recipe for disaster. The poor lady who bought her couldn’t ‘bond’. Milly was scared of absolutely everything and everybody – including the couple who bought her.
How owners react
When the dog growls and barks at people, most owners try everything they can to stop her – by scolding, restraining and maybe threatening with something. It might ‘control’ the dog, but this is only a temporary fix and makes things even worse the next time.
One reason we show anger to our barking and snarling dog is that we feel we somehow owe it to the person who is the brunt of it. We need to get over that and put the dog first. We need to try to understand the underlying reason why she’s doing it, and deal with that. Then she won’t need the aggressive behaviour that she hopes will send callers and other people away.
If they continue to keep Kody and Portia away from all people, things will never change.
As I say to owners, the only way you will change your dogs’ behaviour is to change what you do yourselves. In this case each dog needs to be worked on separately, outside in the real world where people can be seen from a non-threatening distance. They also need ‘obedient’ callers!
The bottom line is, it depends how much we want something. If it’s important enough we’ll do it.
