9 month old suddenly barking at neighbors and friends

[watchmaker]

All of a sudden our 9 month old pit mix (we have her a couple of weeks) is barking at neighbors uncontrollably if they approach the house or driveway or me. It is a kinda woo woo woo woooooooo bark with her tale wagging and growling in between. First time it happened when our friend knocked at the back door. Seems kinda like a nervous bark to me. However I cannot get her to stop when she is in that state. I do not know what could be causing this. Also today she started doing the same thing at a child on a swing when we were walking.

Any thoughts? How can I get her to snap out of it?

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

This sounds like a territorial warning type bark - as if she would like to scare the intruders away. How is she once you have visitors in the home or someone comes closer to you?

You should be able to communicate to her that she doesn't have to worry as much with the right plan. How are you doing with your pack structure exercises? We want to make sure that first and foremost that we are communicating to her that we want the position of making the call after she alerts you.

If you are tight on step 5 we can make a plan with step 9 than desenstize at step 10 and only improve from there.

[watchmaker]

This sounds like a territorial warning type bark - as if she would like to scare the intruders away. How is she once you have visitors in the home or someone comes closer to you?

You should be able to communicate to her that she doesn't have to worry as much with the right plan. How are you doing with your pack structure exercises? We want to make sure that first and foremost that we are communicating to her that we want the position of making the call after she alerts you.

If you are tight on step 5 we can make a plan with step 9 than desenstize at step 10 and only improve from there.

Today she barked at the babysitter outside when she arrived who she already had met. I told to quiet and its ok and had the babysitter ignore her and talk to me at first. Then I had her give some treats for sitting then had her play some frisbee with her. She seemed fine.

I went outside to get something from the car and I heard barking inside. I came inside and the babysitter said that she came out of the bathroom and the dog (who had not seen her go into the bathroom) started barking and would not stop. She would continue to bark and back up with a level wag the whole time as the babysitter moved toward her. I came in and told her it was ok and had babysitter give treats and she seemed to calm down. However once I walked away she growled and woof a couple of times at the babysitter.


What is the best way/command to tell her it is ok after she alerts? How do I train this command? As far as pack structure, she is not allowed on furniture. No toys left out. I make her work for every treat. I have her staying for food. She walks on my left and pretty much behind or maybe just next to me with a loose J on the leash during structured walks.

Are there any other pack structure exercises that I should be doing? I am having the kids feed her, give her treats and playing fetch/disc with her. Are their specific things I can do to help reinforce the pack leader position of the children? How do I prevent her from becoming dependent and only responsive to me. She definitely seems to be very attached and attentive to me. I definitely want her to give the same respect and obedience to the rest of the family.

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

How is the family doing with the affection/petting rules and picking up the food items? The affection rule is probably the most important of all them.

Definitely get started with a climb command. You can use a regular dog bed or folded up comforter to practice this. Its right in the phase 1 videos. You are going to want to give her immediate direction when someone enters the house. Keep a leash on her at this stage when practicing and when someone enters. You want to nip this behavior in the bud since this can become much worse as she gets older.

Teach her the command with the full set of rules and do dry runs with family members knocking on the door, etc..
Then see how she does with a real guest. Do not allow her to approach them at all until she is completely settled in a "climb" (or place).
Remember to reward with a good food reward if she does well. If you release her from her position and acts up again - put her right back to the designated spot.

It will help her to know that acting up when you or any family member capable of guiding her is present will result with her going to a stay postion off to the side of the action.

It might not necessarily be possible for the dog to see the children as leaders until the children are old enough to understand how to follow leadership exercises (especially the affection rules) on their own and have the minimum capability to safely guide the dog through simple obedience in the face of distractions.

In the meantime the dog will probably always look toward the adults in the household for direction - and the dog may act one way in the adults presence, but act another way if guests were in the house and only the children are present (in the case of having a babysitter).

Having the babysitter establish a healthy and positive relationship with the dog will be the best option here for that situation.

The more you sucessfully deal with guests the better.

[watchmaker]

Ok so she is a lot better with people coming to the door or people coming over using the place command. She is good with babysitter while I am there but growls at her if I am gone.

[Mike D'Abruzzo]

You may want to do some positive reinforcment based obedienced exercises and games with the babysitter and dog working together. it sounds like there will have to be a relationship built between the two if you will use her often or else you may have a potenial real problem to deal with. Your dog is young still so can go either way, but if you feel the situation is getting dangerous for the babysitter don't wait too long to make a plan to keep the sitter safe.