# barking, growling at dogs walking past our house



## ROY1 (Sep 22, 2008)

Hi everyone

Im having some problems with Roy and its starting to drive me insane.
Roy is going to be 10 months soon. He is intact.
He is such a sweet boy and gets along with everyone, people and dogs. He loves nothing more than having a romp in the park with the other dogs we meet.

About 2 months ago, i 'think' he has started getting territorial. Any dog that walks past our house causes him to go insane. Barking, growling, hackles up, jumping up trying to break the door, trying get to the other dog. Once he was on the veranda and tried to jump off (its a two storey house) luckily my brother was with him and grabbed onto his collar just in time. Sooo when other dogs go past, i try to grab his collar to calm him down, tell him to sit and whatnot. He doesnt, he just makes this horrid noise as if im beating him. I feel bad holding on the collar, if i dont, he just runs round the house, going to each window trying to get a better view. My little dog doesnt tolerate this so he will chase Roy and start barking at him.

Outside the house, he is fine. Just wants to play play and play with the other dogs.

I just dont know what to do.

Any advice is welcome

Megan


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## Riley's Mom (Jun 7, 2007)

Hi Megan,

Holding the collar is probably not the answer. Restraining a dog that's trying to move forward just makes them want to move forward more and can lead to escalation of an already excited dog. It's also a good way to invite a bite under the right circumstances.

I've been dealing w/the same type of problem w/mine for about the past 2yrs. Nothing I did until recently changed his behavior. It was not only annoying as all get-out but scary for people walking past our house and it was worse if they had a dog w/them. 

Yes, it could be territorial, but you may want to look at something else that I never ever saw or thought of until I came here. It could also be a combination of both or something else entirely. In our case, when I got right down to some real observation and learning - it seems mine's more based on fear aggression and probably combined with territorial behavior. I'm also taking mine to the vet on Wed for a thyroid test since he's got a few other "symptoms" that point in that direction.

I tried at least a dozen different things included about six different herbal calming remedies (not all at one time), nothing worked. I was about at my wit's end and in tears many days because of this. Then in early March I put him on a Bach's Flowers remedy of my own mixing. Within a week there was a big improvement and now it's pretty darn amazing. Today there was a rescue call 2 houses down so we had 4-5 paramedics and 3-4 cops milling around and a fire truck directly in front of our house. He sat at the window CALMLY and watched them. If he started getting more excited than an "under his breath" woof woof I told him no and he'd stop. A month ago that NEVER worked.

One of his major bad reactions would come hand in hand with the daily mail delivery. I'm convinced he would have not only eaten but then spit out little pieces of the mail person given the chance. That's how bad he was. 

All of this started at about 9mos of age, we got him at 7mos.

I also was pointed to a new trainer who I credit for helping me find the answer to communicating w/my dog in a way that he understands. I believe it's a combination of the Bach's and the new training (pretty much behavior modification) that has brought about this great change.

So those are a few things that have helped us. My strongest suggestion is to first see if he's got any symptoms of thyroid disease. If it turns out that's what's going on with ours we probably could have save a TON of money and buckets of tears and frustration had we known long ago. Someone mentiond this in a post to me a long time ago and I blew it off figuring he was totally healthy and couldn't possibly have a problem there. Now that I've compared his symptoms closely with those of thyroid disease I am really bothered I didn't take it seriously sooner and I'm actually hoping that's what the problem is because it's easily and inexpesively fixed with daily meds! Secondly, find something that works now because it only gets worse. Good luck!


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## ROY1 (Sep 22, 2008)

Thanks for your response.

I dont know why I hold his collar, I think i wanted to calm him, but after hearing your response, Im definately not going to do it anymore. 

Its definately freaking me out, its like he is a different dog. Its only dogs he barks out, he could care less about the people that are walking past.

I was wondering if neutering would make any difference?


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## Riley's Mom (Jun 7, 2007)

Neutering made no difference in mine which is one of the symptoms of thyroid disease. But that's mine and there's no way to know dog by dog if it'll make a difference in your own dog.

The Jekyll & Hyde thing was driving me absolutely insane!

The neutering thing and at what age is greatly debated. You're going to find arguments on both sides of the fence. We hands down agreed with those that the longer you wait up to about 2yrs old, the healthier for the dog particularly males. Seems there's not so much hullaballoo about spaying females from what I've seen.


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## ROY1 (Sep 22, 2008)

Thanks again for responding.

Another dog just walked past about 4 minutes ago. Oh my goodness! 

I tried distracting him with cheese, didnt work. Tried his toy, squeaked it. He looked at me so i threw it. He started to chase it, picked it up and then he remembered there was a dog outside and then started going insane again, with the toy still in his mouth.

Once he couldnt see the dog, he just continued playing. ohhh what a nutcase!


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## Riley's Mom (Jun 7, 2007)

I should add that not allowing him access to the window until you have time to work w/him will probably calm your nerves. If he can't see the window he's got nothing to react to. This in itself helped me to calm down and I wasn't needing to be peeled off the ceiling multiple times per day. Only allow him window access if you are right there w/him and he's on a leash would be my suggestion.

When I brought this up awhile back, one suggestion was the no access and YOU bring HIM to the window when you are ready to work which is supposed to tell him that you own the window, he doesn't. This didn't help much at our house but might at yours.

Hard to do (for me) but a must ... YOU must remain calm and in an "in charge" state of mind. He's got to learn you're the boss and that he doesn't run the show. Some days this was darn near impossible for me to do it was so bad. But when I started putting up a gate to keep him from the window, I was able to get into a more calm frame of mind. It also helped keep him calmer which is good for him. All that excitement and aggressive behavior isn't good for them.

There are many different ways you can address this with different training techniques. I won't go into them, but instead refer you to the training section of the boards where there are more experienced people than me & professional trainers to discuss this with. Also the health section or the aggression section has a stickie on thyroid stuff.


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## JeffM (Dec 19, 2005)

Thor and Riggs use to fence fight with the dog next door. Ideally, you need to distract him before he gets into this mode but that can be pretty hard.

I broke my dogs of it by saying "No!" and of course they didn't listen at first so I would immediately go get them (by the collar) bring them inside the house where they would do a down/stay for a few mintues then back outside they go.

The odd time Riggs will fence fight and all I have to say is No and he breaks it off.


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## aubie (Dec 22, 2008)

I think a similar case was just on It's Me or the Dog last night, I didn't pay close attention since I have a sick husband (they are such babies) but I think she used clicker training to get the dog's focus and treated to keep it on her...I think it worked. 

That owner also would grab the collar which made things worse...might want to look into a clicker, something that he can associate with "click! Oh need to focus, get treat!" might help?


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