Training an adopted dog

kedinik

Hi!

So I rescued a dog about a year ago. Dachshund + something mix. He does not behave well and I lack the experience / knowledge to make him stop.

I don't know his past, except that he belonged to a family which gave him up to the shelter because he was poorly behaved around guests. Also his tail was broken and the bone grew back crooked at some point during his year in the shelter; maybe a dog fight ended poorly for him and this scarred him mentally?

He's a sweet little guy around people he's familiar with, but an incorrigible jerk towards strangers and any dog larger than him. Might have something to do with his old injury? But who knows.

When he barks at strangers, I'm very consistent about shouting "No!" and sternly holding him still while giving him an angry look.

This hasn't fazed him, though. He seems to, at some very basic level, be absolutely terrified of big dogs and strange people. He reacts by barking insanely until they're out of sight and I don't know how to train him out of this.

How should I train this little guy to behave? I've done ok at socializing puppies that I adopt young, but this guy doesn't seem to respond well to the usual reinforcements at this point.

tl;dr, I adopted a dog who becomes terrified and barks like mad at strangers and larger dogs. How do I train him to behave well?

MushroomStick

You probably just need to have him around strangers and bigger dogs more often.

kedinik

Now that you mention it, I left out something material.

We've done a lot of travel by plane, bus and car since I got him. Lots of walking around public places, too.

He's actually become pretty nice around humans in public as long as they don't try to touch him; he's only territorial against humans if he's in the apartment or near the front lawn.

He hates big dogs at all times though, including the neighbor's friendly golden retriever that he walks by a few times a week. Exposure hasn't helped much with that.

Deadfall

I'm by no means an expert, but the way I see it is you're going to have to get him to associate strangers and big dogs with treats.

When you bring someone over, he's going to bark. Yelling at him, to the dog, is just you barking along with him. That's not going to work ever. Instead, get him to focus elsewhere. The instant he focuses on you and quiets down, give him a treat. Continue this about a thousand more times.

Eventually you'll work him up to approaching strangers/big dogs. When he approaches (sometimes you'll have to lead him there with a treat) as soon as he investigates the stranger give him a treat. Seriously, you have like two seconds for him to associate greeting with treats.

This is how my training class taught my dog, and how I still train him today (he was also a rescue and was/is terrified of strangers. He's getting better though.)

Regina Fong

kedinik wrote: »

Now that you mention it, I left out something material.

We've done a lot of travel by plane, bus and car since I got him. Lots of walking around public places, too.

He's actually become pretty nice around humans in public as long as they don't try to touch him; he's only territorial against humans if he's in the apartment or near the front lawn.

He hates big dogs at all times though, including the neighbor's friendly golden retriever that he walks by a few times a week. Exposure hasn't helped much with that.

Never force contact with other dogs. Also, don't give your dog too much time with another passing dog.

It would be great if dogs were always nice to other dogs when that dog is being nice to them, but unfortunately that's often not the case. All the time it happens where one dog wants to be friendly, and the other one just won't have it. In a passing situation, (generally, walking your dog) it's best to not allow your dog to exchange more than a passing sniff to another dog, because it's when dogs actually get past the sniffing exchanges that they might decide to start some shit with one another.

For socializing your dog with other dogs save it for occasions where you and the other dogs owner are both present and there aren't too many other distractions. Then just be ready to jump in and separate them (probably by pulling your dog out, since he's small and you can easily do this) if you need to.

Keep in mind that individual dogs have temperaments and personalities and that these are to an extent immutable. You can train a dog by rewarding behaviors you like, and even by punishing behaviors you don't want to see, but you can't change the very nature of your dog. If he is (like some dogs are) the sort of guy that only really likes his family, and doesn't like other dogs or even people, then it may be best for you to just focus on training him out of any aggressive or snappish behavior and accept that he's not a people-person (dog).

While it is possible to train a dog of any age, breed or temperament, unfortunately the aspect of dogs development where they learn to be friendly with strange dogs and people is limited to puppyhood. Puppies that aren't exposed to other dogs and people early and often will generally prefer the company of just their own family for the rest of their lives.

As i said though, you can and should train your dog to be civil around strangers - people and dogs (no barking, snapping, or starting fights) but the window of opportunity to get your dog to be like the neighbors retriever has likely passed.

Kistra

kedinik wrote: »

Hi!
tl;dr, I adopted a dog who becomes terrified and barks like mad at strangers and larger dogs. How do I train him to behave well?

You can change his behavior by changing the emotions behind them.

Deadfall and Regina have it spot on. In order to change his reaction to strangers and big dogs you need him to no longer be scared of them. The fact that he now is pretty good out in public is a really good sign that you do in fact have the skills to achieve this change.

In order to help facilitate this change you first need him to stop practicing the barking. This probably means crating/confining him in a different room with something to do when strangers come over outside of specifically set up training sessions for a few months. It definitely means no more forcing him to meet dogs, and trying to avoid dogs altogether for a few days if possible (are there paths to walk him that are less likely to have dogs? Do you have a yard? Can you coordinate with your neighbor so he doesn't see their dog for 2-3 days?)

Does he do many tricks? A useful trick to teach him during these few days while you are destressing him is to teach him to go behind you and sit. Later on you can use this if a stranger tries to touch him out and about or if a dog approaches him and it will give him something happy to do (a trick!) that keeps him away from the approaching person/dog and gives you time to tell the person/dog owner to please get away from your dog.

During the rest of this training your goal is to never have him get scared, much less bark. Look for earlier signs like his ears and shoulders tensing up, his pupils dilating or his hackles raising and use those as cues to back off.

For the big dogs you want to start with having a friend/neighbor/some random nice person walk a big dog past you and your dog about as far away as he can see them. This may be several hundred yards. Watch your dog and as soon as you notice your dog tracking the big dog with his eyes start feeding him something good. If your dog shows any physiological signs of stress the other dog is too close. Keep doing this at this distance until when your dog sees the big dog he looks back at you happily expecting a treat. Only once he does this, lessen this distance - again slowly, if you are a few hundred yards away decrease it by 10 yards, if you are closer do it in smaller steps. Once you can get down to a few yards, you want to move to a slightly more realistic situation where you and your dog are also moving. You will need to add more distance and this is where I would add in the "go behind me trick". Ideally you could work up to a big dog bumping into your dog or sniffing him but if you get it so he doesn't react to the big dog at about a yard you should be able to manage basically any situation that comes up. You will need to do this process with several different dogs and you will basically need to start at the beginning for each one but it should progress a little faster each time. Bribe your neighbors with food/beer or just that your dog won't bark at theirs anymore but be sure that one of the dogs that you do this with is theirs.

For strangers same idea. If need be start with the same thing where you are feeding your dog when people walk by, once he is happy and calm with strangers walking past move on to the next step. Bribe several strangers (your friends, strangers to your dog) to walk past your yard several times without entering (beer, pizza, rides to the airport work well for this sort of bribe), just pausing at your front gate/path/whatever throwing a treat to your dog without looking at him. Once your dog is happily looking at strangers pausing at the front of your yard, start having your friends enter the yard and walk a few feet closer to you and your dog before throwing the treat. Again, once your dog is happily looking for a treat have them come closer or move yourself and your dog indoors and repeat with your house. The strangers should never be trying to interact with your dog, just hanging around on your property throwing treats to your dog.

kedinik

Thanks all, that's some pretty comprehensive advice.

He's good at sitting on command, although that training tends to go by the wayside when he's upset. I'll give it a shot from just about the closest distance where he notices big dogs but has not yet gotten angry / scared.

I'll try to use these ideas to de-stress him and associate the meeting of strangers / large dogs with practiced tricks and treats.

Thanks again! I think that just about covers it.