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Retrievers => Golden Retriever Discussions => : meg April 17, 2005, 06:13:25 PM

: Confusing Behavior
: meg April 17, 2005, 06:13:25 PM
My five month old Cassie is a friendly dog; BUT when we are walking are someone passes the house she runs up to them and begins barking.  Then when someone speaks to her she lies down and wants to be pet??  I guess I don't understand :shrug can someone please explain this to me?    Thanks in advance....
Meg ???
: Re: Confusing Behavior
: jabear April 20, 2005, 08:08:13 PM
I know you said she was getting spayed...has that changed the behavior at all?
: Re: Confusing Behavior
: meg April 20, 2005, 11:09:50 PM
I haven't noticed any change yet....she was spayed last week, would a change show up that soon?  Your pic is great.....such a sweet, huggable teddy bear you have!
: Re: Confusing Behavior
: BOBI April 21, 2005, 05:05:49 PM
sometimes young dogs can go through a "im a big pantie waste stage".
my 5 month old male bouvier barks and growls at people. what i do is tell him no in a frim calm voice and then pat him heartily on his side or chest to reassure him.
he always will run back to the 8 yr. old fran and behind her.
he is simply having a confidence issue at the moment. this is why i take him with me everywhere i go and have him meet and greet kids, as well as all kinds of people.
i explain to people he is  big chicken right now and i am getting him used to meeting folks.
the problem is he is also in a growing spurt and is getting large and peopole are not as willing to help you have your dog with his issues.
as far as chasing people, not good. keepin them on leash is a good idea till they are broke of that one.
fran likes to race out to pour sidewalk barking, if she sees someone which usually scares the bajeebas out of them.
she got her bad habit from years of being in an enclosed fenced pen and years of fence running, barking.
good luck.
: Re: Confusing Behavior
: mastiffmommy April 21, 2005, 08:42:07 PM
I used to have a dane, who did the same. Well she was older, but the same kind of reaction. When people came near the house, she went up to the fence and started to bark after a little while, it was strange because she absolutely loved everyone. After having studied her a lot from the window, and spoke to one of my obedience instructors. I think we pinned down why she did it. She went up to the fence, and I guess expected whoever was walking by, to stop and talk to her, when they didnt, she tried to make them pay attention to her by barking. That very rarely had the effect she was hoping for  :-\ sometimes they speeded up and went by real fast, others were standing there, looking at her, but did not approach, so she kinda felt like, okay you are here, you are looking at me, why are you not talking to me???? So she barked even more to try and get them to come closer and pet her. Unfortunately they did not understand her language  :( When people actually did go up to her and started to talk to her, she was all tail wagging and lovable.

So the advice I got from this instructor, was to have people walk by, when she barked just ignore her, and when we got her to be quiet, they came up to talk to her and greet her. The idea was to make her realize that if she wanted attention and petting, she had to be a good girl, bad behavior did not get her that. We did make her change, but it never went away totally.

Good Luck to you,

Marit