Author Topic: Lola's behaviour is starting to concern me.. :(  (Read 2137 times)

Lyn

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Lola's behaviour is starting to concern me.. :(
« on: August 28, 2006, 06:40:57 am »
Recently Lola started a new behaviour. One I'm not too sure of.  :-\

As I mentioned before Bubba will bark to alert us of strangers on or near our property. Well Lola has picked that up and more. Instead of just barking she's growling and she sounds down right ferocious at times.

At first I thought she was just picking this up from Bubba.. well except for the growling part. Bubba doesn't growl. But sometimes SHE starts the barking and then Bubba joins in.  :-\

She only does this in two places.. when she's in the front yard or when she's in the truck and someone she doesn't know approaches it. Anyone can enter the house, strangers included and she's fine. When we take her into town to socialize her she's also fine and approaches strangers on her own for attention.

It's like she's protecting our property. But she's only 19 weeks old. ??? I didn't expect to be seeing this behaviour from her at all.. The barking maybe.. But even Bubba didn't start that until he was well over a year old.

Regardless I have been correcting her.. Generally just an "UH UH No" and she will stop.

I should mention too that she only does this with adults.. more so with men than woman. She's amazingly gentle with kids. She loves kids whether she knows them or not.

Just wondering if anyone has any insight on this?

Lyn

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Re: Lola's behaviour is starting to concern me.. :(
« Reply #1 on: August 28, 2006, 07:08:13 am »
Good point. I completely forgot about the fear periods. With Bubba I knew because 'everything' scared him. Maybe Lola is dealing differently with her 'fear'?

I looked it up though and it says 17-21 weeks old is the second fear period. So it looks like that might be it.

She's always been a shy, sweet, submissive pup. So it surprised me to see her standing right along side Bubba barking like a fool. We have been working on building up her confidence. So my first thought was well, maybe we built her up too much. LOL

In any case I'll keep correcting and I hope it passes.
« Last Edit: August 28, 2006, 07:14:23 am by Lyn »

Offline kab416

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Re: Lola's behaviour is starting to concern me.. :(
« Reply #2 on: August 29, 2006, 02:01:07 am »
We had a similar situation in that we had a male saint, and then added a female about a year after the male.  Our male Henry, has always been pretty low key, he would bark but only once in a while.  What we saw with the female, Darcy, was a far more protective attitude - which definitely startled us!  We started to get really worried when she was about 5 months and we would go on walks and she would posture at some people who were just walking or jogging by.  So we went back to socialization basics, having strangers give her treats, more trips to public places, etc.  In addition to that, we reinforced our dominance in the house.  She has to sit and wait until we say ok to eat, no treats until she does something for it, stuff like that.

It seems to have worked though.  She is still a barker in the house when she hears an errant noise, and at the fence once in a while - when another dog walks by, but when we're walking or if they are in the car she has settled down.  We've always had male saints and I have never experienced this aspect of behavior, I think females are maybe a little more protective!

Lyn

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Re: Lola's behaviour is starting to concern me.. :(
« Reply #3 on: August 29, 2006, 06:14:42 am »
I think alot of what she's doing is fear based.. When we first brought her home she was scared of everything and everyone. We have been working our butts off to socialize her with everyone and everything. I think this fear period must be bringing this other stuff out. I spoke with our trainer and she just told me to be consistant and correct all growling. Not to allow her to continue with it. So it's back to doggy boot camp for her. LOL

She's definitely more cautious when it comes to men though. The breeder was female and her previous owner was also female. So I think she just hasen't been around alot of men. We past a couple yesterday in the grocery store parking lot. She walked right past the guy and went straight to the girl for attention. She ignores men like they don't exist. LOL So I make a point of asking strange men to pet her. I get alot of weird looks but hey.. :D

I used NILIF (nothing in life is free) with both Bubba and Lola. They must sit for attention, for food, to go outside and to come in. Pretty much everything. She's never tested me or anyone else in the house for alpha.. But she tests and pushes Bubba on a daily basis and he could seem to care less.

kab416, I know what you mean.. male and female Saints seem like night and day personality wise. Females though do seem more motherly though. If there are kids in the room Lola has to be right next to them, but Bubba will lick them and then lay down in view of them, but he really seems to care less unless they have food. lol