Hi all,

I'm a new member hoping the collective knowledge here may help where nothing else has.

My wife and I have two miniature Australian shepherds, ages 7 and 4. The younger dog, Tucker, has always been a nervous, skittish little guy. He seemed fine when we chose him from the litter, but from the first day we brought him home he's been rather fearful of other dogs, strangers, and new situations in general. We tried (and continue to try) to socialize him, with tepid results. A few years back we hired Barkbusters to come help us with our issues. Since then both of our dogs seem better behaved overall. The one area we just can't seem to correct is doorbell behavior.

When the doorbell rings, Tucker immediately goes nuts. He used to simply bark incessantly, but a few months ago we hired a nanny to take care of our baby. Since she comes every day, Tucker anticipates the doorbell. Now, when it rings, he charges the door and becomes nigh-uncontrollable. Our older dog, Indy, barks at the doorbell as well, and now Tucker has taken to attacking Indy once he starts to bark. Tucker recently nipped a UPS delivery person, and this morning he nipped our nanny twice right after she entered the house.

Earlier this week I'd started locking both dogs up until after the nanny arrived, simply because I wasn't sure what else to do. Once they've calmed down I can let them out and after an initial race around the house to see what happened while locked up, they're fine.

Tucker is generally a sweet dog. He likes our nanny, and in fact is friendly to everyone who comes into our home. He simply needs 5-10 minutes to adjust to their presence.

Barkbusters has worked with us many times on the doorbell behavior, but nothing our trainer has suggested has worked, and now Tucker's behavior has gotten worse. Last time our trainer was here she seemed out of ideas, and even said that when Tucker's adrenaline kicks in, she sees no way to reach him without physically containing him.

Now that Tucker is starting to nip people that enter our home, and starting to get into fits of violence towards Indy, I fear for our our 9-month old son and any guests that enter our home. I am starting to seriously consider finding Tucker a new home. I told myself I would never do that. We adopted him and told ourselves that he was our responsibility, no matter what. I've been determined to correct his behavioral issues, and with the exception of the doorbell, I think he's a pretty good dog now. But I'm out of ideas. Clearly I'm doing something wrong, and not getting through to Tucker. I can't live with a dog I can't control all the time, and I can't continue to risk our son and our guests as Tucker's behavior worsens.

If anyone has been through something like this, or has ideas, please share them. It would break my heart to give up Tucker, but I've failed him. He deserves better, and me and my family deserve to feel safe around him. I just don't know what to do.

Thanks for reading.

Philip Wilson

This does sound like quite the problem. What we did with our GSD, was have great food treats, (cheese, hotdog pieces, etc.) and had one person inside, and one outside. Different times of the day. No one would actually come inside during our "training sessions." I wanted him to learn that barking was fine, but he had to be quiet in order to get a treat and praise.

He ate quite a bit of his afternoon meals this way, but now when someone drives in, or the doorbell rings, he barks, looks at me, and when I say "good" he comes for praise, and that possible treat. Good things happen when he does what I want. I don't know if this will help Tucker, I hope somehow it can a bit.

i came to this forum to ask a very similar question!

except I have five dogs, and there is a very serious brawl every single time someone knocks or rings the doorbell. Today I almost got bit by my big sheepdog trying to break it up - they aren't aggressive towards me, but there is one or two that will keep trying to go after the ones you've separated, and of course everyone wants to defend themselves.

I would be interested in seeing some suggestions on dealing with multi dog situations. Especially involving every size of dog!