Need help !!!

ginger01 · 02-03-2012

We rescue a dog in may of 2011. she is a boxer mix ( we think with ridgeback) she is a good dog except that she barks at my husband ALL THE TIME. If he comes in the house she barks if she sees him pull in the driveway she barks, if he leaves the room and comes back in she barks. you can tell she is scared of him her tail is tucked and her ears are back and she shakes. If he says hi to her she will bark or make a growling whining sound. she was 5 months when we got her but the rescue league had her since she was 2 months old. we thought maybe that it was because the rescue league was ran by mostly women and that she would get better with time. She is getting no better and we have tried everything. He feeds her and he tried walking her but it became so stress full for her that we stopped that. She will not take a treat or anything from him. We went to training and they said time will make her better but its not. I am at my witts end and i cant take the barking anymore.......

lange · 02-03-2012

Have you tried clicker training? You can pick the exact moment you approve of what your dog is doing (silence/calm) without interacting so straight forwardly (for your husbands sake). You can even clicker train/reward for him to start off with. I've never used it myself but it's definitely an avenue to look into for yourself if you haven't yet.

threenorns · 02-03-2012

seriously: cesar millan.

if for some reason you're not a fan, you could also try ian dunbar but i, personally, have had great success with cesar's "calm, assertive" approach.

get his book "be the pack leader" - it covers this exact situation.

btw: stop dwelling on the dog's past - let it go and let her get over it. by constantly referring back and dwelling on it, you're actually reinforcing what happened.

ginger01 · 02-03-2012

thanks for the suggestion. I will try the clicker training. as for Cesar i do like him and I will try his book. We dont dwell on her past there is no past we just cant get her to stop barking and it driving us crazy. Again thanks so much i really appreciate your advice

Thanks for the suggestion. I will try the clicker training.

as for Cesar i do like him and I will try his book. We dont dwell on her past there is no past we just cant get her to stop barking and it driving us crazy. Again thanks so much i really appreciate your advice

Lunareclipse · 02-04-2012

Have you checked to see if your husband wasn't a serial murderer? Did you ask it to see if Timmy has fallen down the well again?

Let your husband be the only one to give your dog treats and to feed your dog for a while. After it realizes that "hey, this stooge isn't so bad after all" your dog might stop barking at him.

threenorns · 02-04-2012

could also be your husband thinking he needs to give the dog "space" and so on - this could be misinterpreted by the dog as a threat (so much of human communication is diametrically opposite to dogs: we hug as affection, they hug as dominance and prey control; we consider pee gross, they consider pee to be a viable social introduction; we call them our "private parts", they call them "business cards"; etc).

so he could be hanging back and avoiding the dog thinking he's giving the dog time to adjust when the dog is seeing him as being furtive and sneaky (iow, a threat).

or it could be your husband just doesn't like the dog - did he want the dog? did he have expectations on getting the dog that aren't being met and he's a bit resentful of it? dog can pick all that up like it's written on a billboard.