Sandstorm's behavior when meeting people

KarenCurtis

KarenCurtis

Forums Sage
Sandstorm has made progress in these areas, but when he meets a person, he will be good if that person knows dogs (not the overly friendly type). He will sniff and not react obnoxiously. When the person tries to leave, he will go forward a bit, (not lunge) bark, move back, and go forward again.
When he sees a new neighbor, he will run up closer to them, not too close, and do the same- back up, bark, move forward, back up, bark.
Why does he do this? Is he herding, or is it more complicated? He will never, ever lunge or make any biting movements.
Thanks!
 
First, tell the person not to make eye contact with him or make moves towards him. Just stand there and talk to the person, remaining calm, and try to keep a loose lead. If the person moves away then he will learn that he can push them away. If the person comes toward him he might bite in defense. He is on the defensive because he doesn't know what to do - whether to fight or flee. Once he is calmer, and this can take a while, turn away and happily ask him to come with you and reward him for doing so.
 
Tagg said:
First, tell the person not to make eye contact with him or make moves towards him. Just stand there and talk to the person, remaining calm, and try to keep a loose lead. If the person moves away then he will learn that he can push them away. If the person comes toward him he might bite in defense. He is on the defensive because he doesn't know what to do - whether to fight or flee. Once he is calmer, and this can take a while, turn away and happily ask him to come with you and reward him for doing so.
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People have come near him often, he doesn't bite
 
That's good to hear. One thing that has worked well with Tinsel is to teach him to target to my fist. Once he got really good about it I started to transfer that behaviour with the cue of "touch" to other people's fists.
 
You just described Merlin. I ask people to ignore him until he settles, no eye contact is a good thing, though some people will insist on trying to approach and talk to him while he is barking, in which case I stand between them and him so he learns I won't let people approach him if he is scared.

Recently he has shown marked improvement. He still tends to bark at men, people with hats, workmen in hi-vis coats, etc. But it is improving.

I always talk to people so he sees they are safe, and if Cadbury is near I let them fuss him, which usually boosts Merlin's confidence.

At the end of the day a Sheltie was bred as a guard dog for sheep and the UK standard says 'aloof with strangers', so this is perfectly natural. Many people don't grasp this unfortunately, so us owners have to be a 'barrier' between our dogs and the over-friendly 'what a cute dog!' types:biggrin2:
 
Sandstorm has been lucky- people seem understanding and are not really afraid of him, as he looks non-threatening. And most ignore him because it's annoying. I was just wondering what the moving forward-backing up was all about. I try to get between him and the other person, it's not always possible.
 
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