Why does she do this?

D

Dexter'sMom

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I hope I can describe this behaviour properly.
We have had Treesa now for almost 3 months. She is a great girl, friendly, a social butterfly, when friends are in to visit she spends her time generally greeting and socializing, not being pushy at all but just joining in. When my son comes home in the evening ... she barks, runs around ..almost turns her self inside out ..feet flying ... runs away ... barks ... won't go to him initally without me sitting beside him on the couch and encouraging her to come to us. We have tried a few things, having him crouch down to her, play bow ...ignoring her, telling her to "shhhh", poor guy! (He and I raised Dexter together from a pup .. and he really misses him a lot too, and is glad to have a new fur-baby around..) He'd like a relationship as well with Treesa . Oh yeah once he goes to make his supper she's right with him in the kitchen .. huh?? This is hard to figure out. .... any thoughts ??
:fl
 
Dandie does this to only one person in the world and that is my brother in law.

It is because two years ago, she was barking and he hunched himself over and ran towards her barking at her. He was being playful but it scared her. She remembers. She may not see him for 6 months, but when she does, she freaks out and has to be reassured that he is ok.

My thought is something he did scared her. It was most likely something he is not even aware of.

I have no idea how to "erase" it from her memory, as I am still working on that with Dandie.

We just encourage her to go to him, and give her treats, play with her, and eventually she warms up.
 
It could be she's just a bit insecure about him for a reason we'll never find out. Don't push her to interact with him this could feed her insecurity and behaviour patterns. (ie you sitting next to him cajoling her) If anything other than feeding her the dinner (Perhaps by hand) he should just go about business as usual if she initiates contact he should have treats ready to give. Their relationship needs to be built slowly with her taking the steps towards him rather than him pushing her to interact. Rather like Tagg and Tinsel's journey.

When she does her barking etc when he comes in you should all ignore her and go about doing normal things, maybe sitting down on the couch and have a chat together until she settles herself down. Slow steps including positive gentle reinforcement for contact with your son (coming from him).

Set up a regular "Treesa and your son" time where he can perhaps clicker train some tricks or even just clicker train being together and interacting with things she already knows. Make sure she can leave if she wants to and it isn't a forced interaction.

That all came out in a bit of a blurb hope it makes sense!
 
Lexi acts this way around my dad. Somehow he scared her (I don't remember a specific incident) and she is so worried about him now. It doesn't help that I don't see him that often so it's hard to work on it on a regular basis. As soon as we make some progress he leaves and we don't see him for another 6 months.

Aearoniel makes a good point. I wouldn't force her to interact with him. One thing that seems to work for Lexi is just to have my dad randomly drop treats on the ground (really good ones) but not look at her or talk to her. She still acts worried, but now she is curious worried instead of scared worried.

Before we started this she would always be on the opposite side of the room from him, but now she hangs out about 1 ft. away because he is the treat man!
 
I find that two things are likely to make a dog react badly to a person. The first is inadvertantly staring at the dog. Young children's eyes look bigger in the face and so it is more intense than an adult and therefore even more threatening.
The second thing that I have found that will put off a dog is to be approached with the person's body held stiffly erect. You will see this especially in a person that is unsure of a dog or a kid carrying a back pack. Tinsel's reaction to Dave carrying the stool was an example of this. Once he softened his body then Tinsel relaxed but it took a couple of times of me observing to notice that to balance the stool's weight Dave was putting his shoulders back and had become really erect. It doesn't bother the other dogs because we desensitize them as puppies so that they deal with dog show judges by redirecting their attention to us when we first enter the ring, table training and examinations by friends that are dog savvy and getting them to focus on the bait.
I would start by redirecting the dog to me when your son first comes in until your son has shed his belongings. If you can't be there then have him put down his belongings as he walks in, totally ignore the dog while keeping his body soft and walk to a chair in the room that the dog is in and sit down. You don't want him to leave the room because that translates to "I chased him away". At first the dog might continue his antisocial behaviour but eventually he should stop. If you are sure that the dog has good bite inhibition then once the dog stops the bark and retreat behaviour your son can drop some treats on the floor and without looking at the dog he can softly praise when the dog comes over and picks them up. If you are there then repeat the exercise 4 or 5 times of son going out, then coming in - you having the dog focus on you. Teach your son some clicker games to play with the dog if the dog is food motivated. Have the dog always wanting more so short sessions only. Dave still has to move towards Tinsel with his eyes looking past the dog as if he wasn't interested in the dog but something beyond the dog but Tinsel now actively seeks his attention for pets and yummies. Retraining and desensitizaton is a slow process if the dog has a strong fear attached and Tinsel had nothing but fear when he came so I don't expect miracles to happen quickly. Hopefully this behaviour will extinguish for you dog faster.
 
If she's interested in him when he has food maybe you should have him hand feed her her dinner when he comes home from school. We use hand feeding to help a newly adopted dog bond with their new owners. Word of warning... if she refuses to eat don't give in and put her bowl on the floor. If she doesn't want to eat it from his hand she doesn't get the food!
They're smart and she'll figure it out if you give in and let her eat by herself. Be the big dog and let her know she only eats from his hand.
 
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