Fear Aggression only when im home???

[stev394]

Our DS is an angel for my wife when I am not home. When I'm home with my wife he is fear aggressive towards her only. IE he barks and growls at her with his tail tucked whenever she tries to move about the house. But only when I'm home. He will also do this to company regardless of wether we are both home or just one of us is home. But he is an angel for pet sitters when neither of us is home. We tried having only my wife train/feed/exercise him but to no avail. Due to the fact we rescued him we do not have alot of history on him other than the home he came from had similar issues. When he does this he is immediately corrected. Looking for ANY ideas. He is exercised daily and we train with him on a regular basis. We would like to be able to give him an actual job but are finding it difficult due to the fact noone can get near him when we are training him. He is good with other dogs just not people when we are around. We have had people take him on lead away from us then he is ok with that??? Any insight would be greatly appreciated. We have been training and resucing GSD's for almost 9 years but this little guy is a handful......

[leih merigian]

The first thing I'd do is crate him whenever you have company over. Do not allow him to keep practicing this behavior. Of course, your wife is going to have free run of the house, but with company, he can just be put up and not have to experience the stress he's feeling or the corrections for his fears.

Correcting a dog who is in a fearful state isn't a very good idea. You are inadvertently reinforcing the fact that bad things happen when he's anxious, which will only increase his anxiety.

This kind of stuff is very hard to diagnose over the internet and with words. Your smartest move would be to find a good/experienced trainer who can come to your house and see what's happening first-hand.

There is a possibility that your presence is providing him with the pack support he needs to feel able to act defensively towards your wife, similar to the support a dog feels when a leash is tight. But that's just speculation, and doesn't do anything to help you know what to do about it.

[Choochi]

Whole heartedly ditto to every thing Leih said.

While you're working on fixing this, crate him when people come over. He should love his crate, it should not be a place of punishment. Look up Crate Games, this has been mentioned a few times on this forum. For your wife, you can either crate him or make sure he always has a drag leash on him so that he can be led away from the situation instead of every one instigating it. The more you try to fight this out, the worse this could become. If this is fear based, DO NOT correct him for this! He needs to learn to gain confidence, not have more stress added to the situation, very possibly making the issue worse. It is also possible this is not fear based or it could easily be a mixture of issues.

You would benefit the most from having a qualified behaviourist come in and work with you in person. Key being qualified. This is some thing that is extremely hard to diagnose properly over the net and to give good solid advice for since we can't see any of what is actually happening and your perception is biased and could be flawed. If you post where you are located perhaps some one can suggest a qualified person to help you.

[stev394]

Thanks for the insight. We do in fact crate him when we have company. He likes his crate and has no issues as far as that goes. Good point about the leash and me being his "support" Didnt think about that. As far correcting him its primarily verbal correction. He does not respond to physical corrections they are fruitless with him. I tell him no and give him his sit command and then my wife moves freely. However the moment she starts to move about again he goes right back to growling tail tucked barking. We did consult the only local trainer who is experienced with DS and followed her ideas. To no avail. Please keep ideas coming. Thanks

[Christie M]

Can you tell us where you are located? That might help.

Also, please visit the User Control Panel and create a signature that includes your name. It just helps us keep people straight.

[Christie M]

From a training standpoint, I really think I would have to see it in context to make recommendations. There are so many variables and stimulus in this situation.

If what the "local trainer" suggested didn't work, its either time to bring them back and say "Can you change your protocol?" or "Where did we not understand how to execute what you were explaining?" That being said, this is bigger than what an average trainer would know how to deal with, even with breed experience. And I am sometimes skeptical of Clinical Behaviorists only because I have seen them not know how to deal with actual drive - and channeling or lowering it appropriately. I have had more than one stable rescue called nervy or unstable because they just didn't understand what they were seeing. In the right home - they EXCELLED.

I would start by motivationally introducing a gentle leader and basket muzzle (the greyhound style). By pairing it with food, you make it a good thing. These simple precautions will stop any tension in the household. I am sure your wife tries to portray confidence, but its always in someone head that maybe this time he will bite my butt (which is the natural progression of this behavior). It also keeps him from reacting out of conflict and getting feedback. So everyone would have peace of mind and he could not deteriorate.

Other than that, as I said, I would have to see it and interact a bit before I could gauge why the dog is acting the way it is.

Good luck and keep us posted.

[Dutchringgirl]

could you take a video? Put a video camera on the counter or chair and act natural and see his behavior?

[vneerland]

I too second the suggestion that such things are hard to diagnose over the internet, but not to let the dog continue to be around strangers for now, and to be careful about correcting fear based behavior. So here is another 'find GOOD help advise.

[alexis]

Zane has this problem with guests (barking and trying to chase but with an upright tail) and it was diagnosed as a combination of resource guarding (with me being the primary resource) and territoriality by our trainer. She's having us do exercises to address both issues separately, and while it's still much too early for us to be seeing results with guests, he has been better about not guarding lower priority doors (the front door to our apt building, the dog park gate) already. He also has a protocol to follow every time he meets/greets a person who isn't my husband or I.

I'm in no way qualified to say whether or not your dog has the same problem as Zane, but it might be worth checking out some resource guarding books (I'm currently reading "Mine!") to see if they resonate with what's going on in your house.

I'd also recommend a trainer - we were just about doing the right things based on reading books and advice given here, but she had some tweaks that made the exercises more effective. She's also working a bit one-on-one with both me and my husband, which I think is helpful since I'm usually the one who's in charge of the dog.