{"id":4179,"date":"2021-12-21T06:54:49","date_gmt":"2021-12-21T12:54:49","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/petpundit.com\/?p=4179"},"modified":"2021-12-21T06:54:49","modified_gmt":"2021-12-21T12:54:49","slug":"obedience-training-essential-to-correct-over-protective-dogs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/blog\/2021\/12\/21\/obedience-training-essential-to-correct-over-protective-dogs\/","title":{"rendered":"Obedience training essential to correct over-protective dogs"},"content":{"rendered":"

Dear Cathy,<\/span><\/p>\n

I have a Havanese dog who is approximately seven years old. My daughter and I adopted him from North Shore Animal league five years ago, but since she moved out he\u2019s become very attached to me. He is very loving. He follows me all over and sleeps with me. He is walked at least three times a day.<\/span><\/p>\n

The problem is, he can sometimes become very aggressive and bark and growl when he sees strangers on our walks through the neighborhood. Sometimes, I take him to the beach with me and he will sit quietly next to me, but if someone approaches us, he will growl and bark in a very aggressive manner. I am always very careful with him, especially around children who he does not seem to like either. He is also very aggressive toward my significant other when I\u2019m around, but during the day when I\u2019m not home he is fine with him. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u2013 Toby, Syosset, NY<\/span><\/p>\n

Dear Toby,<\/span><\/p>\n

You have an over-protective dog. While that trait might be great if you are in a danger, it\u2019s not a welcome trait in the everyday life of a family dog.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sometimes, without knowing it, dog owners reinforce over-protective behaviors simply by not correcting a behavior when it happens. Correcting a behavior is basically not letting him get away with it. It\u2019s a verbal correction of \u201cno,\u201d and removing him from the situation so he can\u2019t continue the behavior. Saying \u201cno\u201d at the beach for example, might make him stop growling, but it doesn\u2019t make him stop looking at the people around you who he sees as a threat. His eyes need to be focused on you, so he can learn from your body language and voice and tone as to whether a situation needs his attention.<\/span><\/p>\n

The good news is, your Havanese is a very smart and trainable dog, so through obedience training, you can teach him to shift his gaze from looking outward to always looking to you for instructions on how to behave. Begin teaching him to look at you by saying his name about 25 times in a row during one to two-minute training sessions held three times a day. When he makes eye contact, click a clicker and give him a tiny treat. When he makes eye contact every time you say his name, than use the clicker to train him to \u201csit\u201d and \u201cdown,\u201d again doing this several times a day. Don\u2019t worry about \u201cstay\u201d right now. Do these sessions quickly, so he doesn\u2019t have time to think about anything else but what you are asking him to do.<\/span><\/p>\n

Next, if he barks and growls at anyone while you are walking him on a leash, you have two options. One is to stop abruptly, turn, and walk in the other direction. If you do this even when no one is around, he will begin to think he better pay attention to you.<\/span><\/p>\n

The other option, which I use frequently when my dog barks at other dogs or people, is to step in between him and the thing he is barking at, ask him to sit, and then turn with my back to him, but facing the perceived \u201cthreat.\u201d Keep the leash tight so he can\u2019t get in front of you or peak his head around you. The idea behind this is to let him know you got this, and you don\u2019t need him to protect you, and that it\u2019s actually your job to protect him. Again, you are letting him know it\u2019s okay to relax and leave things up to you.<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, never force him to interact with people, but socialize him little by little. Determine how far away people need to be before he relaxes and give him treats for relaxing. Slowly move closer to people as he progresses, always giving him a treat for staying calm around people. Stay vigilant with this training, and you will begin to reshape his behavior.<\/span><\/p>\n

Cathy M. Rosenthal is a longtime animal advocate, children’s author, syndicated pet columnist, and pet expert with more than 30 years in the animal welfare field. Send your pet questions, stories and tips to\u00a0cathy@petpundit.com<\/a>. Please include your name, city, and state. You can follow her @cathymrosenthal<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Dear Cathy, I have a Havanese dog who is approximately seven years old. My daughter and I adopted him from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[51,248],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4179"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4179\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4179"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4179"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cathyrosenthal.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4179"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}