Barking/lunging randomly at strangers when out?

[Louise Perry]

Hi, now i wonder if anyone has come across this and may offer some insight? Basically Reuben will sometimes bark at complete strangers and this morning he lunged towards a lady as we were waiting to cross the pedestrian crossing and she nearly jumped out of her skin! He use to sometimes bark at young men when off lead, so i use to keep an eye on him and get his attention to prevent this from happening. But now it seems to be when we are stationery and he just randomly picks on individuals. His superlorin is wearing off now and i wonder if it is hormonal etc?

 

Any ideas, and what do i do when he does it?

[Ilona & Gina]

We have the same problem with our boy Anton. He barks at people who wear bicyle helmets and at kids and and....

 

We were so scare that, one day, Anton would bite someone that we called a 'doggy shrink' - what a godsent!

We do the look at me training and Anton is getting there. Good luck with Reuben! 

[Bryan Eagle]

Hi,

 

and who said this site is addictive/! Only been here a week and made several posts already.

 

5 month old pup is bound to be bouncy but (truly) aggressive is not so good. Good points made by Sue and Fran and he is very young to be expecting too much of, he really is a baby. Perhaps not try an overstimulate him, he's a long way from a sorted, calm(ish) mature dog. If there are others in the house/coming and going (children, friends etc) then he won't be so settled as he won't know his place in the scheme of things.

I suspect a lot of the growling might well be puppy play and if his teeth are coming this won't help. Ragging the lead and pulling are pretty normal, its quite a thing for a pup to get a noose round its neck! Give him little lead walks (no commands like sit etc) round the house, reward him when the lead goes on, then reward him when the lead is still on, and again when it comes off. Should slowly break the fighting with lead thing.

As said, stopping games/behaviours when he gets too much will help, teaching him what stop is will take a few weeks. If there is an audience and he is unsure then he'll play up, he is a setter!

A good check to see if its a dominance (over you) thing is to give him his food as usual, when he is eating pat him and talk to him then take the food off him. If he growls and his hackles go up then you'll know he thinks he is higher up the family pecking order than you. If he is fine then his messing around is puppy behaviour and a consistent approach plus time should be enough!

 

All the best with him

 

 

Bryan

 

[Louise Perry]

Just popping in briefly to say thank you for the responses and advice. Sue I do think his hormones have something to do with his behaviour and will not give him another implant as i want to see what happens. I am remaining calm and keeping to damage limitations ie , trying to be one step ahead of Reuben and being aware of people around me etc. I will come back to this at a later date but up to my eyeballs in biology and Anatomy & Physiology revision for my mid-semester exams next week - yikes. I can't wait to actually spend more time on the behavioural aspect of my course once i got my head around the basic science side. You will be pleased to know that I have chosen Honeybees and Dolphins (as opposed to another insect) for my second assignment, so a tad more interesting I think, hehe.

I will be back - watch this space!

[Fran Griffin]

Strange you say this Sue. My friend uses supralorin on one of her Viszlas, and she was only saying last week that he was "going through his behaviour change as it is wearing off".

 

[Louise Perry]

thats interesting Fran -what kind of behaviour changes were they (if I can ask of course) ?