re post 1, OP
Quote:
Oscar seems to have recently started to bark and act fearful around people
he (sees / meets) on a walk, he is fine if they have a dog as he is more interested in (dogs) than the humans. He has always been friendly to people...
do anything to get to them to play (boisterously I might add) but we... met a friend of mine walking in the woods with his wife and small grandchild and he seemed fearful ...barking... and jumping... so much so that he was really scaring the poor little girl.
He has also started to bark at lone males walking in the woods.
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hey, clare! :--)
how old is Oscar?
i am going to hazard a guess between 8 + 9-MO, and that this began fairly mildly when he was about 6 to 7-MO? (he may be as old as 10 to 12-Mos, in which case this has been going on for a while - 3 to 5 mos total).
desensitizing him to strangers in general will work best if U use the folks with dogs as the opening wedge, letting him interact at a distance with the dog while U chat-up the owners, and meanwhile feed a steady, small stream of TINY but very very good treats to Oscar; he gets to look at + smell the other dog from a 6 to 10-ft distance, while being in the non-demanding presence of strange (scary) humans, who are being kept busy by the conversation, which will hopefully prevent them from staring at Oscar, or attempting to corner / approach him for a pet.
if they really want to get hands-on, ask them to help with his fear issue...
getting to pet the dog in a week or a month is a big pay-off!
remember that ALL over-the-head or above the shoulder gestures come off as threats, to scaredy dogs... so any interaction is on HIS terms (no sit-stays!), and hands in sight, below his chin.
scrubbing his chest gently + slowly is a very calming contact...
happy B-Mod,
--- terry
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terry pride, APDT-Aus, apdt#1827, CVA, TDF
*wolves R wolves, dogs R dogs, + primates R us.*
tmp, sept-2007
