Oscar seems to have recently started to bark and act fearful around people he comes across when we are on a walk, he is fine if they have a dog as he is more interested in them than the humans.

He has always been friendly to people - so friendly that he will do anything to get to them to play (boisterously I might add) but we have just met a friend of mine walking in the woods with his wife and small grandchild and he seemed fearful and was barking at them and jumping round them 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.

Any ideas?

Murphy does this sometimes and I worry that he will appear aggressive to people who don't know him, but I know he is not at all. Hopefuly someone can advise us.

Sounds like possibly over excitement. What happens when you pop him back on the lead.

Molly Barks at other dogs and hops around them play bowing and she gets quite boistrous when they dont want to play, we pop her back on her lead for a while to help her calm down.

Ollie barks at specific men. It's always men but not every man he meets. There's an instructor at agility (a man) that he had never met before, but just took an instant dislike to him and was barking at him. I just put it down to that the man has something on him that Ollie doesn't like (such as smoke for example) and it doesn't happen too often anyway.

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He doesn't calm down even when on a lead just pulls my arms out of their sockets, he is a very excitable dog anyway as you may have guessed from my other posts.

My trainer is at the moment trying to set up a few of her friends in the local park to walk up to him but ignore him to get him desensitised. He gets really excited around people but as he has matured I've noticed him getting a little scared around unknown people (men in particular especially ones who think they can control him better than I can) which is worrying me.

re post 1, OP


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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tmp, sept-2007

Oscar is actually 11 months now but it seems to only have been in the last couple of months he's started to do this. I've just been out for a walk with Oscar and he terrified a guy walking on his own - he just doesn't seem to know what to do with someone if they haven't got a dog with them.

He just seems to start barking at them and bounding forward and then away a couple of steps, the guy looked absolutely terrified and I had to pull Oscar away from him. I don't think it is aggression as he is normally so excitable and friendly but it's getting embarrassing now.

hey, clare! :--)

approx 85% of aggro-behavior has its root in fear or anxiety; a genuinely confident, pushy, Bolshy dogis far-less likely to Bite! than a scared dog, who simply panics under any pressure + Wham!, bites.

most pups or dogs who show any fear-issues are more scared by men...
not b/c men have necessarily DONE anything to the pup / dog, just cuz men are taller, have deeper voices, + they tend to move + stand in ways that dogs find threatening
(abrupt decisive movements, more likely to bang things a bit like doors, drawers, etc, more FRONTAL body-lingo, more direct eye-contact which is perceived as threatening stares, etc).



well, i would not label that display as U described it *friendly*, LOL - he is not desperate for the man to come + play with him, he sounds very uncertain + literally undecided in what he should do...
which is not a good thing, excitement + uncertainty can easily add-up to trigger a bite. if i saw this in a dog, my thought would not be *aggro* but defensive, as in the best defense is a good offense -- it sounds very much as tho Oscar is trying to send them away...
and guess what?
its WORKING - and that is the bad part.
as it works for him, and he continues to practice + get more fluent, it will BECOME aggressive behavior - so nipping the growth in the bud is important, IMO.

the book *Click to Calm* is an Excellent!, easy to use DIY reference for such over-arousal and reactivity; whether he is excited, scared, feels threatened + defensive, it DOES * NOT matter a whit, it all uses the same Desensitization + Counter-Conditioning to change the way the dog Feels, so that the scary / super-exciting / evil / deeply threatening / whatever! THING becomes at the very least, tolerable and ordinary, and with time + work, actually a Pleasant! thing to encounter.


punishment for acting-out never reduces the original emotion, the feeling that erupted in the acting-out, which is just a symptom; B-Mod goes for the emotion that is the grounds for the acting-out, to change How the Dog Feels About _______ .
by altering how they FEEL, we can create a permanent change in behavior without any trauma or confrotational hooey - a lot less drama, a lot more happiness for dog + handler!

another Q -
is Oscar intact?

if he is, i would suggest desex; he is already past his testosterone peak, which was 9-MO, and is on the downslope, but reducing testosterone does statistically reduce the risk of a bite, and also the M to M displays and other aggro behavior.

other dogs also react to intact-Ms differently than they do to desexed Ms; since all behavior is a conversation, this sets-up reactions in the intact-Ms, too, and even After desex, they will still tend to carry themselves defensively around other dogs, in ** Expectation ** of their previous less than popular reception...
intact-Ms tend to be the target of a lot of body-contact, shoulder-bumps, hip-checks, pushing, muzzle-punches, etc; this makes the intact-Ms wary of other dogs, and more reactive, tending to create hair-trigger reactions from relatively minor contact. (just because U are paranoid does not mean that they are not out to get U, LOL...)

so to avoid this aspect of learnt behavior in the intact-M resulting in other dogs continuing to react to him as if he were still intact, i generally suggest it be done ASAP.


i think for whatever reason, Ur dog has become worried about men - maybe he does not know many men, or has not met many, who knows?
but no matter, * Click to Calm * is what i would suggest as a reference; the local library may have a copy, or they can get it via Interlibrary loan.

i hope this helps - cheers,
--- 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

You're scaring me now, I'm worried that Oscar is becoming fear aggressive when he has previously shown no signs of aggression whatsoever, he just wants to play all the time.

He doesn't do it to all men, he's barked at a couple jogging, the one today looked as if he had a slight mental disability and he was terrified of dogs (I was with someone else with dogs and they seemed to think Oscar was trying to play but the guy was re-coiling), another guy he barked at was shouting across the road to us as we had broken down and the other time with my friend walking in the woods with his wife and grandchild, the little girl was swinging a stick about.

I'm worried that he is feeling my apprehension when people approach because he is so exuberant with his greeting. If they have a dog with them he seems happy to interact with men.

zebs doing the same thing, he isnt aggressive in his body language, but as hes a big dog i tell him to shhh and put him in a sit and keep him close until hes stopped or the person passes.

He'll be one in 4 days

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