The Zim Family Cocker Spaniel Forum

Everyone has been so helpful in the past, so I thought I would post this here and see if anyone has any thoughts on this new matter.

Riley is settling well, and he is a really good dog 95% of the time. However, he is still relatively fearful and shy, and not very confident. He is getting better all the time though -- loud noises don't bother him much and he is getting really used to traffic when we're outside. When he sees people and other dogs on our walks, he is fine.

However, we have recently discovered that he goes INSANE when strangers come to our house. We've had about 10 or 12 different people over to our home since we got him (including friends, both male and female, our trainer, dog walker, landlords, etc.), and he's never had any issue. However, last week we had a home inspector come in and Riley went NUTS. Same thing when the electrician came on Friday.

He was very aggressive towards both these men. And I mean -- VERY. Not exaggerating, he was growling, barking, lunging, -- it was like when you see 'junk yard dogs' on TV, and you just know that if it wasn't for the chainlink fence they would be taking someone DOWN. That was Riley. It was very scary. I believe if he'd been unleashed he would have bitten them. We kept him leashed and got him out of the house for as much of the time as possible.

We tried getting them to feed him treats and it worked SORT OF. He would be calm and take the treats (he's VERY food-motivated), but as soon as they went back to their work he went nuts again.

I KNOW this is fear based, and I guess he thinks he is protecting the house or me or both, but obviously it's quite bad. I'm nervous about having even our friends over now (especially ones Riley hasn't met yet), and obviously I'm worried that he'll bite someone at some point.

Is there anything we can do to work on this issue? Is there any chance it will just go away (we're in the process of buying our house, so we've had more 'workman' type people over than normal -- the electrician is coming again on Friday but after that I'm sure it'll be months before we have another genuine stranger come over ) -- is it possible that as he grows in confidence he would naturally get over this issue? Or is there some kind of conditioning we can do to help him adjust to these situations? He already has met most of our friends so it would be hard to find a 'stranger' to help him practice with.

We are meeting with our trainer this week to discuss some options, but I just wondered if anyone here has dealt with this issue. Poor Riley -- I know he's terrified, but we CAN'T have him behave this way.

It's unlikely that it will "just go away". You are probably right that it is fearbased, so using food with him is great (you could use part of his regular food for that instead of feeding it all in a bowl). Make sure that people grab a handful of treats when they come in and throw one treat at the time in front of them, the workmen should do the same whilst they are working if they can; if they can't, you could do it for them.

Instead of not inviting people over, ask as many friends as you can to pop in as often as they can (one at the time), so they can do lots of food training with him - regardless of whether Riley is aggressive around them or not! He will soon learn that ALL people coming to the house are connected to food and are a great thing. This will first of all provide a distraction and calm him down, but most of all it will change his emotional response and it will decrease his anxiety over time.

Also, always make sure that no-one approaches Riley or tries to touch him, but let him approache the people in his own time. This will make him more comfortable, being approached is very confrontational for a dog and could make him react.

It might also be worth checking his thyroid as aggression issues can sometimes be connected to hypothyroidism!

And of course, do make sure that people are safe at all times, so start off doing this on lead.

Oh it wot get better as he 'settles in' it will get worse - is probably why its only just happening now - he is feeling more confident - in a way doesnt mean hes not scared, just that as he settles in and gains more confidence in it being 'his' home he will react more ad more in this way

veras advice is brilliant - i personally say let them drop the treats near him - otherwise just get them to ignore him dont talk to him and def no eye contact, just keep dropping treats near him, this is much lessconfrontational than them going over to him to give him treats etc or even calling him over .

And give him a safe place - so he knows if he goes there he wont be disturbed , feed him treats/ kong filled with food etc in there and when visitors come over give him a kong in there - a crates brill for this.

Dogs react with fight or flight- on a leash he has no option but to 'fight' if he has a safe place to go where he knows visitors will leave him alone he will hopefully chose that option, MOST dogs prefer to back off than engage in a full on fight! but his safe place must be exactly that and that means NO visitor approaches him in there if he goes there he must be left alone.

Andrea, I'm going through the same thing with Gordy. I don't know how socialized he was when I got him - probably not very much - but he is painfully shy and fearful. And like Susan said, it seems to be getting worse and not better. My sister the veterinarian came for a visit last week, and she suggested trying a DAP (dog appeasing pheromone) collar on him, so I'm going out to get one today. If this doesn't help, I'm going to continue trying a chemical approach. I am also reading books about shy dogs and have stepped up his obedience training. This dog has turned into quite a project.

Hi Everyone
I have the same with our 9 month old girl Tia... when we got her she was very fearful. We did try the collar that produces scents but it did not work.
We have had training sessions with her to try and build up her confidence but the success for us has to be the ignoring approach. The nosyness gets the better of her and she wants to go and sniff them but it has to be on her terms... it has not been an easy process and it is very hard telling people to completely ignore a puppy when they come in the door but she does seem to calm down a lot quicker as she knows that greeting them is on her terms.
The improvement has been tremendous as before, she would bark at everything on the streets but that does not faze her one bit and she is also now beginning to get a lot more cuddles from people that she would not let near her a couple of months ago :)
Louise