Hello everyone,
I'm praying for some help -- I adopted a 5, now 6, year old Chihuahua one year ago. We are her third family. She's a sweety except for...barking and going CRAZY when people, usually my 8 year old son's friends, come over. Well, when anyone comes over. She still gets really mad every day when my son gets home from school and barks like crazy at him. She gets so mad, her little hackles are up, she's furious. She'll bark at people or dogs out the windows, bark and rush the door of course at the doorbell, but the biggest problem is the aggression she's constantly showing to people coming in the house. And no-one appreciates a 5 lb dog going crazy at them. I have tried: citronella collar, ultrasonic device, shaker can, crating, putting in a different room, shock collar, Caesar Millan-style methods, squirting, you name it. If anything she's getting worse. Went for my son's friend's leg today and if he hadn't had jeans on might have gotten his skin good. When does a person look for a new home, which is very hard for me to do with her. She'd bark for 2 hours straight. When I read this I think I'm crazy to keep her...Any ideas? I don't really know if I believe professional help could help, plus it's expensive.

"Little Lola" wrote in message
...

. I have tried:
citronella collar, ultrasonic device, shaker can, crating, putting in a
different room, shock collar, Caesar Millan-style methods, squirting,
you name it. If anything she's getting worse. Went for my son's
friend's leg today and if he hadn't had jeans on might have gotten his
skin good. When does a person look for a new home, which is very hard
for me to do with her. She'd bark for 2 hours straight. When I read
this I think I'm crazy to keep her...Any ideas? I don't really know if
I believe professional help could help, plus it's expensive.
Little Lola

Well obviously these punishments methods haven't worked and they seem to
have increase your dog's barking behaviour.
Your dogs behaviour is "fear " based and you can change her feelings and
attitude with the right method for example desensitising and
counterconditioning.
It's not that complicated once you know what to do.
I would have a look at Victoria Stilwells website and the dog training
section of the forum for information and advice.
http://positively.com/

Alison

On Sat, 03 Dec 2011 00:44:54 +0000, Little Lola wrote:

Hello everyone,
I'm praying for some help -- I adopted a 5, now 6, year old Chihuahua
one year ago. We are her third family. She's a sweety except
for...barking and going CRAZY when people, usually my 8 year old son's
friends, come over. Well, when anyone comes over. She still gets
really mad every day when my son gets home from school and barks like
crazy at him. She gets so mad, her little hackles are up, she's
furious. She'll bark at people or dogs out the windows, bark and rush
the door of course at the doorbell, but the biggest problem is the
aggression she's constantly showing to people coming in the house. And
no-one appreciates a 5 lb dog going crazy at them. I have tried:
citronella collar, ultrasonic device, shaker can, crating, putting in a
different room, shock collar, Caesar Millan-style methods, squirting,
you name it. If anything she's getting worse. Went for my son's
friend's leg today and if he hadn't had jeans on might have gotten his
skin good. When does a person look for a new home, which is very hard
for me to do with her. She'd bark for 2 hours straight. When I read
this I think I'm crazy to keep her...Any ideas? I don't really know if
I believe professional help could help, plus it's expensive.

Join this:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/C...guid=473241596

Thank you. I will look at it and join.

You're sure right about the methods not working.
Thanks for the website and I will look at that and the forum there.
As soon as my son gets up in the AM, she runs over angrily at him, barking.
It's hard for him to take, also, and we may be at the point of finding a different home.

"sonofdog" wrote in message
...

Join this:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/C...guid=473241596

I'd forgotten about the Yahoo groups! I might join that one.

On Sun, 04 Dec 2011 19:01:36 +0000, Alison wrote:

"sonofdog" wrote in message
...

Join this:

http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/C...guid=473241596

I'd forgotten about the Yahoo groups! I might join that one.

indeed I find them very helpful,

CU_Dogs description:

This group is specifically for readers of "Control Unleashed: Creating a
Focused and Confident Dog" by Leslie McDevitt, who are using the methods
and philosophy of the CU program either with their own dogs or their
students' dogs, and wish to share ideas, stories and encouragement in a
supportive environment.

and Leslie McDevitt is very active in the group and frequently gives
advice to anyone having difficulties. I use exercises from her book
to lessen exitibility of my dog and it works for us really good.

Temperament?????????????

Jo Wolf
Martinez, Georgia, USA

On Sun, 04 Dec 2011 22:07:39 -0500, Jo Wolf wrote:

Temperament?????????????

Jo Wolf Martinez, Georgia, USA

Jo, I have misspelled it
it should read "excitability"

He cannot wait, yet he does.
His pray drive is extremely high, on our walks in parks
and/or treed areas he will lounge after rabbit or squirrel
on his own but if I spot an animal first then I can control
him without too much difficulty. He will sit or do down and wait
until I send him after. He is very good with people and other dogs.
He plays with most of them like this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlT2F...eature=related
and he does not bother ones that are not willing to play with him.

Lola's temperament, to me, seems to be very confident. She's not a shivery, fearful-seeming Chihuahua. She seems excessively reactive to every sound she hears and sights she sees from our windows. Doesn't run away fearfully, just charges toward whatever it is, mad as heck. During the summer, on the driveway, she'll rush barking towards people, children, other dogs, aggressively. I walked her very often at our off-leash park, she was stand-offish with other dogs and would dart away from people who reached out to pet her. At the park, if I hold her and allow someone to pet her, she'll occassionally pull back her lips to show teeth. At home, if I hold her while company is over, she'll quiet down after a long while, if I don't she'll just bark at the individual non-stop, or if we put her in another room, she'll bark in that room until she knows they're gone. We had an 11.5 year old Staffordshire Bull terrier, whom we just lost on October 1, and she tolerated him, but ignored him. Our boy, Curly, was a very balanced dog, just like Daddy on the Dog Whisperer.