I don't know if this is in the right place, so feel free to move if necessary.

We have taken little Truly into our home and hearts, and she is absolutely adorable - everyone who meets her (well, upto now!) has fallen completly head over heels in love with her. She is a little dot who absolutely loves her cuddles.

However, over the last few days, we have had a couple of new (to her) people come into the house. Her temperament has changed immediately from the loving excitable 'puppy' to an aggressive, teeth gnashing little horror!

This also happened a few weeks ago before we went away, with our next door neighbour. Truly was curious and wanted to say hello, like Holly and Scooby, but when Ann went to say Hi to her, she went mental!!

Any idea's anyone?? I've not come across this one before... so any advice is welcome.

Sorry Jo no advice or experience but I'm sure some of the peeps with cocker experience, much wiser than I, will be along soon

No real advice for you Jo, the only thing that we do here with ours is tell (not ask! cos sometimes peeps just dont take it in otherwise ) everyone new who comes into our house to please ignore Griffon. No eye contact, no looking in his direction etc. We took him on at 5 and a half months and we dont know what happened to him in that time but he is very distrustful of new people in his home space and does gets quite agitated at times. We always say to people he will approach you when he is ready, which he does, and he is fine after that.

Hope you get this sorted soon xx

Jo, can you remind us of her age, history, and how long she has been with you???

I feel that maybe little Truly was a little confused when she came to you, and very unsure of things - which often leads a dog to 'shutdown' wherby they are still anxious/afraid of new things but there bodies are under so much stress they are unable to react. Often, once they feel a little more at ease, there bodies are then able to react, which may be what you are experiencing with Truly.

For now, I'd work on having her go to a safe place when you have visitors, often, behind a babygate can be a good idea, where she can see, hear and smell you all. Alternatively you could have her on lead and ask her to 'settle' when they come but experience has taught me that the safe place often works better. As others have said, ask new people to ignore her completely, so she doesn't feel threatened.

Is it the eye contact, voice or body language that sets her off?? Or a combination of all three???

Also, whats the rest of her body doing when she does go off on one??? And the barking does it include growling?? Is the bark high pitched???

Have you tried clicker trainign with her??? It might be worth a go to try and build up her confidence and reward her for focusing on you and being calm

Hi... thank you for all your replies.

regarding her reaction, her bark becomes quite a nasty bark, with growling and teeth gnashing. She tends to edge backwards from the person but then lunges forward if they make approaches to her. I think it's a mixture of all three that set her off, but if they lean down and put their hand out it makes her slightly worse.

She didn't do it when we first had her, it's something that has started over the last few weeks. I did say to my friend yesterday to just ignore her and not look at her, and that did seem to help a little.

Now I never thought about clicker training her, I will have to get it out and try it.

Thanks again for your advice - it's a bit worrying that she could have a nip at someone..

Okay, without seeing her it is difficult, but from what you describe she is anxious about unknown people approaching her, which is coming out in bark/growl/lunge. It is really important that she's not put in a position where she feels she has to defend herself as quite often this behaviour can become almost second nature if practised often enough. This is where the safe place, asking people to ignore her will help. You could also save her 'favourite toy' purely for when visiters come round, or throw treats on the floor for her whilst they are there - so she associates them with good things

You described a person leaning down and putting their hand out makes her worse -this is because she feels threatened and intimidated by the body language that person is giving off (just like if someone stood over you) By asking visitors to ignore her, you can stop the behaviour from escalating and retrain her

Another thing you could try is handfeeding her . . . . . Star was very phobic of hands coming anywhere near him and would react in a similar way to your description of Truly - we handfed lots of his meals so hand=food=nice

What Kelly said


how old is Truly - where did she come from etc?

Jo kindly offered to foster Truly for us at Bernwood Springers. She was a real sweetie at first and is probably getting more confident with her surroundings. she is approx. 2 and came from Ireland where she was kept in a garden kennel and run.

I do hope things improve soon Jo and that your bruises heal quickly from that nasty accident.

A childgate has worked with Charlie. If people come that he doesn't know, we put him in the front room until everyone's settled, and then he'll come out tail wagging, almost as if we've shown him we don't need to be protected.

Thank you ever so much for all your advice. I'm going to get another baby gate soon and try that.

Everything you said CK, made alot of sense.. thank you for taking the time to reply..

Jackie, the bruises are not doing too bad, still quite sore with a few things and my elbow is acting up, so is my back.. but we all walked away from it, so that's the main thing..

Jo

This sounds exactly like our Mr Conker. We consulted a behaviourist and she said that he just didn't know how to react to the attention he was receiving and so he paniced and got snarly and aggresive.

We've also noted that when people come to the house and its quite a commotion with all the dogs wanting to greet each other that he gets so over excited that again he doesn't know what to do and he snaps..thats why we have him in the cage when guests first come and let the other dogs greet people first and then let him out...it works well for us.

The thing is they are so bloomin cute that everyone wants to touch them and fuss them and sometimes I think they just can't deal with it.

If anyone asks to stroke Conks now I say yes but very gently and only once as he has snapped before.

Jo.. you're right! exactly what you said about Conker when we came down! That never dawned on me!! She seems to join in with the bullishness of the others... mm..

thanks for the advice everyone..

Izzy, if you can pm me the contact details that would be good!