Dawn_B
Well-Known Member
Hi all! I'm looking for advice about Vito and I hope you can help point me in the right direction.
Vito is a 10 month old CC. Personality wise he is a bit of a goofball and is super eager to please. We are midway through advanced obedience at PetSmart and he is doing pretty good. Distractions are difficult with him, but I've chalked it up to his stubborn teenage stage and we've been working through it. He is easygoing in the house, follows all the rules, is AMAZING with our kids and great with strangers coming to the door, whether he is in or out of his crate, as long as one of us is present. I am home with him and the kids all day so he gets lots of people time and attention and as much outdoor time as his velcro-dog self can handle.
When my husband gets home from work I take Vito to the off leash park for an hour or two to romp with his friends. We have been going at least once a day since he was 4 months old and he has a great time. He is fantastic with other dogs no matter their size or sex and LOVES to get attention from "the regular" pet parents who are there. I know we have to be careful about dog parks and that a lot of people here don't like them but I feel like we struck gold with ours. We have an amazing group of dogs that show up every evening and overall all of the people are solid and responsible dog owners.
Now while he is never shy around a new dog, when new people are around he is choosy with who he will approach. It is pretty normal for him to move around a new person in a semi-circle and keep his eyes on them, if that makes sense? He sometimes will move his nose towards them super cautiously but if they move too fast he will take off running like he just saw the horsemen of the apocalypse. When he does this I tell him in an even and calm voice that they are friends. I'll stand beside the person he is avoiding and either shake hands with them or start talking happily and calmly and it seemed to have been working. He naturally prefers women to men, but typically after a few minutes pass he will snuggle up with just about anyone. Haha.
So the point of this post is that lately I have noticed a shift in his behaviour. Vito has become very aware of when things are new or different and is quite vocal about his opinion. For example, yesterday we were walking and came across three nice folks who were sitting on the grass at the dog park and Vito lost his mind! He braced himself solid and big boy barked directly at them as if to say "WHY ARE YOU SITTING ON THE GRASS? SIT AT THE PICNIC TABLES!" and it was very hard to get him to come to me. Once I got up to him and did my whole "they are friends" thing he did calm down and eventually he approached them happily, but it took two full laps of the dog park and about 15 minutes of standing in their vicinity before he trotted over to them to say hi nicely.
Today he did a similar thing FOUR times in the hour and a half we were there. Once at a stroller, once at a homeless lady, once at a group of big guys wearing black shirts and once at a guy who was carrying bags of food from a picnic site in the park.
The first two times the people were moving and obviously terrified so I couldn't do my normal "they are friends" thing. I just calmly gave him his command to come with me and he listened. The third time the guys were pretty good with it, but Vito was doing the big boy bark and running away from them which made me think he was more scared then guarding. The last time I tried something new and it seemed to work okay. I knew he was going to loose his shit on the guy with the bags when we saw him the second time so I put him in a sit-stay and did a focus. He failed at the focus and kept his eyes on the guy as he approached us, but he was able to walk by without Vito barking once. I gave Vito heavy praise and he seemed pretty content with himself.
I guess I'm looking for opinions on what we should do next. Is this a fear stage? Guarding? BOTH? If this is something I can help him work through, how should I start?
I hate the thought of everything scaring him like that and I hope that this is just a phase. Because if it's not we might have to think about either keeping him out of the dog park or putting some sort of muzzle on him so he doesn't scare the shit out of everyone. I thought that homeless lady was going to have a heart attack! Poor thing!
Oh, and for what it's worth I took a video a few weeks ago of him losing his mind over a plastic bag blowing in the wind at the dog park. He was barking and chasing it away like a doofus. If you want to see his body language I can probably find a way to lift it from my phone.
Thanks so much guys! I really appreciate the help!
Vito is a 10 month old CC. Personality wise he is a bit of a goofball and is super eager to please. We are midway through advanced obedience at PetSmart and he is doing pretty good. Distractions are difficult with him, but I've chalked it up to his stubborn teenage stage and we've been working through it. He is easygoing in the house, follows all the rules, is AMAZING with our kids and great with strangers coming to the door, whether he is in or out of his crate, as long as one of us is present. I am home with him and the kids all day so he gets lots of people time and attention and as much outdoor time as his velcro-dog self can handle.
When my husband gets home from work I take Vito to the off leash park for an hour or two to romp with his friends. We have been going at least once a day since he was 4 months old and he has a great time. He is fantastic with other dogs no matter their size or sex and LOVES to get attention from "the regular" pet parents who are there. I know we have to be careful about dog parks and that a lot of people here don't like them but I feel like we struck gold with ours. We have an amazing group of dogs that show up every evening and overall all of the people are solid and responsible dog owners.
Now while he is never shy around a new dog, when new people are around he is choosy with who he will approach. It is pretty normal for him to move around a new person in a semi-circle and keep his eyes on them, if that makes sense? He sometimes will move his nose towards them super cautiously but if they move too fast he will take off running like he just saw the horsemen of the apocalypse. When he does this I tell him in an even and calm voice that they are friends. I'll stand beside the person he is avoiding and either shake hands with them or start talking happily and calmly and it seemed to have been working. He naturally prefers women to men, but typically after a few minutes pass he will snuggle up with just about anyone. Haha.
So the point of this post is that lately I have noticed a shift in his behaviour. Vito has become very aware of when things are new or different and is quite vocal about his opinion. For example, yesterday we were walking and came across three nice folks who were sitting on the grass at the dog park and Vito lost his mind! He braced himself solid and big boy barked directly at them as if to say "WHY ARE YOU SITTING ON THE GRASS? SIT AT THE PICNIC TABLES!" and it was very hard to get him to come to me. Once I got up to him and did my whole "they are friends" thing he did calm down and eventually he approached them happily, but it took two full laps of the dog park and about 15 minutes of standing in their vicinity before he trotted over to them to say hi nicely.
Today he did a similar thing FOUR times in the hour and a half we were there. Once at a stroller, once at a homeless lady, once at a group of big guys wearing black shirts and once at a guy who was carrying bags of food from a picnic site in the park.
The first two times the people were moving and obviously terrified so I couldn't do my normal "they are friends" thing. I just calmly gave him his command to come with me and he listened. The third time the guys were pretty good with it, but Vito was doing the big boy bark and running away from them which made me think he was more scared then guarding. The last time I tried something new and it seemed to work okay. I knew he was going to loose his shit on the guy with the bags when we saw him the second time so I put him in a sit-stay and did a focus. He failed at the focus and kept his eyes on the guy as he approached us, but he was able to walk by without Vito barking once. I gave Vito heavy praise and he seemed pretty content with himself.
I guess I'm looking for opinions on what we should do next. Is this a fear stage? Guarding? BOTH? If this is something I can help him work through, how should I start?
I hate the thought of everything scaring him like that and I hope that this is just a phase. Because if it's not we might have to think about either keeping him out of the dog park or putting some sort of muzzle on him so he doesn't scare the shit out of everyone. I thought that homeless lady was going to have a heart attack! Poor thing!
Oh, and for what it's worth I took a video a few weeks ago of him losing his mind over a plastic bag blowing in the wind at the dog park. He was barking and chasing it away like a doofus. If you want to see his body language I can probably find a way to lift it from my phone.
Thanks so much guys! I really appreciate the help!