Help!!!

[tucker]

I have a beautiful Jack Russell that I rescued five years ago. The people at the shelter believed he had been abused, not sure how. He is crate trained and housebroken, A very sweet dog, except when anyone comes to the house he attacks them,(biting their pants or shirt) this is not provoked and he is always greeted calmy by the visitors. So I put him in my bedroom when people come over. I can't do this anymore, I love my dog and I will not give him up but I need some help if anyone has some suggestions please
Thanks

[colliecrazy]

hi can you not crate him whilst you have visitors?

[dobetaztic]

if you have some understanding visitors then here are some tips you can try with caution do not do if you feel it could cause injury to them though. first put away in a room allow visitor to settle in the house, ask them if they happy for the training while they are in, let them settle in a room seated furthest away from the door of entry preferably at an angle, ask them not to speak touch or look at your dog when it enters, if he likes treats then ensure you have lots of smelly and tasty morsals on you, no you go and let the dog out of the room make no fuss of him and act confident, dont ask him to follow but leave the door open to the room you goto where the visiter is, as soon as he steps in drop a treat on the floor if he barks or makes a run to visitor dont panic sharpe no and remove him from room, if you prefer try bringing him in the room on the lead, continue your talk with the visitor but they do not interact with the dog at all .

once he is settled with the fact some one in the house but isint looking touching or speaking to them then hand treat to them they are to throw them away form them selves and gradually drop them closer, still not looking or speaking to the dog, once your dog happy with this then small glances can be introduce, then longer , a small word and only when visitor, you and your dog are happy could further interaction happen.

it takes time and courage and preferably i suggest to contact an animal behaviourist to suppervise this, but if you cant find one then try what i call a long line so you know you can stop your dog getting to close to the visitor, a long washing line is good attatched to your dogs collar.

always leave the door to the room open so your dog can leave when he wishes and leave the crate door open as this will be seen as his place of safety. hope this advise helps. :)

[TrasiGator]

Before you do anything, try to contact a professional trainer in your area (preferably not a PetCo trainer or something like that, but someone with a deeper understanding of a dog's behavior). It will benifit you greatly to have someone around that can kind of understand what the dog is thinking at any given moment. Each dog is an individual, I will share the experiance I had with my wiener dog.

My dog gus has been with us since he was a pupp. He is 10 years old and up until recently would go insane as soon as another person that wasn't "family" enterd the house. A trainer at PetsMart just told me to not have people over basically. Later, when I contacted a professional she explained to me that being little he had a Napolian complex, which made sense (small dog thinking he is bigger than he was because we hold him and allow him to basically feel like he is a Dane). She also said that he believe that he was the alpha dog in the house. When dogs think they are alpha, that is over every living thing in the house, not just other dogs. Could you imagine being that small and thinking you had to be the provider for the whole pack? Stressful huh? When dogs get stressed out, they bite. It starts out less severe, but can grow into a rather large problem. The first step we had to take with Gus was make him realize that he wasn't the alpha dog. This basically entailed rolling the dog onto his back,where he is the most vulnerable and making him lick you. This took a while with Gus, he did not want to submit. I almost got bit in the face several times. You could tell he was happier once he submitted though. This was so important because after a dog submits to you, he doesn't feel like he needs to be the protector anymore, thats your role, and that how you want it to be. So, after we worked out that I was the boss of him he started doing better but not great. When I knew that people were comming over, I would lease him beforehand and do a little training while I was waiting on the person to get there. When they did, if he barked at them when they came through the door he got a big NO, if he went to run, he got another NO. I would have the person stand still as long as it took to get my dog to go over and investigate them. Making him sniff people helped him realize that I would protect him, which helped with the overall alpha dog thing we had going on and so on and so forth. It takes some effort, but unless a problem is fixed, it is going to continually get worse. It is better to have the dog confront his fears (he is afraid of the people comming in if he is aggressive towards them) and let him understand that he is safe than to let him go on as he is.

Finding a behaviorist can be difficult, and expensive, but will help greatly with your dogs behavior and the relationship you and your dog have. (Believe me, it made me angry when I heard that for the first time. Gus and I had a great relationship - until a little time passed and I realized he was taking on the alpha role and was stressing himself out all the time :( )

[rowansd]

Hi, what has been mentioned is very true, your dog may very well feel like he is the alpha in the household. Having him on leash when people come over is great, it gives you control and time to give a correction before he makes a move on company. Your visitor should ignore him and you should require him to sit or lay beside you. And you need to look at his behavours the rest of the time, make sure YOU are in control not him, be firm not mean. And a lot of people don't recommend the alpha rolls--please if you are not experienced, don't try it, unless you are willing to risk a bite--and not make a big deal over it. And anyone else be especially careful with bigger dogs.

[tucker]

Thanks for all of the advice. I will try this and let you know how it goes!!