I have a 5 month old puppy and have had him since he was 9 weeks old! He’s a miniature dachshund. He sometimes barks at strangers and runs away when they go towards him and then he goes back towards them when they turn away. He doesn’t bark every time but he will always run away and then go back and repeat this. How do I get him to stop doing this and be happy to go to people and not bark or at least relax?
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It sounds like he might be a little nervous of people, the barking at them being him trying to scare them off. I would suggest keeping the 'scary' (in his view) people away from him.
He will have an invisible radius of space around him where he feels secure. It's called flight distance, anything within that space triggers his fight or flight stress response, which you may have heard of. Find out what that is and keep him far enough away from people that he is relaxed. Reward him for being calm.
Gradually, over weeks and months, not days, work on reducing the distance. But - be aware that if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for up to 72 hours so a distance he was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch his body language.
He will have an invisible radius of space around him where he feels secure. It's called flight distance, anything within that space triggers his fight or flight stress response, which you may have heard of. Find out what that is and keep him far enough away from people that he is relaxed. Reward him for being calm.
Gradually, over weeks and months, not days, work on reducing the distance. But - be aware that if your dog has had a stressful episode the stress hormone can stay in the body for up to 72 hours so a distance he was comfortable with the day before might be too close that day. So the safe distance can change, watch his body language.
that’s what confuses me because I’ve seen him scared around another dog with his tail between his legs and after about 10 mins he was playing fine with him. When he’s doing this with people his tail is up and he doesn’t seem to be too anxious
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Dogs can be conflicted, torn between thinking people are pleasant and fun and that they can actually be scary. And running up to them can be a show of bravado - 'Look, I'm not scared of you!.... Yeek, too near, run away!!' It safest to avoid him getting too close to them by keeping him close to you instead till he feels more confident.
One thing I'd suggest - and I wish I'd done this with my dog - is to ask other people not to give him treats. It just gives him more reason to run right up to strangers and then find he's in a scary situation.
One thing I'd suggest - and I wish I'd done this with my dog - is to ask other people not to give him treats. It just gives him more reason to run right up to strangers and then find he's in a scary situation.
I’m hoping it’s a confidence thing as he hasn’t had all the socialisation he should have had because of COVID-19. He’s got puppy classes for basic obedience and to build confidence so hopefully they help because there will be other dogs and people
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Whatever happened with the clicking hock issue? I currently have an 11 week old miniature Dachshund that has a clicking hock.
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