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  1. #1
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    Stages of maturity question

    Bruce will be 9 1/2 months old tomorrow. So far he's been a very good pup, very easy going, and easy to train. About two weeks ago, he started barking at things and people, and there is no reason that I can see that he should need to bark. I would describe the bark as a "I'm not sure what that is and I'm concerned". Not aggressive in any way, and I wouldn't say it's fearful, or a warning type bark. Just a couple woofs, and very focused. He did it with an 8-10 year old kid while we were in Lowes today. His Mom was pushing a cart with a really squeeky wheel, which had Bruce's attention. But he woofed when he saw the kid. The kid was wearing a jacket with a hood on his head. I had Bruce sit, we were about 15 feet away. I could see he was still focused on the kid. I very nicely asked the boy if he would take his hood off, which he did. I then had Bruce go through a few sits and downs, which he did, but he would keep looking at the boy, and give a little woof now and then. I heeled Bruce around where the boy and his Mom were standing and he did well, but kept looking at the boy. During all this, the boy was making direct eye contact with Bruce, and he did have kind of a weird look on his face while he was looking at Bruce.

    If it had just be this one incident, I wouldn't really be concerned, but the barking at others plus this has me wondering if he is going through a phase when he's lacking confidence or something. Every thing else with his routine has been completely normal.

    Any thoughts?????????

  2. #2
    Senior Dog POPTOP's Avatar
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    Not the best on puppy advice but from what I've read here, he's about at the age to go through the fear stage. Things that never bothered him before will set him on alert now. I'll let others suggest how to work though this stage.

  3. #3
    Senior Dog Maxx&Emma's Avatar
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    I agree with Fran, it isn't unusual and Bruce is definitely at the right age. What you did was great, I never remove them when they act "concerned". It does sound like Bruce may have been intuitive about the boy you encountered in the store!
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  4. #4
    Senior Dog smartrock's Avatar
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    The kid staring at him probably did not help. Dogs who are telling another dog they're not a threat do not stare at the other dog, they look away, blink, not stare. So maybe Bruce saw the kid as a bit of a threat.

    Snowshoe has described a game called something like "look at that", to help the dog learn to look calmly at whatever they're revved up about. I've read about it in Control Unleashed, which Snowshoe also has mentioned. I can get my dogs to do it if walking them separately, if they're together, it's pretty much a disaster. If I'd known about it when Chase was young it would probably have been easier to implement than once he was already accustomed to acting like an idiot. I started with it with Lark when she was pretty young. Since Chase is likely to bark, it's harder to keep Lark from doing it also when they're together.

    Here's a bit of a description of it. I use treats but if you do clicker training, I think that would work, too.

    Look at That! A Counterintuitive Approach to Dealing with Reactive Dogs | Dog Training for Dog Lovers Blog
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  6. #5
    Senior Dog Meeps83's Avatar
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    I agree with the others. It sounds like a fear stage. I'm sure he'll conquer it in no time!

  7. #6
    Senior Dog doubledip1's Avatar
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    Fear stage! It'll get better.

    When Luna started going through it, I'd just get up, go look at what she barked at, tell her, "thanks Loon, but it's all clear" and sit back down. I always checked out whatever it was she was reacting to and then made it a non-event.
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  8. #7
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    The hoodie could have thrown him too....and if the kid was in the trolley then the hoodie with a trolley as a body would do it.
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  9. #8
    Senior Dog Meeps83's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Georgie View Post
    then the hoodie with a trolley as a body would do it.
    Dr. Seuss????? LOL

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  11. #9
    Senior Dog Snowshoe's Avatar
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    The squeaky wheel gets the woof?

    Agree with all above but also wonder about that hoodie. Most of my dogs have reacted to hats. Even strange hats on people they know. Jet once really barked at my sister, who she loved, in Sis's own house when Sis popped out of a room with her sunglasses on. Of course Sis had worn those same sunglasses lots of times on walks together outside. Evidently sunglasses are not to worn in the house. I'm sure Jet was startled and for a split second had no idea who that person was.

    So I think it could be a startle reflex bark that has nothing to do with a fear period and might happen for years to come but only once in a blue moon. For mine I do my usual laugh, "Silly, that's nothing to bark at, did you never see a hat before? You're silly."

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  13. #10
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    Every time he's done the bark thing, I've done the "look, see it's nothing", and carry on like nothing's wrong. I pretty much did the same thing with the incident yesterday. I'm going to take just him to Lowes this afternoon, if for anything just to reinforce it's an ok place. I'll post how it goes.

 



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