[nagdu] Strange incidents

[Valerie Gibson]

Hello,

If you suspect the lady is, in any way, mentally unsound or imbalanced, that could be the problem. Zion is the same way around mentally unsound people, wether I recognize it in the person or not.  Zion won't jump around or act crazy, but he will bark at the person, and being an akita, he'd rather confront the person with barks than walk away from the person, but he will walk away if I command him to.

It is difficult to handle this sort of thing because I doubt you can say, "Hey, my dog doesn't like you. Can you stay away."

The lady might not be doing anything to Ava, but your girl may just be reacting to her as a person.
Since there's no way to know when the lady will pass by, it might be difficult to do some sort of desensitization training with her.
There's a couple things you could try:

1.  Talk to the lady.  Have your girl understand that this lady is not a threat to you. Your dog may appear anxious for a bit, but if you ignored it, she would eventually lay down. Reward that behavior of being quiet.  This will take several repetitions to work.

2.  If you do not wish to speak to the lady, call your dog over to you when she's acting crazy. Don't acknowledge her fear because in that, you're rewarding her.  Get her to sit, and teach her, if she does not know, the quiet command.  Your atitude is important  here because if you're excited on any level, for any reason, she will be.  If this lady does not bother you, and you show this to your dog, she may not react so extremely when the lady comes by.

To me, it's good that your dog picks up on a person like that, but ultimately you decide if the person's a threat.  

If Zion wants to bark at a person due to mistrust, that's fine with me, bt he needs to stop when i tell him to.

Those are just my thoughts and recommendations, and others may have something else to say entirely.




> On Jun 21, 2015, at 4:52 PM, S L Johnson via nagdu <nagdu at nfbnet.org> wrote:
> 
> Hello:
> 
> This evening I had a strange experience with Eva.  It has happened twice 
> before but, it is not her usual behavior.  I live in a senior housing 
> development with duplex houses.  My home is in a circle with a large pond 
> behind our back yards.  We were sitting on my back patio.  Eva was on her 
> thirty-foot tie-out wondering around the yard watching the ducks and birds 
> in the pond.  Suddenly Eva started barking, growling  and jumping.  She is 
> very playful but this is not a happy play bark.  For some reason when this 
> lady passes by our yard, Eva becomes very agitated.  She will bark, growl, 
> jump and run from me to the lady.  When I call Eva, , she will come close to 
> me.  When I reach down, I can feel the tension in her, her rapid heartbeat 
> and heavy panting.  Obviously this lady is doing something that causes a 
> great deal of stress and anxiety for Eva.  I tried talking to the lady with 
> no results.  It seems that the lady has some kind of mental problem.  I can 
> tell by the sound of her voice and her responses to my instructions to leave 
> Eva alone and stay out of my yard.  I know I can mention this to the 
> landlord and manager but, I have no way of identifying the crazy lady.  I 
> want to enjoy my back yard without putting Eva at risk.  I am renting and we 
> are not allowed to put up a fence.  As I said, Eva is usually extremely 
> friendly.  It is very unusual to see protectiveness in golden.  I’d 
> appreciate hearing thoughts and suggestions.
> 
> Sandra and Eva 
> <S L Johnson.vcf>_______________________________________________
> nagdu mailing list
> nagdu at nfbnet.org
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/listinfo/nagdu_nfbnet.org
> To unsubscribe, change your list options or get your account info for nagdu:
> http://nfbnet.org/mailman/options/nagdu_nfbnet.org/valandkayla%40gmail.com