Reactive dog when people enter through side door.

I'm looking for help with a young dog that acts reactively (barking & jumping ) when people enter through our side gate.
A short history is needed to give some background. The reactive dog is a 11 month old PWD. My other dog is a 3 yo labradoodle. Since the older dog was young we have had a friends dog (a mini poodle) of similar age come to our yard (a puppy creche arrangement) to keep each other company. These friends collect there dog using a side gate if we aren't home.
Unfortunately the new dog has become a serious problem & he has been getting worse lately. He is becoming out of control barking aggressively & jumping. He doesn't display these behaviours when in the house & we have a 5 minute no attention when we arrive home rule with the dogs.
If we are home I am able to make all 3 dogs sit and wait while the poodle is let in to go home. It has taken a lot of patience & waiting to get this behaviour but they will now do it.
When he is picked up the poodles "hyper' greeting behavior of whining & jumping just sends The puppy over the edge.
Any solutions to fixing the problem appreciated. The friends don't always have the time to wait for calm acceptable behaviour from their dog do I need to end the visits?

Comments

Aidan's picture

Is this the only situation

Is this the only situation where he acts like this?

Some dogs bark at gates to warn intruders away. Others just to sound the alarm that someone is here. Others are just really excited to have a guest.

The appearance of the behavior and the tone of the barking doesn't always give the cause of the barking away, at least not to the human ear and eye.

Whatever the cause, the facts are that something is reinforcing this behavior, you don't want the behavior, and you would prefer some other behavior to be reinforced.

Controlled set-ups are your key to success. Teach all 3 dogs to sit on cue when someone is at the side gate. You can take all the excitement out of it by repeating the set-up over and over in immediate succession. Start by doing it yourself, then have your friends come over for training sessions.

Use food, it is by no means the only available reinforcer but it will make the process more efficient.

Let calmness prevail. It doesn't matter how excited your PWD is, stay calm and stick to good training principles.

Eventually you should be able to get to the point where your friends have success even in that first rush of excitement, or at the very least the barking and jumping is reduced to a brief moment of excitement.

I feel I should add, if your friends are scared of the barking and jumping and back away from the gate, this is probably not a good idea unless they are actually in danger. It may reinforce aggressive behavior.

Regards,
Aidan
http://www.positivepetzine.com