Barking and wagging tail?

[J&J]

A habit that Ellie is starting to display is barking at the odd person with no real reasons behind it?

She doesn't do it in open spaces, but in more of a inclosed space but even though she barking like mad her tail is wagging away... She show no signs of it being or becoming aggressive and can will be happy to be given treats from the person who she barking at ???

We aren't sure why she's taken to this, as we can't find a common denominator to it... Apart from some of the visitors to the house have been my daughter friends (said losely) and I'm sure that they have been taking drugs, the occasions she done it outside they could be a possiblity that the individual could have used recconational drugs of some form!!!

Any ideas and is this an aggressive bark to be very concerned about, we are in the process of attempting to curtail it

[ClaireandDaisy]

I think you can spend a lot of time trying to fathom what`s going on the the mind of a dog... but you`d be better off simply teaching her better behaviour.
When she does it, on lead, turn away from what she`s barking at, put her into a sit and reward. Then when she is under control you can either walk past the scary person or apologise.
If she is off lead, call her, have her sit facing you and reward. Then put the lead on.
I find it counter-productive to put labels on actions as that is usually based on assumptions. She is reacting to people, and it would be better if she doesn`t, so you teach her an alternative behaviour.
You could also work on her confidence with more reward-based activities?

[LOVEGSD]

I would go with re-directing her focus and asking her to be 'quiet'....

[J&J]

When we are out and about it's not a problem as such and it's only happened twice, if it does I do the distract and redirect with her..

It's more at home really, mostly around my daughters friends, she shows no aggression apart form gobbing and in general is sat right in front with tail walking as she giving it the full vocals!

At home, she's fine with any strangers I let in the front door, but I'm finding she's more reactive to people coming in the back door, such as when my daughter brings a friend around... (I've asked my daughter to let them in through the front door to see if there is any difference to it) I keep treats in easy reach of the back door, so that they can offer a treat, either if she's at a distance dosing it towards her so she settles etc..

If I am directly on hand I will again use a distract and redirect technique, normal start with watch as she will watch me but sit straight down as well with this commnade lol..

But it's just seeing if I can fathom out the why, then I can be more proactive in tackling it..

I will add here if I'm out or up stairs, Les doesn't help really because he doesn't like a lot of my daughters friends (must admit I'm not struck on a lot of them) he will allow her to bark hoping they will avoid coming around!!

I can see his point, but it's behaviour that I don't want from my dog

[LOVEGSD]

Maybe Ellie senses something is amiss with your daughters friends and she's trying to tell you all?

Diesel is not a fan of very drunk people and has barked at someone before when they tried to stroke him, I think this stems back to his first home where the male owner had a class A drug problem and used to have lots of people in the flat off their heads and drunk.

[kita]

Originally Posted by J&J

A habit that Ellie is starting to display is barking at the odd person with no real reasons behind it?

There is always a reason - its not always obvious.

Originally Posted by J&J

She doesn't do it in open spaces, but in more of a inclosed space but even though she barking like mad her tail is wagging away... She show no signs of it being or becoming aggressive and can will be happy to be given treats from the person who she barking at ???

We aren't sure why she's taken to this, as we can't find a common denominator to it... Apart from some of the visitors to the house have been my daughter friends (said losely) and I'm sure that they have been taking drugs, the occasions she done it outside they could be a possiblity that the individual could have used recconational drugs of some form!!!

Sounds almost like she is 'indicating' like a police drug dog. They can be used in places like outside clubs etc. to pick out people who are carrying/using drugs.

Maybe she is just a natural at it!!!

Sue

[GV9297]

My Diesel will bark at some people out of the blue - for example we were at a fun dog show last summer were there were over 100 people but he only barked at one woman - I had to pull him away and redirect his focus and we found out she was on medication! She did look a bit odd but he obviously didn't like her!

[J&J]

Sue

You could be soo right, as well Ellie is able to pick up diabetic hypo's in both hubby and I (we T1 diabetics) which is something that came to her quite naturally... And thinking about it, the stance is pretty much like you see on telly with the real drug dogs, apart from the addition of her vocals!

Her hypo warning abilities are totally natural not trained by us, even though now we are fine tuning it with her...

It's going to be interesting, perhaps I should ask at the police station if I could take her past some of the 'guests' who they've nicked for drugs! See if she reacts at all... hehe

Shall have to monitor this, as at the moment unknow to my daughter she's been monitored anyway, had problems with her before on this score, and guest who she was hanging around with!