We cannot have anyone come to house because my EBT goes crazy

Bob

Hi all. Our 6 month old EBT goes super crazy and starts growling and wanting to attack our guests. How to go about it. Any tips or tricks would be greatly appreciated. Thanks

BulliesofNC

There was a past discussion on this same issue. You may be able to search for it.

Bull Terriers can have many bad habits when they are in their adolescent stages. It takes a lot of time, training and patience but with every day they get and better. Maturity is always the best help because that's when they finally settle down, listen a lot better, and are easier to manage.

Use one of your friends to help train him by having your friend knock on your door. You can then practice training with him so he knows his actions are not going to be tolerated.

Djammy

If you want in-depth advice, you should take the time to give a little more details on the situation. It is already always hard to give good advice without knowing and seeing the situation 1:1. But with just a few words of information it is just impossible.

Bob

So basically what happens is when a friend comes over to the house. Our EBT starts growling and wanting to bite them. If we don't put a leash on him he will attack the guest and bite them. When he goes into to angry mode he cannot hear us or even with the e collar on he does not feel the vibration. I tried pinning him and he calms down. But as soon as he gets up he is growling and barking.

Bob

Also when in the park or when we walk him he is okay with people and other dogs. I usually have him off leash and he listens most of the time with the e collar. He has never attacked a dog in our home or in the park. He has never attacked a person outside our house.

Harriet_R

Please consult a trainer preferably one that does not use tools such as E collars . It's rare you'll see someone use an E collar at all for any issue here in the UK as it doesn't get to the root of the problem they just silence a dog and used incorrectly without being taught properly can make a behaviour worse . Have you tried anything else ? Visitors dropping food to create a more positive experience for him ? Sometimes a dog can even percieve the pain or discomfort coming from the stranger he sees a stranger he gets zapped when the stranger leaves no more shocks puts 2 and 2 together to make 5. Again consult a professional I am not a behaviourist nor a trainer . Good luck in your quest I'm sure it'll be resolved soon  

Djammy

100% behind everything that Harriet said. This is an issue that needs to be worked on in person with a skilled trainer. And again 100% with Harriet ... please, lose that nasty e-collar. There are better ways.

Your dog needs to learn that meeting people in your house is a POSITIVE experience and brings good things. An e-collar is punishing him and has NO positive use AT ALL.

In training it's always OUR decision to make: Do we rather want to punish the undesired behaviors, risking to damage our relationship with the dog and its trust in us, possibly sparking aggression and fear?

OR

Do we want to reinforce the desired behaviors and benefit from this strategy automatically leading to our dog waiving the undesired ones, while preferring to show the desired behaviors, because they make good things happen?

Ask yourself that question.

Bob

So we did get a professional dog trainer. Basically all he told us to do is to introduce the guests outside of the house. Also I mentioned to him about pinning. Long story short he told us to always have strangers come over. Did not make sense.

Bob

What I did notice is that he does not go crazy with all strangers. Any tips on this???

Harriet_R

Socialisation . He's only a baby the best thing for him is to meet lots of different types of people male , female , tall , short , big , skinny , uniforms , different skin colours everything as silly as that sounds Teddy is 14 weeks and hes already bedn exposed to so many different people including the maillady as you americans say i just get her to knock on the door bell he adores her and it really helps him have a lot of confidence around guests .have them leave a positive memory in his head so strangers = fun , happy, reward , play , best thing EVER! Have him invite them into his personal space example no petting until he comes up to them and sniffs them first . My friend is a really good behaviourist she's in the UK but she has a bhaviour support group on Facebook I can give you the name of the group if you want . What happened with the E collar ? I hope it went straight in the bin! 

Djammy

In my view what the trainer says DOES make sense! Like Harriet says socialization is key. Let him meet as many different people as possible. The dog needs to get as much positive experience with humans and especially visitors as possible.

Meeting people in front of the house first may resolve the grumbly situation inside for now. I think it would be worth a try. Or did you already try it and it was the same in front of the house?

If he only reacts grumpy towards some visitors and others not, to me that sounds like insecurity or fear and not a territorial behavior.

In that case I'd try to figure out, if these people have something in common.

All male or all female? Beards? Hats? Loud people? ... There are all kinds of things that can scare a young dog, just because they are new to the pup and somehow feel threatening.

If you can figure out a pattern, try to have him as many good experiences as possible with that kind of people on "neutral" ground. Then gradually try how things work out with that kind of people as visitors at home.