LIVE CHAT

[PEGGY]

MY DOG CHEBA IS 10 YRS OLD, WHEN I AM HOME NO ONE CAN LEAVE THE HOUSE WITHOUT HER BARKING AND CHASEING THEM OUT THE DOOR AGGRESSIVLY, WHEN I AM NOT HERE SHE DOESN'T ACT LIKE THAT AT ALL, DO YOU KNOW WHY?

[Trish McMillan]

Hi Peggy,

No, I can't get into a dog's head to know why they do all the wild and wonderful things they do. I tend to take a more objective approach. A. What is the dog doing? B. What would you like the dog to do instead? C. How do we get from A. to B.?

You have three choices here,
1. (My favorite) the fancy training approach. Teach Cheba to go to a place and hold a stay, then work up to having her hold it as you add more and more distractions, finally having her hold a stay as someone leaves the house. If you're not good at training, you may want to get a trainer to show you how to work through these steps.
2. Manage the behavior (certainly you'll need to do this while working on 1.) Put Cheba in another room with a delicious chewy like a food-stuffed Kong toy while your visitors leave.
3. Teach Cheba that people leaving means delicious treats will rain down from the sky (or her favorite toy will be thrown) by having this happen over and over as people leave. If she's too wound up to take treats or if she doesn't have a toy that's more fun than chasing people out of the house, this will not work.

Good luck! Old dogs certainly can learn new tricks, so give these a try!

Trish