Change in Behavior

[Chloe2631]

I have a 1 year old pug/peke mix. She was the best puppy, easily taught,friendly,loved everyone. She was well socialized with training classes, going to baseball games, doggie cAMP 2 days a week, and even took trips out off state twice. I started to notice a change in her behavior about two months ago where she suddenly would bark or growl if she saw a man approaching,or barking when the doorbell rang at home. She seems unsure of her place in the pack and becoming territorial. I continue to bring her lots of places and it seems food helps to keep her focused and not afraid. The behavior is not consistent as she can be 100% lovable and great one time and then not the next. She is awesome with kids and very gentle around them- NEVER growls at them but instead wags her tail and loves to greet them. Recently, we had a large group of people over some known and unknown to her. It was bizarre that she seemed happy when they first came in but then randomly would bark at two of the men later on. It seems sometimes she is doing it for attention? She was not listening well and ran away when called, she was acting like an untrained wild dog at times. I feel like all the socialization we did was for nothing as she is still reverting to some antisocial behavior anyway. We do have a 9 yr old cocker spaniel who is skiddish around new people and barks at the door-so we are wondering if Chloe picked this new behavior up from her as she became more aware and grew up. We need ideas of how to get Chloe back to her usual care free self. She is known to most people as a happy dog, infact some ask is she never not smiling and I can't believe she would ever do something bad and I think if only you saw her at home! aNy help would be great

[Sarah]

Always pay attention to your dog when it comes to other people. I don't believe your dog has a bad behaviour. What I believe is that your dog may be warning you about the 'men" who are there. they may have had some other ulterior motive, that you can't sense, but the dog can. If you have to put your dog in a kennel or crate, for the evening. Not to protect the men, but to protect your dog from biting them.

My dog has done the same thing, He being a rottweiler, would keep his distance from the person and pounce up and down, letting me know that this person is not good. He only did this twice in his life. I listened to him.

You can teach your dog to not bark when the door bell rings, but that in essence is your dogs job. Your dog is there to tell you that someone he/she doesn't know is at your door. This is what you want. if He barks incessantly then that's a problem, but what your dog is doing now, is not territorial, he is protecting.

[Gail]

I agree with Sarah
It almost seems as if those men did something to the dog (or maybe just wanted to) when you weren't looking
Now the dog realizes that not all people are good
Don't teach your dog not to bark when someone is at the door
I did this with a dog and when someone tried to break in when I was at home she didn't bark
The person would have stopped trying if he had realized that there was a large dog in the house
I'm sure she would have protected me if he would have succeeded, but I wouldn't like it to get that far
Let the dog alert you (and the person on the other side of the door) and then tell it to stop

[Chloe2631]

Thanks for the replies. I don't mind Chloe barking to let me know someone is there but she doesn't usually stop on her own without treats as a deterrent. She also seems to respond better when the person in question talks to her and says her name, then she usually stops and wags her tail and is happy. I am continuing to work with her and have more friendly people at the house and take her out in public to desensitize her to new people all over again.