Dog Clinic
Dog Clinic.net
A source of certified dog doctors and clinics
Home › FAQ - Ask The Vet › How to care › Aggression

Jack Russell Terrier barks on and off unless I am with him

I have a Jack Russell Terrier who is almost 4 years old. Whiskey is a very friendly dog who seems to love other dogs and people. He is an "only child," but he gets a walk every day (and a really long one on Sundays) and receives lots of attention. However, he has a real tendency to get very excited—he barks furiously when he thinks I may be about to take him for his daily walk and often barks at people walking past the house. (From my bedroom window he can see their heads bobbing up and down outside the wall.) While these are just small things I can live with, the real problem occurs whenever we have guests—he gets beside himself with excitement. He will jump up on them (which can be overwhelming as he is a powerful little dog), bark, race around the room and sometimes even sprinkle a few drops of urine in his excitement. We have tried telling guests to ignore him and eventually he does calm down, but this takes some time (and guests are forced to endure scratched legs and dog-haired clothes!).

Guests who talk loudly, laugh and gesticulate wildly add to his overexcitement. If we shut him away in another room or outside, he barks on and off unless I am with him.

We love him very much and want only what's best for him, but his behavior does sometimes make us think twice about having friends around. Do you have any suggestions?

Try "setting your dog up" to help curb his overexcitability: Have him on a collar (or head collar) with leash attached and have "guests" (helpers) come to the door. When they are invited in, allow no one to look at, touch or speak to the dog until he settles. Do not jerk and punish the dog, but you might use the leash to thwart his jumps by pulling him back toward you as he starts to launch. At first it may take quite a long time "shunning" him until he gives up. When he does finally settle, allow slow petting and quiet speaking. When his spring-loaded actions resume (and they will, at least at first, the instant anyone touches him), the person again must disengage all attention from the dog. He gradually will begin to understand that he can control whether people are aware of him or not by his behaviors. Whereas excitability has put him on the map in the past, now it causes him to be "invisible." He will begin to associate touch and attention with being physically settled and quiet. The leash helps prevent him from redirecting frustration from being ignored into other attention-getting behaviors such as running laps around your home.

Repeating these "setups" over and over, several times in a row, helps desensitize your dog to visitors and helps him learn positive ways to interact more quickly than if you wait for random, unexpected guests. We keep overly enthusiastic dogs "ball-and-chained" on their leashes in the house, requiring them to follow us as we go about our business. We actually hold the leash or tie it around our waists, rather than letting it drag, which would be dangerous and would defeat the purpose—chasing a dog to grab its leash isn't discreet enough to make an owner look like a "positive" figure in the dog's world! This deliberate limiting during exciting situations quickly settles the dog into a more passive following role; as a result, it discovers it gets much more petting and attention when hanging out quietly with the human "leaders," rather than running rings around them. Soon even sans-leash dogs are socially self-controlled, thanks to limits being placed upon them while they are learning the new rules.


People who viewed 'Jack Russell Terrier barks on and off unless I am with him' also found interest in following articles . . .
Category: