Help with territorial behavior

Hello everyone, this is my first post and I'm after some advice about my 18mth JRT who has developed a type of territorial aggression around one door at my mum's house.
Rosie is a rescue dog who I understand had been living with travellers before she came to us. She is very nervous (especially of children) but is an absolute delight. She has never shown any signs of aggression either to people of our other dog. She is very very playful with the Poppy the Westie. (a bit rough at times though lol!) She is a real lap dog and loves to cuddle up to us on the settee and in bed!! The only problem we have is when I take her to my mum's house and go to let her out of the back door onto the garden. At first it was that she was just very keen to get out there but it has gradually become a problem in as much as she now jumps up and bites me as I approach the door. This week whilst the door has been open anyway she has still continued to jump up and bite at me so I've realised that it is not just exitment making her do it. She even took a nip at my leg when we got outside the door last night. I think I need to address this problem before it gets any worse. Has anyone else experienced similar behaviour? Thanks

Hi there
good on you for rescuing here

Do you mean she nips when you are trying to make her go out the door? or come back in? or is she guarding you from going in and out of the door?

My first thought would be seeing if you could play fun recal games thro the door

but it might be an idea to get some behavioural help with her confidence as well

Hi there, she jumps up me and tries to bite my arms as I approach the door and carries on jumping up and biting whilst I am trying to unlock it then as soon as I touch the handle to open the door she starts to shreak and go crazy to get out. She loves being out there. As I said it seems to be getting worse but it is only this one door. Help!! BTW we've had her since December and this behaviour has only really become a major problem in the last couple of months.
Thanks once again for any advice.

Ahh sounds excited to go out

teach her a really good down stay then ask her to stay as you open the door - if she bounces then the door gets shut
Door only opens for calm behaviour

My terrier gets incredibly over-excited at times. Usually when the doorbell goes. To the extent when he would certainly bite me.
I just stand there unmoving and unimpressed till he regains his senses. This seems to work and doesn`t take long.

Oh dear this sounds rather painful and stressful.

I think this sounds a mixture of very high arousal and no impulse control.

I think you need a plan............


I would use a two pronged approach.

And I would start AWAY from the problem area.

First of all you need to decide HOW you would PREFER the dog to behave at ALL doors and then implement a training programme to condition your dog's behaviour at all doors.

If you are consistent and ask for the SAME behaviours at ALL doors (whether you need it or not) the dog will soon understand what is required.

So for ME for example, I have conditioned dogs to sit before I open doors, you do not have to do that. I would certainly teach my dog to back off from doorways whether that is in the stand or sit.

This can be useful for:

when you open the door and you do not know what is on the other side.

To prevent paws getting trapped by the door or stood on by you

To minimise the risk of a dog going through a door unasked if it was not on a lead etc.

The beauty of this is that you need NO equipment, NO food, NO cues; all you need is:

Dog on lead
Door

You open the door and EVERY TIME the dog goes forward, juimps up, bites etc you close it.

When you start this do it when you need to go NOWHERE, you want to have as long as it takes.

Dogs do what works, if inappropriate behaviour results in no access to door, the dog will stop doing it.

If appropriate behaviour results in doors opening, the dog is more likely to do it.

Do this at EVERY door in your house, even if you are just going from room to room.

Boring, and you have to THINK a lot, but short term pain will result in lnog term gain.

But say nothing, just be relentless.

When you and your dog can successfully do this at ALL doors in your house, then do same with garden gate. Then find other places where you can repeat this.

ONlY when you are confident, do you go to the "danger zone" (cue sirens, lights, klaxons)

You stay calm, you ask for the same behaviour AND most importantly do NOT always go through the door, be unpredictable, get the behaviour then reinforce with food (opening the door is the reinforcement elsewhere) either by hand or throw the food AWAY from the door onto the floor.

You need to INCREASE the level of the reinforcer at this door WITHOUT increasing the arousal level.

Repeat, repeat, repeat.

AND MAINTAIN.

WARNING, you may get an INCREASE in ghastly behaviour at first, this is what is called an extinction burst, it is normal as the strategy has worked, the dog has jumped bitten, etc and you have opened the door.

YOU need to control doorways and the behaviour associated with them.

then you can start playing games, asking the dog to wait, leave and go back.

Ask the dog to wait and then call through

ETc mix it up,

If the dog bites AT ALL, do NOT feed.

If it is dangerous you can do this with a muzzle HOWEVER, you will need to accustom your dog to wearing a muzzle AWAY FROM THIS EXERCISE.

That is another training exercise!

HTH

Thanks everyone for taking the time to reply to my post. I realise that I have a lot of work to do but am feeling better already now that I realise I have not got a major/unique problem. I will keep you posted on my progress