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Frieda
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Frieda is offline  
Location: United States
Joined: Nov 2017
Posts: 1
Female 
 
08-11-2017, 08:05 PM

Help me help my dog!!

We have a 4 1/2 mo old great pyrenees/ australian shepherd mix puppy. We got her when she was 10 weeks old and she has always been shy of strangers. We live on a farm so she has the run of the place.Just lately she has begun barking and the fur on her neck comes up when a vehicle drives on the yard. We do not want a dog that we can't trust around strangers. We want a tail wagging friendly dog, not a guard dog. Please tell me what I can do to help her! I've been researching and I've read to begin giving her treats when someone comes on the yard, but I'm afraid it will send her the message that I'm rewarding her for her behaviour. Please help!
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Ptolemy82
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Location: Lancashire, UK
Joined: Oct 2017
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09-11-2017, 06:21 PM
You have a cross breed. When you cross two breeds, in theory, you get "half and half" in one dog,

You have a Great Pyrenees, which is a flock guardian and an Australian Shepherd, which is a dog bred to WORK on a ranch, if you don't give HER a job, she will become self-employed, i.e., she will find a "job" to do.

I apologize if I'm wrong, but "...she has the run of the place." would seem to indicate that no formal training has been done, the Australian Shepherd half of your dog doesn't have a job, so the other side of her breeding is coming out, she seems to be deciding that her "job" is the "flock" guardian - and she's deciding what flock to guard.

Your research has, in essence, come up with the right answer in that giving her treats when someone comes onto the yard should start to get her to associate such people with a reward and thus "like" them but timing is very important here. If she has already started to react, there is a good chance that she will interpret the message as you rewarding her for reacting and that's what she'll learn to do - properly. It's very easy to get this wrong.

I can't help on specifics because I've not seen the dog, or you, or your environment, but I would advise that you "bite the bullet" and get a professional dog trainer on board.

With that in mind, I would suggest that you look at:

http://veterinarycalendar.dvm360.com...rs-proceedings

and take particular note of the sections headed "Initial Evaluation" and "Red Flag Statements". These should give you a good idea as to what to look for.
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