Incredibly uncharacteristic behaviour - barking at people - did I do the right thing?

Bit of background is needed first, because this totally came out of the blue...
I adopted my crossbreed, Rogan, from the Dogs Trust at the end of January and he has settled in marvelously. He's very friendly, affectionate, curious and kind. He is exceptionally good natured with other dogs, cats and people, and he's respectful of less friendly animals and doesn't push his boundaries. On the whole, I couldn't have asked for a better dog.

When we're at home he's very quiet, bar a couple of small woofs if someone comes to the door or pulls into the drive. He doesn't bark at dogs or people on walks, though he's happy to greet, and he'll bark in play occasionally when he's offlead with dogs he knows.

Once a week or so, I take him to my fiance's family's house for the day, so he can play with their Border Collie and their friend's labrador puppy, which is usually harmless fun. We'd spent the day there yesterday when another friend arrived at the house for the evening. The BC, Ben, usually 'sounds the alarm' when people come up their driveway, while Rogan stands behind him and quietly wiggles in excitement, but this time it was Rogan starting...and didn't stop. He'd never met the friend, Fiona, before but he's never had trouble making friends with people, but for some reason he took a real funny to her.

She came into the room, but instead of greeting her like he would with anyone else, Rogan stood in the middle of the room and barked, and barked at her. She's a doggy person herself, but she was quite taken aback and I was totally shocked. I called him over to me on the sofa, but he was so wound up he couldn't pay attention to anything, he just kept backing away and barking. I had to take him out into the garden with a bag of treats and a ball to try and calm the poor lad down...

When we came back in, we tried to make Fiona seem positive - she was the one giving treats, throwing and playing with toys and giving fuss, and while Rogan stopped barking, he still kept a wide berth. He takes a lot of lead from Ben and calmed down a bit when he saw Ben being friendly with Fiona, but he still wouldn't go near her, though we were all sat down on the carpet and playing with them.

Sorry for the novel, but I wanted other people's opinions on this, especially when you've all got more dog experience than me? Rogan is my first dog, and first pet that has been properly, 100% mine. I thought he'd finally started to settle in, and I was getting to know him really well, then this just came out of nowhere... He has *never* acted like that before, while I've had him, and it was embarassing to have her first meet him like that when he's usually so sweet, and it was distressing to see him so upset and not no why...

Maybe she triggered some past memory.

Something to keep an eye on to see if it happens again with anyone else, but, if it's confined to this one person, taking him out of the situation and bringing him back in when he calmed was the right thing to do. The 'friend' should have then ignored him and let him work out for himself that she wasn't a threat

Rupert had the same reaction to certain people, especially tall overweight men. I used to just get them to ignore him completely and eventually he'd pluck up the courage to have a quick sniff. I had them ignore him until he actively tried to get them to pay attention to him.

I found the more we tried to convince Rupe that someone wasn't a threat the more upset he got by them. Probably because we were making a big deal out of it. And I found so called "doggy people" were often the hardest to get to ignore him. They tended to be so baffled that my dog didn't immediately adore them that they tried extra hard to make friends with him which just made him more worried about them.

Do you know anything of Rogan's history before you had him? As already stated, it could be that the sound of that particular car, the footsteps/way your friend walked, a smell that he associted with her etc could have triggered a learned behaviour related to a negative experience in his past.

Keep an eye on it and with this one person, over time if he keeps meeting her and is allowed to approach in his own time, he's realise that she's no threat to him.

There could be any number of. reasons why he barked so much or kept his distance.

Please also b aware that although he will have his established routine with you and has settled into your home, he was in someone else's home where he may react to different situations very differently to when he's only with you.

It can also take a very long time for a dog to fully settle into a new environment. I doubt you have anything to worry about. it could just be that as he feels more comfortable, he's also becoming more vocal about things.

Thankyou for the quick responses, you two I'm still very much learning, and so many scary or unwilling situations seem to be eased with Good Things that ignoring didn't even cross my mind

Though now I think about it, once everyone had settled down and started talking instead of concentrating on the dogs, it did ease off a bit.

I just feel awful that he was put in that situation, though I got him out and back home as quickly as I could. I suppose the only positive to come out of it was that he wasn't actively aggressive towards her - he was nervous and wary, and kept his distance, but he wasn't angry and up in her face.

Hi Stumpywop. All I know is he and his full brother used to be owned by a man who couldn't keep them anymore and they both got put into rescue. The only 'bad' behaviour he seemed to have from his old home was his lack of lead training, untill the incident last night.

I agree with the last paragraph, for the first 3 weeks or so he didn't make so much as a whimper. While he's still quiet, he has found his voice in their more active house.

Fiona is studying over in England and, while she's like a sister to my fiance and his siblings, she isn't around much to sort of 'test' and socialise him with her some more.

Can't help with the "why" but I have a friend that causes the same reaction with Kiki. Kiki's great with people, great with all manners of dogs, with kids, etc. - never given me reason to worry but this one friend turns her into a quivering, barking mess! No idea why, if I rack my brains then the friend does look similar in build, hair colour, etc. to Kiki's previous owner so maybe it freaked her out, but you'd think it'd make her excited to see her rather than afraid (she tries to hide behind my legs and everything).
My friend is manageress of the local petshop so very dog savvy (a couple of her own, and her OH owns a Rottie so she's savvy with the breed too), dogs normally love her because they know they'll get plenty of freebie treats off the shelf, but despite many attempts to get Kiki more relaxed, the best we can do is stand opposite ends of the shop with my friend throwing treats at her. We could probably progress quicker if we did it more frequently but there's no real need for the two to interact so I haven't worked on it intensively. Sounds like it would need a similar tactic for your situation, lots of slow work desensitizing him to this friend, but the amount of work needed may not make it worthwhile if you don't really see her much at all.

Did she have a smell or strong scent of something?

One of Daisy`s pet hates (and she would really go for them) was old ladies with grey hair. Most embarassing.
Shamus objects to big blokes that smell of drink. I`m with him on that one I think.
I would have put the dog in another room. There is no point trying to convince a frightened dog that a scary thing isn`t scary.
If this is a friend who will be visiting often, you can try a gradual desensitisation. Maybe meeting her when you`re out, somewhere your dog is relaxed and off lead if possible, then she can choose her own distance. The friend should ignore her to start with, until the dog makes an approach.

Our late Reah used to react to ginger haired men.....and that was justified as it was a ginger haired man who left her to rot in a shed with major injuries.

She didn't bark at them.....but no way on earth would she approach them.

Tess reacts to ''nervous'' people she takes herself off into the kitchen........not sure why but I think she may have a 'triggered memory''

Maybe something of his past came to the fore

Glad he was well mannered enough just to bark at her