Building Confidence ?

Hi,

A friend of mine has an 18 month old Am.Bulldog. He is very defensive in the house but acts out of fear which is an issue that needs addressing sooner rather than later.
Im pretty confident that this is not a socialization issue as he has been around many dogs and people and is fine, people in his house is the major concern here, he just seems petrified at the thought of any confrontation in his house.
He barks at the door knocking but will not approach the door, if he is near the door when it knocks he runs up the stairs quiet frantically and barks from the top looking down, he backs off from any person in the house (with a few exceptions) he is very nervous when people are in the house, i have seen him pacing anxiously like he is unable to relax.
It really is a shame because he is a fantastic boy, so gentle with those he trusts, which im sorry to say is very few. Im not worried he will bite out of fear, I couldnt see that happening as he will never get that close to anyone he is nervous of, I just think it is awful for any dog to be so scared in their own home when it is a place they should be at their most confident.
My question(s) is/are... has anyone had to deal with a similar situation ? how did you overcome it ? Have you seen anything online that could be a good guide ?
I was sure that Leerburg (http://www.leerburg.com/) had a "Building Confience" DVD, but i cant find it on his site.
Could anyone point me in the right direction or just shed a little light so i can help this poor little lad ?


Many Thanks

Aaron

Hi Aaron,

My dally bitch is the same. We don't get many visitors to the house and the few we get regularly she's fine with, it looks like she could wag her tail off when she sees them approaching the house.
But those she doesn't know very well or don't usually come to the house she really freaks at and will become very defensive. The only difference is, I'm not convinced she wouldn't bite She doesn't like them coming in so if attempts to get rid of them at the door fail, she hides under the table growling and expecting me to get rid of them.

I know exactly what you mean, it's not fair on the dog, plus we don't get many visitors due to the 'big dog' who is just scared (and not very big!)

She's a nervy bitch in general and I've had to build her confidence outside of the home as well but due to a lack of people I can call on to visit, it's very difficult to get practice for her.

To begin with the people who come to the house that she gets worried about, I always give them treats and ask them to throw her a treat (regardless of her reaction to them) when they first come in and then ignore her after that.

If she approaches them, they give her another treat, other than that, she gets no attention for any of the fear/threat displays.

Could be somewhere to start? Also because the knock at the door has literally become a cue to bark, I have been practicing knocking on the door (while she can see me) rewarding the first bark using clicker training (more precise) and a treat, and then giving a no reward marker and removing the treats from sight for any subsequent barks.

Once she was comfortable with me knocking on the door, and only giving one bark, I asked her for a sit in the hallway and went to open the door. Any attempt to move got the door closed again and any succesful sits while I opened the door got rewarded.

I then moved onto chatting to somebody (imaginary) outside through the door (she couldn't see) and learned at that point that I had to wait for someone to take my other dog (who doesn't usually guard at all) out before I could try it with my youngest

I hope that helps, the main thing is, associate everything that he finds scary with something very good (being careful not to reward fear displays), ignore unwanted behaviour and never push him too fast.

Good luck.