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Dog Getting Territorial
Bailey has always been a very friendly and social dog. We take her on walks, to the dog park and to day camp occasionally. We've tried to expose her to as many dogs and people (especially kids since we don't have any but hope to eventually) as we possibly can. She still does very well when we take her out to places, but she seems to be getting territorial over "her" property. She's about 14 months old and we just started to notice this recently.
We were out on our back patio a few weeks ago and some neighbors walked up to talk to us. She has met them before and has been fine with them, but she did NOT like them coming on our patio. We put her inside while we talked to them and I let her come back out a few minutes later (after she stopped barking). She did better then. I definitely want her to alert us if someone is on our property, but I don't want her acting aggressively toward anyone. We haven't lived in our area long and have very few friends (no family) near us, so we rarely have visitors.
This even extends a little farther than our house. We live in a townhome and have a courtyard behind our house that we take her to play fetch in. Recently (the past few weeks maybe) she has started to bark at people and sometimes other dogs when they come out to play or just walk through. I know she doesn't understand that this is a common area, but I really don't like that she's getting territorial over it.
I really don't know how to address this issue. We hope to start inviting more people over soon, maybe that will help with her behavior in and around our house. What do we do about the courtyard though? I would definitely appreciate any suggestions.
Re: Dog Getting Territorial
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Our dog is 3 years old, and we have had a similiar situation crop up...
At our old house, we had a ton of friends and family over everyday. Random people would stop by all the time. If we couldn't get home on lunch to let her out, a friend would stop by alone and let her out of the crate to play. She was great.
At our new house, a few hours away, we have little company and live much more in the country. She still greets old friends in Erie and family well, but new people she gets pretty aggressive looking with. Our neighbor once (whom she has met and played with at her house multiple times) came over to let her out one day for us, and she refused to come out of the crate. She growled a little even.
I guess I don't have much advice, besides start inviting more people over to visit. She does much better with the neighbor now, but I'm still a little uneasy about it. We only lived here for about 4 months when we started noticing the change, so I know it can happen fast. She's recently started resource guarding with her food when other dogs are visiting as well, which is a separate issue, but sometimes as dogs mature they do change.
Good luck! Maybe someone else will have a bit more advice. Socializing inside the home though is just as important as outside the home!
FF