Foster dog teaching my dog bad habits.
My dog, Abraham, does not bark unless something extremely serious is happening, or we are playing. Got a foster dog recently, Grapes. Grapes barks whenever he sees anybody out the window.
However, Abraham will now chime in when Grapes starts barking, because Abraham just assumes something awful is happening.
Example: Mailman comes. Grapes loses mind and charges to window and is barking at mailman. Abraham rushes over to back him up, barking, and is desperately looking around for the fucking dragon, not realizing Grapes is just barking at the mailman.
Now I have to deal with two dogs barking! Abraham get's very riled up too. Full hackles up, guard mode, which he never used to do at all. He thinks something dire is happening when barks happen, because that's how he treats barks. He can't seem to comprehend not to take Grapes' word for the seriousness of the situation!
Same thing happens outside, which worries me. I have chains for them in the front yard, because it's not fenced. Abraham used to just chill out there for hours at a time just laying in the sun and observing passers by, occasionally getting his majestic picture taken by tourists. Now, I only let them out to potty and then bring them back in because if somebody walks past on the sidewalk Grapes charges and barks at them. Abraham follows him and will bark at people too, quite ferociously. I feel bad for people, despite the fact that the chains are very secure and cannot reach the sidewalk, because Abraham in particular is a scary looking dog.
I don't have any problem with Grapes when not on our property. I walk them to the off-leash trails every day and he has great recall and plays nicely with the other dogs and humans.
Any advice? I know how to raise a dog to not be territorial, but I have no idea how to reverse the behavior once it has set in. I also don't know how to stop my dog from picking up bad habits he never used to have!
Submitted January 20, 2019 at 10:32PM by Bread_Criticism
via reddit https://www.reddit.com/r/DOG/comments/ai6xiv/foster_dog_teaching_my_dog_bad_habits/?utm_source=ifttt
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