Sorry for the novel but my girl is starting to display some bad behavior, namely behavior she hasn't done before. I also included how many times it happened. Please don't yell x.x I'd like to know how to fix this behavior and what might be causing it.
Nervousness? Unsure of herself (happened only once) :
My other aunt had company over yesterday, a couple and their three kids. Normally Sissy loves kids, but she seemed pretty scared of them. They're special needs, they're a little slow. She'd bark and growl at them, sort like a worried bark, and I tried to show her they were ok and I showed them how to pet her and let her sniff their hands so she could see it was ok, she let them pet her and didn't voice any complaints. She calmed down and settled down but they must have made her nervous by running around and cutting up since it got her barking and growling all over again. It confused and worried me because she lets the girls handle her kind of rough, and lets toddlers pull on her ears and tail (although if she has enough, she'll just go elsewhere and if they run around like that, she doesn't get nervous). I ended up having to leave for a while and I told my aunt that if she seemed to get distressed, to go put her in the girls' room or in the bathroom so she can have some quiet time to herself, but she told me after I left, Sissy went hide behind her recliner and slept back there until after the company left, minus the daughter who stayed to spend the night. She's sure letting the daughter pet her now. I'd hate to think she was nervous because they're special needs, since my aunt Sharon had to take care of a special needs guy from the homeless shelter for two weeks a few months back while the lady who usually watches him and monitors his medicine was gone out of state. He has a muscle condition that causes him to shake constantly, and she tolerated him, she let him pet her and he didn't make her nervous even though he shook when he went to pet her. That's why I figure either the running around and the noise made her nervous, or there were just too many people around. Do you think reinforcement of socialization is in order?
Continuous barking, semi-rushing at guests when they walk in (10 times, tried to correct it) :
Now that I'm staying at my other aunt's, I'm probably going to move in, but when someone comes over, she barks and gets right at their legs, especially if she doesn't know them. It worries me that she might end up biting them since she's pretty much on them or that they'll panic and kick her, thinking she's going to bite them, or end up tripping them since she's in their feet. Normally she'd just bark and then settle down, she never gotten in their feet like that before. We invite them in, but she still barks at them. I'm starting to keep her on a leash when company comes over.
Hiding food (twice) :
They also got a puppy last week, Sissy and the puppy are doing fine together, but she started hiding food in my aunt's bed, something she's never done before. I'm starting to monitor her eating and pick up anything she has left over, and I also advised my little cousins not to feed her anything, and that if I ok them to give her a treat, they have to watch her and make sure she eats all of it right there and not run off with it. But is she trying to hide her food from the puppy?
Has had previous near-bites (four times) :
She has tried to bite a couple of people before, she has bitten material and pants, although no actual skin contact has happened. She had reason to for the first one, but the others I'm not so sure. One was my ex-uncle, he walked right up to her whelping box a couple of days after she had her first litter even though I told him not to and she got MAD and bit his ankle, but he was wearing work boots, thank god.
The others were a guy my mom invited inside and she just went completely mad, no warning, she just lunged at him and bit his leg (or at least we think she did, we know for sure she bit his pants but he never said if she bit his leg or not) and we had to put her in my bedroom until he left. Another guy she bit his pants and his jacket. And a lady friend of my mom's, she only got her pants too. Also, come to find out that those last three people who I figured gave her no reason to bite them without provoking her, do drugs, which I heard from several reliable sources (the late chief of police himself and several people in the neighborhood). I figure that maybe she smelled the drugs on them, or sensed something bad about them that I couldn't. Since with those people, if they'd walk past by the house, they wouldn't even have be in the yard, she could apparently recognize them by just sight alone and she'd headbutt the window and claw at it like some vicious thing, like she was trying to break through the glass to tear them up, but she has never acted like that towards anyone else. Can anyone suggest a way for me to find out what it was that set her off like that? If it was because she smelled drugs on them or what.
Nervousness? Unsure of herself (happened only once) :
My other aunt had company over yesterday, a couple and their three kids. Normally Sissy loves kids, but she seemed pretty scared of them. They're special needs, they're a little slow. She'd bark and growl at them, sort like a worried bark, and I tried to show her they were ok and I showed them how to pet her and let her sniff their hands so she could see it was ok, she let them pet her and didn't voice any complaints. She calmed down and settled down but they must have made her nervous by running around and cutting up since it got her barking and growling all over again. It confused and worried me because she lets the girls handle her kind of rough, and lets toddlers pull on her ears and tail (although if she has enough, she'll just go elsewhere and if they run around like that, she doesn't get nervous). I ended up having to leave for a while and I told my aunt that if she seemed to get distressed, to go put her in the girls' room or in the bathroom so she can have some quiet time to herself, but she told me after I left, Sissy went hide behind her recliner and slept back there until after the company left, minus the daughter who stayed to spend the night. She's sure letting the daughter pet her now. I'd hate to think she was nervous because they're special needs, since my aunt Sharon had to take care of a special needs guy from the homeless shelter for two weeks a few months back while the lady who usually watches him and monitors his medicine was gone out of state. He has a muscle condition that causes him to shake constantly, and she tolerated him, she let him pet her and he didn't make her nervous even though he shook when he went to pet her. That's why I figure either the running around and the noise made her nervous, or there were just too many people around. Do you think reinforcement of socialization is in order?
Continuous barking, semi-rushing at guests when they walk in (10 times, tried to correct it) :
Now that I'm staying at my other aunt's, I'm probably going to move in, but when someone comes over, she barks and gets right at their legs, especially if she doesn't know them. It worries me that she might end up biting them since she's pretty much on them or that they'll panic and kick her, thinking she's going to bite them, or end up tripping them since she's in their feet. Normally she'd just bark and then settle down, she never gotten in their feet like that before. We invite them in, but she still barks at them. I'm starting to keep her on a leash when company comes over.
Hiding food (twice) :
They also got a puppy last week, Sissy and the puppy are doing fine together, but she started hiding food in my aunt's bed, something she's never done before. I'm starting to monitor her eating and pick up anything she has left over, and I also advised my little cousins not to feed her anything, and that if I ok them to give her a treat, they have to watch her and make sure she eats all of it right there and not run off with it. But is she trying to hide her food from the puppy?
Has had previous near-bites (four times) :
She has tried to bite a couple of people before, she has bitten material and pants, although no actual skin contact has happened. She had reason to for the first one, but the others I'm not so sure. One was my ex-uncle, he walked right up to her whelping box a couple of days after she had her first litter even though I told him not to and she got MAD and bit his ankle, but he was wearing work boots, thank god.
The others were a guy my mom invited inside and she just went completely mad, no warning, she just lunged at him and bit his leg (or at least we think she did, we know for sure she bit his pants but he never said if she bit his leg or not) and we had to put her in my bedroom until he left. Another guy she bit his pants and his jacket. And a lady friend of my mom's, she only got her pants too. Also, come to find out that those last three people who I figured gave her no reason to bite them without provoking her, do drugs, which I heard from several reliable sources (the late chief of police himself and several people in the neighborhood). I figure that maybe she smelled the drugs on them, or sensed something bad about them that I couldn't. Since with those people, if they'd walk past by the house, they wouldn't even have be in the yard, she could apparently recognize them by just sight alone and she'd headbutt the window and claw at it like some vicious thing, like she was trying to break through the glass to tear them up, but she has never acted like that towards anyone else. Can anyone suggest a way for me to find out what it was that set her off like that? If it was because she smelled drugs on them or what.
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