Here Him Bark!

[JuBee_&_BoBa]

Hear Him Bark!

Okay here is the situation.

We have had Boba for about 5 days now and he's doing absolutely great! On his first few days at home, he's been with only me, my bf and my one of my other friends. He's very attached to me especially, follows me everywhere I go, listens to me mostly, but barks at my bf and my friend sometimes. He doesn't do that all the time but there have been a few occasions when he did. He's gotten a lot better. He never barks at me though.

My other roommate just got back to town yesterday, and Boba was extremely irritated with him, (from what I could tell). He kept on barking, even growling. I hope he doesn't do this to all visitors that come into our home. I keep on telling him STOP - NO - but it doesn't work. Everytime my other roommates comes across him he'll bark his head off! My roommates have tried petting him, and praising him when they do, and Boba will be okay at that point, but will go back to barking and growling again later on. It is extremely cute to hear this lil baby of mine seem to be protecting me or the household, but I don't want him to become like this with all visitors.

He is only a 3 month old shih tzu.

Any advice?

 

[misticaleclipse]

It is extremely cute to hear this lil baby of mine seem to be protecting me or the household, but I don't want him to become like this with all visitors.

I just picked up on this part. Please don't take this the wrong way, but if you think its kind of cute, could you be nuturing this behaviour without meaning to?

Charlie is a shih tzu as well. I taught him the quiet command in slow steps. I leave the room where he can't go, hes quit for one second I come back and say good boy, I slowely increased the time until he got better. With the same theory why not try him slowely with one person at a time in different situations, maybe a more neutral setting like the park or something?

Do you think hes being protective of you, or hes affraid?

 

[JuBee_&_BoBa]

Oh definitely. Like I said in my post, I always say a firm "NO" everytime he barks.

You probably got the wrong impression thinking that I praise him or something everytime he barks but I don't. Even though I'm 'thinking' it's cute in my head, I don't in any way show that to him. It's always with a NO or that's ENOUGH when he does it.

There have been people coming into the house and I've always introduced Boba to them. I'll just keep on doing that. Thanks again for the advice.

 

[smkie]

No doesn't mean a thing if the behavior continues,,do yourself and everyone a favor and put that barking to a prime focus for behavior modification, while the dog is little. I would like to do a little behavior mod on a certain jr that lives behind me right now, nothing would make me happier.