# Barking at One Person/ Fear of Crutches?



## Vireye (Sep 18, 2012)

Hello all,

Before I seek professional help (nearly at my wit's end here) I wanted to seek some community advice.

My girlfriend and I, as well as our two dogs, live in an adjoined house, attached to my parent's. (We're getting finances in order to move into our own completely separate place).

My dog, a two year old Australian Kelpie rescue, has always had "issues" with my dad.

I got her when she was about 6 months old through an adoption organization in CT, and I have since moved to PA. Since I got her she has always had issues with men, and will bark incessantly until she gets to know them. Women, on the other hand, she seems to love right off the bat. My dad, however, since the day they met a year and a half ago, she simply does not like, trust, or something. Just him walking into the room sets off hackles and growling. She is naturally a very timid dog, and has never been aggressive towards anything except in this case. She'll even try to bark OVER him if he tries talking to me from another room.

For the most part we could all co-exist with her distrust, she simply stayed away from him and there were no issues. He broke his ankle a few weeks back however, and I've found a NEW issue. She goes INSANE if she hears or sees crutches or a walker. I mean that yowling, almost panicked bark, and she absolutely will not stop until the source of this angst is out of sight. But if he moves at all, even in the other house, and she hears it, the barking begins. It doesn't matter where she is, she could be sitting on my bed and hear it and start barking.

I tried just showing her that the crutches aren't a threat...and if they're laying on the floor, she'll go right up to them, sniff them, and not care. But if anyone picks one up, even me, the tail goes between the legs and she gets defensive. I know very little of her history before I got her, but I'm thinking there's got to be SOME sort of correlation.

So far I've found that her triggers are canes, walkers, and crutches. If I'm home its not terrible, as she KNOWS she isn't supposed to be barking, and will stop and go upstairs if I make eye contact. But if I'm not home, she won't stop and its causing all sorts of frustrations for my father when he's trying to get work done.

I'm not really sure what I can do to try and correct this behavior. First, I would tell her to go upstairs when she started, and she'd stop barking and obey. NOW, she'll go upstairs FIRST, and THEN start barking. She's definitely too clever for her own good, and will try and find loopholes to let her start barking again.

Sorry that was so long-winded, but any advice, or further questions about the situation?


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## ireth0 (Feb 11, 2013)

I would start to change the association she has with the things that are currently scary to her (crutches, your dad, etc)

Basically you want to show her that actually crutches and your dad bring lots of yummy treats, rather than something bad. Have your dad drop treats when he's around and otherwise totally ignore her until she's okay with him being around.

Reward her for being calm around crutches or when she hears them (even if you have to start with the crutches quite far away).

Also look up LAT training.

If this does have to do with something bad happening from her past, know that it may take a lot of time and patience to completely change how she reacts to these things.


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## cookieface (Jul 6, 2011)

Ireth0 has good advice. You can also do something called open bar/closed bar. As soon as your pup notices the scary thing (e.g., your dad, crutches, another male), start feeding her treats (if she won't take them, you're probably too close to the scary thing). When the scary thing leaves, the treats stop. This graphic illustrates the game: 









Sophia Yin has some good videos on desensitization and counter-conditioning on her web site (google "sophia yin nail trim" or "sophia yin blowing in dogs face" for explanatory videos). Debbie Jacob's Fearful Dogs site is good, too.


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