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Thinking of adopting a 2.5 year old Border Collie mix, know she has socialization/protection issues, can you help?
My husband and I have been toying with the idea of adopting another dog (we have 2 chihuahuas and a cat) for quite some time, but really wanted to make sure the dog we adopted fit into our lifestyle and family before we made a choice. A friend of ours decided to foster a dog from the local humane society, and naturally, she's just about perfect for our family (from what we've seen so far). However, as she gets more used to being in the home, she gets more protective of the people she's living with and more standoffish with strangers, barking and growling but never acting aggressive. I was wondering if anyone who has adopted a dog has experienced these problems before and what they did to fix them? We do plan on obedience classes for socialization if we can't get her to improve on our own, but we'd really like to work with her one-on-one first.
Asked by
Jack
on Feb 15th 2009
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You'd really have to get a behaviorist to help you with something like that. You can teach ACTIONS to a dog, but you can't teach it how to feel, and if she's having problems with "resource guarding" which is what she is doing with her family, then thats something a behaviorist needs to help with.
Another thing that would concern me is that you do have two small dogs and a cat. Border Collies are herders, and she may very well feel the need to herd your other animals. Just a thought!
Bam-Bam, CGC
answered on 2/15/09.
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