Barking at random strangers only off lead

[red_swim]

I've been looking through the forums to find a topic similar to this but haven't yet found anything specific. Our 15-month-old mini has a habit of barking at strangers when he's off the lead. He can go a whole week without an incident and then a week when he does it once a walk. We've tried to find a pattern and it seems to be people surprising him (eg coming out of a side path), people lurking at the edge of the park and people who fuss him as they go past, when he woofs and takes after them. It seems to be an alert bark - 'Mum! Mum! Check this out!' - but I can't be sure.

I try to pre-empt it if I spot a trigger by getting him to sit and look at me until the danger has passed, when he gets a treat, and I reward him sporadically when people go past and he behaves well (which is 99.9% of the time). I'm concerned that he's going to startle someone (you know what the schnauzer bark is like) and they will act out against him because I can't be alert to every danger that might come. I also keep him focussed on me in five-minute bursts during a walk, so we do a few minutes of ball play, then a few minutes of training, then a few minutes of lead time, then roaming, etc, to keep the rewards coming.

He's totally fine on the lead and and, bizarrely given what I've said, is great around children, scooters, pushchairs, noise etc as we live in London so there's been a lot to socialise him with!

Any advice?

[Oscar 12345]

Laura, you have my sympathy. Oddly, it may well be that he feels less secure when off lead and therefore more likely to try and defend/warn off others. I would get a long lead so that he thinks he is off lead and then if he does it you can hopefully call him back/train but know that he is safe. It can be really scary for people, particularly those who are afraid of dogs, to see one running towards you barking, what if it was a child who then started running off in the opposite direction? Only when he ignores people completely or you have complete control would I let him off the lead.

[red_swim]

Hi Julie, thanks for such a thoughtful reply. I hadn't even clocked that he might feel less secure off the lead, but that makes sense. We have a long lead that we used for recall training so we will dig that back out for this - which also gives us an opportunity to reinforce his recall, so double win!

I'd be really interested to know if others have had this specific problem and which training techniques they used. We also have a great local trainer we can go to if we don't make headway.

[MAnderson]

Hi Julie, thanks for such a thoughtful reply. I hadn't even clocked that he might feel less secure off the lead, but that makes sense. We have a long lead that we used for recall training so we will dig that back out for this - which also gives us an opportunity to reinforce his recall, so double win!

I'd be really interested to know if others have had this specific problem and which training techniques they used. We also have a great local trainer we can go to if we don't make headway.

Hi there, I just joined the forum today, so probably late to the party with this, but.... Yes!! This is a new behaviour my standard bitch has begun! She is so well behaved on the lead and even on the long lead (she knows when the long lead is on and won't do anything naughty), but when off the lead, she jumps on her back legs and barks wildly at strangers. Usually if they are lurking oddly in the corner of the park, but more recently at anyone in the park that doesn't have a dog. She's usually so enamoured by every dog that passes she probably doesn't notice the human. If a poor passerby is in the park without a dog, she is running straight at them barking and jumping. It's quite scary and I'd be really frightened, even being a dog owner if this happened to me. I try to preempt it as you mention but its impossible to preempt every situation. She is only young still (just gone 12months) so maybe its a phase. I assumed it's a protective thing, because she doesn't do it with our dog walker who also lets her off the lead.

Have you had any luck with you dog since you posted this back in May?

[Oscar 12345]

Michelle, she is the ideal age to get a good force free trainer to help you with this. You don't want this behaviour to become a routine/habitual way of meeting people. The right trainer could help you enormously. Until then you need to keep her on the leash if there is any risk of people around. I am not wishing to scare you but if the barking/jumping is trying to warn people to stay away and the person is scared and moves unpredictably or scares her even more, the next stage on the ladder might be a nip or worse a full on bite. You have to protect your girl.

[MAnderson]

Thank you, yes after reading through some material on this forum, I took her out to the park and as soon as a person was nearby I made her sit and look at me. I kept chatting to her and treating her whilst the people and prams etc went by and she didn't lunge at them at all. I'm going to keep that going as it seems to be working and if that gets derailed I'll go back to our original trainer from when she was a puppy. Thanks again!