I have a spayed 20 month old english bulldog who has been aggressive with all 3 of us adults in the house since a puppy(no children here). I enrolled her in kindergarten class at 8 weeks and trained her daily for months along with dog park and day care 2-3 times a week for socialization. she is great with other dogs but she would lunge and bark at my husband and myself every night when we would try to relax, no matter how much exercise she would get, so I ordered this book. To our great surprise, the coins in a jar worked on Roxy instantly (she was l year old at that time). Suddenly she became a well-behaved pet and that lasted until last month when we opened our pool for the summer. Now the coins don't scare her anymore and we cannot relax in our yard or have company over without her constantly wanting everyone's attention. She will start with a bark then start racing around the yard and charging at us and trying to bite so we have been putting her in our pool house with the door closed for 5-10 minutes until she calms down but she continues to do this every day. I'm not sure what she is trying to tell us. Please help
Have you tried any other "startle" method? Stamp your feet, clap your hands, yell "oi!" (oi works wonders on my dog, haha). You personally making lots of noise might make a difference to your dog.
Otherwise, keep trying the time out method. If you immediately shut your dog into a dark, quiet room as soon as she starts acting up (as SOON as signs of demanding attention come out), and leave her there until she's calm again, she will get the point. You just have to be diligent and keep shutting her away everytime, even if you've just let her back out. Dogs generally respond because they dont want to be alone and get bored pretty easy in the time out room. When you put her away, give her a stern "enough" or "no", it will help get the point across.
The time out training really helped my own dog to learn to calm down, so I hope it will work for you, but remember you have to keep on top of her. I'm sure the lapse in her behaviour is because the pool is new and exciting and there is lots of splashing and noise, etc. So if you keep working with her, she'll get used to it and with the time outs, learn to behave herself!
Along with all this, remember to praise her when she does behave well - when she wants attention and asks for it in a good way, by just walking up and wagging her tail. Pat her a few times, say good girl, and go back to what you were doing. If she starts acting up, time out! She'll learn to be less demanding for attention quickly, I'm sure.
Thanks for replying. In answer to your question about other methods besides the coinsyes. We had tried everything we had either read or been taught in obedience classes-ignoring her, scolding, putting her in another room, etc. and the coins were the 1st thing that ever worked in an entire year! I had talked with a behaviour specialist who I was just about to hire when I stumbled upon the coin section of the book. We started putting her in the pool house by herself last week and I think this will work if we continue like you suggest. I had tried putting her on a long leash when I have company in the yard but she just barks or cries so when she started with me yesterday (I was alone with her) I put her in the pool house once again for about 10 minutes and that works because she can't see anyone so she doesn't bark. She was calm when she came out but we ended up taking her down to the river to play afterwards so I will see what happens today.
