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E-mail received at dog fun on 14/04/01.

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Could you give me some advice PLEASE MY DOBE BITCH is 10 months old

1/ she is scared of other dogs and backs away from them

2/she barks at anything outside[whilst indoors]

3/i thought dobes were fearless? iknow 7 dobes and they all seem scared

I would appreciate any answers THANK YOU

Jade's reply.

Dear Tracy,
Thank you for your e-mail about your Doberman. What you describe sounds quite typical behaviour and without doubt the best way to overcome all three problems is by socialising your Doberman. She is still very young and it sounds as though she lacks confidence in unfamiliar or unpredictable situations.

1) I would strongly suggest that you enrol in a local dog training class. You will find that as you attend week by week your Dobe will get to know the other dogs and will begin to realise that they are not always a threat. Interacting with other dogs and people in a controlled environment will start to relax your dog and also the advice that you will receive will provide you with the necessary skills to cope with situations that might arise whilst out on walks etc.

2) Barking at passers by from inside your house, again this is typical and she is only alerting the rest of the pack (you and your family) to the presence of a potential threat. This is not a bad thing as people will get to know that you have a large dog, but I am aware that it can be annoying. I would suggest that rather than trying to stop this behaviour you should work on controlling the length of time that your dog barks for. Let her tell you that someone is at the door but teach her to stop barking on a command like "leave it" or "it's OK". Make her stop by presenting her with a treat to distract her from the passer by and only hand it over when she is quiet. During this whole time keep repeating your chosen command, this will help her associate the command with the reward. Yes you will be rewarding her for barking but if you do this in a consistent manner you will be teaching her that she should only bark until you tell her to stop. You will then have the best of both worlds should the wrong sort of person come to your door!

3) I would describe Dobes as cautious and brave but not fearless. In my opinion it is their fear that helps them to be such great family guards. If they didn't see any potential danger in people or places they would let everyone and everything into their territory and that would be no good at all, when the chips are down your Dobe would come to your aid even now! You will find that again by socialising your dog this will help her to appear less scared. Think of it as being smart rather than scared, better to look for danger rather than assume that everything is safe! I hope that this helps you and your Dobe

All the best, Jade the Doberman

As with the rest of Dog Fun we are only offering advice, we have learned a lot through our own experience and would like to further that knowledge with your help. If you have any good tips or advice that would help dog owners drop us a line to jade@dogfun.co.uk and we will display your advice and give you credit for your help!