What's your opinion on this?
 

I got this from a horse board I'm on. The dog is a mutt, probably a shepherd mix of some sort.

I had the equine dentist out and we were talking saddles. She's got this super duper bareback pad she's looking at so I wanted to show her the LJ.
Now... we've had people in the house before, not a lot, but once in a while. Emmutt will bark an obligatory bark or two and then sit next to me.
But when this woman came in, Zephyr of course greeted her 'cause she loves everybody, Fuji hid. Emmutt was OK 'til I left the room to get the LJ. Then he was ON GUARD. Barking and snarling and carrying on, and she better NOT dare move another step into the house! No way, not on HIS watch, buster!
As soon as I came back in the room, he was fine again, and they all wanted to go outside to play.
Wow... I'm so impressed with my chubby bubby!!! I didn't know he had it in him. Several people agreed that the dog did a good job.
This was my response:
I gotta disagree on his good behavior.
If I invite someone into my house, my dogs better be friendly towards them, even if I step out of the room.
Now, if someone comes in uninvited, that's something totally different.

You invited this lady in, he should have accepted her and treated her in a friendly manner, unless she showed an 'unfriendly' sign. Her response to me;
Kit, your dogs are yours to train as you like. So YOUR dogs wouldn't be considered good behavior. But please don't tell me what my dog "should have" done. For me, living out in the middle of nowhere, when I left the room and he felt we needed protecting against an unknown person... he was a very good dog in MY house, and that's the way it's going to stay. After all, people have invited all sorts of unsavory people in their house without knowing it, so just because they are invited doesn't make them automatically trustworthy to roam the house unassisted.
Is it just me that things it's wrong, or would other people allow their dog (no matter what breed) to bark & snarl at someone they invited into their house?
I dont' have a problem with a dog being on alert, but unless the guest does something to warrant being barked & snarled at I don't think it should happen.

I agree that a person invited into the house should be respected by your dog unless they of course try to attack you... the dogs behavior would be something that I would be embarrassed about.

praising a dog for barking and snarling at an invited guest would NOT fly in my house. I don't care what type o dog it is that is NOT a good behavior trait I want in my animals.

ugh, and to have people say the dog did good when it was snarling and barking at a none threatining person is rediculous!

i agree with you both totally. who wants their guests to feel uncomfortable during their visit? i always introduce my dogs to people who are visiting. i think it's important the dog know i have invited them in and that both the person and pooch are acknowledged. last thing anyone wants is to have their visitor bitten or scared while they are going to get the a glass of water or something. geez! sounds like that woman is asking for trouble. i didn't think pits were for guarding anyway....i thought guarding was more german shepherd or rott or something. ??

My guess is the dog was not being the big brave protector of their home she thinks he was, so much as he was fearful of being left alone with a stranger.

Couldn't agree more with what's already been said. Sounds to me like the dog might have some "issues" of some sort? Fear? Abandonment? Guarding?

As others have said, praising and thinking my dog is awesome for barking, snarling, and carrying on at someone I have invited into my home and is clearly a friend would NOT be tolerated.



@kcbkat - the dog is a shepherd mix....I guess not a pit bull or pit mix. Even so, my GSD does not bark, snarl, and carry on at people I've let into our home. He may lay on his bed and watch them the entire time they're here, but he doesn't go ballistic.

@SouthernThistle, we had a German Shepherd too and he never did any of that either. like yours, he was more of a watcher than anything else. http://www.pitbull-chat.com/images/smilies/smile.png

I hope she understands horses better than she understands dogs.

This is much like the dog park mentality, people don't want to hear there may be problems with their dog, they want people to reinforce what they believe about their dog. Now at some point in the future if her dog bites someone in her home I'd be curious to see how she rationalizes that.

It's nice to see I'm not alone in my thinking!

Someone else posted this reply on the horse board; I think I see a *middle ground* between Kit's viewpoint and yours.

I would see my dog taking my cue from me. If I invite a person into my home, and my dog senses that I am comfortable with this person, then I wouldn't expect them to bark/growl if I left the room....unless the person made advances toward my dog that were not welcome.

If I invite someone into my home and my dog senses that I am not comfortable with the situation, then I would certainly appreciate a little support from the dog. Then the OP posted this
people are to train how they care to train. I would never tell somebody who was a responsible pet owner how their dog should be. What one wants out of their dog can be very different than what another wants out of their dog, and that's OK.
What happened was this:
We were talking at her truck away from the house. I just had her follow me in to the house, and then I left to get the saddle. There was not much assessment of anybody being comfortable, etc.

Since this was a dash n' go type of thing and the woman was still standing and had JUST walked in as I went to the other room, I feel his response was absolutely appropriate and I totally appreciate his feeling the need to keep her in the living room.

When I've had others come in (and we very rarely have people over here), Emmutt will be polite but not friendly, and will sit right by me. He's OK if they or I move around, but we've got company then, not a total stranger who just walked in.

Normally a sweet mellow couch potato, he will step up when he thinks he needs to and that's a GOOD dog in my house! Good thing she doesn't live around me, I don't want to go to her house where a dog is allowed to bark & snarl at me and be considered a good dog.

Bottom line, if you invite someone into your home and your dog bites them, your legally responcible. She will most likely be getting sued one day when an invited guest is bit or attacked by her dog.

I guess there's a reason she doesn't have people over often. http://www.pitbull-chat.com/images/smilies/rolleyes.png I guess if some people want to live that way, whatever.

I've been doing a lot of research into guardian breeds & guardian behavior, training etc, because that's what I want for my next dog. I would NEVER want my guardian to act that way. It shows weak nerves IMO. Unless that woman did anything threatening, there was no good reason for that dog to act that way. I agree w/ Zoe; very well could have been the dog being afraid of being left alone w/ a stranger!

To each his own
said the man as
he kissed the cow.

My dogs are small, and they generally love eveybody. They are the door greeters. I introduce them to everyone and everyone to them. My mail lady always builds in time to talk and pet them, so do all my friends. My fear is that they will go home with the person I just introduced them to joke! They got uncomfortable with one guy who was selling things door to door, but they just came and sat by my side till he left. He didn't appear to like dogs. i once had badly abused dog,she was a shelter dog. she was very afraid of everyone, mostly males. and I made sure she was never around guys alone in my house. We did socialize her but it took years. I would never leave my dogs unattended with another person in the house. I would not be happy if they were aggressive toward another person. And i would correct their behavior. A guest is a guest.

because it is MY house, my dog will let anyone in that *I* let in...if I have not let them in, then by all means- go for the groin. http://www.pitbull-chat.com/images/smilies/smile.png lol

Yep, my two will generally be barking at the window with their hackles up if anyone comes to the house. The second I let somebody into the house, they instantly change to wiggles and love.

Sinead loves everyone. I think she only barks at people because Mick does it. Mick likes people if I like the person. Once I had somebody over giving an estimate on some work I needed done. The guy was creepy and nasty to me. Mick was crated. He spent the whole time trying to get at the guy through the crate. Everybody else that was over to give an estimate, Mick was perfectly fine with.

I see nothing wrong with what the dog did. Like the owner said, this was a total stranger and from what I read she didn't invite the stranger in, the stranger "Just walked in"

How did you get that from what she posted? If a stranger just walked into my house, I'd expect my dogs to bite their ass. And my response would not be to leave a STRANGER alone in my house with or without the dogs.

I personally would never put my dog in that situation anyway. I would never leave my dog in the room with a stranger that he does not know unattended. I don't think that Kit's viewpoint is wrong, it is rather right. Dogs should never alert on people that have been invited into the house.

Silence accepts who I let in, however, watches with a careful eye. THAT I like. But, like I said, I'd never leave him in the room alone with someone, not even for a moment.

I read what KIT posted, it's in post #9 if you want to go read it.