Dog barks and growls at visitors

Question:
 Hi! I am a new member of the forums and hope to get some advice from you more experienced dog owners! We adopted Maggie, a small (13 lbs) terrier mix, from the shelter about a month ago. She is a sweet dog, about 1 1/2 years old, who is usually very mellow around the house. She is also friendly to people we meet outside the house (e.g., in the park, out walking, etc.) But when the doorbell rings and someone comes in--one of the kid's friends, the music teacher, etc.--she circles around them, barking, occasionally growling, and trying to jump up. We are only on week 3 of obedience class, so while she can do "sit" and "stay" and "down" when she is calm, she'll only do it for a minute in this kind of situation. I have read different suggestions and was wondering what has worked for you. One school of thought seems to say to keep her away from the front door entirely until the visitor is inside the house--keep her in her crate, or in the kitchen behind a door. The other advice was to let her be there when the visitor comes in, but if she starts to bark/growl/jump, to say "Enough!" or "Quiet"! and then either shake a can filled with coins or spray her with a little water to startle her into quiet, then praise/treat her when she is quiet. I'm not sure which to try. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! Karen
Answer:
 Thanks, Karen! I should have been more clear that these methods I mentioned, like shaking the can, are things I read in various books or on the Internet, not advice I got at the training class. I actually haven't tried any of these methods yet because I wasn't sure which would be the best to try. I agree with you that positive reinforcement is a lot better than scaring the dog or making her fearful of what will happen every time a visitor comes in the door. I will read the links you provided as well. Karen
Answer:
 I would stop using the shake can as it can actually make her associate the humans with the undesired shake of the can. This can actually increase the chance of her reacting negatuvely to the visitors. Second, is the training class having you learn practical applications for the formal behaviors? Are choke collars and collar corrections being used. Many of the older training techniques can actually more confuse dogs and make life far worse for them. Now, what I prefer to do is gradually desensitize the dog to humans being near. Take the undesired behavior and replace it with a desired one. When someone visits, I want the dog ON LEAD before the human even enters the house. Have the dog sit and QUIETLY reward that sit. If you rev up and get anxious or stressed, the dog will feed off of that. Have the human enter and STOP. Keep the dog focused on you with a treat and talk calmly. When the dog is more focused on you and not the human, have the human step closer - ONE STEP! Repeat keeping your dog focused on you and allow the visitor to SLOWLY approach. Make sure human has a treat. If the dog starts to act up, do NOT punish the dog. Rather, have the human stop approaching and you calmly walk the dog away. Refocus the dog on you and start again. Now, as the dog behaves, have the visitor gently toss the dog a treat ONLY WHEN THE DOG IS DOING WHAT YOU WANT. If the dog is barking at the visitor and the visitor gives the dog a treat at that time, the dog is being rewarded for BARKING at the person. You want to make visitors as pleasant and stressless as possible. Shake cans, corrections, etc increase the unpleasantness of the situation and can increase the chance of the dog acting up. Or of you correct the dog into stopping, you are in actuality NOT training good manners but forcing the dog to stop the undesired ones. There is a chance that the dog will act out or begin not to trust visitor sbut not show it out of fear of being corrected. You need to show the dog positively what is desired. If the dog stresses, walk the dog away and lower that stress level. Again, replace the undesired behavior positively with a desired one, I would evaluate the program you are taking the dog to. Many trainers truly know little about dog behavior and what causes issues such as what you are having. The way a trainer teaches how to manage it can actually make the issues more likely to explode down the line with little warning. Please read these: http://www.dogtraining.co.uk/bergman1.html http://dogtraining.co.uk/bergman3.html http://dogtraining.co.uk/bergman4.html (this is superb!)