Dear Dog Lady,
My partner recently moved in with me. My S**-Zu, Chloe, who has been with me for about two years, loves him. We recently added a Rottweiler, Boscoe, to our home. The dogs get along well, especially Boscoe who is quiet, patient and tolerant, Chloe goes her way and he goes his.
The problem comes when Boscoe plays with his toys, runs outside or gets excited, especially when my partner comes home, Chloe goes crazy barking. Very loud, shrieking (while her tail is wagging) and continuous. Until Boscoe came along, no one knew I even had a dog. This barking behavior is unsettling and upsetting. Why is this happening? What can we do to get her to stop this irritating behavior?
Suzanne
A: Don’t mind Dog Lady if she vents a little: When you are the keeper of a dog, it is important to know how to spell the breed name correctly. Your dog is a Shih (S-H-I-H) Tzu (T-Z-U), a breed originating in China. Understand? OK, phew….
Why does your dog bark like crazy when excited by your partner and the Rottweiler Boscoe? Umm, maybe because she’s a dog.
Shih Tzus resemble adorable stuffed animals but they are real dogs — full-fledged barkers with all the instincts of a used-to-be-wolf. When your dog lived alone with you, she probably had no cause to get all roiled up. Now she’s part of a pack and reacts to the stimuli very appropriately. You know her barks are excited and happy because her tail wags. If her eruptions annoy you, cordon her off from the crowd. Or distract her and train her to hold her tongue by rewarding for silence.
One Response to “A Wolf By Any Other Name”
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Categories: Dog in the House, News
Posted on: Monday, January 30th, 2012 at 3:46 pm
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Dogs don’t wag their tails to show they are happy; they wag them to show a state of arousal and heightened awareness. The same thing for the continuous vocalizations: it shows excitement and arousal, not happiness. I would suggest to the owner to get herself, her partner, and both dogs into basic obedience training in a class or group setting using marker training, and put special focus on training vocalizations (barking, etc.) to be on cue.