This is a low-stakes question, but one I've been curious about for months without finding a satisfactory answer. Please delete if not allowed!
We have two male 6-year-old 90lb dogs (B was adopted as a puppy, loves people, and has terrible leash manners, and the other C was adopted as a rescue around 8 months and is terrified of people, generally reactive, but typically loves dogs). This post is about C.
We've had him for about 5 years, he's neutered (which happened before he came to us) and generally healthy though takes Phenobarbital daily to prevent seizures, and also Trazadone for his general anxiety. The rescue organization we adopted through wasn't as clear about his anxiety levels as we wish they had been, and as such, the training we assumed we'd do when we adopted him was way too stressful for him. Since then, we've settled into a pattern of management that works for all of us. It's not perfect but he's continually gaining confidence and fits our lifestyle fine.
One of his behaviors is that when startled or scared, etc, he howl-barks. It's incredibly loud and tends to get himself worked into a tizzy when he gets going. He and I have a system for when he's in the backyard and he starts howling, I open the backdoor and he stops barking to come inside for a treat. If the reason he barked is gone, he'll often go back out, other times he just stays inside for a while with me. There was no formal training for this, and occasionally when he's too over threshold, he won't come inside.
However, other times, he just comes to the backdoor of his own volition, waits for me to open it, comes inside tracking mud through the kitchen and living room, and then either stands there staring at me calmly or happily sprints back outside to keep playing. Sometimes during an hour of being outside, he'll repeat this pattern 5-10 times. Any ideas why that happens?
We have two male 6-year-old 90lb dogs (B was adopted as a puppy, loves people, and has terrible leash manners, and the other C was adopted as a rescue around 8 months and is terrified of people, generally reactive, but typically loves dogs). This post is about C.
We've had him for about 5 years, he's neutered (which happened before he came to us) and generally healthy though takes Phenobarbital daily to prevent seizures, and also Trazadone for his general anxiety. The rescue organization we adopted through wasn't as clear about his anxiety levels as we wish they had been, and as such, the training we assumed we'd do when we adopted him was way too stressful for him. Since then, we've settled into a pattern of management that works for all of us. It's not perfect but he's continually gaining confidence and fits our lifestyle fine.
One of his behaviors is that when startled or scared, etc, he howl-barks. It's incredibly loud and tends to get himself worked into a tizzy when he gets going. He and I have a system for when he's in the backyard and he starts howling, I open the backdoor and he stops barking to come inside for a treat. If the reason he barked is gone, he'll often go back out, other times he just stays inside for a while with me. There was no formal training for this, and occasionally when he's too over threshold, he won't come inside.
However, other times, he just comes to the backdoor of his own volition, waits for me to open it, comes inside tracking mud through the kitchen and living room, and then either stands there staring at me calmly or happily sprints back outside to keep playing. Sometimes during an hour of being outside, he'll repeat this pattern 5-10 times. Any ideas why that happens?