hello,

i just wondered if anyone could offer any tips for a 6 yr old cross breed who goes crazy (barking, running, jumping up) at the sight or sound of the postman and his trolley (seen or heard, unavoidably, four times a day) or even tips for his owners would be really helpful :)

TIA,

tanyaj.

Hi, sadly to many dogs the postman is the "enemy" as they invade "their space" AND put things ( letters) right into the house - how dare they!! My sweet natured cocker spaniel, who was 100% reliable with anybody exept the postman , used to try to take his hand off as he put the letters through the door, and then destroyed this "alien material" which smelled of strangers!! We fitted a wire cage inside, over the letter box, and then at least he didn't have to worry about his fingers and our post was in tact. If you want to stop this behaviour completely one of the experienced trainers on the board will be able to help, hopefully. having a radio playing in the room may help to disguise the noise of the trolley coming.

hi,

thanks for the reply!

we have a door inbetween our hall and the letter box, so he hasn't got into tearing up our post yet (though i'm sure given half a chance...!). i've tried putting the radio or television on, sometimes this does work to disguise the noise a bit, but he is very alert to strange sounds most of the time, and as he's been doing this for a while, it seems like he's just waiting for it each morning!

i've been trying to break the habit by giving him little bits of cheese when he's quiet when the postman is near (bribery!)...not sure if this is the best way to go about it, but i'll keep working on it i think.

You have the right idea, teaching him an alternative behaviour when he hears the trolly. If you keep at it then each time he hears the trolly he should eventually come running to you for a treat.

Had you ever thought of actually introducing him to the postman, or do you think he would bite him in the state he gets into.

all mine bark when the post comes, as they do for anyone coming to the door, but are very good with the post people outside the house. I did this when they were small, so that they wouldn't get really bad when he did come to the house! So their barking is more of a welcome reaction tham a guarding one.

My parents dog used to hurl herself at the front door snarling and growling and one day she managed to crack the glass at the bottom of the door. Things got so bad the post office used to leave our letters with the neighbours because they got such a vicious reaction from the dog.

One day I was leaving the house to walk the dog and the postie came up to us and said "Thank God you've got a new dog, that other one was so nasty I really thought it'd bite me". He was very embarrassed when I told him we'd not got a new dog and the 10 inch high Cocker Spaniel he was fusing was the nasty one!!

About a year later we discovered that Bess was almost completely blind due to cataracts and it was suggested that her sight loss might have caused her noisy reaction to the postman.

Fiona

Our bitch, from a guarding breed, doens't even bark at postie!
The reason is because, she sleeps downstainrs in the hall and when a pup, found mail rather fun and - well, it was eatable, wasn't it?!

So we got into the habit of distracting her with coming donwstairs and asking her to "give" the post, and then giving her praise and attention. Because of this she loves it when postie comes and just looks up the stairs for us to come down!! It's play time!!

She will bark at most other people though!! :D

LIndsay

My Boarder Collie Molly barks at anyone who comes onto the drive or near the porch door. She too is not a lover of the postman but he comes so early she is still asleep! If anyone comes to the porch she will bark to say "who are you, mum some one is at the door"!

i tried introducing him to the postman quite a while ago, to get him used to him and 'desensitize' him to the
trolley. it seemed to be going well, but then for some reason he reverted back, pretty ferociously! so i stopped it so as not to put me, him and the poor postman through the ordeal! but maybe i didn't give it long
enough? i don't think he would go as far as to bite the postman, but then you never know for sure. maybe i
should start it up again, very slowly. if the postie is willing, that is!

Fiona - that's a funny/sad story. Bess sounds like she was a right character!

Lindsay, that sounds great. i'm jealous! we didn't have our dog as a puppy unfortunately. i wish we had; there
are so many things we could've done, good habits to get him into.

he does bark at nearly anyone coming to the door, except if it's one of the family, then he usually listens but
knows it's us and doesn't get hyper.

oh well, it is good to know we're not the only ones with a noisy (but hopefully getting slightly less so!) start
to the day :)

There is a train of thought that basically the dogs train themselves to 'scare away' the postman. The postman comes onto their property - they bark and snarl at him and he goes away. It's very difficult to overcome that. Back home in Canada our Postman/woman used to walk round with dog cookies in their pocket and the dogs loved them to bits!!

Wendy

ahhh...maybe the answer is to move to canada :)

Nah - we just have to train the posties over here to carry dog cookies -and perhaps slip a couple through the door to make friends:)

LOL, i wonder if there's somewhere you can get help on training your postie?! :) ours never seem to be the friendly type.

Our post-lady does just that! My dog could spot her a mile off, he would start wagging and stamping his paws while we were out walking and I'd wonder who he had seen (only me and my husband usually got that sort of welcome from him) but then I'd see Wendy our Postie coming on her bike, she always stopped to give him a small biscuit and he (of course) loved her for it!