Funny enough, my dog was never much of an idle barker. He cut out a little hole in the blinds by sheer perseverance so he could watch the road, but he generally wouldn’t bark unless someone knocked - and sometimes not even then.
Always was at the door to greet them, though, and rifle through their purse for anything edible/semiedible/chewable if they weren’t sufficiently vigilant.
Ours has dogtism. He likes everything to be exactly the same every day. “Other people” are outside of that routine. I’m pretty sure that’s why he likes to do tricks for treats so much: because he knows what is expected and he knows what’s going to happen. I think that “packages” have become part of the “routine,” and that “barking until someone comes” is, too.
I’m really glad that I immediately set the rule “don’t lie to the dog.” He gets confused and frustrated when you tell him something (by words or action), he responds how he should to that thing, and then you don’t follow that with your expected behavior.
Dogtism :) I use the term pawtistic. One of my pups is very pawkward and possibly pawtistic. She definitely has some social challenges but has grown a lot over the last few years.
That said, I think dogs generally prefer routine so some amount of favoring the familiar could be normal for a dog.
Funny enough, my dog was never much of an idle barker. He cut out a little hole in the blinds by sheer perseverance so he could watch the road, but he generally wouldn’t bark unless someone knocked - and sometimes not even then.
Always was at the door to greet them, though, and rifle through their purse for anything edible/semiedible/chewable if they weren’t sufficiently vigilant.
Ours has dogtism. He likes everything to be exactly the same every day. “Other people” are outside of that routine. I’m pretty sure that’s why he likes to do tricks for treats so much: because he knows what is expected and he knows what’s going to happen. I think that “packages” have become part of the “routine,” and that “barking until someone comes” is, too.
I’m really glad that I immediately set the rule “don’t lie to the dog.” He gets confused and frustrated when you tell him something (by words or action), he responds how he should to that thing, and then you don’t follow that with your expected behavior.
Dogtism :) I use the term pawtistic. One of my pups is very pawkward and possibly pawtistic. She definitely has some social challenges but has grown a lot over the last few years.
That said, I think dogs generally prefer routine so some amount of favoring the familiar could be normal for a dog.