Choxie growls and barks at strangers and other dogs. I have to say it has gotten better with other dogs. Our neighbors dog for instance is bigger than Choxie but really docile. "Foolish" is her name, hehe. Foolish is often roaming the backyard without a leash so she will run up to Choxie who is on the leash usually going potty. At first Choxie would get really loud now she just growls a little bit and then does her business. On walks Choxie sometimes barks and or growls at other dogs but it is pretty minor compared to what it used to be. I think she is making progress. However, her new thing is going crazy when she sees a child. I took her to my mom's house. My mom sits for young children. I kept her crated because she was growling and barking quite a bit. Also she growls at neighbor kids way across the block. I'm a little concerned because my husband and I are planning on starting a family in the very near future. I've been trying to expose her to kids but there aren't many kids around here that I know. This poses a problem for my husband (lol, he needs exposure to children as well!). Any suggestions? Thanks.

Henry was doing this, too, and I really don't enjoy walks with a dog that barks at people (I live in a heavily populated area), so I decided to see what I could do. I ended up getting Henry to stop barking at strangers while out on walks by teaching him a "look" command. I taught him that "look" means look at me (I did this by saying "look." Then I move in the opposite direction to make him pay attention to me, and as soon as he looks or turns in my direction, he gets a treat). After he had the command down, I tried it at the park where we walk. Every time we would approach someone or someone would approach us, I'd say "look", and he would look right at me, and Bam! he gets a treat. It has worked beautifully. Now I don't even give the command, he just looks right at me when someone approaches. I also do this with with other approaching dogs, too. He's about 90% there with other dogs. As a matter of fact, today a neighbor Henry has barked at in the past remarked at how calm he has gotten. It didn't really take that long, but we practiced a lot.

I think for Henry it was a matter of building his confidence and teaching him that people walking by are okay. Now he's mostly a confident, cute little dog that people fawn over at the park! How cool is that??