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My dog is 7 months old, and is a small dog- dachshund. She's been barking and growling at strangers walking by our house, around our house, or guests coming. If she sees a stranger outside of our home, she'll bark her head off until they leave. She also barks at the doorbell and people who come to our house. I'm really trying to give her treats before she barks when she sees a stranger but it looks like it's not working. I will say that she was socialized when she was younger but I think it wasn't enough since we never had a lot of time to socialize. I just need help to stop her barking at strangers, and help her to learn to like people since she won't even let them talk to her. I'm having a really big party in 2 months, so I'm hoping she will just have at least a little improvement by then.

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  • About the "giving treats when she sees a stranger". What EXACTLY are you doing? Does she spot a stranger, and then get a treat? Or does she see a stranger, you demand her attention, she gives attention to you, and THEN you reward? If it is the first, you may reward her for spotting strangers....
    – Layna
    Commented Aug 25, 2017 at 9:11

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I would say that a quick response will not happen. Normally for a dog to get used to a action/ situation they would need at minimum of a thousand repetitions of that action. For example having a friend come over and ring the doorbell, then you diverting the dogs attention to a treat or toy eventually this will lead to the dog getting used to the sound. The same goes for every other action, when someone comes in try to get the dogs attention until someone coming in the house is not a big issue. This though will take longer then two weeks to get used to all the stimuli around your house.

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    a "thousand repetitions" is weirdly specific. Where does that number come from?
    – Zaralynda
    Commented Jul 25, 2017 at 20:51
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    When I was training my dogs our professional trainer said to get a desired habit you want to repeat a certain task/command/situation thousands of times.
    – Koehler
    Commented Jul 27, 2017 at 18:28

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