Why does my dog run home?

My dog was out for a walk the other day and was playing with some other dogs in the park. All of a sudden, she just ran all the way home and was sitting on the door step, when we caught up with her. Ever since then, she has been nervous when we take her to the park. She skulks around and gets a fright if there is another dog barking or running around. She has always been fairly timid, but this is just weird.

Hmm, this is weird. She may have gotten a fright from one of the dogs she was playing with and decided she wasn't safe and took off to her 'safe-place'.

Was there anything out of the ordinary with the playing dogs? Any dominance rituals? Such as: mounting, or putting paws on other dog's heads or backs?

When she ran away did you try to call her? If you did and she didn't listen she may think that she is the 'pack leader' and therefore can make her own decisions. So if she was 'bullied' by another dog she may have decided that she is not in charge at the park, and wanted to get back to 'her' territory.

As far as being timid, this can be helped with more socialization and bringing her into situations she is usually timid in for VERY BRIEF sessions with lots of rewards for being brave. You need to anticipate when she is going to be skittish BEFORE she gets to that level. Reward her for any 'brave' behavior and IGNORE the skittish behavior, if you say 'aww its ok' or even scold, she is getting attention for her skittish behavior, and it is reinforcing the unwanted behavior.

I am a positive-reward trainer, and basically it means to reward the good, ignore the bad, and redirect to another situation when the going gets tough and then try again on a smaller scale next time.

Good Luck! I hope this helps!

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how to make my dog bark at strangers?

I end up with a big dog at home after baby-sitting for somebody that moved away and never came back for the dog.He is 1 year old and looks like a mix of a bernese mountain dog with a chow chow.right now he is 70 lb.He is to friendly and won't bark even if he sees a stranger at the door.Probably he will even lick the stranger if I let he in.how can I change this behavior

don't change the behavior. what you have now is a friendly dog who will cause you no liability. chows and bernese mountain dogs will get way too aggressive if encouraged to do so, and possibly bite someone.

trust me, even if he's wagging his tail, no one is going to break into your house with that big dog behind the door.

if you want him to just bark to appear to be a watch dog, you can train him to "speak" and then engourage him to do this when there's someone at the door. he will learn to bark until you give him a command to do something else.
training him to bark is ok.
do NOT train him to be fearful or aggressive toward strangers. that will just end up in your dog biting someone and then they sue you and your dog gets PTS. just train him to bark at the door. he might even learn on his own after he settles in a bit.

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In Home Cage Free Dog Boarding Pet Sitters with Buddy's Sleepovers

In Home Dog Sitting

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