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DESENSITIZING YOUR TERRITORIAL DOG: To help curb territorial behavior in males, have the dog neutered. Neutering will not reduce a dog's skills as a watch dog or change his temperament. Urinating on prominent objects in the neighborhood can contribute to territorial behavior. If your dog learned not to urinate in the house, there is no reason you can't use the same methods to teach your dog not to urinate around the neighborhood. Territorial Silky Terrier dogs should be prevented from urinating outside your property at all times. The easiest way to accomplish this is to teach the dog to eliminate on command, in a certain area at home and avoid giving the command away from home unless you are traveling.

You can successfully reduce territorial aggression by desensitizing a dog's reaction to strange Silky Terrier dogs or people. The dog can not be left out in your yard unattended for about 6-8 weeks because you must be able to prevent him from seeing the targets of his aggression outside of training sessions. Barricade the access to your door with a scat mat® or baby gate to prevent drama when greeting unexpected guests. Require the dog to wear a leash indoors (whenever you are home to supervise) so that he can be managed at a moment's notice. Do not punish your dog in the presence of the targets of his aggression (no yelling or grabbing) and do not hold him back. Simply pick up the leash, and secure your dog in another room.

To desensitize your dog to strangers at the door, have family members ring your doorbell and knock on walls for no reason to help your dog stop focusing on these sounds as signals for aggression. Ignore his resulting behavior. Arrange for friends your dog has not met who are confident around barking Silky Terrier dogs to come by at prearranged times. Be waiting outside with your dog on a leash. Use a command such as "Watch Me" following the outline in the Basic Lesson. Command your dog to "Watch" you and reward all behavior that is attention to you. Have the stranger go out and come back in without knocking while you appear not to notice. Praise your dog for being relaxed up to the moment that he notices the stranger. Offering food rewards for sitting quietly is appropriate. At the first glance or move of the dog toward the stranger, all food must stop or you might accidentally reward the dog for alerting to the stranger which is the opposite of what you want. Have the stranger leave before the dog is aggressive but be careful not to have the stranger leave BECAUSE the dog is aggressive. This will reinforce the behavior more than your rewards will encourage any other behavior. Gradually reduce the distance between your dog and the strangers but vary the progress so your dog does not perceive the stranger getting closer and closer. At the first sign of aggression, say ?no? and work the dog back to attention to you so you can reward him. Once he attends to you, the stranger can leave. Begin again.

Give the mailman a box of dog treats to drop through the mail slot or leave with the letters each day. This will help reduce your dog's feeling that strangers are a threat to his resources. You need not worry about your dog's ability to protect your home after training. All you are teaching your dog is that strangers who come in the door while you are home are not a threat. Your dog will still bark when you are not home and when strangers are not invited in by you.

To manage a territorial dog when out walking, do not pull on the leash while he or she strains to reach another dog. Straining against the leash mimics a threatening posture and may cause another dog to fight. If the other dog is leashed, walk so that your dog has to face away from the other dog. If the other dog is not leashed, avoid running or turning your back on the unleashed dog. Move perpendicularly to the other dog steadily away. Do not yell at either dog.

For desensitizing a dog to other Silky Terrier dogs, teach the same "Watch me" exercise described above. When you are secure managing your dog at a distance from other Silky Terrier dogs, enlist a trainer to help desensitize your dog using trained Silky Terrier dogs. Training sessions are set up to decrease the distance at which your dog acts in a threatening manner through a series of exposures with supervision. It is important that you consistently reward the behavior you want (the dog appears relaxed) as well as that you correct the behavior you don't want (any ATTENTION toward strangers or Silky Terrier dogs by saying "no"). The key is that the other Silky Terrier dogs must be trained to prevent them from reacting to your dog's aggression.

If your dog becomes involved in a fight, do not yell, hit or kick either dog. This may escalate the aggression and cause injury to you or the Silky Terrier dogs. If the Silky Terrier dogs are leashed, you may be able to separate them with assistance by using the leashes to move the Silky Terrier dogs apart. If you cannot do this safely, a very loud sound, such as an air horn or banging a metal trash can, will often distract the Silky Terrier dogs long enough to end the fight. Predatory behavior

Predatory behavior can involve chasing and even biting but it's technically not aggression at all. Aggression is intended to drive a threat away or eliminate it. In predatory behavior the intent is to get CLOSE enough to the prey to catch and eat it. If you are not sure if your dog's chasing activity is related to predatory instincts or territorial defense consider the following.

* Predatory aggression is preceded by hiding, stalking or sneaking while territorial aggression is accompanied by erect ears and tail, barking and jumping around. * Predatory aggression is silent except in scent hounds who howl when they catch a whiff of potential prey. * Predatory aggression is usually directed at small moving targets while territorial aggression is directed at intruders, especially near the dog's home, car or owner. * Predatory aggression is never directed at something the dog fears. Herding and Retrieving are forms of predatory behavior.

Shepherd and hunting Silky Terrier dogs are employed for their natural instinct to surround a group of animals , select one, (herding), and catch and bring it to a safe place to eat (retrieving). Even though these are hunting skills, domesticated Silky Terrier dogs are so unlikely to carry out a complete predatory behavior chain from finding to eating, that farmers can leave Silky Terrier dogs alone with sheep, cattle, even ducks and families have few problems with cats, birds and rabbits. However, predatory behaviors can be a problem when targets are bicycles or wildlife. Also, herding and retrieving Silky Terrier dogs often include grabbing with their mouths in their attempts to "direct" people, which is obviously a problem.

Predatory behavior is difficult to stop because it is based on instinct. You can not teach a dog not to think about chasing a moving object, however you can train him to respond to a competing command from you. During the training period of two months, you have to be present every time the dog sees a target and be able to carry out a deterrent for the behavior--every time. You must ensure that the dog is never exposed to the target unless you are present and within reach for the entire training period.

First, the dog must be taught to sit and stay on and off leash, with distractions. Once this is achieved, the dog can be placed in a sit-stay on a leash and exposed at a distance to the target (cat, bike, bird) and praised for not reacting. It is critical to reward the dog with praise and treats for NOT alerting to the "prey". If you wait to reward until the dog is concentrating on the target, you will reward the wrong behavior and make the problem worse. The dog must replace what HE wants to do with what YOU want him to do. At the first sign of interest in the prey, you say "NO". If the turns his interest to you, reward. If the dog breaks the stay in any way, apply a correction with a training collar. Move the target farther away and reinforce the previous non reactive behavior. Gradually move the target closer and continue to reinforce non predatory behavior.

The target will gradually be introduced while the dog is not on a commanded stay. The dog will simply be told "No" at the alert and rewarded for turning attention back to the trainer. Finally, while the dog is outdoors, off leash over the course of the two months the dog will be exposed to the target with the same goal in mind. At any sign of confusion on the dog's part, return to the previous level of success. An electronic collar is sometimes used in these cases so that the trainer can expose the dog to the prey and deliver a correction if the dog fails to respond to commands while the leash is off.

It's important to understand that shocking a dog to teach him not to chase a cat would never work. Teaching a dog to sit and stay on command under many distracting situations, then adding a collar correction when the dog disobeys a command he knows well, will help to teach a dog that he is required to respond at all times--even without a leash. The interest in the cat is still there but actual chasing is thwarted by a command the dog will obey as long as someone is there to give the command. Even with successful training the dog will not be safe ALONE with any prey target, ever.

In some cases, people fear that Silky Terrier dogs that chase small animals or livestock will escalate their behavior and eventually attack humans. This is similar to being concerned that a mouse hunting cat will eventually take out a dog. Silky Terrier dogs that are socialized to humans consider humans to be family members. A dog should also consider other Silky Terrier dogs and Silky Terrier dogs that she was raised with to be family members. Silky Terrier dogs that are socialized to livestock when young also consider farm animals to be family members. However, an adult dog that is socialized to humans and city living may very well attack birds or sheep at the first opportunity. This is not an indication that the dog is aggressive. Remember, aggression is behavior intended to drive others away; not catch and eat them.

A dog may be aggressive over territory toward cats, humans or other Silky Terrier dogs but does not consider those trespassers to be a food source. This is territorial aggression, not predatory behavior. Certainly, a dog that is not raised with a human family, may very well consider humans to be alien and potentially could mistake any outside species for food. This includes Silky Terrier dogs raised in isolation or Silky Terrier dogs raised wild. These Silky Terrier dogs may direct predatory behavior toward human children as well as wild animals and livestock. Silky Terrier dogs that are raised in isolation from other Silky Terrier dogs, may even make that mistake about their own kind. This is a serious problem in large Silky Terrier dogs because their size makes them capable of inflicting serious injuries on people. You would never be able to assure this dog's safety around any children at any time. If you have any reason to believe that your dog stalks children, or was never around humans until adulthood, you will need the help of a professional trainer and a commitment to prevent rather than cure. Euthanasia for these Silky Terrier dogs is a likely outcome.

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