Trainer (or Training Help) For Swf's

[raineth]

I think it's great that she has taken these two on and that she is taking them out and about places

However, I think she also may be doing a little too much, too soon, for dogs who have been undersocialised. She probably needs to build up her relationship and communication with them before heading out on adventures with them :) It can be very overwhelming for undersocialised dogs to suddenly be taken on a tour of so many sights and sounds that they haven't really experienced before, and if they also don't have some basic communication and trust with the human then they will come up with their own way of dealing with things, which in this case sounds like barking. The fact that the barking has gotten worse, makes me think that she should maybe just stop the walks until she gets in contact with a trainer, and spend the time in the house or yard training sits, stays, drop, and leash walking as dogs need to be able to do these things in a familiar environment before they can do them anywhere else :)

[hankdog]

I think I understand your friends problem. She has acquired a unique South African breed known as a Stoepkaker (porch pooper in translation). This breed of dog may outwardly resemble many other small dog breeds and is characterized more by its behavior than appearance. Feisty and yappy with little respect for size or anything else this dogs pinnacle of training is achieved when it is able to fulfil it's name and learns to ( mostly) ablute on the porch. Also known as a skoothond (although they rarely skoot) ignoring commands is trained at an early age. Retraining will require considerable effort (we South Africans are a resilient lot) as a certain amount of obnoxiousness is part of the breed standard.