Step 1: Get Your Dog to Like People

This is my dog Lexi. She's about 7 years old and is a very... special dog. Sweet as can be towards me and my mom and my sister's boyfriend. Yup. Not my sister, but her boyfriend. And this is because of om mani peme hume (see Step 7 in How to Survive Life After College).

When we first got Lexi from the humane society, she was a very timid dog (we think she was abused before the humane society found her on the streets). She hardly got out of her dog bed, she'd flinch whenever we reached to pet her, and she didn't make a sound for over a month. Finally, we heard her bark, and when we did, it was terrifying.

My friend (who's known Lexi since she first came to our house yet is still avidly hated by her) describes her bark as sounding as though she had been shot and was wailing out in pain. If you're not expecting the bark, it'll make you jump.

My mom and I have gotten to the point where we know when she's going to bark, so it's not as scary to us anymore. She never barks at my mom and only barks at me occasionally (though it's not her terrified bark that everyone else has come to know - it's more of a "Hey! I see you! What are you doing! You're leaving the house!") Besides the two of us, though, Lexi would bark anytime ANYONE came into our house. The mailman, one of my little cousins, my grandma, my friend who Lexi's grown up with, my sister, doesn't matter. If we could manage to get her to calm down, then she would grumble at the people in the room, maybe quieting down completely after a few minutes. But the minute somebody moved out of the room and then came back in - off she'd go again. Even when my sister lived with us for a couple months (she's thirteen years older than me and doesn't normally live with my mom), she couldn't get up to go to the bathroom in the middle of the night without setting Lexi off.

Then Lexi met my sister's boyfriend. Oh, she tried her hardest to scare the tall man away when he walked in the door (that's the reason we think she barks so ferociously - she's afraid of people and barks to warn them to keep away - she's never bitten anyone and will usually run if you get too close to her). But he ignored her and plopped right down on the couch next to her. He started petting her and leaned over her head and chanted "om mani peme hum" a couple times. She quieted down and has loved him ever since.

We're still working on getting her to love everyone (or at least tolerate them) and she's calmed down a lot since she's met my sister's boyfriend. She still barks at people, even sometimes my sister, but if they're people that she recognizes she tends to quiet down a lot faster than she used to. If you have any tips on how to make a scared dog sociable, we'd love to hear them!