Hi everyone.

Firstly, great news! After 2 years of walking our dog Charlie he has finally started to 'walk' properly on the lead. The reason? Bought another Gentle Leader. Bought one in the past but it was rubbish and it never worked right. This one has worked from day one. Well pleased. I am now getting feeling back in my shoulders and arms! lol.

Anyway. The problem we have now is his aggression towards other dogs. Any dogs! Even small puppies!! I don't understand why he is like this as I have NEVER made him aggressive towards anything! He is really spoilt and pampered. This morning become another major incident as a girl was coming towards us down the path holding on to a rather large Staffy. Immediately I thought "oh s**t, here we go!". And I was right! What I try and do now is force him to sit and have his back towards to approaching dog and try and hold him there. The idea being that the other dog is now in the dominant position so to speak. Of course, Charlie went mad jumping up and down like a mad thing! It's all getting ridiculous now on walks. Getting to the point now that I have to keep crossing over the road to avoid other dog owners.

Anyone have any suggestions as to what I can do? I'm at a loss now.
:-(

P.S. The pics in the signiture below was from when he was about 1 yrs old. For some reason he wasn't too bad then!

__________________

Do you know it's aggression or is it just frustration/stress? Has he ever been socialised with a lot of other dogs?

When out on walks, does he like treats? If so, try and get him focusing on you whenever you can and give him a treat. Then, when you see other dogs, get his focus (maybe ask him to sit, if you can) and work from here. I'm assuming you keep him on a lead?

A couple of things I would not do. 1) Don't force him to do anything, like 'sit' with his back turned. He's not learning much other than you are handling him and this may be taken as praise. 2) Try not to get so worked up yourself. It's very hard to do and it takes work, but if you're calm and not tensing up, then Charlie's tension is going to reduce substantially (most probably). Keep his lead loose and if he goes crazy just move away. Don't shout or force, just try and get his attention with a high-value tread (sausage, cheese).

I would maybe get a behaviourist in to see if it is aggression or not, though. Jumping up and down sounds like excitement/frustration and not aggression, which is more teeth baring, hackles up etc. As an aside, try and stay away from thinking about dominance and who's got the upper hand. I know you only mentioned about the interaction, but I find a lot of people say that their dogs' are dominant to account for a lot of other behaviours.

If your dog is actually reacting out of fear or lack of socialization putting him in a more vulnerable position can only make things worse.
I think you are best seeing a qualified behaviourist if only to determine the reason behind his acting up. I would stay away from ones that tell your dog's being "dominant" as it is such a poor simplistic excuse
There are different reasons for aggression and appropriate courses of action to change the behavior, suppressing it it's no solution.

__________________

Out of interest what tools and techniques have you used for 'correcting' pulling?

'Forcing' your dog into position will not help and is likely aversive, so if it happens every time another dog shows up your dog is given another reason to not want other dogs around.

First step is management so as to stop your dog reheasing this behaviour so crossing over to avoid other dogs is a good idea.
In fact steering clear of all triggers is the way to go for now.

Hiring a quialified behaviour professional is a good idea too to give you an idea of what's going on and how to recognise his signaling.

__________________
Anne, owned by Rufus & Tripod

Pet Central site & blog
Join us on FaceBook & Follow us on twitter

"I've seen a look in dogs' eyes, a quickly vanishing look of amazed contempt, and I am convinced that basically dogs think humans are nuts." - John Steinbeck

"If you don't want your dog to bite you, don't be an a**hole to him." ~ Dr. Ian Dunbar

From the pictures which I understand are from when he was younger, he doesnt look like he had a particular problem with other dogs then and its not totally clear from your post if this has recently happened. If it has recently happened has he had any bad experiences with other dogs like been in a fight been attacked? If so that can change a dogs reaction to other dogs. Some can become fear aggressive as a defence mechanism.

Whatever the reason, as he is now wearing a gentle leader head collar and getting on with it or so it seems that can also be used to help redirect his focus and eye contact away from other dogs. You need to find treats he cant resist and keep them for the purpose of outside walks only. High value treats are cheese,chicken,hot dogs liver cake and a really good one to keep the interested is usually my favourite cheese spread in a tube, theres even one with pieces of ham in it. Usually just squeezing out a bit gets them interested in continuosly licking to try to get more out.

Start by doing the training at a distance, maybe even across the road or stepping off the path if your out in a field on a bridle path. Timing is important theres no point waiting until hes made eye contact and focused on the approaching dog and started the lunging behaviour. Turn him 180 degrees guiding with the head collar facing the opposite way, (even use the treat as a lure at first if you have too) prior to taking him out (if you havent already) teach him a reliable sit and wait and then watch me. Get him to sit and offer a treat, this is where the cheese in a tube comes in and distract him by either watch me and rapid treats, or with the tube letting him lick trying to get him out the tube. As the dog passes turn him again so he is facing the other way guiding with the head collar and luring with the treat if you have to at first.

Eventually once this becomes successful, it would be an idea to teach the leave it command and walk on. or come you can use either command to move them on.

He would probably benefit if you havent taken him or if he did go but doesnt now going back to training classes. So it might be a good idea to look for some in your area. At least that way you will be shown how to train and do things correctly whilst having hands on support. Its only an hour a week mostly then carrying on the training at home and out on walks. Hope these things to try in the meantime may be of some use.

__________________

Is he the same off lead as well?

__________________


Do you own a DINOS (dogs in need of space). To find out more and to find a walking buddy follow the link!


www.dogsinneedofspace.co.uk

Wow! Where do I start?

goodvic2
I only let him off the lead when I take him to a local field when no dogs are about. I dare not let him off otherwise in case he injures another dog. I couldn't bare the thought of that.

Sled dog hotel
Well he always did have an issue with other dogs to be honest. But those pics were when we took him to a friends barbie (he was around 1 year old then), and he ended up liking his lady friend after an initial outburst. We haven't actually seen them since then due to where they live, so he has no other doggie friends to interact with. I have actually considered getting another dog as I think it might help him somewhat, however, to be honest we can't even do that right now as we are in the process of moving.
He has never really been attacked, although I did have a stray Staffy trying to get at him once, until I motioned him away with my steel toecapped boots! (Don't worry, I never kicked it. I felt like it mind!). I think the cheesey treats idea might be a good one. The only thing is, what happens when eventually I don't have anything to give him? I know him, he'll end up going back to attack mode again!

tripod
The only thing I have done to correct his awful pulling has been getting this 'Gentle Leader' thing. It has just worked! Well pleased with that.
As for the Behaviour Professional thing. At this moment in time we can't afford such things. My Mrs business has recently gone down the toilet due to the recession etc, so money is VERY tight. One of the reasons we need to move now!

dodigna
To say that me saying he's dominant is a poor excuse is ridiculous! Sorry mate. But when we bought him at 12 weeks old, he had already been bought previously by a family then taken back due to his behaviour! Plus, he still had two of his brothers still there living with him, and he was definitely the dominant one! The dominant thing has never gone away. He now thinks he can continue dominating all other dogs!!

Rottiefan
As we have watched loads of episodes of The Dog Whisperer, I have already taken some things on board. One of those is to stay relaxed and calm as we approach other dogs. However this has never worked.
I will however take on board your suggestion about not making him face the other way etc, as like you said, he doesn't seem to learn anything!

Thank you everyone for all your replies. It is very much appreciated.

__________________

When a dog is on a lead you take away their option to run away. Therefore if they are faced with, what they perceive to be a fear, then they may feel as though their only option is to fight.

If you had a dog that was once ok and has only developed these problems then I would be tempted to put a muzzle on him and let him off lead. Only do this with dogs/people you feel comfortable with. Then you will be able to see the degree of his problem. It also allows him to get on with it, and not be influenced by your anxiousness. However hard we try, we do anticipate what they will do next. .

One of my rescues was aggressive to other dogs, and this was how I overcame it. In saying that he is still far more likely to react if he is ON lead than if he is not. I believe the thing which made the biggest difference to my dogs rehabilitation, was not having me worrying at the end of the lead.

This does come with a warning. By muzzleing your dog you have to be sure that he is around dogs who will not attack him, if he does kick off! You also don;t want him running away if he gets to scared, especially with a muzzle on. It also depends on your dogs recall. Mine was superb, so this was never an issue.

If the recall is a problem, then put him on a long line so that you still have that degree of control. But you can be far enough away not to influence him.

Good luck x

__________________


Do you own a DINOS (dogs in need of space). To find out more and to find a walking buddy follow the link!


www.dogsinneedofspace.co.uk

Do you mean he is a bully? That is not being dominant, actually define dominant
Self made behaviourists call any bad unwanted behaviour a dog displays as being dominant, that is the poor excuse. I think you completely misread me

I think you should take above advice from goodvic2, ideally in a safe area large enough to allow the dogs feel safe and ideally with dogs you know will be non-reactive towards yours kicking off. He might just not know how to behave and needs another savvy dog to show him, a muzzle would provide some safety. My dog does often introduce himself with a kicking off and he only gets to meet safe dogs in safe environment or small dogs which he feels kind towards, I know he is no biter (still gets muzzled) and would gladly back off if the other dog would tell him so. I like him to meet what I call "dominant" dogs, those no-nonsense I see right through you and will not sink to your level and at the same time stand my ground type of dogs, those confident dogs that don't need to resolve to violence to prove their point. If I let him behave the way he does to less confident dogs he only ends up rehearsing a bad behaviour which gets more rooted as he gets to bullies more dogs.
But i stand by my point that I think you need to see a behaviourist.

__________________

Unfortunately, this is the downside to watching The Dog Whisperer (of many downsides, like the whole show ). 'Dominance' is a theory used to describe so many things nowadays by uneducated, self-made behaviourists and owners. If a dog is pulling on the lead, he's dominant; if she's jumping on the couch, she's dominant; if she's reactive to other dogs, she's dominant

Sorry, but Dodigna is correct. It is a poor excuse and stay well away from it to describe your problem. Cesar promotes a romantic notion of dominance hierarchies and pack leadership, which has, fortunately, been sufficiently disproven.