Can't distract teddy from other dogs

[sparks19]

Where we take teddy swimming there are tons of dogs along the walk there as well as around the apartment here. He has always been around other dogs but when he sees a dog outside i cannot distract him. Nothing is better than looking at that dog. I have tried treats, lunchmeat, toys everything and he loves it until there is another dog in sight and then he has to sit there and stare at it. I usually will tell him to leave it and have to drag him away while he is walking backwards still trying to see this dog. As soon as the dog is out of sight he snaps out of it. I have tried standing in front of him and blocking his view but he just tries to look around me. I have tried making him sit and look at me and he is more than willing to sit if the dog is more than 15 feet away but he will not look at me. This is the ONLY problem i have with him. I mean I can even put a steak on the floor right under his nose and tell him to leave it and he will not take his eyes off of me until i give him his release word but such is not the case with other dogs. what is the best solution to this

[Adrienne]

That's a tough one. Gunnar and me were having the same issue at the beach. He just really wanted to get to that other dog,LOL! Luckily there aren't to many dogs around at the beach so I was able to keep a look out and if I saw one coming I would distract him before he noticed it by jumping into the lake. Since he feels this desperate need to rescue me from the water he always followed and by the time we were back the other dog had gone on it's way. What I have read is to distract them before they notice the other dog, if you don't then it is too late to do anything, they are in a different mind set. I hope someone else with more expereince posts on this because me and Gunnar are still working out the kinks!

[poeluvr]

lol...i know manchester will agree with me. my trainer taught us this. its called" watch me" i dont know if manchester does it the same way but i poke his nose say wattch me, point o my eye , he looks up and u give him a treat.

[sparks19]

yes he knows that he is to watch me but all that goes out the window when there is another dog. I could sit there and say watch me and poke him until i was blue in the face lol he just spaces out. he won't even eat the treat lol i have put hot dog IN his mouth and he spit it out and wouldn't eat it until the other dog was out of sight.

Adrienne that is a good idea. I have noticed that once we are actually AT the beach and he is playing fetch in the water he doesn't notice or care whats around. Now he has a special toy that he only gets to play with at the beach. Do you think if i had such a toy for outside that he only got to play with it outside maybe that would help?

[Adrienne]

It may work but it would have to be the GREATEST toy on the earth and one that is only brought out for those occasions. Start little with no distractions working to get his attention on you and rewarding with the toy, once he has that down pat move on to some distractions, a few dogs in the distance. Build your way up. It is hard to find something that they love more than "getting" at those other pups but it is not impossible!

[sparks19]

yeah I know when we are at the beach and he is playing with his football on a rope that he ONLY gets to play with at the beach lol he doesn't care who is around he wants to play with that toy more. Perhaps that would work for outside every now and then because food just does not interest him at all. He's smart and once I find something that works he will pick it up quickly I'm sure :D I will have to experiment with these suggestions and see what he responds to :D thank you :D

[bridey_01]

You've just got to do more practice outside, as well as get him more food motivated around dogs. Go to your local dog club (or park) and feed him his meals there for a week.

[Doberluv]

I think Adrienne and Bridey have great ideas. What I did with Lyric whenever I could was to take him to the PetSmart parking lot...quite a distance from the doors and wander around. Sooner or later, we'd see a dog. When the dog is way across the parking lot and sees another dog going toward the doors, that's quite unthreatening to him....just such a distance away. But Lyric could still get a glimpse and I'd be watching him very carefully. He's spot the dog, ears would go up, but he wasn't yet in that way they get where they get all tense, muscled up, extreme alertness. BEFORE that would happen, I'd turn him around to face me and give a command, "sit" and then "watch." I'd pop a treat in his mouth. If he turned away and looked back at the dog, I'd replace him in the sit and tell him, "leave it." (He knows this command very well) And he'd just sit and watch the dog, which is OK by me if he doesn't get all super tensed up.

Gradually, over several trips, we'd try a little closer. I did this too, on walks when I took him to Seattle to visit my daughter. Where we went there were lots of dogs. That was a good place to practice, although it was a little harder to get ample distance between us and the other dogs. But when I would have him sit first and give him that "leave it," that seemed to really help. I too have a very difficult time keeping his gaze on me when a dog is going past. We're just not to that point yet. It goes so against their nature to not show any concern over another dog.

Group classes have helped him immensly. There, it is the norm for other dogs to be around and he knows it. He knows he's in "working" mode and it's remarkable how different he is in these classes. I don't know if you've done that. In fact tonight is agility. Last week he was very naughty when I first got there, lunged toward another dog and pulled me down prone on the ground!!! I ate dirt! It took two hands to hang onto the leash to hold him or I would have been dragged. :eek: (stop laughing!) I was soooooo pissssst! I did everything wrong. While my chin was on the ground and I was staring at his big black nostrils, (because by this time I had outstrengthed him and pulled him down in front of me and facing me) I grabbed his muzzle and squeezed (smart) and yelled at him and swore at him every explative known to man or dog. Reflex. He crouched and cowered, he's so unused to that and so sensative. Boy, was I embarrassed! But other than that episode, he has improved a whole lot. It's usually only 1 in say, 25 dogs we meet on a walk at this doggie place in Seattle that he will bark at or tend to lunge. Other than that, he keeps on walking when I give him head start with the warning, "leave it." It use to be every dog practically. Of course, I don't get to go visit there that often, maybe every couple months.

But the rest of class he was an angel, sit and down stays, while we leave our dogs, dogs 8 feet apart aprox. not attached to our dogs by a leash. And he sat, stayed, looked straight ahead at me and showed no interest in the neighboring dogs, what so ever. (Some of us are staying and working on obedience after agility class) I can't believe the trainer is trusting him like that. I kept say, "aren't you worried he'll go after another dog?" And she said, "No." He's like a different dog when he's in "working mode." Weird.

At the end of class, he was on a leash and went a few steps toward a dog, but I kept him back enough. He stuck his rear up, tail was wagging, he was bouncing around and wanting to play. So sometimes he appears "aggressive" like lunging, doing that snapping/barking thing and sometimes he looks like he wants to play. I guess it's some dogs he likes and some not. This trainer thinks it is not true dog aggression, but protectiveness. I am just not sure.

So, just work on desensatizing him and I'd get him in a group class too. And what Bridey said. That will associate those dogs with a pretty nifty time....(dinner time!) What could be better? Unless he is super paranoid about them getting his food. LOL.

[sparks19]

ok well first of all let me explain something I might not have been to clear about before :D Teddy isn't a spaz when he can see another dog. he will sit and stay and he won't make a sound unless the dog is within five or ten feet but he will stare and doesn't want to move until the dog is gone. BUT I do have to say that I have noticed something. When we take him to city island (where there are LOTS of dogs) he is not so insistant. if there is a dog behind us he will try to look back and i just give him a little pull on his halti and say this way and he usually drops it and carries on sniffing the grass lol it seems to be just around home. lol i can't feed him outside around other dogs cause he would never eat. lol. He is not a ravenous eater and we tried that whole taking his food away and trying later thing but he didn't eat for DAYS. So we said screw it and just leave it down until he finishes it. He still gets scheduled meals he jsut doesn't eat them right away and if there is something more exciting he won't give a second thought to his food. :D

Also lol we know there is a dog park around here but we went out searching for it one day and we CANNOT find this place lol. We will have to keep looking but for now the beach will have to do plus there are lots and i mean LOTS of dogs around here lol. We did have a bit of a break through this morning though. I have been target training him for the past two days and this morning when my husband took him outside there was another dog and teddy caught a glimpse of the dog but Brian just put out his hand without even thinking and said "teddy come" and teddy turned around and came to touch his nose to his hand and then sat in front of him and waited for the next step (the praise ;) ) lol So that is something else we will have to keep working at.

Thank you all for your advice :D

Doberluv Teddy is the same way with dogs. Some dogs he will do the lunging thing and especially if they have dangly ears he just has to go for them. BUT with other dogs (especially smaller dogs) he is very gentle and gets down on the ground and plays and stuff.

This will all be easier and more stable once we get moved back to canada where I KNOW where things are lol and where to take teddy lol.

[Doberluv]

Well, you're lucky that he at least isn't such a spaz like Lyric. LOL. Now all you have to do is try to be more interesting than the other dogs and get him trained to pay attention to you. (easy....huh) LOL. NOT.

[sparks19]

Oh yeah I definately have it a little easier than some. he is usually calm and relaxed but just VERY focused. but focused on the wrong thing lol. I am working on doing training with him outside but its difficult to hold the treats the clicker the leash and his poopy pick up bag lol well i think I am going to have to make myself look silly I will have to start running and bouncing around when I see another dog coming. Teddy loves when I do this with him lol so hopefully that will be MORE fun :D

[Doberluv]

I know what you mean about not having enough hands sometimes for the clicker. Sometimes I just say, "YES!" (with a really hard sssss.) LOL

That sounds like a good idea to get his attention on you. I know I look like a fool lots of times when I'm interacting with Lyric....really silly...squeeky baby talk, hopping around, the whole bit. People that don't know Dobermans probably don't imagine that that is how one should act with them. They probably think they're such serious dogs and that you should act more dignified with them. LOL. Little do they know!