There's no avoiding it...

My dog, Chewy, is unpredictable with other dogs. She does one of three things when meeting new dogs: Most commonly she ignores them after a quick sniff over; sometimes she will try to play, but it's very uncommon; and mygreatest concern is when she lunges at other dogs, snapping and snarling. This is usually when the other dog is barking at her from behind a fence. She will lunge forward and crouch down, showing her teeth and making an snapping wit her hackles up and all that other stuff.

I only let her off-leash outside if there are no dogs around or she is in a fenced yard. The only dog that she actually gets along with well so far is my friends dog, and tat is mostly because she (other dog) is passive and playful. I have started walking her with a Halti because she is too strong when she lunges and it takes me a while to regain control of her. :yikes: If we are walking past a house with a dog in the yard, and that dog starts barking, I walk faster and focs straight ahead, and 2 out of 3 times I can get her to ignore the other dog. If I pause or walk to slow she goes for the fence.

I'm worried she could hurt another dog or herself one day. Where is this behavior stemming from and how an I train it out of her? Any advice is greatly appreciated!

My dog Spanky who is the easiest going dog use to do this because he was picking up on my tension. Teaching focus really helps in these situations.


I will let someone else take it from here because my experience is limited and we have some very wise members here.

Check out this recent thread, I think it will answer a lot of your questions:

http://www.chazhound.com/forums/showthread.php?t=73188&highlight=reactive

I think the Halti is probably a great idea for now, at least it will help you be able to control her. They also sometimes help to calm dogs down and help with reactivity.

Please put your dog to work. What i mean by that is in these situations make the dog heel forward, backward ,right or left, if your animal does not know this than refine it. these movements are your tools,use them and you will have no problems.
.

Time can you please define what you mean by the above post?

Yes, If you give the dog something to do when his/her energy is going in an inappropriate direction you will reroute the behavior somewhere productive. The new de fault behavior that is trained over a period of time will then be something predictable and enjoyable... This allows the dog more overall freedom because his/ her behavior is more predictable. When ever the animal gets into" trouble "use your tools or movements to change the out come.

Thank you for all the advice! I will try to get her brain working the next time she goes for another dog.

Any ideas were the behavior is coming from though? Fear? Self-defence? She started it sometime in January. She was well socialzed as a puppy. It totally baffles me.

Did you read the thread that I linked to?

Most dog reactivity is fear. About 95% is either fear or play, and the other 5% is probably hormones.

Furthermore Id highly highly ridiculously highly recommend Jean Donaldson’s: "Fight! A Guide to Dog-Dog Aggression" as it goes over the technical aspects of determining which type of de sensitization program will work best for various types of reactivity, and other causes of dog- dog aggression which can range from poor socialization as a puppy to pure and simple fear reactive aggression.

Focus work is essential during on leash walking and gradual desensitization can only begin after you have a decent watch me under hand. As Time mentioned increased meaningful direction of excessive energy is helpful, but is only the beginning. To give you a retrospective view, my pup began exhibiting severe on lead reactive aggression at around 5 months of age which ranged from snarling, growling and progressed to lunging and full out barking mania. It has taken me 14 months of teaching a firm watch me and emergency drop, as well as a gradual de sensitization program to the point he can now safely be brought to dog parks and is developing a strong repertoire of appropriate play behaviours, something which he never fully developed. This is the end goal of every program, but it will differ from dog to dog, your goal is to get your dog as far as possible along the way always re assessing what further can be done and how much will always be present.

An example of a few good physical and mental ways to direct excessive energy are listed below

PHYSICAL

min of 20 mins aerobic excersise a day. This can range from bike riding with your dog, jogging, swimming, scootering, weight pull

The Endless Fetch Game: I use this with Duke ( a Border Collie mix to give you an idea of the energy levels) and it works fantastic. It works better with two people but you could do it with just one. For two people a large area you can work offleash ( in urban areas a tennis court will suffice) or an offleash dog park. Stand about 50-70 meters apart both with a big bag of sticks, or tennis balls and alternate calling the dogs name, cue a recall and then as the dog approaches, say ok or whatever release command you use and throw the ball, the second the dog has that ball and begins to bring it back the opposite person cues a recall, halfway to person, they break it off and throw their object. The purpose is to keep your dog in constant motion and at the same time they are still paying close attention to you.

For Mental: On those rainy,snowy disgusting days generally 15 mins of mental excersises equals roughly 20-30 mins of low key excersise (like a walk).

Trick training,free shaping, 100 things to go with a box or formal OB commands are all great just keep it fun and new for the dog and stray away from repetitious work which gets old and tiresome fast.

Best of luck, its a long road, but well worth it.
Kayla

Hmm, sounds like focus work combined with obedience, now how is that different than what we do? As you claim from the other thread that we (those here at chaz) don't have .....balance yada yada yada