I think I might have adopted Inigo Montoya on obsessed with his quest to find the 6 fingered man who killed his father.
Trying to get my dog to a certain level of training, he's doing well. Walks in heel, will stay with distractions for as long as tell him, most of the basics covered.
But, here is my dilemma. He is reactive to new dogs. When seeing a new dog, he barks and insists on checking them out. He puffs up and acts like he believes the random dog killed his father. Once he is able to sniff them and is confident that they are not the 6 finger man, he loses all interest.
The key here is new dogs. Any scenario that i can set up would be with dogs that he already familiar with and the reaction isn't the same. I want to bring him more places and he looks really impressive as he heels and stays but if there is another dog he puts on such a show that the place might ask us to leave.
I do not reward this behavior and allow him to get his way, which just gets him frazzled and I need to settle him down again.
I've tried going to the dog park and the reaction isn't the same there either. It's when we are walking and other dogs invade his space... and by his space I mean walking on the other side of the street minding their own business. Distance, duration... I can't control other people's path as they go on their way. And I can't be creepy and follow at that magic distance trying to get training.
I've gone places and tried sitting at the magic distance and he just whines and grumbles filled with anxiety. I am not feeding this anxiety I can sit and ignore him for an hour... but eventually the other dog leaves and about 10 minutes after that he mostly settles. During this time. There is no food that I have tried that will get his attention, he's not interested in playing with his favorite toys.
He' seems to have 3 levels. He's either behaving great unaware of another dog, stressed out and whining that there's another dog within site or barking and trying to insist that he be permitted to check out the dog if they are closer then he wants (across the street, in the same hotel etc).
This is long winded because I am trying to be somewhat detailed because I need some actionable things that I can use to get us be able to be peaceful when there's another dog around.
Trying to get my dog to a certain level of training, he's doing well. Walks in heel, will stay with distractions for as long as tell him, most of the basics covered.
But, here is my dilemma. He is reactive to new dogs. When seeing a new dog, he barks and insists on checking them out. He puffs up and acts like he believes the random dog killed his father. Once he is able to sniff them and is confident that they are not the 6 finger man, he loses all interest.
The key here is new dogs. Any scenario that i can set up would be with dogs that he already familiar with and the reaction isn't the same. I want to bring him more places and he looks really impressive as he heels and stays but if there is another dog he puts on such a show that the place might ask us to leave.
I do not reward this behavior and allow him to get his way, which just gets him frazzled and I need to settle him down again.
I've tried going to the dog park and the reaction isn't the same there either. It's when we are walking and other dogs invade his space... and by his space I mean walking on the other side of the street minding their own business. Distance, duration... I can't control other people's path as they go on their way. And I can't be creepy and follow at that magic distance trying to get training.
I've gone places and tried sitting at the magic distance and he just whines and grumbles filled with anxiety. I am not feeding this anxiety I can sit and ignore him for an hour... but eventually the other dog leaves and about 10 minutes after that he mostly settles. During this time. There is no food that I have tried that will get his attention, he's not interested in playing with his favorite toys.
He' seems to have 3 levels. He's either behaving great unaware of another dog, stressed out and whining that there's another dog within site or barking and trying to insist that he be permitted to check out the dog if they are closer then he wants (across the street, in the same hotel etc).
This is long winded because I am trying to be somewhat detailed because I need some actionable things that I can use to get us be able to be peaceful when there's another dog around.