Letting my dog know everything is OK and to back off

[Englishes5]

Until I can get into a class and work on this in depth...I need help keeping Callie's attention when we walk through the neighborhood and a dog who has come after us in the past approaches us. A man from another neighborhood jogs here with his border collie, and though we both keep our dogs on leashes, his dog has quite a bit of slack on its leash, and the dog has lunged toward us aggressively from the other side of the street in the past, while I waited with Callie in a yard and had her sitting calmly beside me. Now, when Callie sees the other dog, she tries to go after it. I have to get past this person, and he never turns to go another way. I think that in a perfect world I would be able to keep her attention, and that if I am in no danger that I should be able to call her off. I am currently working on "heel" and walk with her to my left side while I am walking on the left side of the road. Today I was completely pulled to the ground, and for the first time I yelled at the man to get his dog away. I have in the past been ale to wave and say hello, but obviously Callie no longer likes them. I need to be able to physically hold her until she learns to let them pass, but isn't tightening my grip as they approach going to make things worse? If I was in position and just exercising with an unfriendly dog, I would turn and go the other way, however I understand that I need to have control of my dog and can't rely on others to make it easy.

[Dutchringgirl]

how old is Callie? If she is old enough, for a wile I would put a prong on her just to keep you safe. Put another collar on her with another lead incase the prong breaks. You will have alot more control since this situation seems to be a dangerous one. Is there a way you can walk somewhere else? Adjust your time a bit? I would have yelled at him too. People are just so stupid about dogs sometimes, I have yelled at people too.

Does Callie have a favorite toy? Keeping her attention on you at all times is the goal. Work a little at a time in controlled situations where she watches you then rewards and happy dance. Work longer and longer and with harder distractions as she handles them. This may be tough for her at the beginning since the other dog provokes her.

[Englishes5]

Thanks, she turned 1 in January. I did some more searching and read that asking her to sit in plain sight of the other dog as it approached may have made her feel threatened. It has worked in the past, and I did not want to walk away in my own neighborhood, but if the other guy is not going to turn around I may have to while I keep her distracted. Before he became a problem, I was trying to just walk past him while holding her attention, and at first I was able to. His dog is the only one that has tried to cross over toward us? I have not used a toy on walks before, but maybe I will add a new one to the treats.

[Dutchringgirl]

you could try a small pronged collar, just for the extra edge. If she has a special toy or a treat she really likes, make it worth more at home so it really means something to her. Then bring it with you on the walk. Dont hesitate to let that guy know he is out of line and to keep control of his dog. I never read about making the dog sit while another approached would make the dog feel threatened, maybe the others can shed some light on that. I always do that when I have the girls on a walk and someone approaches, they sit and look at me until the other has passed.

[LyonsFamily]

If you're making the dog sit while the other dog approaches, make sure you're also breaking eye contact. That can be done by making the dog look at you, physically turning her head, standing in between the dog and the distraction, walking around a corner, etc. A lot of the time, people have their dog sit, but the dog stares directly at the oncoming dog/person/object and drives build more and more frustration. The key is to stop the dog from focusing on the distraction, not necessarily to just have it sit or politely wait it out.

I've been working on a new approach a lot lately after reading an article in WDJ or Tails about DINOS, I can't remember which. My initial training goal was to have Odin do burpees, sits, downs, whatever to focus on me and obedience, rather than the reactive dogs, and to also mark good behavior. We are fine passing other dogs, but if the dog lunges first, it's still sometimes a problem. Unfortunately we live in the city of Chicago and would never be able to go on a real walk if I waited until he was marker trained solidly before encountering other dogs. I've invented a game with him that's just basically turn and run.

Like Lisa said, bringing a favorite toy or treat along and greatly help. Now, when I see a reactive dog, or what I like to call a 'Nemesis' I excitedly tell Odin, "let's play!" and we go run to the nearest alley or turn and do something fun. Odin's started to associate other dogs coming into our path as a time to look at me for something fun to do. As long as we're running to a direction away from the other dog, he doesn't even focus on it.

At this point, you're in the same boat as the jogger if both dogs are acting out. Your best option is to avoid a path they normally take, or keep and eye out and have a plan for a quick route change until you can get more training down.

[centrop67]

Radar is roughly the same age as Callie. We've been working a couple of months with Radar on this and it can be quite frustrating. Radar reacts to other dogs if they even only look in his direction.

I have found several different places nearby to walk him with a minimum of distractions, but there's no way to completely avoid them. It seems like every time I find a new distraction-free walk, it becomes a popular place for other dog walkers, hikers, bikers, and skateboarders (his top reactivity items not necessarily in that order).

We started early with a personal trainer with Radar, but worked first on some basic obedience which Radar picked up almost immediately - he's so smart.

I may not be telling you anything you don't already know or have heard, but the goal is to get his attention on you. In order for this to work, you have to catch the potential behavior before it's too late. After a few episodes, you can see the signs: Lowering of the head, ears back, dilated pupils. Radar will even let out a little whine sometimes.

When Radar is showing signs, I will give him either a "Leave-It", "Look", or "Unhhh-Unhh" (some people use oops). I think most on this forum will agree that Leave-it is a really good obedience command to have with DS. Usually, if I have caught his attention in time, he will turn and look at me. Then, it's a nimble finger act of treating and clicker until the distraction passes.

If you don't catch the behavior in time and your dog goes off, it's important to change direction - I think - and move as far away from the distraction as possible. Keep in mind that your dog is now full of adrenaline and needs something to help bring her down from the rush. I am sure it may be different for each dog, but I try to find a stick and play a brief game of tug with Radar right away. I know it sounds weird that tug brings him down - and it may not - but he's much more ready to obey me if I do this. Also, when this happens, beware of trying to pull your dog close to you. I have had bruises and welts on my legs from Radar turning and biting me in this state.

This focus-clicker-treat approach works about 50% of the time for me now. I am hoping that with age and practice it will get better. And, I am always happy to read others approaches to this to see if there's not a better way.

[Dutchringgirl]

Doing burpees ( position changes) Is a great idea !! Anything to keep the focus on you is great. That other dog is such a drive that you have to be a bigger drive.

[feraloup]

I absolutely relate to this thread, much of the same things I'm working on with Moko, including the bruised legs from his reactivity and need to bite something/anything when in an escalated state. I've also taken to carrying a puppy-sized canvas retrieve-dummy, it's firm enough to really glom onto, has just enough squish factor to have a little bit of give, so as to give some satisfaction in clamping down on it, and is small enough to fit in my coat pocket. When he needs to bite I stick that in his mouth, kind of using it as a temporary pacifier. Have to be quick, though, he strikes like a cobra. This way, until we develop some bite inhibition, he's biting something appropriate and that I have directed him to, instead of me.

Dogs are still needing a lot of work, yet, but I have gained a lot of improvement about his reactivity to people walking past our house on the sidewalk when we're in the front yard. We live just down the road from a Job-Corp campus, and the young folks often walk past our house on the way to Main street to do shopping and eating out, and on their way back to campus from town. We're also just across the street from an access to a dock/park on the river, so we get a lot of folks near the front of our house. He's gotten much better at coming to me to "sit" and "look" (again emphasizing the focus on me instead of the other stimulus) instead of thrashing and roaring at the end of his leash. Several of the Job-Corp kids have stopped crossing the street to pass our house, Progress!

[Sugars Mom]

Yes, this is a topic I am also very interested in.

Sugar is very wary of any dog she sees if she hasn't met them yet. Major trust issues, going back to when she was chased by a large dog when she was a puppy, and it scared the crap out of her. Add a few lunging dogs over the years, and it has escalated to where she stops and stares which is probably one thing that brings it upon herself. Not her goal of course, but does seem to be the result. Unless she feels "safe", she will want to run away, so it always depends on the other dog, on weather it is a respectful dog or not. And on the flip side, if she picks up that the other dog is fearful, then she has decided that she wants to charge or lunge at them. : (

So, some days I think she is dong great, but in reality, its just because she has passed by respectful dogs that either pick up her signals and are respectful and ignore her, or they just don't care abut saying hi to her. Its the excited dogs that run up to say hi that freak her out, and the only way to get out of that situation is to walk where all dogs are on leash and having the space to be far enough away or be able to change direction. Problem is, the reality is there will always be situations where it is unavoidable to pass by other dogs or dogs that will run up to us.

I did find that stopping to sit was worse because of her fixation on the other dog, and I was just unable to get her to stop staring at the other dog. I would stand in front of her, moving to block her from trying to see around me, with no success. I realized that she is just over her threshold and leaving is the only way to deal with it at this point.

I've just started reading Control Unleashed and it talks about treating when seeing other dogs (BELOW threshold, BEFORE they over react) so they start to associate seeing other dogs with treats. Same principle that Stephanie is using by playing the "lets go run away and play" game. I've been doing this only for a couple of days and so far seems to be going well, but I feel it will be a long process.

I wish you all the best!

[Dutchringgirl]

I would stand in front of her, moving to block her from trying to see around me, with no success. I realized that she is just over her threshold and leaving is the only way to deal with it at this point.

Moving to block them wont do much as you have seen. You have to show them that YOU are more fun and more exiting, interesting, yummy, than the other dog. Toys, food, what ever you need to do to break their concentration on the other dog. Jump up and down and run the other way if you have to.

[Sugars Mom]

Ya, no, once she is over her threshold, there is NO distracting. Removal is the only option. Baby steps need to be taken to get to that stage.

[Dutchringgirl]

I hear ya Sue, Same with Sadie. Once she is fixed on a target thats it. that is why I like prong collars. With the both of them, they weigh the same as I do. Thalie is easy to change her attention but she is low prey drive. Sadie has a very high prey drive.

[Sugars Mom]

I have to admit, having a mini size DS mix sure does come in handy!

[Dutchringgirl]

HA, you can just pick her up!! I remember when Sadie was small enough to pick up. I had to carry her up the stairs, now she is huge !!

[LyonsFamily]

HA, you can just pick her up!! I remember when Sadie was small enough to pick up. I had to carry her up the stairs, now she is huge !!

I still pick Odin up! That's what got us points off in the ring. I think if it was someone with a little 10lb dog doing it, they would've looked the other way, but a 70lb dog being carried out of the ring is just a bit too much haha.

[Sugars Mom]

[Englishes5]

This is all so very helpful, and while I feel that my nemesis started it, I cannot keep him from coming this way. Manners or not, it is obvious that he cares very little about seeing me on the ground while he and his dog own the street, so it does no good for me to be stubborn and refuse to turn around, does it? Fine with me...if there were no challenges then I would not even know what to be training for! The jogging man is much bigger than me too, and it would be me that would be in trouble if Callie got away from me as they were passing me by. My knee still hurts from my graceful crash to the ground and refusal to let her go the other day, but it makes me more determined to make her better

[Sugars Mom]

You are doing the right thing...you can't control the other guy, only what you do. This issue probably would have surfaced at some point with another dog or another trigger, so minimizing the reinforcing of the negative behaviour can only be helpful while working on it.

[Dutchringgirl]

we are only responsible for ourselves and our dogs. Again, I would use a light prong collar, I have been dragged by horses and dogs and its no fun. You dont have to yank the crap out of her, but the prong will give you a huge edge if she were to try to bolt. You can still work on your training and yes, if you see him, just turn and go the other way, its not worth it until you see that Callie can handle it. Yes, if its not him it will be someone else, and there always will be a "someone else". I am pro prong, as you can see. I have a prong and a chain and harness on. If its quiet and I know there is no one around, they get the harness then Ill up it when I dont feel comfortable, if I see others, then prong. To me, its just not worth it.