Little Dog Syndrome

[chuckie500]

I have two little fellas and when I go to the dog park with them, one does nothing but stare at me and the other plays a bit, BUT. But if there is a new big dog, he has the chase & bark at them. If the other dog turns and barks back, he goes all timid and almost cries. How can I get him to be friendlier to the bigger dogs. Once he knows the bigger dog, he is fine with them and will even play chasings. But his intial reaction to a new big dog is really ahrd to manage.

Any ideas pls.

[Erny]

This is about training, desensitization and confidence building - and this will not occur unless you put yourself in a position where you can prevent their behaviours and be seen to take control. Their recognition of you as a capable leader is a must, if they are to respect and trust that you will and can deal with the situations they themselves are uncertain/afraid of.

At the very least you are better to work on this issue at a training school, where the whole environment is a 'controlled' one. Do you belong to a training school who have instructors with the knowledge of dog behaviour necessary to help you work through the desensitisation process? Every time your dogs exhibit this behaviour, their belief that this is what they need to do to remain unharmed becomes more ingrained. The more ingrained it becomes, the longer and/or more difficult the behaviour modification process will be.

Training for obedience skills will also help the process - as the skills are established you will be able to use them to control your own dogs more and more in these situations.

ETA: Good for you for wanting to cure/improve their behaviours. There are many owners of little dogs out there who don't give this a second thought.

Mind you, I could say the same of owners of bigger dogs too, although I do tend to find the problem (of not worrying about it) is more prevalent amongst owners of small dogs. I guess this is because they don't seem to be the target of BSL and Dangerous Dog Laws and such. However, kudos to those owners of little dogs who do recognise their dogs are dogs and suffer the affects of stress just like any other dog does.

Edited April 27, 2008 by Erny

[chuckie500]

they ahve been going to the dog park for a couple of years now. One ignores all other dogs and the other is OK with all the dogs he already knows but its the new dog on the scene he has troulbe with.

Do you mean going to a dog class (like puppy preschool) with my two dogs? Or would having a behaviourist over for a consult be better? A friend of mine had a behaviourist over for her anxiety-stress dog. I don't know which option would be best.

[Erny]

IMO the most ideal is 1:1 with trainer/behaviourist and then dog school.

The first will be able to assess your relationship with your dogs and make any adjustment necessary for you to enhance your leadership. If the behaviourist has another suitable dog to work with, then desensitisation can commence at a low intensity (recommended). The thing is you will need to frequently expose your dogs to this low intensity stimulation - and going down to the local dog park where other dogs are off-leash and uncontrolled is not the way to do it.

If you have dogs behind fences down your street, you might be able to use them to put into practice the steps advised by the trainer/behaviourist. I do this, but I am mindful NOT to hang around one place for any length of time because it can stir up the dogs behind the fence and cause them to bark ..... and I don't want the owners of those dogs then receiving complaints from neighbours for the barking. But this must only be practiced in accordance with your behaviourist's advice (observing threshold distances etc.)

If you don't have dogs behind fences to work off, with explanation and demonstration from your trainer behaviourist so that you have the initial knowledge of how to go about control, desensitisation, and threshold distances (so you don't over-face your dogs), you might be able to use dog school classes to work off. IE Not (initially at least) actually joining right in with the class, but working at a distance outside of the class and only working in gradually (ie over numerous sessions). Much depends on what the dog school will allow you.

I have availability to both options, but not all dog schools will allow a private lesson with an 'outside' behaviourist during their class times. This is something you'd need to check.

IF you can't meet the ideal, then the next best would be to join up with a dog training school - but the instructors would need to have the proper knowledge in dog behaviour to be able to advise you well. This is something you'd need to check on when you are ringing around to whatever schools you might have access to. I don't know your area, so I'm unable to help you in this respect.

One thing is for sure ..... going down to your local park where your dogs and other dogs are off leash is more than likely not only NOT going to help the situation, but make it worse.

The only other thing you can do is to 'manage' the problem by attending ON-leash parks, in which case your dogs will need to remain on lead as well. Parallel walking (with distance between the other person's dog) is one of the best way to handle this.

In any case, you need to handle ONE dog at a time - especially at first.

[CP*]

I have a similar problem. My boy is okay but my female barked non stop at the bigger dogs, especially if they were rumbling or running. Seeing it from her perspective - she was attacked before (and had been 'set on' several other times) and so had every right to be scared. I have been to several behaviourists and one piece of advice I found helpful was teaching her to change her fear response. Now if she is scared she comes and sits beside me (or between my legs - in fact between anyone's legs). We did this by treat training her, so whenever she starts to react I call her over by using a squeak toy or ball (she isnt food focused but is obsessed with balls). Eventually she would automatically come over when another dog came (this took a while).

It doesnt sound like much but what is now happening is she is venturing out again from between my legs but much more confidently - initially barking but now the barking has eased because she knows I am there for protection. She still barks sometimes when she gets silly, but I can tell her to stop it or call her back and she either comes to me or stops the barking. The last month has been a dream, so peaceful. Now if it only worked for cars...