Puppy Crying When Walking Past Aggresive Dogs

[poodle proud]

Hi all,

Midnight is now 9 months old. She has been well socialised and is generally tough as nails. She is quite a dominant, high energy pup.

I take both dogs on a 45min walk every day. On these walks there are a LOT of dogs in yards that we pass by who go absolutely nuts at my two. As Osca has had some issues with reacting to them I have been working with him so he remains calm when passing them.

This has been going well but now even though Osca is calm midnight has started whimpering and sometimes freezing when we pass these dogs. I don't pander to her or pick her up, I just keep walking confidently until we pass them.

She is generally spooked by a lot more these days which I know is developmental. Is there anything else I should be doing when she does this on walks? I cannot avoid dogs like this as unfortunately there are multiple houses on every street with dogs who behave like this

Any advice would be awesome

[alpha bet]

At 9 months she is in that teenage phase where she can be baby one monent and trying to be grown up the next.... so remember her confidence is not yet fully established and you dont want to shatter her.

You really should avoid bad situations for the time being, or at least to walk wider to the fences where dogs are an issue. Also keep walking and don't dawdle. Ideally if Oscar is having trouble you should avoid walking them together where there are these types of issues. If you have any friends with older and really neutral type dogs who dont react, this would be great to walk with. Your young dog will build confidence with a mature and stable dog.

[poodle proud]

At 9 months she is in that teenage phase where she can be baby one monent and trying to be grown up the next.... so remember her confidence is not yet fully established and you dont want to shatter her.

You really should avoid bad situations for the time being, or at least to walk wider to the fences where dogs are an issue. Also keep walking and don't dawdle. Ideally if Oscar is having trouble you should avoid walking them together where there are these types of issues. If you have any friends with older and really neutral type dogs who dont react, this would be great to walk with. Your young dog will build confidence with a mature and stable dog.

Thanks alpha bet. This will be hard to do but I could at least move towards the road when I get near these houses. How long would I have to do this for?

Osca is pretty good now but I will try taking her for some quick walks on her own aswell. I dont want her picking up anxiety from him.

If she whimpers do I just ignore her?

[tlc]

Hi PP, My pup who is now 19 months old, does exactly the thing you described practically everytime we walk past a house with a dog behind a fence especially if the other dog is barking and carrying on. My other 3 are non reactive if they can only hear a dog behind a fence when on lead, they all just cruize past but not the pup he just starts to cry and whimper like he is petrified, which is so wierd as he has been welll socialized and is very bossy with the rest of my pack. What I usually do to combat it is (sometimes hard if i have all 4 on lead) either keep walking at a brisker pace or if I am able stop get him to sit and focus on me and use the leave it command and then off we go again. This has worked really well but I think the thing with us is we dont do a lot of lead walking we mostly go where they can run off lead, so when we get in these situations it is like he has to learn not to react all over again, which makes it hard. I have also used treats in the same circumstances and I find that works well too, if I am prepared.

What method of training have you used with her? If you are able to take treats with you, take her attention off the agro fence dogs and back onto you and when she is quiet treat her. I also know people who would use a simple collar correction in similar circumstances but personally for a dog that is not being aggressive towards the fence dogs but more frightened a collar correcton I dont think is warranted. Hope this has helped, also consistancy and possibly when you get to a spot where you know she will do it, get to her before it starts with a treat or change of focus. I have walked up and down past a fence with my boy using treats when he is not crying as a reward and he does get it.

Good Luck.

[poodle proud]

Hi PP, My pup who is now 19 months old, does exactly the thing you described practically everytime we walk past a house with a dog behind a fence especially if the other dog is barking and carrying on. My other 3 are non reactive if they can only hear a dog behind a fence when on lead, they all just cruize past but not the pup he just starts to cry and whimper like he is petrified, which is so wierd as he has been welll socialized and is very bossy with the rest of my pack. What I usually do to combat it is (sometimes hard if i have all 4 on lead) either keep walking at a brisker pace or if I am able stop get him to sit and focus on me and use the leave it command and then off we go again. This has worked really well but I think the thing with us is we dont do a lot of lead walking we mostly go where they can run off lead, so when we get in these situations it is like he has to learn not to react all over again, which makes it hard. I have also used treats in the same circumstances and I find that works well too, if I am prepared.

What method of training have you used with her? If you are able to take treats with you, take her attention off the agro fence dogs and back onto you and when she is quiet treat her. I also know people who would use a simple collar correction in similar circumstances but personally for a dog that is not being aggressive towards the fence dogs but more frightened a collar correcton I dont think is warranted. Hope this has helped, also consistancy and possibly when you get to a spot where you know she will do it, get to her before it starts with a treat or change of focus. I have walked up and down past a fence with my boy using treats when he is not crying as a reward and he does get it.

Good Luck.

Hi tlc. Thanks for your reply.

I don't know how you manage walking 4 dogs!!

I do walk past briskly but yesterday I took the dogs for separate walks and made her focus on me in one instance and rewarded her with treats. She struggled a bit even with the treats but she got there. Its funny though because we didnt have the onslaught we normally do. So either all the dogs were out to lunch or they werent threatened by her and kept quiet.

I correct her if she pulls on the lead but like you I didnt want to correct her when she wasnt doing anything 'wrong'. I think today I will take them for separate walks again and as you say reward her when she doesnt cry.

Thanks so much for your advice

[sas]

I'd reccomend getting a behaviourist in to help you help your dog work through these problems before the dog becomes fear aggressive and it can be hard to bring them back from that level.

For now try walking just one dog at a time.

Just remember at 9 months it's entirely possible your dog has entered the 2nd fear period.

Edited September 2, 2009 by sas