Say Hello

[Agility Dogs]

Point of order - please do not consider this to be advice that will work for all dogs or even your dog. I am just sharing what has been a really good learning experience for me and a great result for my boy.

CK is a VERY soft border collie - not particularly confident in strange situations or with strange dogs. He NEVER aggresses, but will react violently if he is actually or feels threatened by another dog. He is VERY quick and quite strong for a medium sized dog so, whilst I'm confident he would never hurt another dog and am able to call him out of anything he might be doing he certainly tells them off in an OTT manner if I am not on the ball. I have never been happy with that or what he has considered to be threatening - made it challenging to live with him so I wanted to fix it.

Most people would tolerate his behaviour because it was only on walks (never at a trial) and only some dogs, but I want to be able to relax and wander without having to worry about every dog that might be in the area.

We started by keeping him at what he considered to be a 'safe' distance from other dogs and have been rewarding calm behaviour. IF I got it wrong and put him in a situation where he felt the need to react he was very swiftly corrected if the reaction was any more physical than a grumble. The penalty has matched the crime - from verbal for a stiffening of his posture through to scruffing for a lunge. The correction was definitely timed so that he knew it was for the behaviour, not for the presence of the other dog.

Then we moved to allowing my other dog to greet the 'strangers' with CK sitting calmly by my side. Same correction and reward rules applied.

At the same time without realising it I started to build a 'happy' command. Every time someone came to pat him I would say 'say hello'. At first just our doggy friends, but then also to their dogs. Because he knew the people and dogs EVERY interaction he ad after I said 'say hello' was very positive.

The next step with CK and strange dogs who wanted to meet us was to let him greet the other dogs for a short period and then ask him to come back behind me. At one stage during one of these meetings I must have said 'say hello' because I noticed his body language change totally from a little wary to relaxed and happy.

So, I've been experimenting - greet a dog without a command and you get a wary CK who will jump on them at the slightest provocation. Tell him to 'say hello' and he relaxes and becomes quite submissive and tolerates behaviour that would have started WWIII six months ago.

By chance we've met a good number of dogs in the last couple of mornings and without fail he has been perfectly polite in the greeting as well as very relaxed about it.

This process has taken us the best part of 2 years and I'm not sure I'll ever let CK run loose with unknown dogs, but he is finally at a place where I am confident enough to take him anywhere and be relaxed about it - which is in turn helping his state of mind!!

Thought I'd share a happy start to the day.

cheers

Tony

[Nik]

Wow, your dog sounds similar to my friends staffy?? cross. She's decided to join an obedience club to help with his issues, and whilst it is helping, it's not getting the result she's after. I'll mention your technique to her, and see if she's willing to give it a go. The posturing sounds very similar to hers - he's been this way since a very young pup, and now he's the size of a small GSD and terrified of small dogs. '

Thanks for sharing

[Aidan]

At the same time without realising it I started to build a 'happy' command. Every time someone came to pat him I would say 'say hello'. At first just our doggy friends, but then also to their dogs. Because he knew the people and dogs EVERY interaction he ad after I said 'say hello' was very positive.

Good work Tony, it's nice to make progress with dogs like this. Building a specific response to other dogs which is correlated with good things happening is an excellent strategy for dealing with reactive dogs.

[jinkispirit]

Point of order - please do not consider this to be advice that will work for all dogs or even your dog. I am just sharing what has been a really good learning experience for me and a great result for my boy.

CK is a VERY soft border collie - not particularly confident in strange situations or with strange dogs. He NEVER aggresses, but will react violently if he is actually or feels threatened by another dog. He is VERY quick and quite strong for a medium sized dog so, whilst I'm confident he would never hurt another dog and am able to call him out of anything he might be doing he certainly tells them off in an OTT manner if I am not on the ball. I have never been happy with that or what he has considered to be threatening - made it challenging to live with him so I wanted to fix it.

Most people would tolerate his behaviour because it was only on walks (never at a trial) and only some dogs, but I want to be able to relax and wander without having to worry about every dog that might be in the area.

We started by keeping him at what he considered to be a 'safe' distance from other dogs and have been rewarding calm behaviour. IF I got it wrong and put him in a situation where he felt the need to react he was very swiftly corrected if the reaction was any more physical than a grumble. The penalty has matched the crime - from verbal for a stiffening of his posture through to scruffing for a lunge. The correction was definitely timed so that he knew it was for the behaviour, not for the presence of the other dog.

Then we moved to allowing my other dog to greet the 'strangers' with CK sitting calmly by my side. Same correction and reward rules applied.

At the same time without realising it I started to build a 'happy' command. Every time someone came to pat him I would say 'say hello'. At first just our doggy friends, but then also to their dogs. Because he knew the people and dogs EVERY interaction he ad after I said 'say hello' was very positive.

The next step with CK and strange dogs who wanted to meet us was to let him greet the other dogs for a short period and then ask him to come back behind me. At one stage during one of these meetings I must have said 'say hello' because I noticed his body language change totally from a little wary to relaxed and happy.

So, I've been experimenting - greet a dog without a command and you get a wary CK who will jump on them at the slightest provocation. Tell him to 'say hello' and he relaxes and becomes quite submissive and tolerates behaviour that would have started WWIII six months ago.

By chance we've met a good number of dogs in the last couple of mornings and without fail he has been perfectly polite in the greeting as well as very relaxed about it.

This process has taken us the best part of 2 years and I'm not sure I'll ever let CK run loose with unknown dogs, but he is finally at a place where I am confident enough to take him anywhere and be relaxed about it - which is in turn helping his state of mind!!

Thought I'd share a happy start to the day.

cheers

Tony

Well done Tony, you do a lot of training with your dogs and should be congratulated with the effort and time you put in. you have 2 beautiful dogs who are well trained and it shows!