Training Older Dog

[piperspal]

Hi Guys,

I have 3 dogs at home at the moment, a 9 year old rotty cross, 7 year old whippet cross and 5 year old toy poodle. The problems that seems to be developing at the moment is when I take them out for a walk (all together, otherwise the one left behind will howl) the 7 year old wants to attack other dogs that we see. This has been getting worse and worse to the point where I am going to start leaving her home as she is starting to ruin the excitement of a walk. She is the most vocal one in regards to a walk, and will (literally) scream at the door as soon as I come downstairs in the afternoon.

As an example, we will be walking along, they are on a loose lead, althought she always has to be in the front. Anyway, if I see another dog coming towards us I will move the 3 off the path, make them sit and wait for the dog to pass. She is really bad for sitting (she gives that look that says 'what, you mean me, surely not' and will look away) so I make her look at me and ask her again and she will sit. However as soon as I release them to walk on, she tries to dive behind me and chase the other dog. I walk her in a halti as otherwise she pulls like a frieght train. She will then spend the next 50 meters or so dragging behind trying to get at the other dog, then barrels through to get to the front.

I make a point of not letting her go out the front when she gets too pushy, keeping the lead short and making her be the last of the dogs, but franky she is p*ng me off with the attitude. In all other aspects she is lovely, she is incredibly loving, but very jealous, can be really ignorant esp when she is barking, and tends to guard things too intensely (eg no dog can get near the bag of dynamic lifter when she is around lol). Amazingly, if I bring another dog into our yard, she is the one that goes and hides and avoids the other dog.

We 'think' the other half of her cross is a dingo, we haven't had that confirmed as it is not that important to us, but could this make a difference to her attitude, I have never met a dog like her. She has such an arrogant nature about her, unlike the other dogs. I have had dogs all my life, from working dogs to pets to pund rescues, so am usally unfazed by anything but she has got me beat!

If anyone has any suggestions that would enable us to keep walking together, it would be great, at the moment I dont want to walk her as she is annoying me too much.lol When we started to walk she was fine, it has been getting worse and we have not had any bad experiences while out walking as I dont let them off the lead.

Edited April 23, 2010 by erinb

[Kavik]

I would work on her separately and not walk her with the others until her behaviour on lead is sorted. Have you seen a trainer with her to help with her lead manners around other dogs?

[4 Paws]

I agree about walking her seperately.My 2 shepherds if walked together are completly different than if walked seperately

They will pull to be in front and will carry on at another dog but yet seperatly don't pull and are controllable when seeing another dog

[Aidan]

Another vote for walking her separately. Put the others somewhere secure inside and just let them howl, hopefully your house is relatively sound-proof. They will get over it eventually.

See someone about teaching her to walk on a loose leash and also the resource guarding. Everything here is a bit out of whack to be honest. If she is howling at the door, she's not getting a walk. You can work on this in graded steps, this is one method that is easy to figure out: http://www.clickertraining.com/node/1262 with this method you ask yourself "how calm is her behaviour right now?" then if it's as good as or better than the grade you have been working at, she gets to go for a walk. I'm not sure how you will go with that in practice without some instruction, but it's food for thought if nothing else.