Reactive (not Aggresive) Dogs

[alpha bet]

Have been working with aussies for years now and generally find them a really easy dog to handle. They usually don't have anywhere near the high work drive of the Border Collies or the GSD.

There are probably a number of factors to why you are experiencing problems.

Your dog is only 10 months old. Perhaps you are having too high an expectation and getting stressed won't help the situation.

You have had some advise here to perhaps remove your dog from the distraction of of other dogs i.e. walking on the other side of the street etc. However I would suggest that the reverse might be part of your solution.

You stated that your dog is good off-lead with other dog but then he ignores you. Also that he is better off lead than on lead, when he is around other dogs. Both of these comments make me feel that both of you haven't developed complete social skills. Therefore you are unlikely to find agility will help as he will still be more motivated to the other dogs than working with you.

We run classes which are based around the social work and then we commence working with the dogs introducing various excercises with the handler and as much as possible still off-lead. Perhaps a bit complex to explain online but we basically build the base blocks of ensuring 1) home environment - must offer the dog with the support and security as well as sufficient excercise. 2) Social skills - that ensure that the dog has the confidence to deal with many types of dogs as well as different species (i.e. even bring the goat or pony into class at times) Building the dogs ability to cope with different stresses.

Only when these are in place will you find that you can work on the Potential of the dog (trailling excercises, .

So my advise is find ways to increase your dogs social skills - If you dont have any trainers locally offering social classes perhaps you have friends with good older dogs and you can work with your dog off lead in a different backyard with other dogs which can be leashed. Using food to motivate your dog to work to you - try using trick training for a while instead of the traditional excercises as this will provide both of you more fun and you can build up your repetoir to show off to friends. After a time you will find you can go to off-lead parks and you can introduce some short training excercises into his play time.

Good luck.