Dog Aggression Problems

[Paladin Sake]

Hi Guys,

Looking for some help in removing our pups aggressive tendancies.

We recently rescued a 1yr old (we think) Cocker spaniel x Poodle. She is a very happy little dog that just LOVES attention. She walks very well on the lead, and we have been doing attentiveness training with her, so she knows she is supposed to pay attention to us on walks.

However we are having occasional problems with her being aggressive. She loves to meet new dogs, and often rushes to the end of the lead as we approach. Through the attentiveness training (with a check chain) we have been trying to curb this rushing, but whenever we check her for rushing out she get really revved up and starts to bark at the approaching dog. If the owner of the approaching dog isn't put off, and they keep coming, then once our dog has met the other party she is fine and friendly and they usually get along.

The barking started off playful, but lately has been getting more and more aggressive sounding.

A friend suggested that if she misbehaves we simply turn and walk the other way, so if she is too focused on the other dog she will get checked and then return to us. This worked a small bit at first, but once she caught on to what we were doing she just ends up being checked, runs back to us and keeps barking while we are walking. the same thing happens if we try to continue past the new party without meeting.

When she is checked she will pause, and it seems she knows she shouldn't be barking, but then continues a moment later, and it has gotten to being quite a viscous bark.

We attend dog training every weekend, and she is fine. She is very excited to get there, but after a small walk around the car park outside, she settles down and then we go in. She is very well behaved and has lots of friends there.

A couple of our friends have just gotten puppies, and she is very gentle and plays with them well.

We do everything we can to ensure that she knows that we are the pack leaders and she is very obedient normally, except when meeting new dogs on walks.

Any suggestions would be much appreciated.

Thanks,

Ryan.

[Pretty Miss Emma]

My young one also behaves in a similar way sometimes. A good book is "Click to Calm". I've used some of the techniques in there and we are seeing good progress. It won't be an overnight fix no matter what technique you use.

When we walk I mark and reward all calm and attentive behaviour when there is a distraction. We used to have problems lunging at buses going past, people walking past, etc. But now when a bus is approaching Kenzie just looks up to me and waits for her reward. I still put a treat under her nose when a person walks past to keep her focus close to me rather than on the approaching person - but I think this is more my insecurity than her behaviour! As for approaching other dogs, I usually cross the road or walk the other way so that there is distance between us and she doesn't get the chance to get worked up/over excited and I reward all her calm and focussed behaviour. There are a few breeds of dogs that she has had previous bad incidents with that she still can be reactive towards but she is now muchh calmer towards the general dog population and there are many dogs that we can walk past with no reaction. Same as you, at dog school she's usually an angel it's just out and about that it becomes a bit over stimulating! But mark and reward all wanted behaviours and you'll start seeing them more frequently.

[Erny]

I'd be inclined to train my dog that another dog means nothing. IE - it does not mean it's an opportunity to meet and greet. Work my dog around other dogs? Yes - definitely (in a controlled environment). Work so that my dog is excited about me and what I have to offer rather than other dogs? Yes - definitely, as much as possible.

[aussielover]

I basically agree with Erny BUT I do still allow my dog to play with other dogs at the park just my personal choice and opinion.

I train in agility and obedience and work my dog offleash and she has never run off or rejected me for another dog.

I do not allow her to greet other dogs whilst she is onlead though.

[fuzzy82]

If she's acting silly and being checked and then only gets worse you are basically rewarding her for being silly because she gets what she wants (meeting the other dog). I would team up with someone with a calm dog and work on her below threshold. Let her approach the other dog when calm, if she goes stupid take her back to the starting point and start over.

Personally I don't let my dogs meet other dogs on walks. You have no idea if the other dog is friendly or not (and asking the owner is pointless because most of them will say they can meet even when they know their dog likes to growl and snarl at other dogs), so they only socialise with other dogs at training.

[corvus]

Sometimes friendly dogs get frustrated when they are on leash and can't greet another dog they want to greet. Frustration may lead to genuine aggression. I had this happen with my very friendly dog when he was younger. He would see another dog and start bouncing on leash and lunging and barking, although he never sounded or looked very aggressive. Off leash he greeted and interacted with other dogs very appropriately. For a while I was waiting for him to calm down enough to offer a sit, which is his default behaviour. Once he did that he would become responsive and I would call him into heel and reward him and we'd go forwards. It was working, but then I learnt about Leslie McDevitt's Look At That game in her book Control Unleashed. My dog was already experienced with the clicker, and I found this method was a short cut to a very responsive dog. The problem disappeared very quickly. He still has a strong compulsion to greet other dogs, which I'm fine with, because he can cope with not greeting them as well. He will happily sit in front of me and do whatever he is asked and ignore the other dog. Usually. :D He is a male spitz, after all. ;)

[fuzzy82]

Sometimes friendly dogs get frustrated when they are on leash and can't greet another dog they want to greet. Frustration may lead to genuine aggression. I had this happen with my very friendly dog when he was younger. He would see another dog and start bouncing on leash and lunging and barking, although he never sounded or looked very aggressive. Off leash he greeted and interacted with other dogs very appropriately. For a while I was waiting for him to calm down enough to offer a sit, which is his default behaviour. Once he did that he would become responsive and I would call him into heel and reward him and we'd go forwards. It was working, but then I learnt about Leslie McDevitt's Look At That game in her book Control Unleashed. My dog was already experienced with the clicker, and I found this method was a short cut to a very responsive dog. The problem disappeared very quickly. He still has a strong compulsion to greet other dogs, which I'm fine with, because he can cope with not greeting them as well. He will happily sit in front of me and do whatever he is asked and ignore the other dog. Usually. :D He is a male spitz, after all. ;)

My 9.5 month old puppy is reactive, so I deal daily with a similar problem. My puppy is also shortsighted, so I suspect that's why he's reactive. But anyway, I still haven't figured out what he wants to do to the other dogs on walks, but we are working very hard on getting him to ignore them, and he's doing very well.

I haven't been using Look At That, because he was way too reactive when I first started working on him. I would simply keep him below threshold by keeping my distance to people and dogs on walks. When he notices them, he gets loads of really yummy treats. As a result, he now almost completely ignores people we walk past (still working on people jogging past) and we are able to get a lot closer to other dogs than we used to.

When he hears a dog bark nearby without being able to see it, he looks to me for his treat. If he can see the dog I keep him really close to me and continually feed treats until we are far enough away that he can think straight again. He will never meet other dogs on walks, because I want him to know that other dogs on walks mean nothing to him, there is no point in reacting to them because he will never get anywhere near them.

We've only been doing that for 3 months, and have gone from him snarling, lunging and barking at anything that moved outside, to being able to walk past people in their driveways with him barely even glancing at them, and we can get within 10 metres of other dogs with him being reasonably calm (as opposed to 100 metres 3 months ago).

Personally I don't think punishment is a fix for reactivity. (or anything else for that matter, you might mask the symptoms using punishment, but by using rewards you can fix the underlying cause)

[corvus]

I would simply keep him below threshold by keeping my distance to people and dogs on walks. When he notices them, he gets loads of really yummy treats. As a result, he now almost completely ignores people we walk past (still working on people jogging past) and we are able to get a lot closer to other dogs than we used to.

When he hears a dog bark nearby without being able to see it, he looks to me for his treat.

The power of counter-conditioning.

[lilmisssascha83]

I would simply keep him below threshold by keeping my distance to people and dogs on walks. When he notices them, he gets loads of really yummy treats. As a result, he now almost completely ignores people we walk past (still working on people jogging past) and we are able to get a lot closer to other dogs than we used to.

When he hears a dog bark nearby without being able to see it, he looks to me for his treat.

The power of counter-conditioning.

I've also been having this problem recently with my lab. I have tried to show her that she can only say hello to another dog if she first sits and looks at me and only if I check with the owner first. I think she is mainly reactive to them on lead and occassionaly she will play up and bark. If she is off the lead, there hasn't been any issues. I might try walking with her and not letting her say hello to any other dogs. I have been doing that more often lately but I might try this technique more often and see if that helps. I think she thinks that she should be allowed to say hello to every dog. While I don't let her do this all the time, I probably let her say hello more often then not ( but only when she is calm). When I do see another dog coming our way or across the street I do get her to sit, or go down and focus on me. She's just started obedience training so I suppose it is a work in progress but I think this thread has been helpful to me so thanks for all the ideas.

[corvus]

I think she thinks that she should be allowed to say hello to every dog.

Seriously, I think many dogs think this. My dogs are very well socialised and act as though it would be unthinkable to not introduce themselves to whatever dogs are in their vicinity. I've noticed that dogs that don't come over to greet are usually nervous around strange dogs. Personally, I want my dogs to accept that we don't greet every single dog we see, but I'm happy to let them greet most. I know some people that don't allow greetings on leash period because they are always more tense than greetings off leash. I appreciate that perspective.

[JoeK]

She loves to meet new dogs,

She loves to meet knew dogs because somebody let her getting high value for dogs is why they misbehaving. We talk before on the neutral socialise which is what I liking best and they thinking my head is full of wood with no brains becuase they saying dogs they need to play is good. Probalby is my head full of wood, but I dont getting splinters in my hand scratching my head of wood to work out to fixing bad behaving on the dogs who value other dogs too much? But never minding that, is problem here for the poster is needs fixing and apology for off my topic introduction please.

Firstly on the checking chain, is not for using to correct becuase she lunging foward on the other dog, the checking chain to use properly is first when seeing the dog coming before she react is to commanding "sit". When she sit you say good girl just calmy and you watching her carefully as the dog approach. The moment her bum lift off the ground to lunge and she breaking the sit command you say NO and pull the leash back sharp before she reach the end is how a chain correction is done. At the same time, you turn around and walking briskly in the other direction away from the other dog.

She needing to learn 2 thing here. 1 is when she break the sit command she cop a correction on the chain for disobedience and 2 becuase she did the disobedience, she blow her chance to greet the other dog so she stuff up the whole processing for what she wanting to do. You do this probably 3 or 4 times depending on the dog and when she sitting nice and the other dog passing buy without breaking on the sit command, then you give her the praise and the treat perhaps for good obedience. So that is the old schooling way on the checking chain and if my friend Aidan2 come on here, he tell us how we fixing on the new schooling with the clicker so there will be 2 ways on addressing problem on the training method from the old to new.

Joe