Barking at other dogs at the vets

[KobiD]

Another week, another challenge!

 

Today little pup went in for her 4 month vaccinations at the vet. We've been socialising her in line with Steve K9Pro's sticky at the top of this subforum, in that she is often exposed to other dogs in public, but kept outside her threshold. Aware of what other dogs are, but not self rewarded by getting wound up.

 

She also gets to practice interacting with my parents ACD who is very good with showing her boundaries and play.

 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the moment we got there she saw a couple of other dogs and started barking and pulling - I assume excitement, but in hindsight I didn't particularly pay a lot of attention to her body language. Quickly refocussed her, moved outside again and worked on some training to pass some time. These dogs came out, walked past, and while she didn't bark she did want to play a lot. It was managed though.

 

Inside and into the vet, and all went well. The whole time well over threshold though, absolutely overwhelmed with the scents, people, and new environment. We walked back out and there were around 4 other dogs in the waiting room. She began barking again, and of course all the while I still had to try and distract her, not reward her, and make the payment. I moved around the corner of the service desk to block her visual which helped some, and a staff member also came and paid her some attention to distract her from the other dogs. Managed to scramble through the payment and then back past everyone while she carried on.

 

I don't want this to be the norm, particularly as she gets bigger and stronger. I assume it is likely do partly to immaturity, being over threshold, and a lack of training in the presence of other dogs (increased distraction). Any advice or suggestions?

 

What do you do when you know something is going to push your dog over threshold, but you have to do it anyway?

[RuralPug]

Perhaps it is just me, but at sixteen weeks old I would not be too worried about thresholds - I would just be doing my best to stay calm and unfrazzled while redirecting the pup with a toy or similar, or training just as you did. It is really important that you don't get overly stressed when puppy is not perfect as they pick up on your body language which tends to inflate things.

At the counter your attention is off the pup, and she knows it, so she probably figures that it is play time! You can always put her in her crate in the car before returning to settle the account if it really bothers you.

The best way to proof a puppy against the distraction of other dogs is regular attendance at an obedience club - handy if you are in an urban area but can be a bit difficult if you live in a remote area.
 

 

[KobiD]

Thanks RP.

 

I wasn't getting stressed and definitely didn't get up the pup for the way she behaved. It just got me thinking how to move forward with it.

 

The area we live in has a pretty high dog population. Almost any given morning there will be numerous people out walking their dogs, and our yard is sided by 3 other properties all with dogs. Typically she is well aware that there are other dogs, and excited, but doesn't particularly pull or bark. More of a 'look dad!! a dog!!'. I can give her a 'let's go' and she'll happily follow as we move onto the next exciting thing to explore! When I speak of thresholds, I simply mean walking into a room with dogs mere meters away was more than she could process.

 

I think I should start bringing some nice meaty treats and use them as special rewards in public when she does particularly well. The plan of attack is to spend a bit more time in the neighbourhood now that she has had her final booster, working around, but not in direct proximity to other dogs and people. 

[Rebanne]

you could always take her to the vets when she doesn't need to go and work on manners whilst there as long as you don't bother the other dogs.

[The Spotted Devil]

6 hours ago, Rebanne said:

you could always take her to the vets when she doesn't need to go and work on manners whilst there as long as you don't bother the other dogs.

Totally love this idea - PLUS teach your pup a "Look At That" cue. Great for excitable pups and very handy when they go through their whacky fear periods. Counter Conditioning....look at the thing, look back at me and get a treat. Best game!!!

[KobiD]

Some great advice.

 

All have and continue to work well in certain situations. Always dependent on her level of excitement. On our walk this morning we came quite close to another dog, and while she showed playful interest, she continued to listen and move on, which lead to much praise and a handful of treats.

 

Excitement varies depending on the particular day, how much exposure she's recently had to stimuli, how physically/mentally worked she has been already. Just taking it one step at a time and trying to keep it all positive. If she stops listening or is over excited we don't progress. For example when I got home from work tonight I was going to walk her, but she was far too excited (rest of family got home just as we were about to leave), so excitement to see the wife and kids meant we simply worked in the front yard using them as the distractions and rewarding positive interactions. A few cars passing, other kids running by, birds, and even a pushbike, all handled without any pulling or barking! In general she's pretty good! and it's great that we still much to work with without venturing too far from home. She's just very excitable!

[Scrappi&Monty]

On 24/02/2017 at 3:15 PM, KobiD said:

Another week, another challenge!

 

Today little pup went in for her 4 month vaccinations at the vet. We've been socialising her in line with Steve K9Pro's sticky at the top of this subforum, in that she is often exposed to other dogs in public, but kept outside her threshold. Aware of what other dogs are, but not self rewarded by getting wound up.

 

She also gets to practice interacting with my parents ACD who is very good with showing her boundaries and play.

 

Anyway, to cut a long story short, the moment we got there she saw a couple of other dogs and started barking and pulling - I assume excitement, but in hindsight I didn't particularly pay a lot of attention to her body language. Quickly refocussed her, moved outside again and worked on some training to pass some time. These dogs came out, walked past, and while she didn't bark she did want to play a lot. It was managed though.

 

Inside and into the vet, and all went well. The whole time well over threshold though, absolutely overwhelmed with the scents, people, and new environment. We walked back out and there were around 4 other dogs in the waiting room. She began barking again, and of course all the while I still had to try and distract her, not reward her, and make the payment. I moved around the corner of the service desk to block her visual which helped some, and a staff member also came and paid her some attention to distract her from the other dogs. Managed to scramble through the payment and then back past everyone while she carried on.

 

I don't want this to be the norm, particularly as she gets bigger and stronger. I assume it is likely do partly to immaturity, being over threshold, and a lack of training in the presence of other dogs (increased distraction). Any advice or suggestions?

 

What do you do when you know something is going to push your dog over threshold, but you have to do it anyway?

Sigh. I know how you feel. 

Monty does this, but he's a 20kg staffy who we adopted at 6mths old. Already had learned bad/reactive behaviours. 

I don't have much advice sorry, but definitely a good idea to keep doing socialisation and find out a way to nip it in the butt before she grows big and thinks it's ok! Otherwise it is really not fun. Cute little puppy barking is ok and cute so people don't mind, but a big dog is annoying and scary, especially as ours is a staffy. The receptionist at our vet wasn't very helpful either, glad you had someone to try and help out while you paid! Makes it a lot easier. 

Good idea to get her refocused on you, and to remove her from the waiting room for a while and get her used to it in short bursts, and take her outside if she's getting squirmy and looks like she's going to bark. Also maybe you could give her a little treat to chew on for being calm (as long as other dogs don't try to take it!) Does she go to a puppy obedience class? Maybe doing that if you can will get her used to training in the presence of other dogs and smells, and first maybe you could do training with her while your parents do training or play with their ACD on the other side of the yard? 

[KobiD]

It was an isolated case at the vets. Not sure what got into her. She hardly ever barks, unless if she's seeking attention and at that time we just ignore her and make it well known it won't work for her.

 

With other dogs on the street she doesn't bark. With my parents dog, off leash free for all playing she'll still follow command. She did have a bit of a bark at their dog but it was when the older dog had had enough and was trying to rest and she was trying to get a raise out of her. Separated them again, showing the little one it's not the way to get results.

 

 

[rubiton]

I agree with the first comment - try to get her to the puppy obedience classes if possible.  Ours were indoor and we learnt the basics and it did put her ahead when we joined the outside puppy classes (after vaccinations were done).  They have to learn to work through it instead of just being removed - each week even now at dog obedience we get there early and sit on the seats to wait.  She's all excited to start with (pulling like a train when we get there til we sit down) but within a few minutes she calms down and while still excited is learning to sit rather than try to charge and the dogs get to socialise before the class and learn that once its class time its time to concentrate.  Yes she still barks at some dogs at the vet but they are puppies - and you cant control what the other dog is doing (at dog obedience to can often see it before it happens when 2 dogs rev each other up instead of sitting while the instructor is talking simply by looking and holding the look then act up if you dont stop it.

And the socialisation at obedience classes also helps when meeting dogs out when walking - she's actually better than the older dog