agressive towards other dogs

[sweaty]

Hi! I have a two year old dog, Meaty, whose breed can best be described as a Taiwan local dog. I have had her since she was just under two months old. In Taiwan she had many dog friends. She lived with 2 other dogs and we would foster and have over night dog guests regularly. She was not the alpha dog in the house, and she got along fine with the other dogs and loved to wrestle and play.
About 2 months ago we moved to Arizona, USA. We moved in with my mom who has a 10 year old dog that doesn't play with other dogs. The two dogs have had about 3 fights, but for the most part get along fine.
I would love for Meaty to have a dog to play with. THe problem is when she first meets a new dog she shows her teeth and is agressive towards them. This will usually cause a fight. She doesn't ever bite down so she is always the one hurt, but she always starts it. There is one dog in the neighborhood that ignored Meaty when she showed her teeth and now she loves him.
It seems that she is testing the dog to see if they will be agressive or not towards her.
What can I do to help her make some friends? I know that she misses playing. When we are out walking and she puts up her back fur and shows her teeth toward another dog I am torn between telling her "NO" and cooing to try and calm her down. What should I be doing?
Thank you so much! I have dogs I want to introduce her to, but not till she is ready.
Jess

[zoey]

Hi Jess,
is there a dog park Meaty could go and play and hang out for an hour? If she were outnumbered, she may forget about the "testng" of the other dogs and just have fun. What do you think?
~zoey

[Danegirl2208]

A dog park is not the place you want to take her. If you want her to interact with other dogs I would suggest doing so with dogs and owners that you know, in a controlled enviroment.

I am torn between telling her "NO" and cooing to try and calm her down. What should I be doing?

When she shows this behavior please do not baby her, this will only reinforce the behavior. I highly suggest contacting a behaviorist in your area (your vet can give you contacts). They should be able to give you advice.

[Giselle]

Do you say "No" or coddle her?

Neither. You never push her past her threshold. Never allow her to revert into her aggressive, growling behavior. This is the behavior you want to eliminate, so never give her the chance to show the behavior. Find out what her threshold is. At what point does she lose focus on you? At what point does she start to stiffen? When does she start to raise her hair? Figure approximately how far away Meaty can be and remain comfortable in the presence of another dog. STAY BEHIND THIS LINE, and use counter-conditioning techniques to help her associate strange dogs with good things.

It sounds like your dog has some fear aggression (especially on-lead). It sounds like this is your first experience dealing with this, so I too would suggest finding a professional behaviorist. Hope that helps!

[sweaty]

Thank you for your help. I am going to take her to an obedience class that has about 3 other dogs in it, but where they are all on leashes. Hopefully by being in the room with other dogs and not having interaction will help her feel more comfortable. I have asked a friend whose dog is more submissive to come over and play. It's difficult b/c there isn't really anywhere to take them that is neutral ground. I think I will wait until after she has had her classes before we have a play date.
thanks again!

[VTJess03]

A class really helped Belle...she was about the same way with other dogs, and learned to focus on me rather than on them. I started classes with her when she was 3 years old, and if you have a good instructor, you should make great progress with her.

Unfortunately, Belle now only associates getting along with other dogs with an indoor environment or with a fenced-in environment, since the class was in an indoor facility, and I have had her to play at a fenced-in agility course nearby. She still acts up as soon as another dog is visible if we're out walking up the road. If I don't catch her in time to say 'leave it' (which is my command for 'ignore whatever you're paying attention to and focus on me'), then I just ignore the behavior and keep walking...and keep an eye on the other dog just in case, since we don't have a leash law, and most people leave them loose. Eventually, she focuses back on me and walking, and sniffing whatever is interesting, etc. It's been said many times on these boards that any attention whatsoever to a behavior (whether it's positive or negative attention) will reinforce the behavior. As long as it's not going to physically hurt them, don't intervene.

I also invested in a micro-prong collar for training purposes (it has rounded ends on the prongs so that it can't break skin, and you should be very, very gentle in the correction tug if you have to use one...I actually put it on my own neck to see if it hurt, and it didn't, just uncomfortable). This will save your shoulder/arm if your dog lunges unexpectedly, and when that behavior is trained out of her, you can usually switch back to a normal collar for walking, etc.

Good luck!

[shepgirl]

I used classes and petsmart to help my dog get used to others...as we'd meet someone with a dog I would always say quit the minute I felt a change in the lead or saw her body change....now when we pass other dogs she couldn't care less. My male is fine, but for some reason the female needed to be extra socialized, probably because she had to defer to our male and she wanted to try to be on top of other dogs.

[*LabLoverKEB*]

Oh my gawd... I have the same exact problem with Rita, but her case is probably MUCH worse. Just yesterday, a nieghbor came up to our door with her dog, and Rita bolted out the door, and full on attacked the poor guy, I have it when she does this. This poor dog was making just awful noises, I felt sooo horrible...
I really want to get her problem resolved, but don't know how??

[Giselle]

Here, I made this video for another forum, but here it is.



For some dogs, telling them to ignore the dog and focus on you doesn't work because the trigger is too stressful. In that case, I suggest the Look at that! game which was coined by Leslie McDevitt in her wonderful book Control Unleashed. It helps a GREAT deal with leash reactivity, and I recommend it to those who are willing to try a different method when conventional "leave it/watch me" methods aren't working.

[BC_MoM]

That was interesting to watch! It's really neat that you made it. You could make some moolah doin' that! Hehe

I do have a two questions, though. I've always wanted to do clicker with my dogs, but Molly is afraid of it. When she sees it, she runs. My flyball trainer told me to walk around the house clicking it while I do regular things to get her adjusted, but it hasn't worked.

Also... so basically you're rewarding for looking but not reacting. But... for something like flyball where many dogs become overstimulated and are distracted by the other dogs, how do get them to return the focus to you and avoid teaching them if they look at the other dogs, they get treats? Couldn't this become a problem?

[Giselle]

Clicking around the house and not treating her defeats the purpose of the clicker, IMO. You can use a verbal cue or a pen cap instead. I also think a Snapple cap would work

Okay, I did a pretty bad job in the video because I was more concerned with staying in the camera window than getting focus from Ivy. Sorry! I explained it on the other forum, but the objective of the LAT game is to get your dog to offer a look at the other dog. Meaning:

You want to click/treat when she looks at the dog, let her eat the treat, and then let her look at the dog again. If you repeat this enough, your dog will eventually start to offer you a glance at the dog as a trick. This is your goal. So, you WANT them to look at the other dog. You want them to acknowledge that there is another dog there. But eventually, through LAT, you condition the trigger from "OMG THERE'S A DOG! I HAVE TO OVERREACT!!" to "Oh! There's a dog! That means I get to play the LAT game with Mom".

ETA: It's tough at first, but it is doable, even in high stress situations. Leslie wrote Control Unleashed specifically for agility dogs, so I'm sure you can do it in flyball.

[BC_MoM]

Thanks for explaining that! I wasn't doubting it at all, it looks like a fantastic method that I want to try with Molly. She reacts just like that little dog in your video to other dogs. It'd be interesting to see a video of you working with him/her! hehe

[bckrazy]

I LOVE that video, Sophie!!!! You can totally notice the change in Ivy, when she's playing LAT. She's such a smart girl. C: With an adorable tail.

Control Unleashed is tight! I have yet to actually go out and buy it, but my friend works at Borders, and the last few times I've visited her I have grabbed it and read through it. haha, I am cheap.

Jessica... Gonzo used to be scared of the clicker. Molly and him are such wusses! It took way longer to get him to associate clicker with rewards, but he totally came around. I suggest sitting in a bathroom, or a really quiet room, with a mound of tiiiny treats every day, and just click/treat-ing over and over and over. I assume they are scared of it because they think too much. It seems like Gonzo was thinking... "Why am I being rewarded for nothing? Am I supposed to be afraid of that clicking noise? WTH?" But he became more relaxed about it with each session.

[Animalhouse26]

Is your dog afraid of the Sound.. or the Clicker? if the Clicker is too loud.. Put some scotch tape on the indent of the Clicker where u press.. it will soften the click. Also, there is a clicker you can get that I THINK is Blue with a Orange Button.. it is a Softer Click, and u can put it on the floor, and use ure foot to click it. :-) Good luck!

[BC_MoM]

I have a Triple Crown blue clicker with an orange button. Thanks for the tape suggestion! She's afraid of the sound - but now afraid of it in general now because she has associated the two.