agressive towards other dogs

[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