2) Teach coping skills: For him, meeting a dog for longer than a few seconds is too much. He just can't emotionally cope with that so he lunges. Instead, turn meetings into positive training sessions. Taz meets dog. Click. Taz returns to you for the treat. Let Taz meet dog again. Click. Taz returns for the treat. Let Taz meet dog again. Click/treat. Repeat. Repeat until Taz views the other dog as a signal to begin this game of meeting and click/treating. Thus, in one game, you teach him to voluntarily meet the other dog and then reorient back to you. The stress of a prolonged greeting melts away!
I actually love this idea. I can see some problems (i.e. my portly Eskie will attmept to knock Taz down and grab whatever I have out of my hand before he even realizes I clicked, lol), but I must admit the theory behind it appeals to me. Will see if I can do some tweaking on this one.
Manage situations better: The owner's body language is CRUCIAL with dogs like Taz. They are often highly sensitive to the environment and to their owners. If you feel Taz getting tense and you make a slight movement, that slight tug on the leash or that slight movement of your hand can set Taz off.
Had to smile at this one. Nancy told me the same thing when I asked her about Ginger's fear of walking around the neighborhood (which by the way has improved greatly). However, in both cases I am not aware of doing anything until after the dogs do; in Taz' case growling and lunging, in Ginger's case sitting down and refusing to move. In both instances I feel I am acting normal not really thinking about what we are doing and find myself reacting to their unexpected behaviors. ON the contrary, when two or more children approach us, I know that I do tense up on Taz' lead, however, as long as there is no rapid movement of feet he is very good about all of them petting him. He makes me feel so proud of him then.
So when you see Taz getting into the "red zone" and you see him tensing up, remove yourself and recall him. If you ever find him in your lap and he's getting tense, pick him up and place him in a low-stress environment (i.e. crate). You want to make sure that Taz NEVER gets above this threshold ever again. If he ever lunges from here on out, it is up to you to figure out what his body was saying to you, what you misread, and how you can prevent it. His body is speaking constantly. We just have to learn how to read them better and how to respond more effectively
I really like the parts I have put in bold, and I am sure that is the key to the whole thing. I can, course make excuses about how I cannot give him all of my attention because I have another dog and neighbors are trying to talk to me, etc. but I don't think you would buy it. I do have a question along those lines, though. How consistant do I need to be? By that I mean, I may be able to take Taz out once a day by himself so that we can work on these things individually. But our other walks will be with Ginger. Would the fact that I am paying closer attention at some times and not others confuse him?