Dylan gets anxious with other dogs

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LoveDogs

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Dylan has reactions to other dogs if he sees them when he is on a leash. He lunges and barks. A couple of weeks ago when my husband was out of town for business I was walking Dylan and Daisy (Maltese) alone in the evening. I didn't see a pug on the other side of the corner. They both reacted so fast and I lost a control. All I could do was to hold on to the leashes. They were lunging and barking and it was out of control. So I called a local dog trainer. She came over last Friday and saw Dylan in action. Daisy is not that reactive to other dogs. So she was not a focus of our training. She barks initially but quits easily when corrected. But not Dylan. We were standing in front of the house with fenced yard where there were two huskies. Dylan didn't stop barking. Huskies came to see Dylan but lost interest quickly. My trainer said we can't leave until Dylan calms down. She thought he would give up eventually. But he didn't and we had to leave eventually because we were worried some neighbors might get upset and there were lots of young children out playing around us. My trainer was very suprised how fixaded he was. He did not take his eyes off huskies. When the trainer was trying to turn him around to face opposite direction, he almost panicked. She said he is not being aggressive. He was very anxious. He was barking in high pitch non stop. My trainer is coming back next Friday. She said she will have to figure out how to stop him from visually fixating on other dogs. I told her treats didn't work for him. He does stop looking at other dogs just to get treats, but as soon as he gets treats or if I wait more than 5 seconds to give him treats, he loses focus on me and goes back to other dogs. He know "watch me" commend and does very well when there are no other dogs.

Any one out there with similar problems? If yes, were you able to fix it?
Any suggestion will be appreciated.
 
I know that many others have had success correcting this issue, so I'll let them respond with advice.

I just wanted to let you know that many have dogs that react very similarily. My dog Bentley barks and lunges when on leash at other dogs, bikes, and sometimes even people. We have tried many things with no luck. Some of the things we have tried: distracting him with food, spraying him with water, changing direction, obedience commands, the "watch me" command, prong collar (yes I know now that it didn't help). And he still does it. I think that he did get somewhat better when we worked with him EVERY DAY, but he never fully stopped.

Just wanted to let you know that you are not alone and there are a lot of options out there that have worked for some. Good luck!
 
You are definitely not alone. Bailey is the same exact way. I've tried a few things and nothing worked. When she sees another dog, she loses complete focus. She won't respond to food, her name or any commands.

She appears aggressive, but when we get close to the dogs, she tries to play with them.
 
take4roll10 said:
You are definitely not alone. Bailey is the same exact way. I've tried a few things and nothing worked. When she sees another dog, she loses complete focus. She won't respond to food, her name or any commands.

She appears aggressive, but when we get close to the dogs, she tries to play with them.
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Meggie does this too and sometimes I'm so embarrassed because I'm sure the people think she's trying to be agressive, but that's not it at all. She just wants to meet them so badly. I haven't found anything that works so far. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn't.
 
I am not sure I should but I do feel a little relieved that Dylan is not alone. Dylan is not a small boy. He is about 19 inch tall and 30 lbs. Sometimes if I am not ready and he lunges toward other dogs, he can give me some good leash whiplash on my wrist or shoulder.
 
Remind us how old Dylan is ..... It may well be that he's going through one of the fear periods of puppyhood.

My 2 year old is a reactive fellow and I know that this is part of his make up, although his behavior is slowly, but steadily improving. I have participated in Controlled Unleashed classes / practice and continue to do so. You'll find an old thread on CU on this forum; and Leslie McDevitt's book and DVD by the same name are very useful in dealing with dogs that are stressed for a number of reasons.

I also have appreciated Patricia McConnell's "Feisty Fido", which addresses dogs that are "leash reactive". McConnell incorporates something called a U-Turn, which is a slight variation on what your trainer perhaps was suggesting and I'm using this with my dog now, with some good result. With the U-turn, you walk towards the other dog, but then do a 180 degree turn away before you get to the other dog, and make your exit a big game, by running, jumping, and whooping it up. This has become a lot of fun for Snap and it allows me to divert his attention and get some distance as well.

McDevitt does something similar as well with her "drive by" concept. Her suggestion is to walking your dog towards the other, allowing a nano second greeting, then turning around and walk confidently away.

Enough rambling for tonight. Just know that you're not alone !
 
Yep, had a similar issue. It sounds like fear aggression if Dylan is that fixated. He will be in heightened state of stress and wont be able to hear or respond to you. I learnt to briskly walk the other way when Tully reacted like that, so she learnt I was taking control.

Also, you should work out his 'critical distance' which is how close he can get to another dog without going into meltdown - that's the distance you start all the techniques with treats and 'look at me' and walk bys and gradually close the gap. Tully's critical distance was HUGE so it was quite a long journey for us.

Treating to get focus, or asking your dog to sit and look at me is one approach, you can also get someone to walk past with another dog on lead (a calm dog), first at a distance travelling in the same direction and closing the gap and then try coming toward each other (a little more threatening for a dog).

Be wary about taking Daisy along when Dylan might go into meltdown (is there someone else who could walk her with you). What I found was walking a fearful dog and a confident dog together didnt mean the fearful one calmed down, it meant my confident one started barking!

I would really recommend obedience classes - that way Dylan can be on lead around other dogs in a safe environment. But I must say I think the clincher for Tully was doing flyball, it really helped with her confidence around other dogs. She is nearly 3 and it is now rarely a problem.
 
*Caro said:
But I must say I think the clincher for Tully was doing flyball, it really helped with her confidence around other dogs. She is nearly 3 and it is now rarely a problem.
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The weird thing for Bentley is that he is fine in obedience class and at agility. He might bark at another dog, but NEVER lunges or growls. But, if you take him on a walk anywhere else, he goes crazy. Don't know if he knows that he is about to "work" and it makes him focus, or what the explanation is.
 
I'm surprised the trainer said you couldn't leave until he calmed down. Most dogs will just keep barking and lunging and get more and more excited - an upwards spiral until they look completely rabid. That doesn't do much good for a dog I would expect!

I second what Caro said about critical distance. You have to 'catch' the dog before it even starts to react!
 
romeosangiovese said:
I second what Caro said about critical distance. You have to 'catch' the dog before it even starts to react!
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I add a third to this. I had a reactive JRT mix. I could not make any progress until I got calm behavior at a distance. Jazz's first reactive border was about 4 house lengths at first. I did the watch me, u turns, downs, etc first at this distance and then slowly worked close it took almost a year but I was able to get her reactivity down to about 10 ft and about 2 ft 3yrs later with strange dogs. NO strange dog could come nose to nose with her, ever, in 14 yrs. but she wouldn't bark or go after them as long as they kept their distance(the distance she was comfortable with)
 
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