Dog barking/aggressive on lead

simongurnick

Hi all

So I have a lovely dog. She is a 6 yr old cross between a german shepherd and a st bernard. Great with my kids, great around the house.
Main problem is when I bring her for a walk around the estate on the lead, she goes nuts when she see another dog. Starts barking like mad. Not sure she is even being aggressive, maybe more excited. But she is a big dog, so it probably is intimidating for my neighbours walking their fur balls.
Anyway, would love to get her out of it. When she barks, I pull up on the lead and correct her with authority. Some times it works, but not always.

Any ideas?

cocker5

simongurnick wrote: »

Hi all

So I have a lovely dog. She is a 6 yr old cross between a german shepherd and a st bernard. Great with my kids, great around the house.
Main problem is when I bring her for a walk around the estate on the lead, she goes nuts when she see another dog. Starts barking like mad. Not sure she is even being aggressive, maybe more excited. But she is a big dog, so it probably is intimidating for my neighbours walking their fur balls.
Anyway, would love to get her out of it. When she barks, I pull up on the lead and correct her with authority. Some times it works, but not always.

Any ideas?

Correcting with authority .. is the alpha male type theory it doesn’t work..

If you give your general location in sure people on here can advise of a positive re-enforcement trainer that should be able to help

simongurnick

cocker5 wrote: »

Correcting with authority .. is the alpha male type theory it doesn’t work..

If you give your general location in sure people on here can advise of a positive re-enforcement trainer that should be able to help

Southern Ontario!

cocker5

simongurnick wrote: »

Southern Ontario!

Ahh ok sorry I can’t help you there

Have you searched for a trainer locally?

emeldc

simongurnick wrote: »

Southern Ontario!

Lol

simongurnick

cocker5 wrote: »

Ahh ok sorry I can’t help you there

Have you searched for a trainer locally?

I haven't. Was afraid of the cost to be honest but might be worth scoping out at least. As I said, she's a lovely dog. Would love to be able to walk her through town but when I bring her out I try to avoid busy times etc. Thanks for the recommendation

coddlesangers

Our dog was very leash reactive and dog and human aggressive when he was between 18 months and 3 years old, it took a long time to sort out. For us the "breakthrough" was distance, or more accurately, us identifying where his threshold was, and it was a lot further away than you may think. At the first sign that he is paying attention to something, anything, human, dog, cyclist whatever, you should retreat till he is no longer paying much attention, ask him for a look and then reward him for paying attention to you. I'd use pretty high reward treats for this, chicken skin and the like, not compressed carboard commerical treats ;-) . Work on this for a while and eventually he will start looking for the treat as soon as you back away from the cue for his reaction. Over time you can start to move closer to the cue and if you do this correctly, he'll continue to pay attention to you rather than the dog/cat/cyclist/child. Leash reactivity and dog reactivity are often just signs of a nervous or stressed dog, not an aggressive one. If you make a positive association between stranger danger and a treat, eventually you'll get there, but it takes a LOT of work. You really have to be super aware of other people and dogs during this phase, its really unfair on the dog to meet people or dogs until you've sorted it out, as every encounter that goes badly will somewhat reinforce his reaction

muddypaws

This website is a great resource, but make sure that you start at the beginning and work through the steps.

http://careforreactivedogs.com/

muddypaws

This website is a great resource, but make sure that you start at the beginning and work through the steps.

http://careforreactivedogs.com/

simongurnick

coddlesangers wrote: »

Our dog was very leash reactive and dog and human aggressive when he was between 18 months and 3 years old, it took a long time to sort out. For us the "breakthrough" was distance, or more accurately, us identifying where his threshold was, and it was a lot further away than you may think. At the first sign that he is paying attention to something, anything, human, dog, cyclist whatever, you should retreat till he is no longer paying much attention, ask him for a look and then reward him for paying attention to you. I'd use pretty high reward treats for this, chicken skin and the like, not compressed carboard commerical treats ;-) . Work on this for a while and eventually he will start looking for the treat as soon as you back away from the cue for his reaction. Over time you can start to move closer to the cue and if you do this correctly, he'll continue to pay attention to you rather than the dog/cat/cyclist/child. Leash reactivity and dog reactivity are often just signs of a nervous or stressed dog, not an aggressive one. If you make a positive association between stranger danger and a treat, eventually you'll get there, but it takes a LOT of work. You really have to be super aware of other people and dogs during this phase, its really unfair on the dog to meet people or dogs until you've sorted it out, as every encounter that goes badly will somewhat reinforce his reaction

Cheers. That makes sense. Right now I am always on the lookout for dogs so I can add in a treat for sure. Thanks a lot.