My dog loses her mind when approchaed by dogs and people. Is this part of a prety drive even though she just wants to play?

Question

Hi Cindy,

    I am hoping you can help me. I have a now one year old Plot Hound that I rescued at 8 weeks. Without going into endless repetition, all I can say is that training her has required a lot of patience but with one exception is paying off.

    She has a strong prey drive but now is easily controlled with birds and squirrels. She responds well to commands, and shows absolutely no signs of aggression to people or dogs.

    The difficulty stems from her wanting to be with people and dogs to the extent that she often loses her mind when approached.

    She goes to Puppy Play School regularly where she plays with dogs very well. She still wants to "get to" the workers there and is difficult to control when I first take her there.

    When walking her in the neighborhood I have her sit when I see someone approaching. I tell the person not to speak to her or approach her but to just pass on by. Usually she will hold the sit position and I tell her she is a good dog and pet her. When the person passes and she hasn't moved I praise her and give her a reward.

    But should a friend want to stop and briefly chat it is different. I give her the down command and she lies down. But the minute a friend comes closer or we start to tale my dog becomes difficult to control and ignores my commands because she is in such a frenzy. I have friends who are good with dogs work with me and approach her and let my dog go to them. She rushes to them, squirrels around their legs at high speed, then lies down and rolls over to be scratched on her tummy. She usually settles down after a few minutes, but sometimes will rush to them again.

    No matter how often I work with this friend it is the same thing. My friend will not move or respond to her in any way to encourage her behavior. If my friend tries to tell her to sit it only makes it worse. Everyone is a giant toy to her.

    If anyone comes to the house to visit I have to tell them to wait outside so I can put my dog in her crate.Even if we go to another room, my dog will bark and carry on to get out to see the new person and we go through the same thing.

    I have parked my car at a curb where people are passing by and remained there an hour or more and my dog will still bark and carry on to get to the people.

    I have used a prong collar and it does no good. I have your dogtra collar which she responds to very well, but still goes crazy when someone approaches.

    I live in a community of retired people and many are a bit unstable when walking. My dog would never hurt them intentionally, but she could easily knock someone over when she squirrels around their feet. I keep her under control all the time, put her in a sit position when anyone approaches, and generally she is pretty good but not always. Even though there is no way my dog could get near anyone because she is always on leash, some are very afraid of her.

    I am not afraid of losing control of her, but I would like to be able to stop and have a conversation without having to talk above my dogs barking or using my energy to hold her back should someone want to move a bit closer.

    She does the same thing with other dogs.

    What it boils down to is that no matter how often I expose her to other people or dogs she just goes crazy wanting to get to them to play.

    Other than that, she is a wonderful obedient dog and highly responsive. Is this part of a prey drive even though she just wants to play? And how can I deal with it.

    I am told she will grow out of it but she is a year old and I have seen no signs of growing out of it.

    Would appreciate your suggestions.

    Thanks.
Linda

Accepted Answer

How much exercise is your dog getting? Does she like to fetch a toy or swim? To me, it sounds like your dog just has too much unchanneled energy. It’s really hard (if not impossible) for a dog to focus on being good if their exercise needs are not being met. I’m not a big fan of puppy play groups. I would never allow one of my dogs to attend anything like a puppy play group or dog park. For one thing they teach dogs that all their fun and stimulation come from other dogs, not from interacting with me. They also set dogs up for aggression issues, either as an aggressor or as a victim of another dog’s dominance.

You may not have any visible issues now, but if you let her play at her discretion with other dogs it is only a matter of time before something happens. I want my dog to get all of her exercise and fun from me, not from running wild with other puppies. It really sets up a dog for the wrong state of mind, if you let them play with other dogs like this before you have a solid foundation of leadership and obedience.

I also think that I would be doing more with the electric collar, and using her daily food to get her to focus. You need to become more of a leader and more ‘valuable’ to her. If she’s only getting her daily rations by paying attention and listening to you, I would guess her ability to settle and remain focused on you would improve.

I’d also be using marker training with her, to teach her to use her mind.

Marker training is also covered in our basic obedience video.

Keep in mind that a 1 year old hound is still very immature mentally, some dogs take longer to mature than others. I know it’s difficult but it’s our responsibility to have realistic expectations of young dogs.

Cindy