My dog is a dream to be around except when she wants to meet another dog, what can I do? She’s not being aggressive, just enthusiastic.

Question

I'm so hoping you will read this and respond :) I just ordered your e-collar DVD and looking forward to learning correct training methods with the e-collar. I have a 15 month old Bernese Mountain Dog who is very dog reactive, not aggressive just VERY enthusiastic to meet other dogs, any dogs. She has been well socialized starting at 11 weeks old and this problem persists. We have gone to classes also and she still acts like she's never met a dog in her life! The main problem is when she is close enough to another dog, about 4' to 6' she lunges to sniff and if she doesn't get to greet them she's very vocal and has jumped on me with great excitement. When she lunges I have fell on my butt and knees, this cannot happen anymore!! She has come along great with the prong collar and heels beside me on the whole walk UNTIL we have to pass another dog, then we both lose control. We can even walk by cats and she doesn't react that way. We have come a long way in our training and she's becoming that dream dog except for that one issue. If I train her correctly with the e collar is there hope? I also realize she is still a puppy but a large strong one! and I want to enjoy the last phases of puppy hood before she becomes even stronger. Thank you so much if you had the time to read this! Brenda

Accepted Answer

I feel that dogs should be taught to be neutral to other dogs, at least to dogs from outside our family pack. This can be done with corrections or for a food or toy driven dog, it can be done by teaching them that if they see another dog AND they offer a predetermined behavior (like sit and make eye contact or something similar) this all starts with pack structure and proper leash manners.

The ecollar is a great tool as well, and I use it every day on my own dogs. Again, I do not let my own dogs socialize and play with other dogs. Your dog isn’t ready for the level of distraction that you are placing her in. I would NEVER EVER take an untrained dog into the classes you describe, especially when all the other dogs are untrained as well. I train my dogs in a low level excitement environment so they can learn and then gradually introduce them to situations that create difficulty for them, but only at a level that we can successfully work through. You are effectively putting your dog in charge of things and training her to behave in an uncontrolled and excited manner.

The problem with the behaviors your dog is showing now is that they very often turn into aggression as the dog matures and is continually frustrated. I would bet my next paycheck that if you let another year go by and don’t drastically change the way you think about handling her, that you’ll have a dog aggression issue on your hands.

I’d recommend Pack Structure for the Family Pet and Dealing with Dominant & Aggressive Dogs.

I’d also direct you to the search function in the upper left corner of the website. It will find posts, articles and Q & A’s that deal with your search terms.

There is a ton of info on reactive dogs on our website.