My male malinois puppy (from Daneskjold) is environmentally stable, super social, excellent drive, and in general very few issues having me as master. He is hard, of course especially when high in drive, and needs pretty strong corrections to take notice.

The only problem I have is having him loose with other dogs (a project I have given up so far). Since he was 5 months he has tried to mount/dominate all other dogs. He initiates with play behavior, but gets increasingly rough (hunting) and quickly starts domineering. When the other dog (can be any sex, any age) gives a warning or retaliates, he attacks full force until the other dog submits on the ground. He then stands still over the other dog not letting it up. He can also seem "out for trouble" by dropping a stick/toy in front of the other dog, waiting for it to try to take it, then attacking tail and ears up. From as young as 5 months he has bitten holes in the other dog (and vice verce). After such conflicts all seems to be forgotten after less than a minute (reacts off).

I have always rushed in and removed/corrected him for this behavior, but I have not seen any change in behavior. When on a lead i have no such problem. It seems to me like he wants to play, but has an extremly short temper/fuse when corrected by the other dog.

So the reason I wanted to have him trained to be loose among other dogs is that I would prefer to run with him loose in the forest without worrying about meeting other dogs. I know a real good obedience level will make this managable, but does anyone know how I can train him to be more dog-friendly/forgiving?

He is big and strong already (70+ pounds) so getting him to be corrected by a bitch will be dangerous.

In my opinion you should be teaching him to ignore other dogs rather than to be friendly. I have a female GSD who was dog agressive when I got her. Rather than teaching her that dogs were for playing instead of fighting I chose to teach her to totally ignore dogs. I think the best possible result is a dog that looks at other dogs as trees (just things that are there but nothing to interact with).

This has worked great for me and I will be happy to explain the process that I went through if you are interested.

Bernt, if your dog is purposefully putting puncture marks in other dogs it should never be allowed off leash to run in the forest or anywhere. I'm sure that's not what you want to hear but it is what it is. You need to be realistic and realize that even after a behavior modifying program you still can not let your guard down as to how your dog may react to other animals.

Find a trainer to help with this issue but be sure to do your research on that trainer before you commit to them so that you know he/she has the experience to help rather than hinder your progress with your dog.

Trevor,

I am interested in your method, it is what I want to do with my dog. I got her when she was a year old. She is not aggressive but thinks she has an undeniable right to meet and greet every dog within smelling distance. I have been taking her to my childrens soccer games where there are other dogs and doing focus work and training there. She is able to ignore the other dogs after working around them for awhile but every new dog is a new challenge. How did you teach your dog that other canines are boring as trees?

Anita
I sent you a PM so as not to hijack the post from the original poster.

i absolutely agree with trevor. instead of trying to teach your dog to play nice with others, start teaching him to ignore other dogs and correcting him accordingly.

i get the impression that your dog does not simply run up to and attack other dogs, but rather escalates to the point of aggression when playing. if that is accurate, i wouldn't think your goal (to run in the forest with him) is out of reach.

my 4 dogs and i run trails around athens on a regular basis without incident. i stay alert for other folks and call my dogs to a heel when i hear that i'm coming up on somebody (keep in mind that these are very low traffic trails in the woods, i wouldn't let my dogs off leash in a high traffic area!:wink

only 1 of my 4 needed the kind of work that you're facing. i practiced with kobi by taking him past houses with unruly, rather rude dogs on our walks and forcefully correcting him (with a prong) for trying to move toward them, stopping, or making eye contact with them (ie correct the subtle signs before they escalate). he was prasied heavyly for concentrating on me and keeping in heel position.

we then moved to the park areas and practiced the same thing. now when we pass dogs anywhere he suddenly gets this look of extreme concentration and falls into a tight heel position to the point it's actually kind of comical but it works! once the other dog gets by, kobi is free to move ahead again.

P.S. keep in mind that if you do let your dog directly encounter another dog (i do sometimes let kobi play with dogs that i know), you need to watch him like a hawk and correct him and remove him from the situation at the FIRST signs of dominance ... don't wait until his energy escalates to aggression. :wink: but i would concentrate more on teaching him just to ignore other dogs!

Trevor, I am very interested in information of making the dog ignore other dogs. Now as you all write, my goal is to have a super-dog-arrogant dog

I have not used equipment such as prong/electr yet. I will save such tools for when he is older (always nice to have something to step up with).

So if possible could the advice be prong/electric free

Regards, bernt

Bernt

I did not realize that your dog was quite so young. I agree that you might want to wait until he is a little older before using the electric and maybe even the prong. However, without them your goal is unrealistic, dangerous, and involves alot of liability. Keep him on a leash until he is old enough to handle these correction w/o suppressing his drive.

I will do just that then. I am also trying to click and use food as reinforcement for reacting to me or focusing on other objects when passing other dogs. At least now I can have him in a sit when other dogs pass on a leach.

Regards Bernt