Ok so I've ordered and am waiting on the dvds sold here for help on this issue but figured Id ask it on here as well.

My 5 month old GSD is totally awesome with people and the pets in our home but when we take her in town, parks or pet stores she goes crazy towards other animals.

My first thought is to have her arround animals even more and to correct her when she does this. But I dont want her to think when ever she sees other animals shes gonna get in trouble either.

My wife suggested a dog park, but after reading about how dog parks can be bad Im a bit unsure what the best way is to handle this. I wish we had gotten her a little younger but here we are.

Any suggestions or successfully tested ideas would be great.

Dog park would be a horrible idea. A few things to try...

1. Make sure you or your wife (whomever is out with her at this point) are totally calm and relaxed when approaching another dog. It's very easy for you to tense up knowing your dog is going to act like an idiot because there's a strange dog... which contributes to her acting like an idiot! She can sense any tension, and that sends her the message that she should be aggressive.

2. When she starts to lose focus of you and get crazy give her a swift pop on the leash. When she focuses on you an stops give her a treat. Repeat. Reward calm behavior, or if she ignores the other dog. Correct inappropriate behavior.
2.

Do not bring this dog to a dog park unless you want major problems. If another dog attacks your puppy it will be dog aggressive for the rest of her life. If your dog attacks another dog you will be sued. So just don't do it.

I agree with John. Get your dog to focus on YOU and ignore the other dog. What I have done is pop the leash and change direction, as soon as the dog shifts its focus, treat.

Another thing that I do is take my dogs to obedience class. (Ed really hates this, but I can't live without it!) The reason I do this is because in class, it is a controlled setting with other dogs (unlike a dog park which is uncontrolled chaos). By controlled I mean the other dogs are leashed. And the dog spends an extended period of time in a room with other dogs (most classes are 45-60 minutes). After the first class, the dog will figure out that the presence of other dogs is nothing it needs to worry about.

I take my fosters to obedience class most especially the fearful ones. During class the dog will be taught that it gets treats for focusing on you (example, the sit exercise) which by default means ignoring other dogs. It is important not to let your dog approach or be approached by other dogs. He needs to learn that the other dogs are not a threat and will not bother him and you as his pack leader will take care of him.

Edited by Angela Burrell (11/08/2007 09:53 AM)
Edit reason: make 1 paragraph into several :)

Hey Frank,

What do you mean she "goes crazy"? Can you describe "going crazy"? It is very easy to misinterpret a dogs behavior. Also, how you handle her will be different based on whether she's going on a rampage from a place of fear, or from a place of raw bestial rage. How does she act? What does she look like? Is it immediate, or after a few seconds? Does she pull towards the dogs or stand her ground? Is she barking with her lips puckered or with the corners of her mouth back? Is there a different reaction to different sized dogs? Is she wearing a prong? When you see dogs approach (as John mentioned) do you tighten the leash? Do you grimace or make a face? Shift your weight? Hold your breath?

-David

 Quote: david eagle

Hey Frank,

What do you mean she "goes crazy"? Can you describe "going crazy"? It is very easy to misinterpret a dogs behavior. Also, how you handle her will be different based on whether she's going on a rampage from a place of fear, or from a place of raw bestial rage. How does she act? What does she look like? Is it immediate, or after a few seconds? Does she pull towards the dogs or stand her ground? Is she barking with her lips puckered or with the corners of her mouth back? Is there a different reaction to different sized dogs? Is she wearing a prong? When you see dogs approach (as John mentioned) do you tighten the leash? Do you grimace or make a face? Shift your weight? Hold your breath?

-David

She sees the other dogs for a few seconds, once see realizes the dog is still comign towards her she starts barking and moving towards the dog and a couple times even tried biting the full grown dog. I pulled up on the leash (choker) and kept walking kinda pulling her through the situation. Once calmed down I bent over and gave her some attention to let her know everything was ok.

Once it was an older GSD that was calm but once she nipped at him he let out a couple deep barks and showed his teeth letting her know she was not being a good girl I guess, lol. She backed up, but kept barking.

After a few days of this she has calmed down and even walked right by some dogs, just barking but near as aggressive as in the beginning.

I will not be bringing her to the dog park, thanks for reassuring me that, that was the right decision

I'm not offering this as advice. I'm putting it out here for trainers and behaviorists who know a lot more than I do to comment on. Maybe it can lead to a conversation that will give you some techniques to use:

Do any of you with more experience think that this would be a case where a level 8 or 9 correction on a prong might be useful to take the drive out of the dog? It seems like a correction that was too low would just escalate the situation. Is a correction at this phase appropriate? I've seen a few dogs that just want to kill other dogs, but I think that's pretty rare. This seems more forward-oriented or forward-moving than fear aggression, but I'm sure it could come from fear.

Do you muzzle her when she's around other dogs? I think that, as you work on these issues, a wire-basket muzzle might be a good thing to have. It's your responsibility as the owner of a dog with dog issues to make sure she doesn't hurt anyone.

Also, a prong collar is much more effective (and less physically harmful) than a choke chain.

It is awesome to see our dogs show their fierce natures, but if that fierce nature is uncontrolled and uncalled for, it's a problem. The groundwork of obedience needs to be firmly in place before this fierce nature can be tapped.

A member of a local Schutzhund club contacted me thank God through here so my wife and I will be bringing her there tonight. I figure shes only 5 months old, shes learned allot so far like sit, fetching, house broken and great in her crate. Shes also very good with the other pets in the house so since there is such a wealth of knowledge from what Ive read in Schutzhund clubs where better to bring her. I'm confident that through reading everyones suggestions here and working with the pros over at that club, I might just have a chance to do right by her. Thanks so far for everyones help and I'll post tommarrow on how she does around the other dogs tonight.

Glad youre getting in with a club. I went through the same thing with my dog (now 9 months) and it wasn't only dogs, but people, yes, babies in carriages walking with their mommies. UGH! (he's good at ignoring people now, but we are still working through dogs)

I'm finding the more confidence I have in handling this, combined with actually visualizing my dog walking through a pack of snarling dogs, focusing on ME is working! The visualization helps me to stay calm when we are actually in the situation. It's literally up to me to teach him how to act around other dogs.

We walked through, just yesterday, 2 crazy barkers on the other side of a fence and my pup just barked twice, no lunging. I was able to get his focus on me (because I, of course am a LOT more interesting than the 2 crazy dogs over there :grin and we walked on. It was great! Big progress.

Proper handling of this will take you places you want to be...keep us updated.

Frank, that is AWESOME that you will be visiting a local SchH Club. IMO, there is nothing like getting first hand training and advice - dog to person to dog/person etc. Decide whether you think that is the right training situation for you and your dog, but "3D" is best. It's too bad that everyone can't have a good "3D" training situation.

Best wishes!

Beth