OK so for those who don't know... my dog and I were attacked by a huge, loose dog while walking in the park (my dog was leashed). There was a brief scuffle, and the other dog ran off. My dog was bitten 3 or 4 times but didn't need stitches. My dog is a male Catahoula, 65 lbs and the other dog was probably 120+ lbs - looked like a Rott/mastiff cross. (I am only 115 lbs myself). This is the 1st one in my sig pic, Rusty.

Anyway my dog didn't seem overly concerned by this incident, I on the other hand was freaked out and I no longer even go to that park even though my yard backs onto it. This happened on the 5th day I had him, about 1 1/2 months ago. He is 2.5 years old.

Anyway, I don't know what he was like in the 11 months his previous owner had him - I did have him before that. The owner told me that they had no issues with other dogs.

He now seems to be dog aggressive. Unfortunately, whenever we see a dog now, even a leashed one, I find myself worrying and getting all anxious and stuff, predicting that my dog will react aggressively, which he does.

I studied Ed's Dominant dogs DVD where he works Loki and Xanta with the mals behind a fence. My dog has reactive/redirected handler aggression (not outright handler aggression) - so a prong collar was out. I put a dominant dog collar on him on walks and practised using it whenever we saw another dog and my dog would focus on it.

it made things worse! He would rear up (I was lifting his front feet, so he would stand on his back legs) and start snarling, basically saying in dog language "lemme at em!!" - which obviously the other dog's owner does not appreciate.

This happened with a loose "labradoodle" who was a female pup, acting very playfully but it was getting in his face - i thought he was going to bite her. The owner did eventually catch her but - that was the end of my relaxing hike in the woods.

Today, I was walking my dog thinking that obviously my approach isn't working but WHY. It was raining, so we didn't pass any dogs in yards on the way (which I had been counting on so I could try different things) but on the home stretch a little dog (looked like a Chihuahua/JRT mix) escaped from its house with its owner in hot pursuit. It was quite a ways up so I stopped walking with my dog and had time to decide what to do. Fortunately, the dog did not make a beeline for us. It saw us but stopped, sniffed, etc.

I decided to NOT REACT AT ALL and see what my dog would do. His reaction this time was totally different. He stood at the end of his 4-foot lead like he always does, totally alert - ears forward, staring, no hackles. At this point I would normally be shortening the leash, saying "no, leave it!" and getting ready to lift him with the DD collar - at which point he starts snarling and growling and barking and hackling like a wild animal. But, I did nothing this time.

As the little dog got closer, my dog stood there like a frozen statue and did not say a word. When it was pretty close he lowered his elbows (not like a play bow, it was more stiffly like prey or something). When the dog got about 15 feet away his owner caught him. I told my dog, "OK, lets go" and he just came with me.

Now if that dog had actually came up to my dog I would have had to do something because my dog could have easily harmed it.

BUT - his reaction to this little dog - was so different than usual that I now realize that it is obviously ME causing his aggressive reaction to other dogs. Other dogs make me nervous and I firmly believe my dog knows this and is reacting to it.

So... can anyone help train ME on how to walk my dog? What specific actions should *I* be doing so that my dog knows there is not a threat? He is not dominant (with humans) and I don't think there are any rank issues, if that helps?

 Quote: angela burrell

Anyway my dog didn't seem overly concerned by this incident, I on the other hand was freaked out and I no longer even go to that park even though my yard backs onto it. This happened on the 5th day I had him, about 1 1/2 months ago. He is 2.5 years old.


He now seems to be dog aggressive. Unfortunately, whenever we see a dog now, even a leashed one, I find myself worrying and getting all anxious and stuff, predicting that my dog will react aggressively, which he does.

Angela,

Ya gotta let it go....the above couple statements pretty much sum up the "why".

Your dog is feeding off your energy and you are telling him, even though you may not realize it, that you are nervous and not confident so he is stepping into the role you should be in.

Relax, take a deep breath, shoulders back, head up, tell yourself "I can, I can, I can" and walk past those other dogs like they are not there.

I swear, promise, guarantee that this will help immensely. You have to start doing this BEFORE you can correct any aggression he has, if there is any.....

Carol beat me. The whole post sounded like you were viewing every other dog as a project instead of something to ignore.

LOL you guys make it sound so basic.

I now think I understand the WHY. It's the HOW I'm having trouble with.

UM... so if he is doing his stare/focus on the other dog, do I just allow him to do this and continue walking?

What I *thought* I was doing before, was correcting him for looking (but what I was really doing was telling him to get worked up). So I should not correct him for looking/straining, and pretend like I don't notice another dog? is this right?

 Quote: Angela Burrell

LOL you guys make it sound so basic.

It is basic.....calm assertive energy helps with letting the dog know there is nothing to get excited about.

Also, IMHO, there is nothing wrong with looking, it is when the dog looks and displays aggressive body behavior. If you are correcting for just looking, then you are correcting the signs of the behavior that may come out of the dog and NOT addressing the actual behavior.

That's a fine line, though. I do correct/redirect long before the dog gets into a stare.

I do too, however, just looking for a second or two allowing them to get over their curiousness is okay I think.


Jesea looks at the cats, but it is only for a second. I do not allow her to take a "stare and stalk stance" though. If she looks longer than a couple seconds she gets a "leave it" and she goes on and does something else.....I hope that makes sense.

What Carol said - twice over. Based on your post, it wouldn't be surprising if your dog was now wary of other dogs after getting bitten, so he's going to look carefully at strange dogs approaching him. Plus it also sounds like you have been pre-emptively hanging him with the DD collar for looking, so on top of picking up on your own anxiety he may now associate strange dogs not only with a possible attack but also with being choked.

Calmly walk on by, get him to refocus on you whenever he starts staring at another dog (does he know "watch me" or a similar command?), discreetly place yourself between him and other dogs when you are out walking, don't let strange dogs come up to him and get in his face, and only use the DD collar as a last resort for real aggression. I find that I tend to stare warily at strange dogs myself if they are off leash or behaving in ways I don't like, and this runs down the leash to the dog I am walking - refocusing on my dog while we calmly keep moving helps break this tension.

Angela,

I just want to say that I am really not trying to dismiss your concerns at all. I think you might be over thinking the whole thing a bit and it really is just basic.

Once you have yourself under control, your dog will be under more control. If he still has issues after that, then that can be addressed as well.

Angella, I am confused about how you use the DD collar. Are you fully choking the dog out all the time? Or are you just sort of lifting him up and waiting for the other dog to go away?

I can totally see how he is just becoming enraged if you are just sort of holding him up, the hang type method of a DD collar as I understand and use it is you do not let the dog down until it is totally calm and they are going to fight and snarl and snap at first.

What other ways have you tried correcting the eye contact? What does he do when he redirects? Does he actually bite you or snap at you or what? I only use the DD collar for actually choking out a dog in bad cases of dogs that fully redirect or will redirect and chomp the handler if I cannot give a strong enough prong correction or the handler has bad timing etc to drop the dog out of drive. Prongs definitely escalate aggression if you do not get the right level of correction for that particular moment in time when you correct.