Since I have come to understand the root cause of my dogs leash agression things have gotten a lot better. However, there is one situation that I need some help with.

When we are out for a walk sometimes we will run into a dog giving some challenging body language. Tasha will try to get around me to check out the dog. If I correct her for cutting around me she loads quickly and then goes off like an atom bomb!

She knows she is not supposed to cut in front of me. I am sure of this because for virtualy every other distraction imaginable a vocal correction or a nudge with my leg will get her back in place. This includes well behaved dogs.

IMO this is a situation that warrants a correction, but the correction sets her off. So I don't know what to do!

Turning and walking the other direction dosen't work, actually it seems to make it worse. I give as much space as I can between dogs, usually by crossing the street.

I don't think desensitizing applies here. She is not at all fearful. Our problem is more based in dog/dog dominance issues.


Any advice?

Hi Lauren,

What sort of correction do you do that loads her? What does she do when you correct her? Are you able to "finish" a correction or is she too strong for you? What I mean by finish is that if you correct her and she challenges you, do you have to back down or can you work through her challenge and make her understand that you are the boss.

I am not familiar with your dog's backstory but if it was my dog I would correct her (at an appropriate level given her response to the stimuli) and make her down and watch me and then slowly work up to the point where she understands to look to you when she feels challenged by another dog.

Desensitizing is not only for fearful issues, I use desensitizing in situations where my dog loads so much that you cannot get through to them because they are too close to the trigger to focus on me. I understand you frustration as I have had leash based aggression experience but in my experience, you cannot get through it unless your dog respects your roll as leader in the relationship and you assert that role in these situations.

Thanks Ingrid.

I do have a hard time "finishing" the correction in this situation. She is very, very strong and a tough minded dog. It's physically difficult for me to give her a hard enough pop (when she gets up in drive) unless I stop walking, which off course makes the situation worse.

Would an e-collar be a better choice than the prong in this situation?

The other day she got in a fence fight and I did as you say, only I had her sit and watch me untill she chilled out. Is this what I should do?

I feel that in most situations I have good leadership over her. Her off lead obedience is very good, she has great manners in the house. She is generally respectful of me. Its rare hat I even have to give a collar correction. At home she rarely even barks!

Lauren, Can I say something here, What happens if you see the occasions ahead of time and try to distract your dog and focus on you. as in watch me or some other command that you have down pack. before it escalate to where you don't want it to be. Be careful on the e- collar, agitation at the wrong moment might escalate in the wrong direction. Dan

I've used an e-collar (Dogtra 280) plus Ed's method for training out dog-reactive behavior---

The instant my dog even looked at another dog, or when I'd see my dogs ears prick up, I'd say "NO" and if ears didn't go down or head/eyes didn't turn away from the other dog, I'd briefly tap the continuous stim button.

I'd repeat as necessary until my dog maintained no reaction to the other dog.

I learned that the timing was critical to being successful with this method. I had to catch my dog before he started ramping up in drive otherwise the e-collar correction might intensify the drive and I'd loose any chance to do training.

Once I got the timing down, over time my dog picked up on NO = ignore other dog. After a while he began to ignore dogs on his own and I was able to swap e-collar back to flat collar and just use a verbal NO whenever necesssary.

The hardest part for me at first was to consistently find good situations where the other dogs were at some distance so I could gradually bring my dog into the training.

Another lesson learned was to not to bail out of the training too soon because of early successes.

I like Ingrid's suggestions, and just want to add a little to it. Sometimes a "pop" type of correction with a prong collar on a dog who is in a ready-to-explode frame of mind can trigger the explosion. Perhaps a different collar - something like the dominant dog collar - would be helpful if the plan is to use corrections. This is a tool that needs to be used properly, so I would recommend the assistance of a trainer experienced in the use of such a collar.

Also, e-collars can be effective in these types of situations, especially when used at lower stim levels (so it is more of a "gradual" correction vs. a nick). Again, an experienced e-collar trainer should be able to help you with this.