Hello, we took an adult mix breed dog into our home last week (local humane society). She is 1 1/2 years old and has been spayed. Approximate weight is 55 lbs. She behaves well in the house and accepts her crate. She sleeps in there with no problem even goes there when I say "kennel".

We had visitors on Sunday. I put her in the crate at dinner time while we ate. She whined once or twice at the start, but then stayed nicely for the next hour. When I let her out, she came out calmly and didn't blast out.

I understand the importance of regular exercise and have been taking her on at least two per day. One is first thing in the morning. That one is about 20 to 30 minutes. I feed her after the walk. The other is in the evening after supper. Again feeding her after the walk. That walk is about 40 to 50 minutes.

Since day one, we have made her sit before we go into and out of the house and before eathing. She is very calm around the house, usually following us around. She does give a couple healthy alarm barks when someone comes to the door. The problem I have is with other dogs and squirrels and such during the walks.

The first walks she was very keyed up. Always alert. Every distant bark or dog we would see in the yard would set her off. She doesn't bark, but will stand on her hind legs, whine, squirm and pull. As we have walked her these past two weeks, some of the behavior has gotten better.

For example, the neighbor dogs use to set her off, now she either ignores them as we go by, or she only glances their way. The same with other dogs at houses along the walk. She is more calm if the other dogs don't bark. Also, small yippy dogs are worse too.

The worst behavior is when we go past another dog on the sidewalk. It's a full on freak out.

Currently I walk her with a 48" slip lead. She no longer pulls me when she walks and if she gets to the end of the short lead and I slow down, she slows and waits.

I just received the family pack structure dvd last night and watched maybe one hour of it. I am looking for any advice here on how I should approach the walk and if I should start her at square one on the pack structure processes, since she accepts the crate.

I suspect the best action now would be to walk her when there are as few other dogs as possible, but even today at 6:00am there was other dogs being walked.

Sorry for the long post. I am looking forward to any advice. I want to behave correctly when problems arise on the walk.


Greg

We adopted Darwin when he was almost a year old, and I recognise a lot of the things you're talking about. Particularly with encountering other dogs on a walk. I'm pretty sure this is to do with the sudden change in territories that an adult dog experiences; something that a puppy doesn't go through.

It resolves with time.

Darwin gave us terrible trouble whenever we passed another dog, but once he understood where his territory lies (only around our own house), he became much better when on walks. Still barks at dogs that go past the house, though.

Don't get discouraged!

Greg,

Being so new here myself, I normally wouldn't would feel it appropraite to offer advice to anyone but the situation you describe is exactly what we have experienced with Bailey, our 2 year old Malinois. She also was perfect in every way except when encountering other dogs. Then, at first, she was a lunging, aggressive, snarling mess. Now, after lots and lots of work and a couple of thousand walks, she is much better and easier to control and, I think, happier.

Our experience in helping her improve was was as follows:

We used a good prong collar. Much easier and more effective to control and apply corrections.

Don't wait for her to start lunging and pulling. Our dog was looking for us to take control and, at first, we didn't. So, she did, by barking and lunging at the other dog. By then, it's almost too late. If she is passing another dog and showing an unacceptably high level of agitation, we give her the command "leave it" well in advance. Then, when she would even start to look and stare in the direction of the other dog, we would apply a firm correction, both with the leash and verbal. Sometimes, it would have to be a series of several quick, firm corrections in a row to go with each time she wanted to look. The intent was to have her focus on you and the walk, not the other dog. Now, she either doesn't even bother looking or she corrects herself when she does start to look. If I do have to correct, it now works with only a verbal correction. It took lots of practice with that to get her to know what behavior we expected, including 3 separate times where I almost took her head off when she tried to lunge.

We found it helped to make her want to focus on us instead of the other dog. We used lots of treats while passing another dog so she would look at us and forget the attraction of the other dog. Later, we replaced that with just talking with her to keep her attention and lots and lots of praise. After passing the other dog and once she calms down, we mark and praise like crazy. Now she celebrates herself with every successful passing of another dog. We do the touch game afterward and she loves it. After a successful pass, she now looks at us with a big grin that seems to say, "See that? I did good, didn't I?"

We sought out situations and places in a controlled setting where we could expose her to other animals. We still spend an hour or two every week just walking around the aisles in Petsmart. Don't have to pass close to other dogs. It's just important for her to see them and realize they aren't a threat.

Check out the past threads here on desensitizing. It was very helpful to us and very effective.

We are now to the point where our Bailey practically ignores most dogs when we pass them, even in close proximity, like on bike paths. We still have lots of work to do and there are definitely certain dogs she reacts to more than others. Couple of thousand more successful walks ought to do it.

Best of luck.

Thanks again for the suggestions. I went out with her last night on a quiet road for 15 or 20 minutes to practice loose leash walking. I had a pocket full of cut up hot dogs, venison sausage and my clicker.

It only took a few minutes for her to figure it out. We spent most of the time nicely walking, clicking and treating. There was a single dog at one end of the street that I used too. When we got close enough for it to start barking, I had her sit and then treated her a bunch. Went well.

On the way back a dog in someone's yard sneak attacked us. We were right in front of the yard when it came our running, barking and growling. It was a medium size dog.

That dog stayed on its yard, but my dog went all freaky. I did my best to restrain her as we walked passed. When we got passed, I had her sit and then we went home.

Any suggestions on what I should do in that situation?

I still cross the street sometimes when this happens to my dog. There is something about dogs behind the fence that just sends her. She is 2 years old. And now, she knows every yard in the neighborhood where this type of encounter has taken place, so she "gets ready" by alerting. The second her ears go up, I say "leave it", correct as needed BEFORE pulling and ignore the commotion to the best of my ability and only reward her for her best effort at staying at my side, which has improved. We are still shaping behavior, tho. And the prong collar is vital.

For your first time out working on this, I think you did as good as you can do when caught off-guard like that. Try to always put yourself between your dog and the other one, and as calmly as you can, get out of that particular area and resume training for a few minutes. If she freaks out, YOU stay calm and then regroup. When possible, you want to end on a high note with her doing something correctly and both of you calm and happy.

It sounds like you got off to a very good start with your marker training.

Another update. I have taken her out for a bike ride 3 or 4 times in the past week. The rides went well. A good 4 mile jaunt worked her nicely. I was going to take her out again just now.

I got on my bike and we rode to the end of our street. We turned right and went past a dog in the yard. She made a bee line for it, pulling me over the bike. I was able to not wipe out totally though Had her sit, got back on and as soon as we started, she knocked me over again, but this time got loose.

She went right over to the dog and no immediate fight broke out. She was showing dominance to the other dog though. I believe it was described in the pack structure dvd as "t'ing off". I noticed that right away. As I went to get her, they tussled a bit (no biting).

As I got over to her I told her no in a low and gruff voice. She immediately rolled on to her back. I grabbed her by the scruff and walked her back to my bike. We walked back to the house. She was calm and stayed nicely with me.

Even though I wished this didn't happen, it was interesting to see the behavior. Another learning experience.

Oh, btw... I ordered a prong on Friday. Should be here Monday or so.

 Quote: Greg Domeier

Another update. I have taken her out for a bike ride 3 or 4 times in the past week. The rides went well. A good 4 mile jaunt worked her nicely.

Oh, btw... I ordered a prong on Friday. Should be here Monday or so.

I use a prong on my guy when we go out for bike rides- works like a charm for us.