Hello, this is my first post here after finding such a comprehensive resource for helping my dog. I am hoping that I can share what I can and see what solutions more experienced owners and trainers can give me.

Dallas was a rescue Australian Kelpie x Black Lab and was almost 6 months of age when I brought him home. The rescue group told me he was timid and gave me a brochure about what to do to gain his trust. Little did I know what the stakes were and how a series of incidents and lack of leadership have left my dog fearful of dogs and increasingly aggressive.

The first day couldn't have started worse, as soon as I brought him out of the car my neighbours Dalmatian came bounding over off the lead, scaring the hell out of Dallas. Had I known better I would have yelled the dog away before it got a chance to make a scary impression.

Over the next 5 years and a few setbacks with other dogs acting aggressively and chasing/scaring Dallas, I have actually managed to make Dallas more confident on walks. However, I have noticed that as his confidence has increased, his aggression towards other dogs has got worse.

I tried to socialise him as early as possible at the dog beach, where he would avoid dogs he found intimidating, before gaining the confidence to play chase with them. A classic example was meeting a large Labradore, Dallas's tail going between his legs before the other dog turns around, and Dallas would follow the dog at a distance before gaining the confidence to play. Knowing nothing about dog training, I thought this was a good way of going about things... until he got in a dog fight with a husky.

Since this fight, he started to lunge at dogs on the lead. Not all dogs, just some. His aggression has increasingly gotten worse, to the point where last weekend a friendly Border Collie was walking on the lead over the road opposite our house, and Dallas started lunging aggressively bearing his teeth wanting to get him. At his frustration of not being able to, he re-directed his aggression towards my other dog (A female Beagle) who was also on the lead.

Luckily the beagle has nerves of steel and didn't react. She is very calm and totally non-reactive. The exact opposite of Dallas. Once the dogs were inside they were fine, although I did separate them for a while just to be sure. It is important to mention that Dallas has showed no aggression towards humans.

This was the kick in the pants I needed to get serious about helping my dog. I have watched the leerburg video's on establishing the pack leader and types of aggression. I would like to know what else I can be doing to help my dog.

I have ordered a dominant dog collar, always carry food treats with me and have no problem giving corrections. I am just wary about what I should be correcting and what I should be rewarding ? I do not think my dog see's me as the pack leader, yet. But I am also cautious that I don't want him to fear me.

Please help !

This is not uncommon for a timid dog that has been attacked and scared by another dog.
It's not confidence. It's a fear reaction of hit first before they can hurt me.
Has he shown any inclination to fear you? You've had him 5 yrs and still don't think your the pack leader?
Learn marker training then work from a distance outside the point of your dog reacting to other dogs. Mark and reward for attention on you. Sloooolwy move closer. This can take days or weeks. If your dog starts to show reaction then your moving to fast.
This is called desensitizing.

Cheers for the reply Bob.

I wasn't aware of the pack leader philosophy until a couple of months ago unfortunently. The reason I think my leadership could be stronger is that he goes through doors in front of me, jumps up, eats off the kitchen table etc. I have tried to stop all of that stuff in the hope of being a better leader and possibly making him feel like he doesn't have to defend himself against other dogs.

Interesting that it is still purely fear based, as I thought it may have been influenced by his increase in confidence..his tail is up on walks and isn't anywhere close to how fearful he was when I first brought him home.

I will check out marker training, that might be what I am after.

Just wondering - should I be giving him a correction when we walk past another dog and he does act up ? Or would that just fuel the aggression ?

Thanks again.

I'm glad Mr. Scott responded first. His advice is always excellent.

I'm going to toss in a few cents in re your response to Mr. Scott.

Some times I wonder what pack leader means. I think a human is always the leader or master, an out of favor word, when it comes to dogs, cats not so much maybe, etc.

We undertake to have a dog in our orbit but then we struggle with the terms of that relationship, while the relationship should be on our terms, not the dogs. There is no way I would tolerate, sounds the extreme word but accurate, a dog going through a door before me, unless released to do so. The same for jumping up, not a good trait for a GSD, in my case, because it scares some people. And eating off the table, any table, just ain't gonna happen.

I set the atmosphere for my dogs. This is OK and that isn't. And those boundaries are consistently reinforced.

My job is to protect my dog when we go for a walk. I deal with the dogs, rabbits, birds, chipmunks, whatever. I try to anticipate situations, and over time, the dogs are conditioned that if reaction is necessary, it is my responsibility. Doesn't mean they aren't alert and ready, just means it is my job to act and theirs to follow.

None of that is to say the dogs, left to their own instincts, wouldn't react, in fact they would. But my posture, sounds, commands intrude on their inclinations. Pack leader?

My responsibility is to defend my dogs from threats or dangers. In the absence of human leadership, the dog will adapt to fill the void and react to stressing situations. I prefer to set the rules and behavior. My job is to not reinforce fear, or timidity by either inaction or whatever. I reinforce desired behavior and eschew less desirable stuff.

If you are wondering whether you should correct your dog when you walk by another dog, or approach another dog, or see another dog, your indecision is a root cause of the problem. You walk with confidence with your dog fully ready to deal with any situation that might confront you or your dog. Your dog will feel your confidence and correction is replaced by leadership.

In some ways the dog is training you, and you have gone along with it.

Need coffee.

 Quote: Dallas Winston

Interesting that it is still purely fear based, as I thought it may have been influenced by his increase in confidence..his tail is up on walks and isn't anywhere close to how fearful he was when I first brought him home.

Tail up does not always mean confidence in a timid dog. Fear based aggression body language is usually the dog trying to make himself look bigger and more intimidating to the other dog, in order to prevent the other dog from approaching. If he's learned that posturing keeps other dogs away, that's his learned behaviour at how to deal with other dogs.
If i look tough and big they won't bug me.

 Quote: Dallas Winston

Just wondering - should I be giving him a correction when we walk past another dog and he does act up ? Or would that just fuel the aggression ?

Thanks again.

Corrections for acting up around another dog have to be timed PERFECTLY. If they aren't given at the right time they can sometimes put you back at square one with just one mis-timed correction. So if you're timing isn't great, I wouldn't go that route right now, I would follow what Bob said, gradually desensitizing him. There are a tonne of threads here talking about this process. And as stated, it can take some dogs a few days...and some take weeks. But it's something that you have to keep plugging away at if you want to resolve the problem.
Also, keep in mind some dogs don't do a complete 180 and turn into "happy go lucky any dog can play with me" kinds of dogs.

I wouldn't socialize him with any other dogs right now, not while you're working on this. All it would take is one dog to attack him and you'ld be right back where you started from.

Im going to try and track down some of those desensitizing threads and i'll post them here.
I found a couple quickly, but im sure there's alot more.

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=29921&page=2
http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=32212&page=7#360544
http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=30648&page=1
2 of them are more about DA (dog aggression as opposed to Fear Aggression), but the desensitizing information and training is the same for both types.

http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=24232&page=1#251684
http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=24232&page=2#251710
http://leerburg.com/webboard/thread.php?topic_id=24232&page=2#251711

I found alot more than these. If you just search "desensitizing" in the above search box, you'll get more threads.

Dallas, I think the comment you made about leadership and the dog "going through doors first" are as much about simple training as it is the leadership thing. Mike's comment about "setting the atmosphere" (setting rules and boundaries) is what the bottom line is. You have to be consistent with that.
If the dog eats from the table, how did that happen? Are you in another room? If the dog jumps up then you've not shown him the boundaries then he doesn't know any better. Stop these unwanted behaviors before they happen. That requires a bit of reading the dog.
As to correcting the dog for barking, my thoughts are to get some obedience on the dog.(markers of course) When the dog starts barking at the other dog then stop and do some simple obedience. Sits, downs, a simple "watch me" command. THEN, if the dog ignores you you can correct for ignoring you and it wont be related to barking at the other dog. Your taking the "other dog" factor out of the picture and making it a simple matter of disobeying a command.
I want to add to all the good suggestions to take the time to just have fun with the dog. It's the "all work and no play" thing. That can be a great bond builder!

 Quote: Bob Scott

work from a distance outside the point of your dog reacting to other dogs. Mark and reward for attention on you. Sloooolwy move closer. This can take days or weeks. If your dog starts to show reaction then your moving to fast.
This is called desensitizing.

Don't forget about starting from a distance. IMO, if you need to give a correction, you're pbly too close.

to figure out the distance that works for the dog, I took Tucker up to a dog park. I definately didn't go in the fenced area, but I worked outside the park.

I would start at a far point, say 20 feet. I had him do a sit and look at me and a few other basic OB commands. Dog does it with no problems, so i moved closer to the fence of the dog park by a couple feet, tested him again. If he did the command no problems, I moved towards the fence again. I kept doing that till he got to the point where it was difficult for him to take his eyes off the dogs at the fence and look at me. It made him uncomfortable to take his eyes of them.

That was his almost red zone...the zone i didn't want him in, the zone where the distraction of the other dogs was becoming a bit too much for him and making it hard for him to focus on me
So I moved back a couple feet, into his semi-comfortable area and worked him there. When I had it so that he was doing commands perfectly without glancing at the fence I stayed there and just eyed the distance. That was his "semi-safe" zone where he was maybe 90% paying attention and 10% attention on the fence.
And that was my starting point. That distance. Once he was 100% at the starting distance over a few days, I would move forward maybe a foot and test him with a couple commands. If he performed them 100% I would move forward...if he faltered I started again from that new starting pointwith OB work.
And don't rush it, If you have one good day of 100% don't automatically move closer on your next session. You want a few days of 100% before moving again.

bah...I know this is long winded, and I hope it's coming across as clear as it is in my head.

Thanks for taking the time to reply guys, really, really good stuff. Wendy I am working my way through the links and will try and find my dog's 'comfort zone' during our walks over the next week or so.

I am in no hurry for him to meet other dogs, in fact I would be happy if I could get him to walk past other dogs on the lead without a fuss. I have been 'priming' the look at me command with pieces of hot dog with good success, I guess the next step is taking this into the real world, at a fair distance of-course.

To curb the bad habbits I've kept a lead on him inside the house, rewarding him when he does the right thing and correcting him if he starts to jump or barge through in-front of me. I think to be more confident with him on walks I really needed a few more tools when he gets fearful or aggressive to actually build my own confidence. I liked Mikes point that eventually this can replace the corrections.

Hopefully I will be able to share a positive story in the near future.